Accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima. Five years of the Fukushima tragedy

The energies make Fukushima I one of the 25 largest nuclear power plants in the world. Fukushima I is the first nuclear power plant built and operated

5. CPS rod drives

6. Steam to the turbine

7. Make-up water

8. Cylinder high pressure turbines

9. Cylinder low pressure

13. Condenser cooling water

14. Make-up water heater

15. Feed pump

16. Condensate pump

17. Reinforced concrete fence

18. Network connection

In most boiling water reactors

absorber rods of the control and protection system are located below.

Till complete information there is no accident, but the following is relatively certain. At the time of the earthquake, all three operating reactors at Fukushima-1 were simultaneously shut down. Approximately an hour after the first tremors, emergency diesel generators, supplying the reactor cooling system, for an unknown reason, failed, and the system was switched to power from emergency batteries, the capacity of which was enough for 8 hours of operation. Due to the complex physics of the processes occurring in the core, the reactor continues to produce heat for a long time after the “plug” and needs active cooling. Due to the failure of the generators and the limited capacity of the emergency batteries, at some point (at which point it remains to be determined exactly), the cooling turned out to be insufficient, the reactor began to overheat, which led to damage to the fuel elements (fuel rods) and partial melting of the uranium fuel. Russian experts also confirm that the fuel rods in the Japanese reactor were apparently damaged.

The situation can be threatening. It seems, after all, that the accident was not limited to damage to pipes. The release over the nuclear power plant was very powerful and sharp. And the light - almost white color of the cloud - indicated that a huge amount of steam escaped.

The so-called boiling water reactors are installed at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Or boiling water reactors (BWRs). In fact, these are giant samovars - very strong and thick-walled cylinders 20 meters high and 7 meters in diameter. Inside - "boilers": uranium rods of fuel elements. They are located in the so-called reactor core. Boilers boil water. Heated to about 300 degrees at a pressure of 70 atmospheres. Right inside the "samovars" - in their upper part - the water turns into steam. It enters the turbines, then condenses and again enters the samovar. The water that circulates in the system also serves as a moderator of nuclear reactions.

If steam burst out and escaped into in large numbers, as was seen in the footage from the accident site, then, most likely, the personnel failed to shut down the reactor. He continued to boil. But already without water supply, because the pumps were turned off.

By the way, the protection of boiling water reactors - weakness. The rods that muffle the core - they slow down the nuclear reaction, are fed from below. That takes effort and energy. At most Russian reactors, they fall from above.

As a result, things could come to the point that the "samovar", figuratively speaking, boiled away. The active zone overheated, partially melted. At best, the resulting steam was vented inside the protective concrete shell that surrounds the reactor. And she pulled - this shell, unable to withstand the excess pressure. In the worst case, the lid was torn off the reactor itself. In both cases, unfortunately, radioactive vapor got into the atmosphere - the one that was in contact with the molten fuel elements. Because water heated to 300 degrees, at normal pressure literally explodes.

Reports flashed that the Japanese were going to flood or are already flooding the reactor with sea water in order to cool it and slow down nuclear reactions. Quite a logical development of events in the event of a core meltdown. However, such filling threatens with new radioactive emissions. Whether they get to the territory of Russia depends on the direction of the wind. Until it blows in our direction.

All experts reject any possibility of an atomic explosion. And it is unlikely that the surroundings will be contaminated with particles of nuclear fuel - the chances that they will be thrown out are extremely small. Even if the tightness of the reactor is broken.

Experts do not dare to analyze the accident in detail yet. Too little information about her. But there will be no second Chernobyl - on Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, a completely different type of reactor exploded: Reactor Big Power Channel (RBMK), in which water boiled inside the channels made in graphite rods. Graphite caught fire... And as the president of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" Academician Yevgeny Velikhov said on Saturday about the damaged Japanese reactor: "there is nothing to burn there." In other words, he calmed me down.

The Japanese reported about twenty irradiated. These are clearly not random people. "Liquidators", as we would call them. They tried to repair the damage.

According to recent reports, "cooling problems" have arisen at five more reactors. So explosions are not excluded on them. And for good reason, probably, 140 thousand people have already been evacuated from the areas of the Fukushima-1 and Fukushima-2 nuclear power plants.

