In march 2011 several earthquakes as well as a 15-metre tsunami wave originated what is often described as the biggest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Within a few days three cores of nuclear plant melted, causing high radioactive releases. According to the World Nuclear Association, the accident was rated 7 on the INES scale, which is the maximum rate, due to the high releases.
I chose to write about this topic because I personally remembered hearing about it on the news and it really moved me. I have always been interested in the nuclear catastrophy that happened in Chernobyl because it faszinates me how something so small can cause such big damage. When the accident happened, it was a big topic in my country and I followed the news to see what was happening. Even tough there was nobody killed or otherwise affected by the radiation, the nature sure did suffer. Both the land and sea was destroyed and venomed by radiation and several animals and fish suffered.
While writing this blog I want to dig deeper into the topic and find out how the situation in Fukushima is now after one and a half years and which effects the nuclear catastrophy had on the people's life, the environment and tourism as well.
The topic was in the news for quite a time but came out of focus soon. What is bothering me is that a lot of people forgot about the problems of this area as soon as they were not publicly discussed any more. Right after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophy a lot of clean up work had to be done. Houses had to be rebuilt, entire cities were destroyed, families had to be brought together. However, there was also long-term damaged done and this is often forgotten. The effects radiation had on the earth and sea caused many farmers and fishermen to loose their jobs and be forced to find a new one. In the following weeks I will find out more about those effects of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.
Burning nuclear reactors in Fukushima. Picture taken from: http://www.micarox.com/fukushima1.jpg |
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