japan crisis1

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT

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FACTS ABOUT THE NATURAL CALAMITY THAT ROCKED

JAPAN LAST WEEK ABOUT JAPAN Japan is the world's third-largest economy, the US's most important military ally and Australia's closest diplomatic partner, in Asia. It plays a central role in the global order and a critical role in the Asia-Pacific region ☻Japan has the world's third-largest economy by nomi nal GDP and by purchasing power parity ☻world's fourth largest exporter and fifth largest i mporter . ☻it maintains an extensive modern military force in self-defense and peacekeeping roles ☻After Singapore, Japan has the lowest homicide (inc luding attempted homicide) rate in the world. ☻According to both UN and WHO estimates, Japan has t he highest life expectancy of any country in the world ☻According to the UN, it has the third lowest infant mortality rate.

☻Japan is the second-largest producer of automobiles in the world

☻Japan is one of the most seismically active countri es in the world, accounting for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

WHAT IS TSUNAMI ?

A section of seabed is thrust up or driven down by movement of the Earth's crust.

The rift displaces vast quantities of water that move as waves, able to span enormous distances and sometimes with the speed of a jet plane.

The word "tsunami" comes from the Japanese words for "harbour" and "wave".

When tsunamis approach a coastline, the shelving of the sea floor causes them to slow down, but also gain in height.

To those on the shore, the first sign of something amiss is an eerie retreat of the sea, which is followed by the arrival of exceptional waves.



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The day – 11-3-2011 / Friday The event: - A series of massive earthquakes have struck north-east Japan, unleashing a 10-metre tsunami that swept buildings, vehicles, crops and debris across swaths of farmland No. of people died so far : 6,548



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Sendai Airport is surrounded by waters in Miyagi prefecture, Japan, after a ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever

· recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, March 11, 2011.

The worst effects of Tsunami :

The quake hit at 2.46pm (5.45am GMT), about 6 miles below sea level and 78 miles off the east coast. It was swiftly followed by five powerful aftershocks of up to 7.1 magnitude.

The quake and tsunami crippled air and rail services across large parts of the country.

The death toll from Japan's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami last Friday continues to rise, thousands of people remain unaccounted for, making it likely that large gaps exist between official and unofficial counts.

Around 90,000 rescue workers, including police officers and self-defence forces personnel, have reached 26,000 survivors so far.

Delivery of relief goods contributed from around the nation to evacuees and survivors still remains difficult due to shortages of fuel and transport vehicles.



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Around 380,000 people across Japan are staying in shelters while temperatures in the quake-hit areas remain at mid-winter levels.

Fuel scarcity forced the Miyagi prefectural government to allow burial of victims without cremation.

Around 4.4 million homes were without power in northern Japan, media said. A hotel collapsed in the city of Sendai and people were feared buried in the rubble.

A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo news agency added.

Electronics giant Sony Corp , one of the country's biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage.

· Sendai Airport is swept by a tsunami after an earthquake, in northeastern Japan

The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the anaemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell.

There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, there was widespread panic. An oil refinery near the city was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.



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The quake was the biggest since records began 140 years ago, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The U.S. Geological Survey earlier verified a magnitude of 7.9 at a depth of 15.1 miles and located the quake 81 miles east of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu. It later upgraded it to 8.9.

Nuclear Radiation what went wrong?

The effects of the earthquake led to cooling problems in reactors 1,2 and 3. Others were under scheduled maintenance at the time of the earthquake. Japan’ nuclear safety agency rated the incident as level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale-

The 40-year-old Fukushima plant is one of the 25 largest in the world, its six reactors supplying 4.7 gigawatts, making it a vital component in the electricity network. Replacing it will be no easy task as designing, constructing and commissioning power stations takes years.

Reactor 1 MAR 15th: Cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, hydrogen explosion, seawater pumped in

Reactor 2 MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, seawater pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, damage to containment system, potential meltdown feared .

Reactor 3

MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater pumped in, hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby

MARCH 16th: smoke appeared-cause unclear, pressure of core vessel stable; Updated! severe damage to containment vessel unlikely, no water poured in to cool spent-fuel storage pool.

March 17th: Water being poured over reactor from he licpoters

Reactor 4

MAR 15th: Under maintenance when quake struck, fire caused possibly by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, pool water level feared receding.

MARCH 16th: Fire at core broke out again because first fire not put out completely. RADIATION still high may be due to the boiling storage pool for spent fuel rods. Updated! No water poured in to cool pool, spraying of boric acid being considered.

Reactor 5 MAR 15th: Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature



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slightly rising at spent fuel pool.

MAR 18th: Temperature still slightly rising, now @ 65°C

Reactor 6 MAR 15th: Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool.

Thousands of residents have been evacuated as workers struggled to get

nuclear reactors under control at two nuclear power plants to prevent meltdowns.

Japan declared states of emergency -- the first in its history -- for five reactors at

two plants after the units lost cooling ability following Friday's powerful

earthquake.

Operators at Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled to tamp down heat and

pressure inside the reactor, according to the AP. The site lost electricity and

emergency generators were disabled, knocking out the main cooling system.

Few Interesting queries answered by BBC News: Has there been a leakage of radioactive material? Yes. Local government officials in Fukushima say 190 people have been exposed to some radiation. An American warship, the USS Ronald Reagan, has detected low levels of radiation at a distance of 100 miles (161km) from the Fukushima plant. How much radioactive material has escaped? The Japanese authorities say only low levels of radiation have been detected outside the plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency has described it as a level four event on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which is used for an accident "with local consequences". No abnormal levels of radiation have been detected in Russia. What type of radioactive material has escaped? There are reports of radioactive isotopes of caesium and iodine in the vicinity of the plant. Experts say it would be natural for radioactive isotopes of nitrogen and argon to have escaped as well. There is no evidence that any uranium or plutonium has escaped. What harm do these radioactive materials cause?



