Fukushima accidents nuclear power plant accident

D. Kamei, T. Kuno, S. Sato, K. Nitta, T. Akiba, Impact of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident on hemodialysis facilities An evaluation of radioactive contaminants in water used for hemodialysis. Then Apher. Dial. 16, 2012, 87-90. 

Sakaguchi, A., Kadokura, A., Steier, P. et al. (2012a). Isotopic determination of U, Pu and Cs in environmental waters following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, Geochem. J. 46, 355-360. 

The 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident How and why it happened... 

A man-made disaster The TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the resnlt of collusion between the government, the regnlators and TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties.. .. Therefore, we con-clnde that the accident was clearly man-made. We believe that the root canses were the organizational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions, rather than issues relating to the competency of any specific individual. 

Sekimura, N., 2011. Overview cf the Accident in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants. Washington, DC U.S. National Academies Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. 

Ueda S, Hasegawa H, Kakiuchi H, Akata N, Ohtsuka Y, Hisamatsu S (2013) Fluvial discharges of radiocaesium from watersheds contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, Japan. J Environ Radioact 118 96-104... 

Plants can serve as bioaccumulators of uranium, a topic that has recently received special attention after the accidents at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plants. Frame 3.1 verbally quotes parts of a notice published in one of the leading scientific journals in the field of environmental monitoring (CaldweU et al. 2012). 

We may all say accidents happen. However, their occurrence may not only take human lives, destroy millions of dollars in property and lost business, they may also cost us our jobs and reputations. The Bhopal, India, accident in 1984 released methyl isocyanate and caused over 2500 fatalities. A petroleum refinery blew up in Houston, Texas, in 1989, killing 23 workers and damaging properly totaling U.S. 750 million, spewing debris from the explosion over an area of 9 km. Many thought that after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States in 1979 and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine in 1986, we would finally get a handle on how to prevent accidents. Unfortunately, the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 proved otherwise (see Picture 2.1). 

According to the European Nuclear Society, as of the year 2012, there were 435 nuclear power plants operating around the world. With an installed electric net capacity of about 368 GW, these reactors were running in 31 countries. The country with the largest nuclear capacity is the United States with 104 power reactors followed by France (58), Japan (50, though by May 2012, all of these had been temporarily taken out of commission because of concern over the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident), and the Russian Federation (33). As of 2012, there were 63 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 61 GW under construction in 15 countries. 

Furthermore, the issues raised by Deepwater Horizon are not confined to the offshore oil and gas industry. At the time of writing, the consequences of the severe damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plants in Japan are still being ascertained. But it is clear that those consequences will be profound substantial quantities of radioactive materials have been released, a significant fraction of Japan s power-generating capability is lost forever, and the cost of clean-up and remediation is going to be enormous. Indeed, the Fukushima accident may result in a massive slowdown in the construction... 

A (a) The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, site of a small nuclear accident in 1979. Oj) The Chernobyl nuclear reactor, site of a major nuclear accident in 1986. (c) Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan before the nuclear accident in 2011. 

PRACTICE EXAMPLE B Most nuclear power plants use zirconium in the fuel rods because zirconium maintains its structural integrity under exposure to the radiation in the nuclear reactor. The nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima involved the evolution of hydrogen gas from the reduction of water. The half-cell reduction potential for Zr is... 

However, there are problems. The main problem associated with a nuclear power station is that the reactor produces highly radioactive waste materials. These waste materials are difficult to store and cannot be disposed of very easily. Also, leaks of radioactive material have occurred at various sites throughout the world. Accidents at a small number of nuclear power stations, such as Three Mile Island in the US (1979) and Chernobyl in the Ukraine (1986) have led to a great deal of concern about their safety. More recently, in March 2011 a major nuclear accident happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in northern Japan. On this occasion the accident was not caused as a result of the plant itself undergoing a problem, but as a result of an earthquake near Japan that gave rise to a tsunami. This damaged essential... 

Radioactive iodine gained notoriety through the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986, which resulted in an increase of thyroid carcinomas among small children by a factor of around 10-30. It is now presumed that many of these cancer cases might have been prevented by prophylactic administration of iodide. The longer term consequences of the nuclear fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, where also a number of different radionuclides were released, are still being evaluated. 

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