Could be worse

European experts on nuclear safety have suggested that hydrogen exploded at the nuclear power plant. But then things get really bad.

Hydrogen can be formed during the decomposition of water. And it begins to decay in the presence of a kind of catalyst - fuel cells in a metal shell, when the temperature in the core exceeds 400 degrees. With this heating, the fuel cells begin to crumble.

Again, at best, hydrogen exploded, etched into a protective shell. But along with it, radioactive gases - krypton, argon and others - that appeared in the process of a nuclear reaction, also entered the atmosphere. There were also radioactive particles of fuel.

MOSCOW, March 12 - RIA Novosti. Accidents at nuclear power plants located in the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima, provoked by a powerful earthquake in Japan, worried the whole world - this incident could become the largest radiation incident in the world over the past 25 years, since the Chernobyl disaster.

According to experts, Friday's earthquake of magnitude 8.9 led to an automatic shutdown of reactors at a number of Japanese nuclear power plants Fukushima-1 and Fukushima-2. After that, backup diesel generators were launched, supplying electricity to the reactor cooling system. However, the tsunami wave disabled the generators and the temperatures in the reactors began to rise. Attempts by specialists to reduce the pressure in the reactors and lower the temperature did not lead to success.

"If hydrogen exploded, it escaped and is no longer a danger. According to our data, there (at the nuclear power plant) there is no danger of radiation leakage," Ian Hore-Lacy, director of communications for WNA, told the agency, commenting explosion at a Japanese nuclear power plant.

In turn, an expert in the nuclear industry Chief Editor atominfo Alexander Ivanov believes that the situation at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1 is not developing according to the worst-case scenario.

"There are first encouraging signs that the situation at the Japanese nuclear power plant is not going according to the worst-case scenarios," he said.

First, he said, the accident is not nuclear, since the reactors at nuclear power plants are shut down, but radiation.

“The second is an accident, apparently, a design one, not a beyond design one. Moreover, although it may seem strange at first glance, according to the results of the accident, it will be possible to say that the NPP safety systems have confirmed their operability,” he said.

According to the head of the Institute for the Safe Development of Nuclear Energy (IBRAE), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leonid Bolshov, Russian nuclear scientists are analyzing various scenarios for the development of an emergency at a Japanese nuclear power plant.

"We have a staff working in IBRAE (crisis technical Center- Ed.), which carefully analyzes all incoming information about the development of the situation at the Japanese nuclear power plant. I want to say right away that the information received is far from complete, what is in the media often does not reflect reality. And so we use professional channels of information and receive information about the situation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Nuclear Association. We are analyzing various scenarios for the development of the situation at the Japanese nuclear power plant," the scientist said.

Waiting for the wave

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent his condolences to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday. He also stated that Russia is ready to provide Japan with the necessary assistance in overcoming the consequences of the tragedy. In turn, the Japanese government has already begun to consider Moscow's proposal for assistance.

Readiness to assist Japan was also announced in the Information Department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. Thus, according to Vladimir Stepanov, head of the national crisis management center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the Centrospas and Leader teams of the Russian Emergencies Ministry are ready to go to Japan if this country, which suffered from an earthquake, asks for help. According to him, if necessary, six planes of the department, including those with a mobile hospital on board, will be ready to take off.

On Friday, Sberbank of Russia also opened special accounts for making donations for the elimination of the consequences of a natural disaster in Japan and assistance to the victims.

Planes do not fly, but the Japanese save energy

The traffic situation in Japan after devastating earthquake, which occurred the day before in the northeast of the country, is still violated - a total of 464 flights are canceled, including 30 international ones, and seven aircraft belonging to the Japanese airlines All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) were damaged in the earthquake . Also, trains are still canceled in the country, and many roads are closed.

Japan's largest auto giants Toyota Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. have announced the temporary closure of their factories in Japan. So, Toyota Motor Corporation stops the work of all 12 plants in Japan from Monday, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. stops production at three plants, and Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - on two. Automakers say the temporary shutdown of factories is due to difficulties in supplying car parts after the earthquake.