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Radioactive iodine could be harmful to young people living near the plant. After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster there were some cases of thyroid cancer as a result. However, people who were promptly issued with iodine tablets ought to be safe. Radioactive caesium accumulates in soft tissue, while plutonium accumulates in the bone and liver. Radioactive nitrogen decays within seconds of its release, and argon poses no threat to health. How did the radioactive materials escape? There have been problems with cooling systems, causing the reactors to overheat. Production of steam has caused pressure to build up inside the reactor, so small amounts of steam have been deliberately released. On Tuesday another reactor exploded, possibly causing a crack in its suppression chamber. This would allow steam to escape continuously, but the situation is unclear. Experts say that the presence in the steam of caesium and iodine – which are among the by-products of nuclear fission - suggests that the metal casing of some of the fuel rods has melted or broken. But the uranium fuel itself has a very high melting point so it is less likely to have melted, let alone vapourised. Could radioactive materials have escaped by any oth er means? The authorities have pumped sea water into three reactors. This water will be contaminated by its passage through the reactor, but it is currently unclear whether any of it has been released into the environment. How long will any contamination last? Radioactive iodine decays quite quickly. Most will have disappeared within a month. Radioactive caesium does not last long in the body - most has gone within a year. However, it lingers in the environment and can continue to present a problem for many years. Has there been a meltdown? The term "meltdown" is used in a variety of ways. As noted above, the reported detection of radioactive caesium and iodine may indicate that some of the metal casing enclosing the reactors' uranium fuel has melted (a "fuel-rod meltdown"). However, there is as yet no indication that the uranium fuel itself has melted. Still less is there any indication of a "China Syndrome" where the fuel melts, gathers below the reactor and resumes a chain reaction, that enables it to melt everything in its way, and bore a path deep into the earth. If there were to be a serious meltdown, the



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Japanese reactor is supposed to be able to handle it, preventing the China Syndrome from taking place. Reports suggest that underneath the reactor, within the outer containment vessel, there is a concrete basin designed to capture and disperse any molten fuel. Could there be a Chernobyl-like disaster? Experts say this is highly unlikely. The chain reaction at all Fukushima reactors has ceased. The explosions that have occurred have taken place outside the steel and concrete containment vessels enclosing the reactors. At Chernobyl an explosion exposed the core of the reactor to the air, and a fire raged for days sending its contents in a plume up into the atmosphere. At Fukushima the explosions - caused by hydrogen and oxygen vented from the reactor – have damaged only the roof and walls erected around the containment vessels. Could there be a nuclear explosion? No. A nuclear bomb and a nuclear reactor are different things. What caused the hydrogen release from the reactor? At high temperatures, steam can separate into hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of zirconium, the metal used for encasing the reactor fuel. This mixture is highly explosive. How do iodine tablets work? If the body has all the iodine it needs, it will not absorb further iodine from the atmosphere. The tablets fill the body up with non-radioactive iodine, which prevent it absorbing the radioactive iodine. What kind of radiation levels have been recorded at Fukushima? The Kyodo news agency reports that a radiation level of 1,557 microsieverts per hour was registered on Sunday. At this level, one hour's exposure is roughly equivalent to one chest X-ray. Later measurements included 750 microsieverts per hour at 0200 on Monday, and 20 microsieverts per hour at 1145. On a long-haul flight, passengers are exposed to about five microsieverts per hour. However, after Tuesday's explosion, readings at the site rose again beyone safe limits - 400 millisieverts per hour and people living within 20 miles (32km) of the plant were told to stay indoors. Moving away from the source of radiation, measurements quickly tail off, and in Tokyo they were reported to have been higher than normal, but officials said there were no health dangers.



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Is any level of exposure to radiation safe? In some parts of the world, natural background radiation is significantly higher than others - for example in Cornwall, in south-west England. And yet people live in Cornwall, and many others gladly visit the area. Similarly, every international air flight exposes passengers to higher than normal levels of radiation - and yet people still fly, and cabin crews spend large amounts of time exposed to this radiation. Patients in hospitals regularly undergo X-rays. Scientists dispute whether any level of exposure to radiation is entirely safe, but exposure to some level of radiation - whether at normal background levels or higher - is a fact of life. How do Fukushima's problems affect the rest of the world? It depends on how much radiation is released. At present, the IAEA says the effects are of a "local" nature.

A factory building has collapsed in Sukagawa city, Fukushima prefecture, in northern Japan on March 11, 2011



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• • • • A massive tsunami sweeps in to engulf a residential area after a powerful earthquake in Natori

• • • • A pedestrian road has collapsed in the massive 8.9- magnitude earthquake in Urayasu city, Chiba prefecture on Mar ch 11, 2011



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• • • • * People at a book store react as the store's ceiling falls in Sendai, northern Japan Friday, March 11, 2011.



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• • • • A chimney falls onto its factory in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, after one of the largest earthquakes on record slammed Japan's eastern coasts Friday, March 11, 2011

• Buildings burn after an earthquake near Sendai Airport, northeastern Japan



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• • • • Cars and airplanes swept by a tsunami are pictured among debris at Sendai Airport, northeastern Japan

Houses are swept by water following a tsunami and earthquake in Natori City



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• Fishing boats and vehicles are carried by a tsunami wave at Onahama port in Iwaki city, in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan on March 11, 2011.



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• • • • Natural gas storage tanks burn at a facility in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo.



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• Vehicles are crushed by a collapsed wall at a carpark in Mito city in Ibaraki prefecture on March 11, 2011 after a massive earthquake rocked Japan.

SEED express its deepest condolence and pray the god to look after the families of died and injured people in the above disasters.

japan crisis1

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