by danielle smith-llera how a tsunami unleashed nuclear Destruction Fukushima Disaster
Chapter One DANGEROUS WAVES Atsufumi Yoshizawa was just finishing his shift at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Two seawalls stretched into the Pacific Ocean like arms protecting the collection of turquoise-blue and white buildings Yoshizawa a nuclear engineer helped run the plant which produced electricity for millions of customers including people in Tokyo 177 miles 285 kilometers away It was a relaxed Friday afternoon March 11 2011 But the seafloor was restless The bottom of the sea is part of Earth’s crust which is made of massive plates that fit loosely together like puzzle pieces They usually slide past each other about as slowly as fingernails grow But off the eastern coast of Japan along a crack in the crust called a fault the edges of two plates pushed against each other locked in battle No one at Fukushima Daiichi was aware of the struggling undersea plates on March 11 It was business as usual at the plant Since the 1880s many electrical plants have burned coal to make steam power to generate electricity But nuclear plants use another method they split the smallest pieces of matter atoms to make heat When an atom’s nucleus splits it releases energy in waves most in the form of heat Many types of atoms can produce abundant nuclear energy This process is called fission It is safe as long as people are protected from its intense heat and dangerous radiation The Fukushima nuclear plant housed six huge containers called reactor vessels Each was about six stories high with walls made of steel 5 inches 13 centimeters thick plus concrete Each reactor
held thousands of fuel rods made of uranium a silvery metal made of atoms that split easily A satellite image of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was taken before disaster struck On this Friday afternoon as Yoshizawa walked down a plant corridor tremendous energy was about to be released but not inside the plant’s reactors At 2 46 p m about 80 miles 129 km off the coast the seafloor rose violently It was the epicenter of an earthquake Japan experiences more than 2,000 earthquakes a year ranging from weak tremors to quakes that sway buildings Sensors detect the traveling waves of motion and send warnings to TV and radio stations and cellphones Students duck under desks surgeons pause operations and high-speed trains stop But Yoshizawa knew this earthquake was different He fell to his hands and knees as the building swayed and ceiling panels crashed down I managed to look out of a window and saw parked cars bouncing up and down from the sheer