Several dozen universities in Japan decided to postpone the date of entrance exams due to the earthquake - they were scheduled for March 12, however, due to the tragedy, the university authorities decided to postpone the date to March 17 or later.

March 14th, 2015

Here is another news from Fukushima:

The operator of the affected nuclear power plant "Fukushima-1" found relatively high radioactivity in water taken from a trench in the upper part of the bypass channel on the territory of the station. Tokyo Electric Power Company Denryoku said workers determined water taken on Tuesday contained 1,900 becquerels per liter of beta-particle-releasing substances. Company officials believe that water from this trench entered the sea through a diversion channel. This trench is located near a tank that stores highly radioactive water.

That is, it is clear that we will probably never know the truth about how much this accident has polluted and still pollutes our planet.

And here's what's happening at the scene of the accident...

On March 11, 2011, a tsunami caused a serious accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the consequences of which have not yet been eliminated. 100 thousand people were forced to leave their homes. Billions of dollars went to aid programs and to clean up the contaminated area. Let's see what Fukushima looks like 4 years after the disaster.

A fishing boat washed ashore during the tsunami. This is how the neighborhood of Fukushima looks like 4 years after the earthquake, which led to a terrible environmental disaster in Japan. (Photo: Toru Hanai/Newscom/Reuters)

Every day, the Japanese learn about new problems at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. March 11, 2015 was no exception.

The operator, TERCO, reported a leak of approximately 750 tons of rainwater saturated with radionuclides. The leak was found in zone H4, located on a hillside near the 4th power unit: rainwater went beyond the fence set around 58 water tanks.

According to the TERCO press service, the water accumulated inside the fence contains up to 8,300 Bq/l of beta-emitting substances. On Monday, the depth of water accumulations was 15 cm, on Tuesday it decreased to 8 cm.

Last week the workers shut down storm drains access to the drainage after increased radiation was found in the water. TEPCO states that to date, all the water that has flowed past the fence has been collected, and it is unlikely that it could enter the sea through underground drainage.

Workers in protective overalls and masks collect radioactive earth and leaves in the small town of Tomioka, near the Fukushima power plant. February 24, 2015.

The problems that were revealed at the time of the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011 were clear long before it. This was stated in an interview with RIA Novosti, dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the accident, by the director of the Institute for the Safe Development of Nuclear Energy (IBRAE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member Russian Academy Sciences Leonid Bolshov.

Recall that as a result of an earthquake with a magnitude of 9 points off the coast of the Japanese island of Honshu on March 11, 2011, a 15-meter tsunami wave rose, which led to a de-energization of the cooling system of three reactors at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant and the melting of their cores. The accident received an INES (International Nuclear Event Scale) rating of seven due to the large amount of radioactive material released from days four to six. The Japanese authorities have decided to evacuate more than a hundred thousand people from the territories near the nuclear power plant, the process of returning the displaced population is still being postponed.

Radioactive bamboo forest in the town of Tomioka. A man collects leaves and soil contaminated with radiation in plastic bags, which will then be taken to a special place designed to store radioactive waste.

“Various missions of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the IAEA to Fukushima-1 pointed to the shortcomings of this American project stations of the first generation, developed by General Electric. But in the USA, modernization was carried out on similar blocks, and possible risks were reduced. And the Japanese decided: the station has one or two years left until the end of operation, whether its life will be extended or not, it is not known, it is better to save money, ”the scientist explained.

According to him, in the first days after the accident, domestic specialists from Rosenergoatom and IBRAE were sent to Tokyo with all the calculations made by that time, predicting the development of the situation at power units and possible radioactive contamination. “These calculations could help a lot, but this multi-level decision-making system that exists in Japan, the fear of petty officials on the lower floors of taking responsibility for themselves, did not allow us to fully use our proposals. And when it came to the point, time had already been lost, ”said Bolshov.

Every day, workers wash roads with a powerful jet of water, grind the walls of buildings, trim tree branches and collect contaminated soil.

Chris Kosaka
A month before the anniversary of the triple disaster on March 11, 2011, I happened to travel from Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture to Rikuzentakata, and then back to Tokyo via Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture. As I drove south through the city of Natori, on the Miyagi coast, and passed near the restricted area surrounding the crippled Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, endless mountains of black garbage bags floated towards me, and each of them seemed to beg me to answer his unresolved issue.

In the coastal towns of Iwate Prefecture, mounds of churned mud and desolate fields mark places where ruin and chaos once reigned. In Fukushima, ubiquitous bags of contaminated soil are interspersed with signs reporting current radiation readings.

This is a temporary storage site for irradiated waste that was collected in contaminated areas.

Localities in Fukushima Prefecture protested the operator of the Fukushima-1 emergency nuclear power plant for failing to report a number of radioactive water leaks into the sea. The document contains a requirement for management to disclose information in a timely manner and increase the responsibility of employees.

Yukei Matsumoto, mayor of Naraha, who delivered a letter of protest to TERSO President Naomi Hirose, represents the interests of four other municipalities located in the area of the Fukushima-1 and Fukushima-2 nuclear power plants. He said that the news about the concealment of information from the population undermined the confidence of the townspeople in the company.

Hirose apologized local residents for the problems that TERSO's activities cause them. He assured the townspeople that he would take all measures to prevent similar situations in the future.

Electricity company TERCO is under fire for its handling of leaks of radioactively contaminated water that had accumulated on the roof of the Fukushima-1 reactor building No. 2. The company knew for almost a year that the level of radioactive elements in the drainage channel increased every time it rained. However, she did not release this information until last month.

Abandoned rice fields and car parks have become temporary dumps for radioactive waste.

71% of Fukushima residents dissatisfied with the work of the government and TEPCO in the aftermath nuclear accident 2011 This is the result of a population survey conducted in 2014. A total of 1,028 people were interviewed, of which only 14% expressed their approval.

After a nuclear disaster, such surveys are conducted in Fukushima every year. The number of people who are dissatisfied with the work to eliminate the accident has remained approximately the same all these years - between 70 and 80 percent.

In practice, the dissatisfaction of the population is confirmed by the fact that even after the cancellation of evacuation orders, thousands of evacuees refuse to return to abandoned houses that are located near the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. People are alarmed by frequent incidents at an emergency nuclear power plant: radioactive water leaks, equipment malfunctions, personnel errors and failure to fulfill plans. In addition, the public recently learned that the TERCO company concealed leaks of contaminated water from the station into the Pacific Ocean for 10 months.

The police of the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima, which suffered from the accident at the nuclear power plant of the same name in 2011, detained two participants in decontamination work for releasing radioactive debris in a site near a residential building. This was announced on Tuesday by law enforcement agencies of the prefecture.

According to police, officers construction company, which takes part in the work as a contractor, in September 2013 threw out about 515 kg of soil contaminated with radioactive substances in a residential yard in the city of Tamura. Their exact content in the discarded garbage is not reported. Upon completion of the investigation of the incident, it was decided to detain the president of the firm and one of its employees. Both denied their guilt during the first interrogation.

The Fukushima police noted that this is the first case of detention for the illegal disposal of radioactive waste after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, TASS reports. “We will take measures to ensure that such incidents do not happen again,” the statement says. official statement administration of the city of Tamura.

However, The Asahi Shimbun has already reported other cases of unscrupulous waste management after decontamination in the settlements of Tamura, Naraha, Iitate, when workers simply threw away radioactive waste and poured out the water that was used to clean residential buildings from radioactive contamination, instead of storing waste into bags and other containers, and take it out of settlements for recycling. In conversations with Asahi journalists, workers admitted that, with the approval or order of their superiors, they threw away large-sized radioactive waste, such as tree branches, if this garbage did not fit into standard bags.

Norio Kimura, a 49-year-old man whose entire family was killed in the tsunami. Here was his house before it was simply washed away by water. The village of Okuma, where Norio lived with his family, is located near the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Fukushima Dai-ichi, the operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi emergency nuclear power plant, said high levels of radiation were detected in a drainage channel on the site of the nuclear power plant on Sunday. The Tokyo Denryoku Company is investigating the situation.

The company said that at approximately 10 a.m. local time, a alarm. Measurements showed that the level of beta-emitting substances, the content of which is minimal under normal conditions, increased to 7.230 becquerels per liter, which is 10 times higher than during rains.

