Natural Disaster Response

Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami- Fukushima Nuclear Disaster    

On Friday March 11, 2011 an earthquake hit just off the coast of Japan. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0 and was categorized as an undersea megathrust earthquake. The earthquake occurred at an underwater depth of about 19 miles below the surface. The earthquake also caused a tsunami that effected most of coastal Japan. The tsunami had an upthrust of 19-26 feet along a wide seabed that was 37 miles off the coast of Tohoku. An estimated wave height of 128ft hit the Omoe peninsula. The tsunami was tall enough to break over the 18 foot sea wall that used to be the largest precautionary sea wall in the world. The earthquake and tsunami combination amounted to 15,889 deaths, 6,152 injured persons, and 2,601 people were reported missing. The estimated cost of the earthquake and tsunami is around 250-500 billion U.S. dollars. The events in Tohoku left about 25 million tons of debris in Japan’s coastal cities and towns. The tsunami alone displaced 340,000 people from the Tohoku region. Shortages of food, fuel, water, shelter, and medicine were abundant despite the mobilization of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. The Japanese Red Cross reported 1 billion dollars in donations and Japan’s foreign ministry accounted for 116 countries and 28 international organizations that offered help. After this double disaster Japan has made sure to list and keep up with all possible relief charities and countries who assisted in the past. 

Fukushima-Daiichi today

Fukushima-Daiichi before (left) and during (right)

Because of Japan’s coastal location and seismic activity, the entire island itself is incredibly susceptible to almost any sort of natural disaster (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc.) And because of how narrow the island is, any natural disaster that hits Japan is more likely to cause more widespread damage. Since Japan is known for its large power in Nuclear energy, natural disasters became more of an issue in case of power outages and subsequent radiation leaks. Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a large plant on the eastern coast of Japan. Fukushima had precautions in place in case of a power outage. Operating units were designed to automatically shut down and backup diesel generators in the basement of the turbine buildings were to be used for the cooling towers' fuel. In response to the earthquake, media outlets knew to immediately put out tsunami warnings and alert the citizens in coastal cities to flee to higher ground. When the earthquake occurred the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th reactors in the plant had been previously shut down for scheduled maintenance. Reactors 1, 2, and 3 were automatically shut down by an automated system after the earthquake and remaining decay heat was

being cooled by the backup diesel generators. The tsunami that followed with as high as 46 feet waves disabled the generators that were cooling the reactors since the reactors were only designed to handle up to 19 foot waves. In the following three weeks there was evidence of partial nuclear meltdowns in the three unprotected units, which were supposedly caused by hydrogen gas in reactors 3 and 1 and a suspected explosion in unit 2, which could have damaged the primary containment vessel. In the case of Fukushima, damages were minimal in the case of human casualties with only 37 workers had physical injuries, 2 had radiation buns, and no deaths. The estimated cost of Fukushima's disaster is around 74 billion U.S. dollars. Also, because of the nuclear radiation leak and subsequent evacuation of a 12 mile radius caused 159,128 people to be evicted and displaced from their homes with little to no compensation. On August 1, 2013, Japanese Industry Minister Toshimitsu Motegi approved creating a structure to develop the technologies and processes required to dismantle the four reactors involved in the Fukushima accident. The entire process will take about 40 years to complete because of the danger involved with the radiation from the remaining cesium rod melt.