Japan nuclear power plant. Fukushima nuclear accident, consequences

On March 11, 2011, life on the northeast coast of Japan changed forever as earthquakes and tsunamis triggered the greatest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl accident. The government of the country is making great efforts to restore the destroyed. According to Japan's Greenpeace, pollution levels around Fukushima are still high. Decontamination does not result in land clearing, but simply in the movement of hazardous waste to a new location. Despite public protests, the Japanese authorities intend to restart nuclear power plants stopped after the tragedy.

In 2011, the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant was seriously damaged by a powerful earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan. The catastrophe, accompanied by the melting of the active zones of three reactors, according to the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). Prior to that, the same level was given to the Chernobyl disaster. Radiation at the border of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. According to the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, 770,000 terabecquerels of radiation were released into the atmosphere - about 15% of the leakage level from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The element claimed the lives of 18.5 thousand people. The area affected by the tsunami was about 22,000 hectares.

Japan remembers the victims of the disaster

Emperor of Japan Akihito with his wife, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other representatives of the cabinet and parliament observed a minute of silence in memory of the dead. The funeral ceremony took place at the National Theater in central Tokyo. Events were held not only in the capital, but also in other cities, according to Euronews.

At the moment the earthquake began (14:46 local time), a minute of silence was announced throughout the country, reports the BBC.

"There is no revival of Japan without the reconstruction of the north of the country Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on the eve of the commemorative events. - With this firm conviction, I reiterate my commitment to build a new northern Japan full of hope."

The Japanese government has adopted a new five-year recovery plan for the affected areas. Until 2020, 6.5 trillion yen (about $57 billion) will be spent for these purposes.

What do the affected areas look like today?

5 years after the nuclear disaster, the Land of the Rising Sun is still making significant efforts to restore the destroyed. But traces of that catastrophe are everywhere, especially on the northeast coast of the island of Honshu, notes Euronews.

Yamada City in Iwate Prefecture:

Higashimatsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture:

Fukushima Prefectural Central City Iwaki:

Naraha town in Fukushima Prefecture:

Japanese authorities ignore people's opinion and promote the idea of ​​restarting shutdown nuclear power plants

Mass protests are timed to coincide with the tragic date in the country, the participants of which demand that the government abandon nuclear energy. According to polls, 70% of Japanese residents are in favor of reducing the number of nuclear power plants in the country or for the complete abandonment of nuclear energy. The main issue is the safety of nuclear power plants in conditions of proximity to the sea.

Japanese environmentalists drew attention to the fact that by the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima accident, its consequences are aggravated, and the situation is far from being resolved.

“Contaminated water continues to flow from the destroyed power plant, radioactive waste accumulates without any solution. More than 100 children have been operated on for thyroid cancer. Assistance with housing for voluntary migrants will be suspended in March 2017, and they will be left to fend for themselves.”, the statement says.

Japanese environmentalists demand to stop all operating nuclear power plants and cancel plans for their construction around the world. They also advocate an "energy realignment" - a shift from dirty to sustainable energy - and a call to fight for a future free of all forms of radiation risk.

It should be noted that the Japanese government plans to receive at least 20% of the electricity consumed by the country by 2030 at nuclear power plants. The country began to gradually resume the operation of nuclear reactors after freezing due to the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima in 2011. The Japanese authorities intend to restart 25 nuclear reactors. Each of them will require operators to comply with new, more stringent security measures.

Earlier, at the Tahakama nuclear power plant in the Japanese prefecture of Fukui, an accident occurred during test work, due to which the launch of the reactor had to be postponed. It was nevertheless launched on February 28, but due to a failure in the operation of electrical equipment the next day.

Friends of the Land of Japan thank Belarus for its support

Ecologists from different countries have signed and distributed an appeal by Japan's Friends of the Earth with a call to abandon nuclear energy and make the future free from radiation risks, BelaPAN reports.

The Belarusian anti-nuclear campaign supported the statement of Japanese environmentalists, including their demand to abandon nuclear energy and stop the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

“We demand the cessation of the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant and actions aimed at protecting citizens from the consequences of Chernobyl. Fukushima has shown that accidents at nuclear power plants are not isolated and that their consequences are tragic, regardless of the level of technology development., commented Yuri Voronezhtsev, candidate of technical sciences, former executive secretary of the government commission to investigate the causes of the Chernobyl accident.

