Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
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"Fukushima nuclear disaster" redirects here. For the incidents at Fukushima Daini,
see Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant.
"2011 Japanese nuclear accidents" redirects here. For other 2011 Japanese nuclear
accidents/incidents, see Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant, Onagawa Nuclear
Power Plant, Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant, and Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.
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Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
Part of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The four damaged reactor buildings (from left: Units 4, 3, 2, and 1) on
16 March 2011. Hydrogen-air explosions in Unit 1, 3, and 4 caused

structural damage. Water vapor/"steam" venting prevented a similar
explosion in Unit 2.[1]
Date 11 March 2011
Location Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
37°25′17″N 141°1′57″ECoordinates: 37°25′17
Coordinates
″N 141°1′57″E
Outcome INES Level 7 (major accident)[2][3]
Deaths 1 cancer death attributed to radiation exposure by

government panel.[4][5]
Non-fatal 16 with physical injuries due to hydrogen
injuries explosions,[6]
2 workers taken to hospital with possible radiation
burns[7]
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (福島第一原子力発電所事故, Fukushima

Dai-ichi ( pronunciation) genshiryoku hatsudensho jiko) was a nuclear accident at
the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture. It was the
most severe nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and the only other
disaster to receive the Level 7 event classification of the International Nuclear Event
Scale.[8]
The accident was started by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on Friday, 11 March
2011.[9] On detecting the earthquake, the active reactors automatically shut
down their fission reactions. Because of the reactor trips and other grid problems, the
electricity supply failed, and the reactors' emergency diesel generators automatically
started. Critically, they were powering the pumps that circulated coolant through the
reactors' cores to remove decay heat, which continues to be produced after fission has
ceased.[10] The earthquake generated a 14 m high tsunami that swept over the plant's
seawall and flooded the plant's lower grounds around the Units 1–4 reactor buildings
with sea water, filling the basements and knocking out the emergency generators. [11] The
resultant loss-of-coolant accidents led to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen
explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination in Units 1, 2 and 3 between 12
and 15 March. The spent fuel pool of previously shut-down Reactor 4 increased in
temperature on 15 March due to decay heat from newly added spent fuel rods, but did
not boil down sufficiently to expose the fuel.[12]
In the days after the accident, radiation released to the atmosphere forced the
government to declare an ever-larger evacuation zone around the plant, culminating in
an evacuation zone with a 20 km radius. [13] All told, some 154,000 residents evacuated
from the communities surrounding the plant due to the rising off-site levels of
ambient ionizing radiation caused by airborne radioactive contamination from the
damaged reactors.[14]
Large amounts of water contaminated with radioactive isotopes were released into
the Pacific Ocean during and after the disaster. Michio Aoyama, a professor of
radioisotope geoscience at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, has estimated
that 18,000 terabecquerel (TBq) of radioactive caesium 137 were released into the
Pacific during the accident, and in 2013, 30 gigabecquerel (GBq) of caesium 137 were
still flowing into the ocean every day.[15] The plant's operator has since built new walls
along the coast and also created a 1.5 km long "ice wall" of frozen earth to stop the flow
of contaminated water.[16]
While there has been ongoing controversy over the health effects of the disaster, a
2014 report by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic
Radiation (UNSCEAR) [17] and World Health Organization projected no increase in
miscarriages, stillbirths or physical and mental disorders in babies born after the
accident.[18] An ongoing intensive cleanup program to both decontaminate affected areas
and decommission the plant will take 30 to 40 years, plant management estimate. [19][4]
On 5 July 2012, the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent
Investigation Commission (NAIIC) found that the causes of the accident had been
foreseeable, and that the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), had
failed to meet basic safety requirements such as risk assessment, preparing for
containing collateral damage, and developing evacuation plans. At a meeting in Vienna
three months after the disaster, the International Atomic Energy Agency faulted lax
oversight by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, saying the ministry faced an
inherent conflict of interest as the government agency in charge of both regulating and
promoting the nuclear power industry.[20] On 12 October 2012, TEPCO admitted for the
first time that it had failed to take necessary measures for fear of inviting lawsuits or
protests against its nuclear plants.[21][22][23][24]

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Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Part of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

The four damaged reactor buildings (from left: Units 4, 3, 2, and 1) on

16 March 2011. Hydrogen-air explosions in Unit 1, 3, and 4 caused

explosion in Unit 2.[1]

Location Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan

Outcome INES Level 7 (major accident)[2][3]

Deaths 1 cancer death attributed to radiation exposure by

Non-fatal 16 with physical injuries due to hydrogen

2 workers taken to hospital with possible radiation

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (福島第一原子力発電所事故, Fukushima

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