Hello, everyone. This is a wonderful weekend, and we could start it earlier because of TOEFL. Today, I want to talk about the Japan’s earthquake and the nuclear accident because this is very serious problem in the world. Korea is very close to Japan, and California is also influenced because of wind.
On March 11th 2011, the horrible earthquake was happened in Japan’s eastern coast. It was a 9.0 magnitude, and caused the disaster of over 10m tsunami, and because of it, more than 15,000 people were died, 9,121 people were missing, and over 125,000 buildings were also destroyed and damaged included one airport. Tsunami was not simply sea water. It invaded the land with ships, cars, and even houses, which were fired. Cars tried to escape, but water was faster than them. Many villages were destroyed, and especially Tohoku was totally destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami were a real shocking disaster, and it officially named the Great East Japan Earthquake.
There was nuclear power plant that consists of six boiling water reactors in Fukushima Daiichi, which is located in Japan’s eastern seashore. After the earth quake and tsunami hit the eastern of Japan, four of six reactors were damaged and all nuclear power plants were automatically shut down. However, the situation had been getting worse. Fukushima nuclear power plants were starting to be shown problems; the reactor cooling systems that remove the heat of nuclear power plant were failed, and emergency generators were also stopped by tsunami seawater of 14 meters. Therefore, it caused nuclear meltdown, and explosions of hydrogen gas from the reactors. Radiation was released, and Japan evacuated large area near the nuclear power plant. However, radiation was already released, and radioactive cesium was above legal limit. The nuclear accident was issued in the whole world because radiation could be flowed by water and airs though the wind, and the disaster of the nuclear accident was continued.
The nuclear accident in Japan was issued, and many people tried to find the reason of the disaster. Only few people said that this accident was caused by nature, so it was not anybody’s fault. However, many different opinions also appeared. In fact, it was not caused by only nature. Japanese government was criticized by many people because of their responses that were always too slow and changeable; for example, USA government offered to help, but Japan refused it, and Japan did not want to close the nuclear power plant, so decision that was using the seawater to remove the heat instead of the failed cooling systems was delayed, and it caused meltdown. Moreover, Japan was already warned about the nuclear power plants that could not withstand powerful earthquake two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog. However, the issue of the nuclear power plant that has many problems and risks should be discussed again. Many people believe that nuclear power is clean and safe as claim of some people who are involved in nuclear power, but it is not true. The nuclear power is not safe and clean at all, and it is not energy that protects the earth from global warming. The nuclear power is threatening the mankind and it remains billion of radioactive matter, which could have influence on the future for a long time. The nuclear power always has a risk, and it cannot be protected perfectly. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident was not caused by nature, and it was already announced disaster.
Many countries try to reduce or remove nuclear power plants, and especially German decided to remove all nuclear power plants in German during 10 years. We should think about nuclear power again, and watch the nuclear power plants in Japan.
