Introduction: On March 11, 2011, The Fukushima Prefecture in Japan was struck by a triple disaster: An earthquake, a tsunami and the subsequent nuclear melt-down at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It quickly turned into the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, and just as quickly, it became an international affair, with specialists […]
Mental Health Issues resulting from the Fukushima Disaster
One of the greatest challenges faced by the people of the Fukushima Prefecture (and the people of Japan) in the aftermath of the Fukushima ‘triple disaster” does not involve the clean-up and rebuilding, or even the prevailing fear of radioactive contamination. Perhaps the greatest long-term challenge may be coping with the psychological impact of the […]
Radioactive Water Leaks – An Overview
It is a mess. There is no other word for it. The clean-up of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant has been beset by problems, one after another, since the triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear melt-down that struck on March 11, 2011. Granted the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which maintains the […]
Fukushima plant water purifier restarted
After several glitches, the water purification system at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is running again. However all may still not be well. As The New Zealand Herald writes: ” TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Co.] is struggling to handle the huge — and growing — volume of contaminated water….Thousands of gallons of contaminated water are […]
Plan to freeze contaminated water has failed
The most recent plan to deal with the contaminated water under the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant involves freezing this water and erecting an ice-and-soil wall around it to stop the radioactive water from leaking into the sea. While the ice wall may very well work, there’s one small problem: the contaminated water refuses to […]