My 17th
birthday was very memorable, although that had little to do with my birthday
and more to do with the coinciding disaster that would shape the future of nuclear
industry. March 11th
2011: I remember waking up early to
check the news for local school closings, crossing my finger for a snow day
because of the big winter storm that happened in the wee hours of the
morning. I got one great birthday
present when I saw that we in fact did not have school, but this excitement was
tempered by the news of an earthquake in Japan.
I saw a side tab on the news site that showed the epicenter of the
quake. My birthday then became a horrible
waiting game as I continually checked for updates. The tsunami followed soon after and the human
devastation was miserable. The flooding
of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant held serious implications for the promise
of nuclear energy.
The earthquake and
tsunami hit hard at the nuclear plant.
The 46 foot high storm surge easily breached the low 33 foot seawall
protecting the plant. TEPCO, the company
that owned the plant, admitted that in 2012 that it had ignored years of
serious safety warnings from regulators and investigators, including ignoring
the recommendations of a 2008 study that concluded the plant needed higher
seawalls and further protection for the risk of a tsunami like the one that
eventually hit. They had even falsified safety
records in the 1970’s to escape scrutiny.
The independent commission which investigated the disaster concluded
that because of unwise placement of the plant and unsafe construction, the
disaster is truly “manmade” regardless of the tsunami’s inevitability.
The earthquake
damaged several of the reactors and the flooding from the tsunami destroyed the
generators that were keeping the failed reactors from melting. Several of the reactor cores have still not be
recovered from where they melted through the concrete of the plant’s
foundation. Towns and population centers
surrounding the nuclear site were evacuated: 134,000 on the first day and then
an additional 354,000 on the fourth day as safety concerns grew. The receding seawater carried with it immeasurable
amounts of radioactive particles back out to the Pacific Ocean, where current
have diffused them and scattered them over the ocean. Many of the cooling pools still leak uncontrollably
into the ocean, meaning that the radiation risk is persistent and widespread. Fishing is still banned in the area around
the disaster site and fish still have nearly as high levels of radioactive
cesium concentrated in them as when the meltdown first happened. Some have had levels over 250 times higher
than the safety level set forth by the government. Luckily, the radioactivity that eventually
reached California shores are at levels virtually identical to the normal
background levels of radiation in the ocean.
The World Health Organization estimates that the risk for many cancers
went of significantly for those near the site, including increased risk (7%)
for leukemia in males and an increased risk (76%) of thyroid cancers for
women. Wildlife has been seriously and
adversely affected as well: bird populations have plummeted and radioactivity
has been detected in moneys’ blood in Japan.
Childhood obesity levels have been on the rise in Japan as well as
worried parents refuse to let their children play outside for long periods of
time for fear of radiation exposure.
The political and
economic results of the Fukushima disaster are global in scope. Japan immediately abandoned its nuclear
program. It is a contentious issue today
as lawmakers move closer and closer to reinstituting it amidst public fear,
uncertainty and anger at the very industry and lack of oversight that caused
the disaster. Germany, a nuclear powerhouse,
decided to phase out its expansive nuclear program by 2022 and a public referendum
in Italy showed that 94% of voters opposed building any new plants. This disaster continues to shape the politics
and economic viability of nuclear power plants all over the world. The International Atomic Energy Agency halved
its estimate of how many nuclear power plants would be built by 2035 once the
Fukushima disaster occurred. Fishing industries
across Japan’s eastern seaboard have suffered heavily because of the danger of contaminated
fish.
The disaster is
the second largest nuclear disaster in history, although it is thankfully
smaller than Chernobyl. Its impact on
global nuclear politics is not however, and it may prove to be the defining
event for them as we move further into the future.
Sources:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/birds-are-tailspin-four-years-after-fukushima-180955134/?no-ist
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