Belarus continues to build the first nuclear power plant in Astravets, despite the protests of environmentalists and the public, as well as the neighbors of our country. In particular, Lithuania does not buy electricity from BelNPP. Lithuanian experts of the cheapest nuclear power plant in the world. Lithuania draws attention to the fact that Belarus does not comply with the Espoo Convention ( Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context) and did not provide answers to questions regarding the safety of the BelNPP. The authorities of our country reject all claims. Alexander Lukashenko even that BelNPP is the best station in the world.

/Corr. ITAR-TASS Yaroslav Makarov/.
JAPAN-FUKUSHIMA-CONSEQUENCES

The accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant without exaggeration can be called the largest man-made disaster in the history of Japan, after which this country will never be the same again. Five months after the March events, which the whole world watched with bated breath, one can only roughly estimate the impact they had on the future of Japan.

According to the most preliminary estimates, the economic damage from the accident at Fukushima-1 exceeds 11 trillion yen (more than 142 billion dollars). This is about a third of the total damage that Japan suffered from the powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11. And yet, the wounds inflicted by the elements will heal much faster than those caused by the nuclear crisis. Many years will be spent on emergency work at the station itself: in all three emergency power units, the meltdown of nuclear fuel is confirmed, the extraction of which will begin no earlier than 2020. Even more time will take the laborious process of decontamination of vast areas exposed to radioactive contamination, and this will inevitably change the face of the Tohoku region - northeast Japan.

The spheres traditionally important for this part of the country - agriculture and fishing - were under threat. Farmers in Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures are suffering huge losses after numerous cases of detection of radioactive substances in vegetables, milk and meat. In July, radioactive cesium was found in Fukushima beef, which had already been shipped to stores throughout Japan. Subsequently, the excess of the radiation norm was revealed in meat from other neighboring prefectures, and the government introduced a temporary ban on the export of meat products outside them.

No cases of exceeding the radiation background in fish products have yet been noted, but its sales have already fallen noticeably. After the incident, consumer confidence in the offered goods predictably fell. Improvements in the situation should not be expected in the near future, because the "ghost" of radioactive contamination will roam Tohoku for many years to come. At the moment, the only thing left for farmers and fishermen is to demand compensation from the operator of the emergency nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power / TEPKO /. It is obvious that it will not be possible to make up for the losses of the agricultural and fishing sectors only through these compensations, and the government of the country will have to actively support them. This, in particular, may halt Japan's integration into some international organizations, which, as a rule, demand to waive benefits for national producers.

The social damage from the accident at the nuclear power plant turned out to be no less large-scale. The government of the country completely evacuated the population of the zone within a radius of 20 kilometers around the station and recommended that residents of areas 30 kilometers from Fukushima-1 leave their homes. Subsequently, some other settlements located further than 20 kilometers from the station were added to the mandatory evacuation zone due to an increase in background radiation, in particular, the village of Iitate is located 40 kilometers to the northwest. As a result, more than 80,000 people were evacuated from dangerous areas. After some time, the authorities allowed the refugees short trips home. Nevertheless, all these people still do not know when they will be able to return to their homes and whether they will be able to do it at all. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that this issue could only be considered no earlier than the beginning of 2012.

Meanwhile, residents of the evacuation zone have to get used to the fact that they are not just refugees, but fled from the "radioactive Fukushima". There have been repeated reports of egregious cases of discrimination against Fukushima residents. Thus, in schools in Chiba and Gunma prefectures, students transferred from Fukushima were teased as "radioactive" and "contagious", and not only classmates but also teachers exerted pressure on them. There were also cases when cars with license plates registered in Fukushima Prefecture were refused service at some gas stations. Justice Minister Satsuki Eda called these incidents a "violation of human rights" and initiated an investigation into them, but the possibility of discrimination in traditional Japanese society cannot be completely ruled out. Unfortunately, the refugees from Fukushima in many ways follow the fate of the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who also, despite all their experiences, often faced discrimination.

