THE FUKUSHIMA
DAIICHI NUCLEAR DISASTER
INTRODUCTION:
On Friday, the 11th of March 2011 a
big earthquake hit Japan. This earthquake was very huge, and because the center
of it was in the ocean it made a very disastrous tsunami that hit Japan
directly. Many people died and many suffered; the city of Fukushima was totally
destroyed. Japan has nuclear plants which generate power and these nuclear
plants are located near the ocean and when the tsunami came, it hit these
plants directly causing a major disaster which was then known as the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster.
CAUSES:
The main cause of the Fukushima
Daiichi disaster was because of the earthquake which caused the tsunami but
many organizations said that manmade reasons were also a cause of it. I
will discuss these causes as mentioned by many experts worldwide. When the
tsunami hit the Fukushima nuclear plant, the water broke the cooling system
that was used to cool down the nuclear reactors. Without the cooling system,
the reactors started to heat up with high temperatures which caused explosions
inside these plants. These explosions came from the high amount of pressure of
hydrogen inside the nuclear reactors.
EFFECTS:
There are many effects that came
from this disaster, and I will mention them in the following.
The government of Japan started to evacuate
people around the area; almost 350,000 people were evacuated because the
government feared of the direct radiation from the nuclear plant that leaked
from the explosions.
As a result of this disaster, the radiation that was released from the
damaged plant was high levels. This radiation affected many people who were
near the plant directly. The area was stated as a danger zone because of the
harmful levels of radiation.
The disaster caused a big amount of
financial loss to the government, the companies that owned the nuclear plants
and the people. Everyone who was living near the nuclear plant lost everything.
The lives of many innocent people were lost
during this disaster. It was estimated that more than 5000 people died from
this disaster and many other lives were in danger after being hit with direct
radiation from the disaster.
Radioactive materials that are
dangerous to life were released in high quantities. The contamination came from
the explosion and some of it from the release of it to reduce the pressure.
This contamination was spread in the air and also in the water that went to the
sea. There was a direct contamination to everything.
Japan is known for high technology;
this made major companies invest there but after the disaster many companies
stopped their investment and this gave Japan a lot of economic loss.
THE ETHICAL
ISSUES INVOLVED
When looking at the Fukushima nuclear
disaster, there are many ethical issues that should be explained because when
we discuss these issues we will know exactly the problems and the solutions and
try to prevent this not to happen again. There many other ways to look at it.
When this disaster happened, it changed many things to how these plants should
work. First of all, the nuclear plants should have taken other prevention ways
because it wouldn’t happen if they took prevention. I will discuss the ethical
issues in the following:
The nuclear power plants were very old and the
facilities should have been used with high technology such a disaster
happened. These companies didn’t care to change the old facilities, because it
cost a lot of money.
During the nuclear disaster, there was a slow
communication between the companies and the government. People were not
informed fast and this led to the direct radiation to the people because they
didn’t know that the area is contaminated.
The people who were evacuated from
the affected areas lost everything, and they had nothing to take with them because
everything was affected with radiation. It is something that really affected
them financially and also mentally. They were left without homes and the
government didn’t have a fast solution and also they were affected mentally.
The government should have tried to compensate them.
The disaster caused many other
psychological effects on people. The government efforts were not enough and
they showed signs of depression and their lives were changed. It is also the
responsibility of the government to help these people with their lives.
The companies that use nuclear plants to
provide power should give their workers life insurance and also the people that
live near these nuclear plants.
Conclusion :
To my view of the problem, I find that this problem should be given more
interest by the government and it should try to prevent such a disaster to
happen next time. The world should come together to help Japan and try to find
solutions to those who were affected by the disaster and to give them the
proper care. Also; there should be ways of making nuclear plants very safe
during natur disasters because the climate is also changing and this change
might bring hurricanes that might be strong to destroy everything, in case the
plants weren’t strong enough to survive. In my point of view, all nuclear
plants should be built in places that are less populated and also the buildings
should be very strong. Technology also very important; the plants should use
high technology to make it safe during disasters. Human lives are very important and the governments
should do everything to protect people from natural or manmade disasters. Companies should give proper care to
everyone.
References:
