Episode Nine: The Fukushima Disaster

Welcome to the Ninth Episode of the Historical Humans podcast, our Ninth episode is our discussion into the Fukushima Disaster, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl and the first one in the 21st century.

The Historical Humans podcast is hosted by Colum Coleman, Gwendolyn Allen, and Justin Woods.

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Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan 2nd worst disaster in history of nuclear power Located in the town of Okuma in the Fukushima prefecture of northeastern Japan 100 km (60 miles) south of city of Sendai Plant operated by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric and Power Company) Plant consisted of 6 boiling water reactors Same as approximately ⅓ of the nuclear reactors in the US Illinois, which has the most nuclear reactors (11) & largest nuclear generating capacity (11.6 gigawatts) in US Heats water and produces steam within the reactor vessel Water is pumped through the reactor core and heated by fission Steam produced by this is fed via pipe to fan Steam turning the fan produces electricity Unused steam is condensed and reused in the heating process March 11, 2011 Tsunami waves from Great Sendai/Great Tohoku earthquake damage plant Magnitude 9.0 earthquake 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai Caused a 15-meter-high tsunami Damaged the plant’s backup generators All 3 operating reactors successfully shut down Loss of power caused cooling systems to fail Rising residual heat caused fueling rods to partially melt down Occurred in all 3 operating reactors Resulted in the release of radiation Melted rods bore holes through the bottom of reactors 1 & 2 Exposed nuclear materials in the cores Took months to realize these holes were there Outer containment buildings of reactors 1 & 3 explode Explosions the result of buildup of hydrogen gas Reactor 1 exploded on March 12, 2011 Reactor 3 exploded on March 14, 2011