And yet, one cannot fail to say that the Japanese public, for the most part, warmly supports fellow citizens who survived the tragedy. Suffice it to say that several songs in support of the people of Fukushima, recorded by both popular pop and rock bands and amateur musicians, have become hits on the Japanese Internet. The authorities of Fukushima itself are also trying to ease the burden on their own residents, who, of course, are also concerned about the image of their prefecture. Thus, a special 30-year program was adopted to study the consequences of an accident at a nuclear power plant and their impact on the health of the inhabitants of the region. This study will be the largest of all that has so far been carried out in the world. In addition, the authorities began distributing personal dosimeters to all children under 14 living in the prefecture and pregnant women. In total, it is planned to issue 300 thousand devices. Ten stationary dosimeters are planned to be installed on the territory of each of the 500 schools in the prefecture. Plans are being made to clean up the soil from the radioactive materials deposited on it. In particular, in the capital of the prefecture, it is planned to completely remove the top layer of soil, and clean all buildings with water cannons. The Fukushima authorities are also negotiating with the central government to remove garbage, including radioactive waste, from the prefecture. Undoubtedly, the nuclear crisis was at the same time a stimulus for the development of the region, as it once was with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Finally, the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant had a strong impact on the energy strategy of Japan, which, after the March events, realized its excessive dependence on nuclear energy. The surge of anti-nuclear sentiment in Japanese society was supported by the authorities. Prime Minister Kan said that what happened will require a complete overhaul of energy policy. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is already developing a new energy development program, which is designed for 30 years. Its main tasks are to reduce the role of the peaceful atom, increase the level of use of renewable energy sources and introduce new technologies in this area. In addition, structural changes have taken place in the state apparatus, which reflect the attitude of the new Japan towards nuclear energy. The National Agency for Atomic and Industrial Safety was removed from the Ministry of Economy and is expected to be transferred under the control of the Ministry of the Environment in some time.

The transition to a new energy policy will not be easy. The phasing out of nuclear power plants will inevitably lead to a greater load on thermal power plants and increase Japan's fuel needs for them, while this country is already one of the largest fuel importers in the world and, in particular, the largest purchaser of liquefied natural gas / LNG /. An additional complication is the expected resistance of business circles, which form a kind of nuclear lobby in Japan. Most likely, the formation of a new national energy sector will become one of the main tasks of several future governments of the country at once.

Today, it is no secret to anyone that on March 11, 2011, a terrible accident occurred at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. The Fukushima disaster horrified not only the inhabitants of a small prefecture, but the whole world.

Gauze bandages, dosimeters and other devices that cost a lot of money were bought by people not only in neighboring Vladivostok and Sakhalin, but also in such a remote country as Germany. From the Fukushima 1 accident, people literally went crazy, panic and excitement began. It is also known that the company that owns the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant suffered huge losses, and Japan lost the race among other countries in the field of engineering.

Everyone has long known the reason for the accident in Japan, the cause of which lies in the earthquake that covered Japan and cut off the power supply to the entire city and the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant in particular. In fact, the strength of the earthquake was not so great, that is, the builders of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant should have had assumptions that such a natural cataclysm would someday happen. And so, in 2011, it happened, and its consequences are the Fukushima accident.

The location of the nuclear power plant was generally very strange, and it is not clear why the Japanese chose the location of Fukushima-1 just near the water when it threatens with the possibility of a tsunami; near the mountains, which means a high percentage of the probability of an earthquake. In short, the location of the power plant meant that there could be an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the future.

Let us dwell on the relationship between water and the nearby reactors of a nuclear power plant and try to characterize the first causes of the Fukushima accident and what exactly happened when the accident at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant occurred.

The reactors that caused the Fukushima accident were of the BWR type. Their specific characteristic is ordinary water, which serves as a coolant for the rods that are filled with nuclear fuel. Water enters the reactor through the active region in a strong or slightly reduced flow.

After the water has fulfilled its main function in reactors of this type, it evaporates into the generator compartment, and is not released into the atmosphere in any way. Steam is delivered to the reactor through special tubes, it is influenced by turbines, which just produce current at a nuclear power plant. After this complex process, radioactive water turns into condensate and enters its original place - into the reactor.
Since every student who teaches physics in school knows that it is impossible to turn off a nuclear reactor by simply pressing a button, a big problem arises. Even if all the rods that are designed to slow down reactions in the reactor are transferred to the core, the reactor will continue its work, albeit with a force of no more than three percent of the total possible power.

But, still, such a small part of the power generation can heat the reactor due to the increase in temperature in the rods, and the water, which at that time will become condensate, will turn into steam. And then, of course, it will be released into the atmosphere in the form of radioactive vapor.

But if the reactors are cooled, such a reaction will not occur, and it will be possible to avoid not only a technical breakdown due to a lack of electricity, but also the fact that there was an accident at Fokushima.

