Japan’s Disaster

James Rincon
March 17, 2011
Agenda
 Historical Nuclear Disasters
 Earthquake
 Tsunami
 Nuclear plant incident
 Current Efforts
 Lasting Effects and Concerns
 Future precautions
 Technology innovations
History
 Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating
Station
– Occurred in March 28, 1979 in Pennsylvania,
USA
– Considered Worst in U.S. history
– Classified as a level 5 on the International
Nuclear Event Scale (Accident with wider
consequences)
– Voluntary evacuation of local area (within 5mi)
History
 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
– Occurred in 26 April 1986 in Ukraine
– Considered Worst in history
– Classified as a level 7 on the International
Nuclear Event Scale (major accident)
– Only event to have that classification
– Widespread severe contamination of surrounding
areas
– Lead to mass evacuation of those areas
– Massive fallout and contamination
– Thousands resettled. City abandoned
Tohoku Earthquake
 Occurred on 11 March 2011 near the coast of
Honshu (NE Japan)
 Moment Magnitude of ~9.0 (Mw)
– So large it may actually the shift wobble of the earth
slowing its rotation
 Largest in Japanese recorded history
 Earthquake alone was devastating
 Foreshocks and subsequent aftershocks in
magnitude > than 6.0 (Mw) also affected area
 Millions if not billions of dollars in damage
 Hundreds of casualties
Tsunami
 Occurred on 11 March 2011 near the coast of
Honshu (NE Japan)
 Triggered by the earthquake
 Caused a 30ft swell in all directions
 Devastating effect on Japan
– Swept large structures such as cars, buses, boats, ships
and even buildings
– Estimated number of individuals dead is as high as 10,000
– Rescue efforts are slowly ceasing in place of recovery
efforts
 Wave also reached across the Pacific all the way
from Alaska to South America
 Minimal damage in those areas. No significant
casualties reported
Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear plant
 Run by TEPCO
 Cooling system failures caused by the
earthquake and subsequent tsunami
are the main causes for this event
 Fires and explosions followed and the
fear of widespread contamination from
the nuclear fuel being exposed
 Been unable to restore cooling system
Current Efforts
 Evacuation of surrounding area up to 50
miles
 Non-essential U.S. citizens are being flown
off the island as a precaution
 Other countries such a China are taking
similar precautions
 Major search and rescue and recovery
operations are taking place
– Aid from many countries and organizations
including the U.S. military, NRC, charitable
organizations, etc…
Concerns
 Legislators are concerned with the safety of nuclear power
plants.
 President Obama has ordered the inspection of every U.S.
plant by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
 Volatility in Global markets due to the disaster (mass
disruption to supply-chains)
 Health problems for the individuals near the affected area
(first responders, plant workers)
 Paranoia in areas not affected (potassium idodide shots,
personal dosimeters)
 Related to the disaster are also misplaced individuals and
looting (although not as high as if this had occurred in an
underdeveloped country)
– Looting has been low
– People have for the most part opened their homes to affected
individuals
Precautions
 Nuclear power plants will be able to
handle earthquakes of greater
magnitude
 They will be built in areas not likely
prone to earthquakes (i.e. not along
the san Andrea's fault line)
 Not built along the any coast
susceptible to tsunamis
Innovations
 Social media has greatly helped in the
effort to communicate with the
affected individuals (Facebook, Twitter,
etc)
 Numerous sites are now providing RSS
feeds relating to disaster relevant
information (radiation level readings in
particular areas, seismic activity
readings, etc)
Additional Information

 http://www.usaid.gov/
Thank you