Nuclear Melt Down

By: Chita de la Cruz Heap

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake which recently struck Japan was quickly followed by a ten meter high tsunami wave, which travelled 10 kilometers inland and destroyed everything within it’s path.

The number of those who lost their lives could be as high as 15,000 with half a million people now homeless. Many are without food and water, mobile phone services are down, petrol stations have run dry, people are without electricity, and night time temperatures have descended to minus three degrees. Conditions have also turned wintery with falling snow now hampering rescue efforts. It has also been estimated that there is a 70% chance of another big earthquake occurring within the next few days. A magnitude 6.1 after shock occured as recently as Saturday March 23rd.

Just when it seemed that things could get no worse, they did, when a nuclear emergency of unprecedented proportion was declared. When the earthquake struck the village of Sendai on the eastern coast of Japan, electricity to the nuclear power station at nearby Fukashima was cut off. Backup generators briefly restored the power, until these too were taken out by the incoming tsunami.

Electricity is required to operate the pumps which deliver water for cooling the reactors, and to prevent them from overheating. As a consequence the water level within the reactors fell sharply leaving radioactive fuel rods exposed, generating fears of a partial or complete melt down in some of the reactors. Explosions followed in four of the buildings housing the reactors, some of these being caused by a build up of pressure in the steam, whilst others resulted from the ignition of hydrogen within the reactor buildings. Five of the six reactors are fuelled by uranium, whilst reactor number three is fuelled by a uranium / plutonium mix. It is this reactor which is now generating the most concern.

Already levels of radiation have been detected 400 times higher than the legal limit, and people living within a twenty kilometer radius of the site have been told to evacuate. Samples of local milk and also spinach have been found to contain high levles of radio activity and cannot now be consumed. Those who live between twenty and thirty miles from the site have been advised to remain indoors. The US has advised its own citizens living within an eighty mile radius to evacuate the area, whilst the French government has advised all of its citizens to leave Japan.

In some parts of China surgical masks and iodine tablets are no longer available as concerned citizens have bought up all available stock. The prevailing wind direction is however to the East, and it will most likely be the West coast of America, which first feels the effects of nuclear radiation.

Radio active particles will be carried high up in the atmosphere by the wind until such time as precipitation such as rain or snow causes it to fall, either onto the earth, or into the sea. Should it fall upon the earth, then vegetation, livestock, and people will be affected. If it falls into the sea it will impact upon fish and marine life. The likelihood is that this radioactive cloud will travel all around the world, though by the time it reaches the Philippines its intensity should have dissipated to a large degree. Concern has been generated in countries around the world, not only by the health risks that this incident may create, but also regarding the safety of their own nuclear reactors. In California USA, which is also prone to earthquakes, nuclear power stations are only designed to withstand earthquakes up to a magnitude of 7.0. In some countries anti nuclear demonstrations have already taken place, with China putting on hold its own ambitious nuclear development program.

Earthquake grading follows a logarithmic scale, such that a grade 8.0 earthquake is ten times stronger than a grade 7.0, whilst a grade 9.0 is one hundred times more powerful.

As a consequence of the breakdown of power supplies in Japan, together with the disruption of transport systems and devastation to the infrastructure, may factories have been forced to close. In an attempt to maintain the value of its currency the Japanese government injected an additional $437 into its financial system over a five day period, bur this has done little to reassure investors. Trading on the stock market has become extremely erratic as a consequence of the uncertainty which now prevails. With a question mark hanging over the future of the nuclear fuel industry, and concerns about the reliability of the supply of oil from the Middle East, fuel costs will almost certainly continue to rise. When fuel costs rise then so does the cost of food, which needs to be harvested, processed, and transported, all of which require fuel. It was the rising cost of food that was largely responsible for the civil unrest that is currently ongoing in a number of Middle Eastern countries.

The prime minister of Japan stated that this was the biggest disaster that Japan had experienced since the second world war. This could yet prove to be a disaster for the entire world!/TE