THE EARTHQUAKE TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR DISASTER IN JAPAN

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THE EARTHQUAKE TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR DISASTER IN

JAPAN

INTRODUCTION

1. Nothing can be more powerful than nature. The nature is blessed by the almighty

God and it has given us such scenic beauties, amazing hill stations, hot deserts anddrizzling plateaus. It is considered as the most beautiful creation of God but cancause drastic damages at times. The news that has dominated every news outletover the last few months is earthquake, tsunami, and now potential forradioactive fallout in Japan.

2. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; approximately 195 eventshave been recorded. An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor ortemblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth'scrustthat creates seismic waves. The seismicity or seismic activity of an area

refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over aperiod of time. Earthquakes are measured using observations fromseismometers. The moment magnitude (or the partly obsolete Richtermagnitude, numerically similar over the range of validity of the Richterscale) of an earthquake is conventionally reported, with magnitude 3 orlower earthquakes being mostly almost imperceptible and magnitude 7and over potentially causing serious damage over large areas,depending on their depth. The largest earthquakes in historic times havebeen of magnitude slightly over 9, although there is no limit to the

possible magnitude. The most recent large Northeast region PacificOcean offshore earthquake was a 9.0-magnitudeundersea off the coastofJapan that occurred on Friday, 11 March 2011.

AIM.

2. The aim of this writing is to appraise largest earthquake followed by tsunami andnuclear disaster in Japan

EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI IN JAPAN

3. The 9.0-magnitude (MW

) undersea mega thrust earthquake occured, with itsepicenterapproximately 72 kilometers (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula ofThoku,Japan, lasting approximately six minutes. The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai,Honshu, Japan, 130 km (81 mi) away. The quake occurred 373 km (232 mi) from Tokyo.The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, and multipleaftershocks were reported afterwards. One minute prior to the effects of the earthquake

being felt in Tokyo, the Earthquake Early Warning system, which includes more than1,000 seismometers in Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong shaking to millions.This was possible because the damaging seismic S-waves, traveling at 4 km (2.5 mi) persecond, took about 90 seconds to travel the 373 km (232 mi) to Tokyo. The early warningis believed by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) to have saved many lives.

Tsunami

4. The term tsunami comes from the Japanese composed of the two kanji (tsu)meaning "harbor" and (nami), meaning "wave and at one time incorrectly referred to asa tidal wave, is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a

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body of water, usually an ocean. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan;approximately 195 events have been recorded. . The tsunami propagated across thePacific, including the entire Pacific coast of North and South America from Alaska toChile.Casualties

5. TheNational Police Agency has officially confirmed 10,804 deaths, 2,776 injured,

and 16,244 people missing across eighteen prefectures. These numbers are expected toincrease, with casualties estimated to reach tens of thousands.Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children have been uprooted from theirhomes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquakeoccurred during the school day.

On 14 March, Kyodo News Agency reported that some 2,000 bodies were found on twoshores in Miyagi Prefecture.

Date14:46:23, 11 March 2011Duration6 minutesMagnitude9.0 MwDepth32 kmCasualties12,787 deaths,[4][5]4,661 injured,[4][5] 14,991 people missing

Damage

6. The degree and extent of damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunamiwere enormous, with most of the damage being caused by the tsunami. Video footage ofthe worst affected towns shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts ofany structures left standing. Estimates of the cost of the damage range well into the tensof billions of US dollars; before-and-after satellite photographs of devastated regionsshow immense damage to many regions.

a. Electricity: According to Thoku Electric Power(TEP), around 4.4 millionhouseholds in northeastern Japan were left without electricity. Several nuclear andconventional power plants went offline after the earthquake. The Tokyo Electric PowerCompany (TEPCO), which normally provides approximately 40 GW of electricity,

announced that it can currently provide only about 30 GW. This is because 40% of theelectricity used in the greater Tokyo area is now supplied by reactors in the Niigata andFukushima prefectures.

b. Transport: Japan's transport network suffered severe disruptions. Manysections ofThoku Expressway serving northern Japan were damaged. The expresswaydid not reopen to general public use until 24 March 2011. All railway services weresuspended in Tokyo. A tsunami wave flooded Sendai Airport about 1 hour after the initialquake.Narita and Haneda Airport both suspended operations after the quake.

c. Telecommunication: Cellular and landline phone service suffered majordisruptions in the affected area. The earthquake having damaged portions of severalundersea cable systems landing in the affected regions.

NUCLEAR EXPLOSION AND RADIATION

7. Since 1973, nuclear energy has been a national strategic priority in Japan. Thenation is heavily dependent on imported fuel, with fuel imports accounting for 61% of

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energy production. There has been concern about the ability of Japan's nuclear plants towithstand seismic activity. Now, there are 55 operating nuclear reactors in Japan with anumber of others in construction or three in number being planned.

Explosion of Fukushima I & II Nuclear Power Plants and Impacts

8. The Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tkai nuclear

power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut downfollowing the earthquake. On 12 March, a large explosion, Japan declared a state ofemergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear PowerPlant, thought to be caused by the buildup ofhydrogen gas, blew away the roof and outerwalls of the Reactor 1 building, releasing a large cloud of dust and vapor, but the reactoritself was not damaged in the explosion. Officials from the Japanese Nuclear andIndustrial Safety Agency have reported that radiation levels inside the plant are up to1,000 times normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant are up to 8 timesnormal levels.

A state of emergency was also declared at the Fukushima II nuclear power plant about11 km (7 mi) south. This brings the total number of problematic reactors to six.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is trying to reduce the pressure within theplants by venting contaminated steam from the reactor vessels into the atmosphere.According to Tomoko Murakami, of the nuclear energy group at Japan's Institute ofEnergy Economics, this would not result in the release of significant radiation. Residentsliving within a 20 km (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima I plant were evacuated, as well asresidents within 3 km (1.9 mi) of the Fukushima II plant.

As of 16 March 2011, five plant workers have died and 22 others have been injured. Twoothers are reported missing. The government raised the national safety standardgoverning radiation exposure from 100 to 250 mSv per year, so plant workers couldcontinue their work.

Other Nuclear Power Plant

9. The number 2 reactor at Tkai Nuclear Power Plant was shut down automatically.On 14 March it was reported that a cooling system pump for this reactor had stopped

working. A fire from the turbine section of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant followingthe earthquake.

Economic Impacts

10. Although Japan has invested the equivalent of billions of dollars on anti-tsunamiseawalls which line at least 40% of its 34,751-kilometer (21,593 mi) coastline and standup to 12 meters (39 ft) high, the tsunami simply washed over the top of some seawalls,collapsing some in the process. Some analysts are predicting that the total recovery costscould reach 10 trillion ($122 billion). On Tuesday, 15 March, news of rising radiation

levels caused theNikkei to drop over 1,000 points or 10.6% (16% for the week) and othermarket also.

CONCLUSION

11. Japan is in the unenviable position of being one of the few nations in recent history to have seena striking reversal of economic fortune. The original Asian success story, Japan rode one of the great

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speculative stock and property bubbles of all time in the 1980s to become the first Asian country tochallenge the long dominance of the West.

Japan has had the worlds second-largest economy for much of the last four decades, according to theWorld Bank. And during the 1980s, there was even talk about Japans economy some day overtakingthat of the United States.

Japan is most strong economic country of the world. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence

in Japan; approximately 195 events have been recorded. Though it is the largest tsunamiin the history of Japan. The government has mobilized the Japan Self-Defense Forces invarious earthquake disaster zones. Japan's national public broadcaster, NHK, and JapanSatellite Television suspended their usual programming to provide ongoing coverage ofthe situation. Various other nationwide Japanese TV networks also broadcastuninterrupted coverage of the disaster.

RECOMMENDATIONS

12. In light of above discussions, following suggestions are recommended:

a. radiated People.

b.

EFFECTS:

ECONOMY

WATERTOURISM

AIR ROUTES

TOKYO Disaster-hit Sendai Airport, which was closed after being inundated by the March 11tsunami, will reopen next week, more than a month after the biggest recorded earthquake ever to hitJapan.

The opening will provide a boost to an area constrained by road closures and the suspension of bullet

train services to Sendai.

All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines on Friday said they would restart flights next week to and fromthe airport, which will reopen to some commercial services on Wednesday.

ANA said in a statement that it would start three daily round trip "relief services" to Tokyo Haneda fromApril 13.