The reasons

Now let's move on to the direct explosion at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant and answer the question: The accident at Fukushima causes.

As a result of the fact that one catastrophe at Fukushima coincided with another, that is, an earthquake caused a tsunami, the situation at the nuclear power plant became critical. Due to the lack of electricity, the reactors carried out an emergency shutdown. But, as we already know, even the switched off BWR type reactor continued to work. So, he required all the same cooling.

Emergency generators, which should cool the reactors and prevent the concept of a Fukushima disaster, were out of order due to a tsunami, according to the official version. But some scientists and researchers believe that the negligence of workers and management led to the fact that there was a nuclear disaster in Japan.

Let's explain this statement in more detail. One has to take into account the fact that the emergency generators were only supposed to come on if there was an accident at Fukushima (which doesn't happen that often). Based on this, the generator system could simply stagnate, the lubricants would freeze or dry out, and there would not be enough fuel.

And simply, there could not be any personnel who are able to repair the breakdown in a critical situation. Theorists also support their claims with the fact that emergency engines should have an improved degree of protection a priori. If the whole building can collapse, the reactor vessel is damaged, then the diesel emergency generator is simply obliged to continue working and save the situation.

Without an emergency generator, the Japanese were forced to release steam into the atmosphere, although this is strange. After all, they could freely use sea water for cooling, but in this case, the reactor would have to be completely replaced.

As a result, hydrogen accumulated in the turbine compartment, which, due to many processes, caused the disaster at Fukushima 1 and the city gained fame as the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

Consequences for all of Japan

To date, it is not clear who should be blamed for what happened, the infamous Fukushima 1 accident to the whole world. fix the problems and prevent the biggest disaster, called the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima 1.

Or, maybe it’s still worth putting the blame on the owners of the nuclear power plant, and presenting them with claims that they built the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in an unfavorable natural environment, that they did not provide the plant with the necessary level of protection and did not provide high-quality generators and reactors to work on Fukushima 1.

But one thing becomes clear - Japan is a catastrophe, which was caused by the accident of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, suffered enormous losses from someone's mistake in various areas.

• First, a huge financial waste fell on the shoulders of Japan. Although she is not the first person in financing the liquidation of the results of the Fukushima nuclear accident, the problem nevertheless affected her indirectly. The country will have to pay thousands of dollars for the treatment of citizens, for the shelter of affected families. In addition, Japan will now have to worry about where to get the missing share of the electricity that was generated by the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. And the company that owns the nuclear power plant is asking for a large sum of money to restore the damaged areas that arose as a result of the Fukushima accident.

According to some sources, the amount of losses in Japan, after the accident at Fukushima, is 46 billion US dollars. Calculations say that the amount that Japan lost due to the concept of a catastrophe is equivalent to that which the country could receive from a nuclear power plant in 6 years of operation.

But on the other hand, the fact that the owner company will simply take on debt can serve as a kind of shift forward in the financial and political plan of the country.

In order for Japan to provide the required amount to TERCO, the company's management must give half of the shares to the state. Thus, more than half of the profits will go to the treasury of Japan.

IT'S IMPORTANT TO KNOW:

The second fact that Japan can benefit from the disaster is to get money for new reactors. After all, it is far from a secret that Japan cannot refuse to generate energy with the help of nuclear power plants. That is why, having drawn a line through several states that old reactors are unreliable, Japan can receive some money from other countries for the development of new nuclear reactors.

The second area where Japan crashed, in connection with the accident at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, is political, namely foreign policy. As the environmental disaster in Japan exacerbated the situation in the country, the political situation took on a different look. Japan is completely losing its positions in the nuclear race, taking into account the fact that in its process, the eastern country was not in the lead. But still, she kept afloat. And now there is no chance to return, even to the previous positions.

Although, even from this fact, Japan can benefit in some way - to throw off its undeveloped engineering on old reactors and the inability to replace them with new ones. This would, as it were, explain the reason why Japan occupied such a low position in the world race and justify it.
The third and most important consequence of the Fukushima nuclear disaster is human lives. Thousands of people are considered missing, even more have died, and even remembering the survivors is painful.

How many crippled destinies, tortured souls are now wandering around the world in search of cover. Some remain living in the radioactive dead zone in the prefecture, near the site of the Fukushima accident.

Many of the settlers, having traveled around the world and not finding shelter, return to their homeland, to ruined houses, which they repair, rebuild and try to live in a new way. But how can you live in a new way on the old ruins and the corpses of millions of people with the fear that the thunder of the earthquake will rumble again and cover the tsunami, and who knows if you will be able to survive this time.

