Case Study: Tohoku 2011 Earthquake

Case Study Proposal
Students Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Code and Name
Instructors Name
Date
Case Study Proposal
The case study will focus on the Tohoku 2011 earthquake and its impact on the nuclear power plant. The Fukushima nuclear accident, which resulted from the earthquake, is considered the second worse disaster in the history of nuclear power accidents. The earthquake in Tohoku caused a massive tsunami, which destroyed the backup generators for the nuclear power plant. During the Fukushima nuclear accident, only three reactors were operational in the power plant. The three reactors had boiling water. Therefore, the lack of power resulted in a failure of the cooling system. As a result of the high temperatures, the reactors' metal rods melted down, thus releasing radiation. They also created holes at the bottom of the reactors, which exposed the cores. Such increased the amount of radiation that the plant was emitting to the environment. Such radiation made the surrounding areas inhabitable by human beings.
On March 12th and 14th, explosions were witnessed at the nuclear plant due to the pressurized hydrogen gas. The reactors were cooled using seawater, and the government declared an evacuation up to a radius of 232 square miles (Tsuruta et al. 2019). The area was declared inhabitable by humans for a few decades until the radiation had cleared from the environment. Another explosion occurred on March 15th. People in the neighboring areas were requested to avoid going outdoors due to the amount of radiation that the plant was emitting. By the end of March, approximately 43000 people had left their homes (Kumamoto et al. 2019). The seawater surrounding the plant was also contaminated by the radiation, resulting in sea animals' death. An emergency was also declared on consumption since some of the food was contaminated with radioactive materials. In August 2013, a small accident occurred where irradiated water from the plant leaked into the sea.
I ...