Lessons 10 years after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis began today 10 years ago, marking one of the most serious nuclear injuries in history.

The crisis was thought of as a Level 7 incident on the foreign scale of nuclear and radiological occasions: as many as possible.

This is the worst nuclear turn of fate since Chernobyl in 1986, and it happened in the midst of an earthquake and tsunami that, in addition to the nuclear incident, killed some 20,000 people.

The nuclear crisis occurred when a 50-foot tsunami struck the Force plant after a primary earthquake off the coast of Japan on the afternoon of March 11, 2011. The plant’s emergency systems shut down the reactors after the earthquake, but diesel turbines needed to operate. cool the reactor cores were disconnected through the water that followed.

Plant personnel and the emergency personnel corps fought for days to repair the force to the plant and divert heat from the nuclear reactor units, which eventually partially melted and released radiation into the air, as well as in Tokyo Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Minister Naoto Kan ordered all other people living within a 19 km radius to evacuate, affecting tens of thousands more people.

It was not until December that the plant reached a “cold stop” state after months of cooling efforts.

The number of radiation-related deaths as a result of the crisis was a divisive issue. In 2018, Japan announced that an employee of the plant had died after being exposed to radiation during the crisis, following a diagnosis of lung cancer in 2016.

However, a report through the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation 2020 found that “no deterministic fitness effects or deaths have been observed among those involved in emergency paints that can be attributed to radiation exposure. “

The Japanese government granted reimbursement to six employees at the power plant, all of whom developed cancer as a result of the crisis until the end of 2018. The UN report said this “means a scientifically proven date of cause and effect between radiation exposure and a specific case of cancer. “

Many others died as a result of evacuation efforts. The UNSCEAR 2020 report said: “It is reported that more than 50 hospitalized patients have died or in a time after evacuation and more than a hundred elderly people would likely have died in the following months due to various situations similar to evacuation. “World Nuclear said official figures showed that there were 2,313 disaster-like deaths among evacuees.

Scientists have come forward to imply what classes have been learned from one of the worst nuclear injuries of all time.

Professor Richard Wakeford of the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at Manchester University said in a statement: “Fundamentally, the turn of destination occurred because the station flooded because of a tsunami that affected emergency appliances and flooded emergency electricity generators, resulting in the 3 hot reactor cores not sufficiently cooled , resulting in damage and melting of nuclear fuel. This was a deep defense failure: if the first defensive line breaks (in this case, the), there will have to be reliable defenses in reserve.

<< The main challenge for the radiation coverage network is to ensure that primary nuclear lesions can be prevented or that the consequences are limited. There is strong independent regulation and regulatory systems have been strengthened worldwide (particularly in Japan) as a result of the Fukushima accident.

<< Fortunately, the doses of radiation gained through staff and the public were far from near the maximum doses obtained after the 1986 turn of fate in Tchornothroughl. The first fear after a turn of fate in a working nuclear reactor is to ensure that doses earned through the thyroid glands, especially those of children, are limited by appropriate protective measures, such as banning the local source of milk. It seems that restricting radioactive iodine intake has been largely a success, even though a handful of employees have earned the best doses for the thyroid. "

Professor Laurence Williams, of the Nuclear Engineering Center at Imperial College London, said in a statement: “The turn of fate at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is a turn of fate in Japan. A major contributor to the turn of destination.

<< If there had been a strong, effective and independent nuclear protection regulator, nuclear reactors at the site would have survived the earthquake and the next tsunami. Ten years later, it is vital not to forget that independence is the cornerstone of effective nuclear energy. regulation of protection, and we do so at our own risk. "

Professor Jim Smith, professor of environmental sciences at Portsmouth University in the UK, said in a statement: “Ten years after the Fukushima accident, science has shown that initial expectations of the dangers of low physical fitness due to radiation and the mental and social effects of the accident.

“The initial immediate evacuation and ban on infected food have kept radiation doses to the population within diversity, as others get herbal background radiation in many countries, adding the UK and destroying livelihoods. “

You’ve got four loose pieces left this month.

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