A lot of people who were left without families and homes go as volunteers to the very epicenter of events and its outskirts to help eliminate the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. They have nothing to lose, when there was an accident at Fukushima, they lost everything dear to them, they lost the meaning of life. And now they decided to give themselves up for the good of the country, for the good of the people.

Number of victims, losses after the accident

If we talk about the exact number of people who died or went missing, then it is impossible to name such a number. After all, it may happen that some resident was considered missing, and he died long ago, just his body could not be found in the wreckage of the disaster.
By translating the number of deaths and victims of the Fukushima disaster into a numerical equivalent, according to various data from different sources, we can draw the following conclusions. As of December 17, 2013, Japanese news reports the number of deaths in the accident - it is more than 1603 people, and in August of the same year, the death toll was 1500 people. Almost twenty thousand more people are considered missing.

Many residents of the prefecture left their homes voluntarily, their number is more than 300 thousand citizens. There were two reasons why people left their homes:

1. Destroyed houses, after a tsunami raid on the country;
2. The location of the house is close to the most powerful release of radiation, as a result, the Japanese were afraid to receive an unacceptable dose of radiation.

But some citizens suffered so much that they could not leave their homes on their own, but it was dangerous to leave them close to the scene. The local government decided to evacuate people. The evacuation took place over two days. As of March 13, 2011, more than 180 thousand people were evacuated within a radius of 10 kilometers around the territory of Fukushima Daini and 20 kilometers around the second Fukushima Daiichi station.

The largest number of people were taken out of the territory of Minamisouma-shi. The number of people was more than 70 thousand people, and the smallest number - 1.5 thousand people - was evacuated from Kuzuo-mura.

These figures are appalling when one takes into account the fact that such a number of people could make up an entire state. And, imagine, it would have disappeared at one “beautiful” moment.

Not only ordinary residents suffered in the accident at the nuclear power plant, and not only because they lost loved ones and homes. Another terrible effect that affected human lives was radiation exposure. Workers and residents of the Fukushima 1 districts received a dose of radiation 5 times higher than the permissible norm. More than thirty thousand employees, workers of the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant and some leaders of TERSO received the most severe degree of radiation exposure.

Shortly after the Fukushima accident, thousands of Japanese took to the streets of Japan's capital and demanded the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in the country. People began to fear more for their lives and their loved ones, set their life priorities differently and considered real human values ​​- life, family, home, health - from a different angle.

The Japanese expressed their protest and demanded that the government develop new alternative ways of generating energy, they were even ready to give up some household trifles, but in return to get safe living in their city. The government reacted to this rally, but did not fulfill all the demands of the protesters, since this is impossible.
But still, the Japanese government decided to close another nuclear power plant, which was not very well protected and, in the event of new cataclysms, could lead to a second explosion. The inhabitants of Japan and the country itself would not have survived it.

Other consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant 1

In addition to the fact that the accident at Fukushima brought a colossal loss to Japan and its people, it also affected other countries, companies and lives.

For example, the operating company TERCO suffered losses of more than twelve billion dollars, this is even if you do not take into account the share of compensation that the corporation must pay to the affected families and workers of the nuclear power plant. The amount of these payments is equivalent to 6 billion dollars.

Apparently, because of such debts, the company will soon face bankruptcy, or nationalization. TEPCO sees the only way out of the current situation is to borrow money from the government. This will be the first step towards the disintegration of one of the largest electrical companies in Japan.

For the world, the Fukushima disaster was the cause of a double judgment.

• On the one hand, the catastrophe at the nuclear power plant caused such a great panic that in many countries of the world people took to the squares and rallied to refuse to generate electricity using nuclear power plants. Following the example of the Japanese, they wanted to save their lives and take care of nature, which suffers from such disasters no less than people.

Protests and rallies ended in different ways. Some countries have agreed to phase out nuclear power generation for the country. And some, like China, didn't even lift a finger. They will continue to use nuclear reactors despite all the rallies.

• But nature suffered the greatest catastrophe. It has been carrying the consequences of various catastrophes for more than one year, and the number of these years has not yet been exhausted. And, if in a few years human life comes to its logical end, the company goes bankrupt, and the country comes down from the steps of leadership, then the earth will bear all the mutations, bullying and catastrophes for centuries.