Tokyo Denryoku suspects that contaminated water could have entered the port waters through a drain. The company suspended all operations to pump contaminated water and closed the gates of the canal leading to the port.

1,605 people have already died from the consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant December 21st, 2013

The Tokyo Electric Power Company Denryoku reports that radioactive substances were found in water samples taken deep underground at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Highly radioactive substances were found during inspections in previous months in shallow groundwater that flowed into the ocean.

However, for the first time in December, inspectors from the Tokyo Denryoku Company discovered radioactive substances in groundwater, samples of which were taken in a layer of soil at a depth of 25 meters under the well of reactor No. 4, facing the ocean.

Representatives of Tokyo Denryoku are concerned that if radioactive contamination is confirmed in deep layers of underground water, this could be another source of radioactive substances leaking into the ocean. The inspectors of this company intend to continue their surveys.

Here is what the Internet user “woina” writes so rightly for me

Impossible. I read and I can't believe my eyes. Such discoveries are made by the Japanese!!! It turns out that radioactive water can seep deep into the soil, and does not flow over the surface, as TEPCO engineers would like. It can seep into the ocean, it turns out. And this is also against the faith of Japanese engineers. They are firmly convinced that highly radioactive water will stand in front of the wall they have built and will wait until it is pumped out. Moreover, this water itself should reduce its radioactivity as a result of natural decay. It does not matter that the half-life of some elements exceeds the limit of human life. The main thing is to believe that everything will resolve itself, someday.

Maybe it's time for the world community to take this country seriously, until they completely polluted the Pacific Ocean? How much can you look at the completely illiterate actions of the Japanese? Impose sanctions on the export of oil products and gas. Until the state undertakes to eliminate the consequences of the accident.

And by the way:

The number of Japanese people who died in Fukushima Prefecture from the consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant increased to 1,605 thousand people, the local newspaper Mainichi wrote on Tuesday, citing data from the prefectural authorities.

The report of the authorities says that most of the inhabitants died due to the exacerbation of diseases caused by high level radiation, ineffective treatment, and also due to the deterioration of living conditions.

In a number of cases, residents of Fukushima committed suicide, the newspaper notes. The report notes that in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, the number of deaths from the consequences of the disaster increased to 878 and 428 people, respectively. “The causes of death are very different, the living conditions of displaced people must be improved in order to avoid their death,” said Fukudome Kunihiro, a professor at Tohoku University, in an interview with the publication.

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to the Fukushima-1 nuclear disaster, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986. About 52 thousand people who lived near the station before the disaster cannot return to their homes.

Here's what we read a couple of days ago:

Opinion:Two years later, they decided to do what the Chernobyl victims did right away. namely, they began to assemble a giant refrigerator for freezing the soil in order to prevent the leakage of radioisotopes into the depths. This highly developed nation had the experience of Chernobyl on hand with all the solutions. took nothing.

And now about the "Ice Barrier" in more detail:

Radioactive water has been leaking from Fukushima for two years now. And the "high-tech" Japanese were unable to come up with anything in this situation. Now things are getting worse heavy rains that covered Japan. And the station itself not only fonit, but also infects the world ocean, where radioactive water goes.

Experts are also convinced that water from the drainage tunnels of nuclear power plants seeps into the ground, polluting and The groundwater. Residents of the prefecture sued the company TERSO, which is the operator of the station, because of the constant leaks of radioactive water.

Most of the 47 billion yen ($470 million) allocated - 32 billion - will be used to create special barriers around the station in the form of frozen layers of soil. According to local experts, this measure will prevent water from entering the ocean. However, the experience of eliminating another catastrophic accident at Chernobyl showed that this method is not very effective.

“We did it in Chernobyl. Trying to prevent leaving ground water, made such a protective wall around the reactor. And most importantly, when it was done, it did not help. We need fundamentally new technological and scientific approaches,” says writer and journalist Vladimir Gubarev.

The last major leak at nuclear power plants was recorded on August 19 this year. The media reported that 300 tons of radioactive water contained about 8.5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive substances (becquerel is a unit of measurement of radiation activity, defined as one radioactive decay per second). This was followed by a clarification that we are talking about 300 liters, but the Japanese have already come across more than once for understating data and hiding the amount of damage.

Regular inspections of nuclear power plants give disappointing results. Traces of possible leaks were found in several places at once, in particular from tanks where radioactive water, which was used to cool the reactor, is still stored in liquid form. Leaks from pipes between tanks were also found.

Saturday measurements of the level of radiation near the tanks showed 1800 millisieverts per hour, and today it has reached 2200 millisieverts. The media were alarmed - a person staying near such a radioactive puddle would die in four hours from exposure.

“The Japanese, unfortunately, hide essentially everything that happens there. And there are two problems. The first problem: they do not know how to cool and what to do with the nuclear fuel that melted after the accident. Here, in my opinion, it is necessary to create special containers with emergency measures and remove this activity, otherwise nothing will work. Walls, freezing - all these are temporary measures, two years have already passed. Remember that we are more terrible accident liquidated in 6 months, when they created and closed the sarcophagus around the emergency block, ”reminds Gubarev. However, with help Russian specialists, who have unique experience in stopping the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and eliminating the consequences of the accident, refused in Tokyo. And completely in vain - it is already obvious that the Japanese do not control the situation.

By letting things take their course, Japan may not get the 2020 Olympics, the main contender for hosting which is Tokyo. The capital of the Games will be named on September 7 at a special meeting of the IOC. But this is a mere trifle compared to the consequences that Fukushima brings to the country and the world. The number of cancer patients has already increased in the prefecture, and a general examination of children is being carried out. This problem is still local in nature, but what will happen next, because the emergency station is capable of infecting vast areas. And sea currents will bring radiation to the Russian shores.

“In the end, the entire Pacific Ocean around the accident site will be contaminated. And it's not just around Japan. The Kuroshio current will carry all activity along our coast. It goes past our Kuril Islands, past Kamchatka, goes around and goes to Alaska and goes to the Pacific coast of the USA, San Francisco and Los Angeles. That is, it is not as simple as it seems. One fact was hushed up that immediately after the accident, activity reached the United States, a radioactive cloud crossed across the Pacific Ocean. The same thing could happen to Pacific Ocean", - says Gubarev.

The time has come to put before the Japanese government in a firm manner the question of the need for a joint operation to eliminate the consequences of the Fukushima accident under international auspices. This is exactly the case when one head is not very good. Obviously, the Japanese do not have a well-developed strategy, and they simply react to the processes that take place at the station. And they don't always respond well.

The coastal location of the station blocks, the problems of accumulation and storage of contaminated water, the presence of a huge amount of spent nuclear fuel under the reactors significantly complicate the solution of the problem of an accidental nuclear power plant.

Problems at the station are accumulating like a snowball. And they won't disappear on their own. As early as September 2, Shun'ichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan's Atomic Supervision Department, announced that the accumulated radioactive water would have to be dumped into the ocean. Of course, before that, some cleaning will be carried out, but how effective will it be. Unable to cope with the consequences of the accident, Japan is preparing to commit a real crime in front of the whole world.

With all this, we read the enchanting news:

Causes

Now let's move on to the direct explosion at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant and answer the question: The accident at Fukushima causes.

As a result of the fact that one catastrophe at Fukushima coincided with another, that is, an earthquake caused a tsunami, the situation at the nuclear power plant became critical. Due to the lack of electricity, the reactors carried out an emergency shutdown. But, as we already know, even the switched off BWR type reactor continued to work. So, he required all the same cooling.

Emergency generators, which should cool the reactors and prevent the concept of a Fukushima disaster, were out of order due to a tsunami, according to the official version. But some scientists and researchers believe that the negligence of workers and management led to what happened. nuclear disaster in Japan.

Let's explain this statement in more detail. One has to take into account the fact that the emergency generators were only supposed to come on if there was an accident at Fukushima (which doesn't happen all that often). Based on this, the generator system could simply stagnate, the lubricants would freeze or dry out, and there would not be enough fuel.

And simply, there could not be any personnel who are able to repair the breakdown in a critical situation. Theorists also support their claims with the fact that emergency engines should have an improved degree of protection a priori. If the whole building can collapse, the reactor vessel is damaged, then the diesel emergency generator is simply obliged to continue working and save the situation.

