Taking a quick look at the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters, it may appear that they were the same situation and that history had repeated itself but the two disasters were very different. The Fukushima nuclear disaster took place on March 11th, 2011 in Fukushima, Japan. After the disaster occurred, the government left the issue to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the owner of the plant. However, recently there was an increase in the amount of leaks from the power plant so the government decided to take charge. The government plans to spend $320 million to build a subterranean ice wall to control the contaminated water and $150 million on an improved water treatment unit.
(Gain Attention and Interest): March 11, 2011. 2:45 pm. Operations at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant continued as usual. At 2:46 pm a massive 9.0 earthquake strikes the island of Japan. All nuclear reactors on the island shut down automatically as a response to the earthquake.
At 11:10 p.m. the grid controller said he no longer needed the power, and the operators returned to reducing the power. At twenty minutes past midnight the operators forgot to set the regulator properly, it was the second fatal error. At that point the operators would have abandoned the experiment, but they attempted to rescue it, for the next time they would be able to conduct would be in one year only. The senior authorities that had ordered the test would have been furious and would have found out the regulator problem, so the operators decided to pull out the stops to restore the reactor's power. Their third fatal mistake was the pulling out of control rods.
Plutonium, Our Country's Only Feasible Solution Abstract: Should we begin to manufacture one of the most destructive and infamous substances on the face on the Earth once again? The engineers say yes, but the public says no. The United States stopped making this element with the ban on manufacturing nuclear weapons. But with the continuing problem with our ever diminishing energy sources, some want us to begin using more nuclear energy and less energy from natural resources. This paper is going to discuss what plutonium is, the advantages and disadvantages of its use, and why we should think about restarting our production of this useful element.
It was the night of April 26, 1986, when Alexander Akimov, the shift supervisor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4, rushed to pump water into the fail reactor to prevent the plant from melting down. Without any protective gear, Mr. Akimov was poisoned by the radiation and died three weeks later. The lost of Mr. Akimov’s life only represents a fraction of possible danger of the 442 nuclear power reactors in the world today (PRIS - Number of Reactors Operation Worldwide). ¬These nuclear power plants exhibit a probable destructiveness when failing to operate due to natural disasters or operational mistakes that would ultimately unleash a powerful, invisible killer – radiation. History has shown the difficulty in preventing the spread of radiation, and it is essential for countries to limit the establishments of nuclear power plants because they pose an unprecedented threat to both the environment and public safety.
The Chernobyl accident is to this day one the worst nuclear accident ever along with the Fukushima nuclear power plant, with the difference that the Chernobyl accident was handled terribly by the government. The disaster occurred on April 26 of 1986, when a cut of power supply was being simulated and a sudden surge of power in the reactor 4 of the nuclear power plant generated the overheating of the reactor core that caused the detonation of hydrogen built up in its internal parts. This caused a tremendous increase in the level of ionizing radiation in much of Europe. The Chernobyl accident was going to happen sooner or later. Operational standards, as well as design, construction without a containment vessel and quality control of nuclear power were handled by Communist Party political criteria, not technical and economic criteria.
Chernobyl was a result of a reactor design that was not properly operated. The nuclear release occurred while shutting off the power for turbine testing. The reactors were known to be unstable at low levels of power. Two explosions caused the graphite moderator to catch fire, burning for 9 days and releasing all the nuclear power plant's Xenon, half the iodine and cesium and 3-5% of all remaining radioactive material. The radioactive dust particle was carried by wind throughout bordering Ukrainian countries.
A state of emergency was issued and the evacuation began. TEPCO had a daunting task to keep the reactors under control. On March 12 a hydrogen explosion blew off the roof to Unit 1. “TEPCO began to inject seawater, which corrodes pumps and pipelines, as a substitute coolant into Unit 1; water levels fall in Unit 2” (Fecht). Cesium 137 and Iodine 131 which are radioactive are detected near the plant.
Absorbed into the body's thyroid gland in a concentrated dose, Iodine 131 can cause cancer. In the Chernobyl disaster, the biggest health effect has been cases of thyroid cancer especially in children living near the nuclear plant. Therefore, because of the Chernobyl disaster we know to test the grass, soil, and milk for radiation. Also, an evacuation of the Chernobyl area was not ordered until over 24 hours after the incident. Japanese authorities evacuated 200,000 people from the area of Fukushima within hours of the initial alert.
In the event nuclear meltdown, the cooling rods will continue to heat because the cooling system is not able to bring its temperature to normal levels. At this stage, the water used to cool down the rods will evaporate before any human can add more water to it. Eventually the rods will continue to heat up until it burns... ... middle of paper ... ...aste is at a standstill because proposed projects from the Department of Energy has either stalled is not being funded. In November 2013, The US court of appeals made it illegal for the Department of energy to fine utility companies for nuclear waste fees. The ruling puts pressure on the federal government.