Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The Disaster Of Fukushima

Fukushima is the 3rd largest city of Japan. It is located along the east of central Japan. An accident in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in March 2013, when an earthquake with a magnitude of almost 9.0 struck Japan and shut down ⅕ of their nuclear reactor. The control rods overheated and the engineers did everything in their power to properly cool them off, but then a tsunami collided with the diesel generators. The plant continued to run on batteries, however there was an explosion.

The origin of the explosion could be from the leaking hydrogen gas, the pumping equipment, the cooling pumps, or the reactors themselves, but there is no sure answer. It is certain that the excess overheated water caused the building to explode. Since the explosion, there was an increase of radioactive leaking into the water in the area and the people have to be precautious to avoid contamination. Japanese powers have improved their evacuation zone to 30 kilometers from the plant in case of emergency.

The radiation from Fukushima has led to harmful biological effects on the living organisms of the ecosystem. Effects of the radioactivity include the decline in reproductivity, damage to certain genetics, and the death of cells in plant-based lifeforms. There have been reports of genetic alteration in species of birds becoming albino with white feathers, as well as abnormalities in firebugs and scotch trees. More research is being done as to the long-term effects of the radiation.

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