How many deformities, mutagenic plants, horrifying pictures of nature can be seen not only in the districts of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but throughout the world. Anomalies happen every day, humanity is infected with unknown diseases every hour, people die from terrible diseases every minute.

The consequences of the Fukushima 1 accident are intangible. No one can say what else will appear on the territory of the station in ten or twenty years. But something will definitely be there, since such a powerful release of radiation into the atmosphere and water cannot remain without a trace. He will show himself sooner or later. And according to experts, liquidation work at Fukushima 1 will be carried out for more than forty years.

Based on the material analyzed by us, we can briefly draw some conclusions and topics of the Fukushima accident:

The beginning of the XXI century is the explosion at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, which occurred in March 2011. According to the scale of nuclear events, this radiation accident belongs to the highest - the seventh level. The nuclear power plant was closed at the end of 2013, and to this day, work continues there to eliminate the consequences of the accident, which will take at least 40 years.

Causes of the Fukushima accident

According to the official version, the main cause of the accident is an earthquake that caused a tsunami. As a result, power supply devices failed, which led to a disruption in the operation of absolutely all cooling systems, including emergency ones, and the core of the reactors of operating power units (1,2 and 3) melted.

As soon as the backup systems failed, the owner of the nuclear power plant informed the Japanese government about what had happened, so mobile units were immediately sent to replace the broken systems. Steam began to form and pressure increased, and heat was removed to the atmosphere. At one of the power units of the station, the first explosion occurred, concrete structures collapsed, and the level of radiation increased in the atmosphere in a matter of minutes.

One of the reasons for the tragedy is the unsuccessful placement of the station. It was extremely unreasonable to build a nuclear power plant near water. As for the erection of the structure itself, the engineers had to take into account that tsunamis and earthquakes occur in this area, which can lead to disaster. Also, some say that the reason is the unscrupulous work of the management and employees of Fukushima, which consists in the fact that the emergency generators were in poor condition, so they failed.

Consequences of the disaster

The explosion at Fukushima is an ecological global tragedy for the whole world. The main consequences of an accident at a nuclear power plant are as follows:

the number of casualties - more than 1.6 thousand, missing - about 20 thousand people;
more than 300 thousand people left their homes due to radiation exposure and destruction of houses;
environmental pollution, death of flora and fauna in the area of ​​the nuclear power plant;
financial damage - over 46 billion dollars, but over the years the amount will only increase;
the political situation in Japan worsened.

Due to the Fukushima accident, many people lost not only their roofs and their property, but also lost their loved ones, their lives were crippled. They have nothing to lose, so they take part in the aftermath of the disaster.

protests

There have been mass protests in many countries, especially in Japan. People demanded to abandon the use of nuclear electricity. An active renewal of obsolete reactors and the creation of new ones began. Now Fukushima is called the second Chernobyl. Perhaps this catastrophe will teach people something. It is necessary to protect nature and human lives, they are more important than the profit from the operation of nuclear power plants.

March 11, 2011 was the worst day for the small prefecture of the state. The reason was the disaster that occurred at the nuclear power plant called Fushima-1. The news spread so quickly that expensive radiation protection products instantly began to be bought up in neighboring territories. The Fukushima accident provoked not only a global scandal, but also pushed Japan's influence back several steps in the development of engineering.

Accident at a nuclear power plant

Fukushima, which was wrecked by two forces of nature, was the first to be hit by the earthquake. The power supply was cut off not only at the station, but also throughout the city. However, Japanese engineers made another assumption: the location of the Fukushima nuclear power plant near water, which increases the likelihood of a tsunami, because there are mountains nearby, which entails an earthquake. Such an arrangement should have confused the builders - engineers, since the threat of an accident existed throughout the years of work.

As a result, Fukushima, Japan, which has always been proud of, fell from an earthquake, which led to a power outage. However, after the accident, backup generators were automatically launched, which supported its operation for some time, but the tsunami that came did not allow the station to hold out until the repair work was completed.

Causes

The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant could also be provoked by the fact that the station's device is outdated, since its launch dates back to the 70th year. In the process of creating the nuclear project, emergency management was not provided for in case of natural disasters outside its territory. The Fukushima disaster arose after the tsunami, which was provoked by the emerging earthquake.

When the situation reached a critical point, the backup generators were unable to bear the load, but the BWR continued to operate for some time, but alone could not cope with the task that had arisen. The lack of proper cooling led to its complete stop, although many observers of the disaster in Japan remember that for a long time engineers and manually tried to stabilize the temperature.

