Fukushima Earthquake Essay

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Fukushima Dai-ichi I nuclear event occurred on March 11th, 2011 on a power plant located on the northeastern coast of Japan. It was a result of poor plant design and a cascading effect, in which a human made disaster is triggered by series of natural disasters, producing further devastation. One of the strongest in the known history earthquakes of 9.0 on Richter’s scale in the Pacific has generated an enormous wave that hit the area. As designed, the reactors, equipped with numerous safety mechanisms, ‘sensed’ the tremors and automatically shut down, successfully withstanding the earthquake. They failed, however, to stand the following 15-meter high tsunami that topped the protective seawall and covered the plant by 5 meters of water. The …show more content…
The fact that the plant was elevated to the height of ten meters above the sea level suggests that the exposure to those hazards was recognized at the design stage. However, the 3.1 meters high protecting wall was designed basing on limited historical records of tsunami waves. By 2011, however, more data was collected and experts expressed strong recommendations for fundamental upgrades. None was implemented (IAEA 2001; WNA). In contrast to such management shortsightedness or rather criminal negligence, Fukushima II plant management had in fact followed the recommendations and successfully waterproofed the backup power system that even covered by flooding water continued the cooling and prevented core damage (TEPCO, 2011).
As in TMI and Chernobyl, the Fukushima disaster response was greatly undermined by a number of factors. First, the initial attempts to manage the situation were primitively barehanded. The staff at the plant was not properly equipped, therefore, unprotected against high radiation levels. Lack of proper personnel training for such an emergency was evident as emergency instructions and procedures were not followed. Japan, a leader in robotics, ended up having no dedicated remotely operated robotic equipment to relieve people from exposure to high radiation, and many plant workers had to risk their lives and
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