Without an emergency generator, the Japanese were forced to release steam into the atmosphere, although this is strange. After all, they were free to use sea water for cooling, but in this case, the reactor would have to be completely replaced.

As a result, hydrogen accumulated in the turbine compartment, which, due to many processes, caused the disaster at Fukushima 1 and the city gained fame as the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

Consequences for all of Japan

To date, it is not clear who should be blamed for what happened, the infamous Fukushima 1 accident to the whole world. It is not clear whether a natural disaster in Japan was the culprit of this event, or whether the workers of the Fukushima nuclear power plant were to blame, who could not fix the problems and prevent the biggest disaster, called the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima 1.

Or maybe it's still worth putting the blame on the owners of the nuclear power plant, and presenting them with claims that they built the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in an unfavorable natural environment that they did not provide the station with the necessary level of protection and did not provide high-quality generators and reactors for operation at Fukushima 1.

But one thing becomes clear - Japan is a catastrophe, which was caused by the accident of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, suffered enormous losses from someone's mistake in various areas.

First, a huge financial waste fell on the shoulders of Japan. Although she is not the first person in financing the elimination of the results of what happened nuclear accident Fukushima, but still the problem touched her indirectly. The country will have to pay thousands of dollars for the treatment of citizens, for the shelter of affected families. In addition, Japan will now have to worry about where to get the missing share of the electricity that was generated by the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. And the company that owns the nuclear power plant is asking for a large sum of money to restore the damaged areas that arose as a result of the Fukushima accident.

According to some sources, the amount of losses in Japan, after the accident at Fukushima, is 46 billion US dollars. Calculations say that the amount that Japan lost due to the concept of a catastrophe is equivalent to that which the country could receive from a nuclear power plant in 6 years of operation.

But on the other hand, the fact that the owner company will simply take on debt can serve as a kind of shift forward in the financial and political plan of the country.

In order for Japan to provide the required amount to TERCO, the company's management must give half of the shares to the state. Thus, more than half of the profits will go to the treasury of Japan.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW:

The second fact that Japan can benefit from the disaster is to get money for new reactors. After all, it is far from a secret that Japan cannot refuse to generate energy with the help of nuclear power plants. That is why, having drawn a line through several states that old reactors are unreliable, Japan can receive some money from other countries for the development of new nuclear reactors.

The second area where Japan crashed, in connection with the accident at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, is political, namely foreign policy. As the environmental disaster in Japan exacerbated the situation in the country, the political situation took on a different look. Japan is completely losing its position in the nuclear race, taking into account the fact that in its process, eastern country was not in the lead. But still, she kept afloat. And now there is no chance to return, even to the previous positions.

Although, even from this fact, Japan can benefit in some way - to throw off its undeveloped engineering on old reactors and the inability to replace them with new ones. This would, as it were, explain the reason why Japan occupied such a low position in the world race and justify it.
The third and most important consequence of the Fukushima nuclear disaster is human lives. Thousands of people are considered missing, even more have died, and even remembering the survivors is painful.

How many crippled destinies, tortured souls are now wandering around the world in search of cover. Some remain living in the radioactive dead zone in the prefecture, near the site of the Fukushima accident.

Many of the settlers, having traveled around the world and not finding shelter, return to their homeland, to ruined houses, which they repair, rebuild and try to live in a new way. But how can you live in a new way on the old ruins and the corpses of millions of people with the fear that the thunder of the earthquake will rumble again and cover the tsunami, and who knows if you will be able to survive this time.

A lot of people who were left without families and homes go as volunteers to the very epicenter of events and its outskirts to help eliminate the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. They have nothing to lose, when there was an accident at Fukushima, they lost everything dear to them, they lost the meaning of life. And now they decided to give themselves up for the good of the country, for the good of the people.

Number of victims, losses after the accident

If speak about exact number people who died or went missing, it is impossible to name such a number. After all, it may happen that some resident was considered missing, and he died long ago, just his body could not be found in the wreckage of the disaster.
By translating the number of deaths and victims of the Fukushima disaster into a numerical equivalent, according to various data from different sources, we can draw the following conclusions. As of December 17, 2013, Japanese news reports the number of deaths in the accident - it is more than 1603 people, and in August of the same year, the death toll was 1500 people. Almost twenty thousand more people are considered missing.

