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Social, economic and environmental effects of Fukushima Nuclear Accident
The year 2011 has been a year of extensive natural environmental disaster. Not only the Japanese Earthquake and consequent Tsunami have caused destruction, the following incident of Fukushima nuclear power reactors affected and implied a societal and economic disaster. A big question is that how Japan will fully recover from this environmental, social, agricultural as well as economic calamity? Destroyed buildings, ruined farmlands, collapsed economy and the threat of nuclear radiation in the air, how long it will affect the Japanese population (Hasegawa, 2013).
The double disaster smacked the Tohoku region of Japan and caused a gigantic human dislocation in March 2011. Hydrogen explosions and nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima Nuclear Power plant occurred due to the loss of power supply after Tsunami. According to a report of IDDRI, (Hasegawa, 2013) more than 400,000 people had to vacate their homes, out of which 47% evacuation was caused by nuclear leak from Fukushima. The various reports concluded that the reaction of Japanese authorities and population were considerably diverse between a natural disaster and a man-made catastrophe (Hasegawa, 2013).
This life-threatening disaster was so unpredictable that taking an immediate action for authorities was a difficult task. Several shortcomings were noticed after the incident. According to IDDRI report that the urgent situation did not give authorities enough time to get prepared.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rated this at level 7 (which is maximum) on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) defined as the largest nuclear disaster (Hasegawa, 2013).
Pre and post accident challenges and how to deal with them?
The post-accident rescue and management measures of latest natural catastrophe in Japan, which involve the cost of smashed reactors and compensation for the nuclear evacuees, are expected to be more than €200 billion. After an immense social, economic and environmental loss, it is time to think strongly to avoid such devastating incidences in the future, be it natural or industrial (Hasegawa, 2013).
Strict guidelines and rules should be designed by the governments and international authorities to avoid such manmade disasters in the future, because these radioactive accidents not only affect the country, but the whole environment (Hogan & Burstein, 2007).
A permanent committee should be planned to deal with issues concerning nuclear power in order to supervise the regulators and to assure the safety of the people. The suggested responsibilities for such committees are:
1- Setting of an advisory board that consists of independent experts with a global perspective, for the knowledge update of the committee while dealing with regulators,
2- Performing customary investigations and descriptive inquiries of regulatory agencies and stakeholders,
3-Keeping investigations continue on other applicable issues and make frequent reports on their actions and the implementation of the recommendations by advisory. (Matin, 2014)
The risk discernment prior to the catastrophe played a key role in determining the consequences at the time of the crisis. Implementation of novel technologies like the global positioning system (GPS) can be applied for the prediction of tsunamis and earthquakes (Howell, 2014).
It is necessary for the companies that plan to deal in nuclear technologies that they should only employ highly trained and qualified people. Prominently, an aspiring nuclear power country requires pre-planning an adequate and self-governing regulatory structure before establishing a nuclear construction program (Schneider, Froggatt & Thomas, 2012).
Post-disaster challenges are also big, and it is the responsibility of all countries to solve them together as it impacts the whole ecology. Recently radioactive material from Japan was detected at some locations near North America and Europe, which was transported through oceanic currents. Although, the level of radiation dose in such garbage is sufficiently low to affect human health, but it directs toward a need of proper clean-up after incidents (Schneider, Froggatt & Thomas, 2012).
Effective avoidance of health hazards caused by radiation exposure requires the development of competent and economical methods for decontamination of radioactive waste water and aquatic ecosystems (Hogan & Burstein, 2007).
References:
Hasegawa, R. (2013). Disaster Evacuation from Japan’s 2011 Tsunami Disaster and the
Fukushima Nuclear Accident. IDDRI, Sciences Po Re port, (5), 1-54.
Howell, E. (2014). GPS Could Issue Tsunami Alert in Minutes. Retrieved 26
November 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/34600-gps-tsunami-alerts.html
Matin, A. (2014, April 30). Avoid 'man-made' nuclear disasters!. Thedailystar.net. Retrieved 27
November 2014, from http://www.thedailystar.net/print_post/avoid-man-made-nuclear- disasters-22169
Schneider, M., Froggatt, A., & Thomas, S. (2012). Nuclear Power in a Post-Fukushima
World. Worldwatch Institute.
Hogan, D. E., & Burstein, J. L. (Eds.). (2007). Disaster medicine. Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins.