JAL, which recently emerged from bankruptcty, will restart flights from Haneda and Osaka the sameday, though the suspension of some other routes has been extended until the end of May.

"As a result of efforts aiding recovery by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism, the self-defence force, the US military and other organisations, the airport is being openedsooner than originally expected," ANA said in a statement.

Sendai Airport was slammed by the wall of water that ravaged Japan's northeast coastline on March 11,with the facility badly damaged in a torrent of mud, water and debris that scattered planes from runways.

Teams of US service personnel who specialise in re-opening stricken air strips have been at the airportsince a few days after the tsunami hit.

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After clearing the runway of debris they have been using the once-bustling airport to ferry in reliefsupplies by C-130 Hercules transport planes.

TRANSPORT

ELECTRICITY

EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR CRISIS

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, churning up a devastating tsunami thatswept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away thewest coast of the United States and South America. Recorded as 9.0 on the Richter scale, it was the mostpowerful quake ever to hit the country. As the nation struggled with a rescue effort, it also faced theworst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl; explosions and leaks of radioactive gas took place in threereactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that suffered partial meltdowns, while spentfuel rods at another reactor overheated and caught fire, releasing radioactive material directly into the

atmosphere. Japanese officials turned to increasingly desperate measures, as traces of radiation werefound in Tokyo's water and in water pouring from the reactors into the ocean.

As of April 7, the official death toll had been raised to 12,600, and more than 14,700 people were listedas missing, although there may be some overlap between the two groups. The final toll is expected toreach nearly 20,000. More than 160,000 people remained housed in temporary shelters; tens ofthousands of others evacuated their homes due to the nuclear crisis.

Live Updateson The Lede blog, including selected video clips and coverage from Twitter.

Multimedia: see whathappens in a meltdown, a map of the areas of damage, satellite before and

after photos, the cause of the quake and readers' photos.

Crisis Timeline

April 7 The police mounted a search for the 4,200 people listed as missing in the evacuation zonearound the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant as a powerful aftershock struck off the east coast,with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4. There were tsunami warnings, but no large waves were expected.

April 6 The United StatesNuclear Regulatory Commissionsaid that some of the core of a strickenJapanese reactorhad probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of the containmentstructure, implying that the damage was even worse than previously thought. The operator of the

disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was preparing to inject nitrogen into a reactorcontainment vessel there as it continued to try to bring the plant under control. The move was aimed atpreventing the possibility of stored-up hydrogen from exploding at the plants No. 1 reactor.

April 5 United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that thetroubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and thatin some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plantstable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by theNuclear Regulatory Commission.

April 4 Power company officials said they would release almost 11,500 tons of watercontaminated withlow levels of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The water is

being dumped to make room in storage tanks for more highly radioactive water from Reactor Number 2.Workers meanwhile resorted to desperate measures including using sawdust and shredded newspaper in an effort to stem a direct leak of an estimated seven tons an hour of radioactive water escapingfrom a pit near the reactor.

April 3 Four years ago, officials in the sleepy town of Futuba lobbied for an expansion of the nearbyFukushima nuclear plant. Now town officials are consumed with the evacuation of Futabas 6,900residents, shepherding a group of about 1,300 people from one makeshift sleeping place to the next. It isa tragic tale of an entire community evacuated in the wake of the worlds largest nuclear disaster sinceChernobyl.

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April 1 In the largest rescue mission ever carried out in Japan, 18,000 Japanese and 7,000 Americanpersonnel will scour a vast coastal areafor 16,000 still listed as missing. Workers made incrementalprogress at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but disturbingly high radiation readings thereas well as miles away continued to reinforce fears that Japans crisis was far from over.

March 31 A long-lasting radioactive element, cesium 137, has been measured at levels that pose a long-term dangerat one spot 25 miles from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, raisingquestions about whetherJapans evacuation zone should be expanded and whether the land might need

to be abandoned. Emails, blog posts and interviews give a glimpse into the strugglecarried on by thelargely anonymous workers trying to prevent the worlds second-worst nuclear calamity from becomingeven more dire, painting a picture of mixed panic, heroism and frustration. Tests of milk samples takenlast week in Spokane, Wash., indicate the presence of radioactive iodine from the troubled FukushimaDaiichi nuclear plant in Japan, but at levels far below those at which action would have to be taken, theEnvironmental Protection Agency said.