Many residents of the prefecture left their homes voluntarily, their number is more than 300 thousand citizens. There were two reasons why people left their homes:

Destroyed houses, after a tsunami raid on the country;
The location of the house is close to the most powerful release of radiation, as a result, the Japanese were afraid to receive an unacceptable dose of radiation.

But some citizens suffered so much that they could not leave their homes on their own, but it was dangerous to leave them close to the scene. The local government decided to evacuate people. The evacuation took place over two days. As of March 13, 2011, more than 180 thousand people were evacuated within a radius of 10 kilometers around the territory of Fukushima Daini and 20 kilometers around the second Fukushima Daiichi station.

The largest number of people were taken out of the territory of Minamisouma-shi. The number of people was more than 70 thousand people, and smallest number- 1.5 thousand people - were evacuated from Kuzuo-mura.

These figures are appalling when one takes into account the fact that such a number of people could make up an entire state. And, imagine, it would have disappeared at one “beautiful” moment.

Not only ordinary residents suffered in the accident at the nuclear power plant, and not only because they lost loved ones and homes. Another terrible effect that affected human lives was radiation exposure. Workers and residents of Fukushima 1 districts received 5 times more radiation dose allowable rate. More than thirty thousand employees, workers of the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant and some leaders of TERSO received the most severe degree of radiation exposure.

Shortly after the Fukushima accident, thousands of Japanese took to the streets of Japan's capital and demanded the shutdown of all nuclear power plants in the country. People began to fear more for their lives and their loved ones, set life priorities differently and considered real human values - life, family, home, health - from a different angle.

The Japanese expressed their protest and demanded that the government develop new alternative ways energy generation, they were even ready to give up some household trifles, but in return to receive safe living in their city. The government reacted to this rally, but did not fulfill all the demands of the protesters, since this is impossible.
But still, the Japanese government decided to close another nuclear power plant, which was not very well protected and, in the event of new cataclysms, could lead to a second explosion. The inhabitants of Japan and the country itself would not have survived it.

Other consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant 1

In addition to the fact that the accident at Fukushima brought a colossal loss to Japan and its people, it also affected other countries, companies and lives.

For example, the operating company TERCO suffered losses of more than twelve billion dollars, this is even if you do not take into account the share of compensation that the corporation must pay to the affected families and workers of the nuclear power plant. The amount of these payments is equivalent to 6 billion dollars.

Apparently, because of such debts, the company will soon face bankruptcy, or nationalization. TEPCO sees the only way out of the current situation is to borrow money from the government. This will be the first step towards the collapse of one of the largest electrical companies Japan.

For the world, the Fukushima disaster was the cause of a double judgment.

On the one hand, the disaster at the nuclear power plant caused such a great panic that in many countries of the world people took to the squares and rallied in order to refuse to generate electricity using nuclear power plants. Following the example of the Japanese, they wanted to save their lives and take care of nature, which suffers from such disasters no less than people.

Protests and rallies ended in different ways. Some countries have agreed to phase out nuclear power generation for the country. And some, like China, didn't even lift a finger. They will continue to use nuclear reactors despite all protests.

But nature suffered the greatest catastrophe. It has been carrying the consequences of various catastrophes for more than one year, and the number of these years has not yet been exhausted. And, if in a few years human life comes to its logical end, the company goes bankrupt, and the country comes down from the steps of leadership, then the earth will bear all the mutations, bullying and catastrophes for centuries.

How many deformities, mutagenic plants, horrifying pictures of nature can be seen not only in the districts of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but throughout the world. Anomalies happen every day, humanity is infected with unknown diseases every hour, people die from terrible diseases every minute.

The consequences of the Fukushima 1 accident are intangible. No one can say what else will appear on the territory of the station in ten or twenty years. But something will definitely be there, since such a powerful release of radiation into the atmosphere and water cannot remain without a trace. He will show himself sooner or later. And according to experts, liquidation work at Fukushima 1 will be carried out for more than forty years.

Based on the material analyzed by us, we can briefly draw some conclusions and topics of the Fukushima accident: