Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima on March 11 2011 occurred resulting from the enormous Tohoku earthquake and the resulting tsunami that knocked the nation’s Pacific coastline was disastrous. The three main goals of nuclear safety systems as described by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission include; immediate reactors shut down, maintain the shutdown condition, and avert the discharge of radioactive substances during accident. This is aimed at protecting the workers and the other people nearest to the plant (NEA, 2012).

The workers on the plant at Fukushima Daiichi were the population mainly in danger from radiation outcomes, owing to instant effects from enormously elevated exposure, and lengthy-term outcomes from minor doses. Beginning of 15 June 2011, roughly 2 400 workers were already exposed because of recovery exercise at the Fukushima plant. Out of these staffs, 8 had contacted exposures above 250 mSv. This is the maximum for emergency workers placed by the Japanese Department of Economy, Industry and Trade along with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on 15 March 2011. Every worker exposures continued to be evaluated, and those surpassing the emergency criteria were followed medically (NEA, 2012).

Issues were raised concerning how the nuclear power plant responded to the initiating hazards, for instance earthquakes and tsunamis. Secondly, initiate in any accident, and in Fukushima it was destroyed placing the staff at a high risk the fact that regulations require that back power.   The plant location is very near to the populations and it has direct contact with the maritime environment. Thirdly, the capacity of power plant operatives to handle with or supervise onsite accidents that involved human and organizational performance, changeover amongst procedures, and co-ordination among emergency reactions onsite and offsite was also questioned (World Nuclear Association, 2014).

References

NEA. (2012). OECD Nuclear Energy Agency – Fukushima Press Kit. Retrieved July 28, from http://www.oecd-nea.org/press/press-kits/fukushima.html

World Nuclear Association. (2014). Safety of Nuclear Reactors. Retrieved July 28, from http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Safety-of-Nuclear-Power-Reactors/