March 30 The recent flow of bad news from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station hasundermined the drumbeat of optimistic statements by government and company officials who have attimes tried to reassure a nervous public that significant progress is at hand only to come up short. Adeluge of contaminated water, plutonium traces in the soil and an increasingly hazardous environment

for workers at the plant have forced government officials to confront the reality that the emergencymeasures they have taken to keep nuclear fuel cool are producing increasingly dangerous side effects.And the prospect of restoring automatic cooling systems anytime soon is fading.

March 29 Workers at Japans crippled nuclear plant piled up sandbags and readied emergency storagetanks to stop a fresh leak of highly contaminated waterfrom reaching the ocean, opening up anotherfront in the battle to contain the worlds worst nuclear accident in decades. The Japanese governmentsaid the discovery of plutonium in the soil near the plant provided new evidence that the fuel in at leastone of the plants reactors had experienced a partial meltdown. A full meltdown of the fuel rods couldrelease huge amounts of radiation into the environment.

March 28 Highly contaminated wateris escaping a damaged reactorat the crippled nuclear power plantand could soon leak into the ocean, the countrys nuclear regulator warned. The discovery raises thedanger of further radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and is a furthersetback to efforts to contain the nuclear crisis as workers find themselves in increasingly hazardousconditions.

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Japan Before the Quake

But the bubbles popped in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Japan fell into a slow but relentlessdecline that neither enormous budget deficits nor a flood of easy money has reversed. For nearly ageneration now, the nation has been trapped in low growth and a corrosive downward spiral of prices,known as deflation, in the process shriveling from an economic Godzilla to little more than anafterthought in the global economy.

In the second quarter of 2010, China passed Japan to become the worlds second-largest economybehind the United States. For Japan, the statistic reflected a decline in economic and political power. In

January 2011, Standard & Poors, the credit ratings agency, downgraded the country's long-termsovereign debt, a sharp reminder of the heavy burden plaguing the Japanese economy at levels that standout even in an increasingly debt-ridden world.

The Economy

For close to five decades after World War II, Japan's economy grew steadily through policies thatclosely aligned government and large manufacturers. That formula reached its peak in the late 1980s,

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but a real estate bust brought growth to an end, and was followed by a long intractable slump that lastedthrough the 1990s and into the 21st century.

Deflation has left a deep imprint on the Japanese, breeding generational tensions and a culture ofpessimism, fatalism and reduced expectations. While Japan remains in many ways a prosperous society,it faces an increasingly grim situation, particularly outside the relative economic vibrancy of Tokyo.

In the 1980s, a mighty and threatening Japan Inc. seemed ready to obliterate whole American

industries, from automakers to supercomputers. With the Japanese stock market quadrupling and the yenrising to unimagined heights, Japans companies dominated global business, gobbling up trophyproperties like Hollywood movie studios (Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures), famous golfcourses (Pebble Beach) and iconic real estate (Rockefeller Center).

In 1991, economists were predicting that Japan would overtake the United States as the worlds largesteconomy by 2010. In fact, Japans economy remains the same size it was then: a gross domestic productof $5.7 trillion at current exchange rates. During the same period, the United States economy doubled insize to $14.7 trillion. In 2010, China overtook Japan to become the worlds No. 2 economy.

The decline has been painful for the Japanese, with companies and individuals having lost the equivalent

of trillions of dollars in the stock market, which is now just a quarter of its value in 1989, and in realestate, where the average price of a home is the same as it was in 1983. And the future looks evenbleaker, as Japan faces the worlds largest government debt around 200 percent of gross domesticproduct a shrinking population and rising rates of poverty and suicide.

But perhaps the most noticeable impact has been Japans crisis of confidence. Its once voraciousmanufacturers now seem prepared to surrender industry after industry to hungry South Korean andChinese rivals. A new frugality is apparent among a generation of young Japanese, who have knownnothing but economic stagnation and deflation. They refuse to buy big-ticket items like cars ortelevisions, and fewer choose to study abroad in America.

The classic explanation of the evils of deflation is that it makes individuals and businesses less willing touse money, because the rational way to act when prices are falling is to hold onto cash, which gains invalue. But in Japan, nearly a generation of deflation has had a much deeper effect, subconsciouslycoloring how the Japanese view the world. It has bred a deep pessimism about the future and a fear oftaking risks that make people instinctively reluctant to spend or invest, driving down demand andprices even further.

