The Political Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident - meltdown

9 in March 11, 2011.A magnitude 0 earthquake struck the east coast of Japan (see figure 1 ).The massive earthquake caused a tsunami, estimated at a height of 23 feet (7 m ).Between the earthquake and the tsunami, it is estimated that in addition to destroying thousands of businesses and families, they have killed more than 7000 people (Fox News;AP ).
To make matters worse, natural disasters have caused great damage to a key nuclear power plant.The earthquake triggered the shutdown sequence of the Fukushima plant, located 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.Although the closure was successful, the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami was kept in half.
A dormant reactor (Brook) that heats up and melts ).People all over the world hold their breath and look at the nuclear disaster, the biggest since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine in 1986 (see map 3) and will hang outAlthough there are significant differences between the two, the political impact of these two events has a significant negative impact on geopolitics.The political relationship of the countries in which these disasters occur, and the countries around them, if the law requires the planning of redundant safety measures in all nuclear power, this negative effect is a plant that can be avoided.
If this is not the case, then the risk of nuclear power is much higher than the benefits gained from it.First, it must be clarified that the Fukushima disaster is a very different animal from the Chernobyl disaster, as the latter is recorded as 10 times the amount of radiation released at the time of writing.In addition, there are many effective safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and the Chernobyl accident is an unmitigated disaster related to containment and control.
To clarify this, the radiation from the Fukushima disaster is still a threat to the Japanese people, and the threat to the people of North America is also small.This disaster is a lesson about the need for redundant systems after redundant systems to prevent such problems from happening again.A survey by the Japanese National Academy of Sciences revealed that one of the six boiling water reactors (BWR) had an initial meltdown within 11 hours of the earthquake.
When the reactor is closed, the problem is that the residual heat in the reaction process must be kept cool to prevent melting.Melting is a general term that applies to several aspects of reactor failure, but in this case, it first refers to the melting of fuel rods through steel containment, thus causing problems with cooling.What's worse, if the fuel rods themselves melt because of the heat, they melt.
The melting point of the fuel rod is 1200 °c.Fortunately, this is not the case (Brook ).Nevertheless, the advantages of the two possibilities are not that great.
Japanese utilities and the government solved the cooling problem by flooding the affected reactor chambers with a mixture of seawater and fresh water.They try to control the water, but the contaminated water and steam are leaking into the atmosphere.Scientists estimate that about 15% of Chernobyl radiation has been released from the disaster.
The area around the power plant has been evacuated, but a trace of radiation has been found in groundwater, which means that the disaster will affect the Japanese in the coming years as radiation exposure can lead to disease (Fox News;BBC).AP.Huffington Post news13 March 2011.July 29, 2011 .BBC News.BBC Asia-Pacific News.12 April 2011.July 29, 2011 .Biello, David.Scientific American24 June 2011.July 29, 2011 .
Brook, Barry.
A new climate.
13 March 2011.
July 29, 2011 .Fox News.Fox News.11 March 2011.July 29, 2011 .Steven Hoffman.Red, green and blue.1 June 2011.July 29, 2011 .
Khare of PriyankaBrand licensing specialistcom.March 17, 2011.2011 29 2011 .Lin II, Rong-Gong.L.A.Times News.18 March 2011..
Vastag, Brian and Steve Mufson.
Washington Post News26 May 2011.
July 29, 2011 .Waller, Moby.Bigtrends.com.15 March 2011.July 29, 2011 .In general, the people of North America, especially the people of the Western United States, are concerned about the spread of radiation to their shores.
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Timesâx80x99 Rong-Gong Lin II reported that a small amount of radiation from Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was detected in Sacramento, but the level was so low that there was no threat to human health, however, fear of radiation exposure has sparked enthusiasm in the region.Map 2 shows the wind pattern and radiation distribution from zero ground to North America in Fukushima, Japan.The debate on whether nuclear energy is worth taking this risk has been highlighted.
First, the Swiss government decided to phase out nuclear energy.Second, additional trace radiation was found in milk, strawberries and other foods grown in California (Hoffman ).The spread of radiation is by escaping the reactor and spreading it through the Gulf Stream to irradiated steam and gas in North America (Waller.
Fortunately, the United States and other countries have been providing assistance to Japan long before the real impact of the reactor failure was known.However, due to the cost of cleaning up, this problem will definitely cause international pressure.Peter Bradford, a former member of the NRC, said "you can almost clean up anything if you're ready to spend enough money on it" (Biello ).
However, cleaning up the accident does not restore leukemia infected by radiation in children.Some countries, such as Switzerland, believe that the risk of nuclear failure is not worth taking the risk as mentioned earlier, while others such as the United States have and are reviewing security measures and regulations (Mufson ).The only real solution to be able to continue running nuclear power is multiple backup systems and redundancy to prevent failures at Fukushima or Chernobyl level;Anything below that should be opposed.
The environmental and health risks of another catastrophic reactor failure are a nightmare