There is an unofficial version of many experts who studied all the events and consequences of Fukushima that the main cause of the accident was a miscalculation of engineers. This statement is based on the following theses:

1. Spare generators should be switched on automatically only in an event that does not occur so often. It is logical to assume that as a result of a long downtime, the mechanisms of the devices could become obsolete, there was not enough fuel to start, etc.
2. Since the tragedy at the nuclear power plant was unpredictable and happened rather quickly, it is worth assuming the possibility that there might not be competent specialists on the territory who could correct the problems that had arisen in the emergency system.
3. Even if the building is in danger of collapsing, the main generator runs on diesel fuel and was supposed to save the situation if necessary. Since this did not happen, we can conclude that the security system worked with major shortcomings and errors.

It is worth noting another strange assumption: Japanese rescuers and engineers, due to the lack of a spare main generator, could use a natural resource - sea water for cooling, but subsequently the main part would have to be changed. As a result, there was a large accumulation of hydrogen in the pipe compartment, which caused the accident at the nuclear power plant.

Consequences of the disaster

The consequence of the disaster at the power plant is a decrease in performance and efficiency in many areas of the country's activities:

• The level of financial spending has risen to an all-time high, despite the fact that Japan is not the first person in charge of dealing with such incidents. First of all, the accident left many citizens homeless, which means that billions of dollars will be spent on their maintenance, as well as on the restoration of the entire affected territory. Since Fukushima - 1 stopped working, Japan is forced to look for an alternative source of electricity to replenish its reserves. According to the chronicle of 2011, the country's loss amounted to about 46 billion dollars.
• The second area that suffered negative consequences from the accident is foreign policy and economic relations with other countries. This is due to the fact that the position of Japan was initially far from the leading position in the field of nuclear production, and after this incident, it completely left the fight. However, the country can still learn from this lesson, since the entire structure and system of the plant was so old that it was impossible to replace it with new reactors, which is a serious reason for lagging behind the world level.
• The most important negative factor is human mortality and the number of victims. A huge number of people, numbering in the thousands, are declared missing, no less percentage of deaths, and those who managed to survive such a terrible tragedy remember it with a shudder every day.

Some of the population is currently not leaving the dead zone located near Fukushima. Some of the residents, who tried to find a new place of residence, but to no avail, are returning back to the old, collapsed buildings, making every effort to revive the old life on the ruins left by natural forces.

Losses

Fixing real numbers that could demonstrate the death rate from the accident today is an impossible task. Only approximate data are known, which were announced back in 2013: there are about 1,600 dead people. Around 20,000 remain missing. About 300,000 inhabitants of the island fled their homes for the following reasons:

• Failure to restore their own home as a result of the tsunami that covered the island.
• The former dwelling is located in close proximity to the station, where there is a high level of radiation, which is extremely dangerous for health.

Those residents who could not leave their homes on their own were evacuated by the government from the dangerous area within two days of the incident.

Other consequences of the disaster

The fall of Fusumima-1 affected not only the life of the country, but also the work of many foreign enterprises and the economic development of other countries. The famous TEPCO suffered a loss of 12 billion and in addition was obliged to pay cash as compensation to its employees, which amounted to another half of the announced amount. Since such costs are unbearable for the company, it may soon declare its own bankruptcy and stop operations.

Since the accident in 2011 was brought up for world discussion by many politicians, the opinion about the event did not find unity:

1. Many people could not remain indifferent to the tragedy at the nuclear power plant, so they went out to protest in their countries against the construction of plants and the requirement to ensure their own safety.
2. World human panic provoked unrest in all countries, even in those that were at a great distance from Japan. So, for example, in Germany, many residents, after they learned about the disaster, spent a huge amount of money on organizing their own protection against radiation.
3. The tragedy that occurred at the nuclear power plant forced many countries to reconsider the policy of maintaining and operating their own stations and to replace obsolete equipment in order to avoid a recurrence of incidents on the territory of their states.

Today, many world powers are preparing the latest ones that could ensure the safety of residents, as well as providing for the occurrence of natural disasters, new mechanisms of work. However, it is worth noting that none of them plans to suspend the operation of existing stations or completely abandon their operation, which remains a global threat. After all, if a nuclear release enters the oceans, the world population will be at risk, and eliminating such consequences will be an extremely difficult task.