In March 2010, in attempt to stimulate the economy, the Japanese government pushed a record 92.3trillion yen ($1 trillion) budget through Parliament aimed at stimulating growth in the long-stagnanteconomy. It meant another round of spending and adding to Tokyo's already substantial public debt.

Although the Japanese economy grew at a healthy clip of 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, someeconomists worried about runaway government spending. Japan is already saddled with a public debttwice the size of its economy.

In late August 2010, Japan promised a host of measures in a bid to ignite its faltering economy andtemper a punishingly strong yen. Mr. Kan proposed new stimulus steps, while the Bank of Japan, underpressure from the government, further eased its already easy monetary policy.

In January 2011, Standard & Poors, the credit ratings agency, lowered its sovereign credit rating forJapan to AA- from AA. That was three levels below the highest possible rating, and S.& P.s firstdowngrade of Japanese government debt since 2002. With the lower grade, the country's debt rating was

on par with Chinas, which in 2010 overtook Japan as the worlds second-largest economy, after theUnited States. Moodys affirmed its Aa2 rank for Japan, the third-highest grade.

S.& P., in downgrading Japan, warned that the Japanese government had no coherent strategy toaddress its ballooning deficit, and that its already high debt burden was likely to continue to rise furtherthan it had anticipated before the financial crisis. A rapidly aging population is adding to the countryswoes, raising the likelihood of increasing social security and pension obligations in the future.

Japans economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2010when compared with the previous threemonths, though analysts are optimistic about the countrys prospects for the rest of the year.

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The news that has dominated every news outlet over the last 96 hours has been mind-boggling, to saythe least - the combined earthquake, tsunami, and now potential for radioactive fallout in Japan. Forthose outside of the region, and indeed around the globe - the first reaction is utter horror at the imagesthat are pouring out of Northeastern Japan, and pain for those living through this firsthand. Notunusually, the next natural thought for we humans is: Could it happen here?

Given the now very prominent danger of the damaged nuclear reactors emitting dangerous levelsof radiation, both through recent explosions and any potential meltdown, many watching this unfoldcan't help but think of how this could affect us here, half-a-world away. As of Monday (14th) afterFriday's disaster, we were hearing reports of very real dangers based on radiation levels near theplant reportedly double the amount that would constitute an emergency situation. Temporary postswhere residents were being checked for exposure were reporting well over 100 people in the area beingexposed to some levels of radiation as of Tuesday. And this, all prior to anything resembling the worstcase scenario - a serious meltdown of not just one, but perhaps several of the four reactors atFukushima Nuclear Plant that were functioning.Today we are hearing that the risk for residents in the United States is very low, if at all; thatwinds carrying any potentially harmful radiation eastward from Japan would dissipate long beforereaching Alaska, western Canada and the west coast. Although radiation detection monitors here in theUS are extremely sensitive (they detected levels from Chernobyl long before the USSR had announcedthe accident), and would pick up even small traces of radioactive fallout, the levels at this point aresaid to be no threat to health.But, what of a more serious problem, such as the worst-case scenario of a meltdown?Most reports have been comparing this event to the two most well-known nuclear events in recenthistory: Chernobyl in April 1986 and Three-Mile Island in March 1979.Pennsylvania was not without some large-scale preparedness anxiety during the accident at TMI.A failure with the water pumps in its main reactor allowed pressure to build up inside the reactor core.When a relief valve opened to compensate for low water levels, it failed to close -allowing contaminated water to escape, leading to a partial meltdown of the fuel rods inside the reactor.But, according to experts, radioactive material never escaped the containment vessel, and theresultant radiation exposure was "..never enough to cause a detectable health effect in the generalpopulation".In comparison, a design flaw in the reactor at Chernobyl caused a dramatic power surge during

testing, which sent the reactor out of control and caused two major explosions. At Chernobyl, there wasno containment vessel, and so the explosions sent radioactive material (including some 5% of thereactor core) into the atmosphere to be carried in the winds. Thirty people died within a few weeks ofthe accident; several thousand residents were put at long-term risk from exposure (even though 300,000were evacuated).

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THE EARTHQUAKE TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR DISASTER IN JAPAN