10 years after the tsunami in Japan: drowned children, a serious nuclear accident in Fukushima and an injury that is still being felt

15,893 dead, 6,152 injured, 2,556 missing. The numbers that shudder are those that have left what is considered the second most serious nuclear accident in history, which, along with Chernobyl, is rated at level 7, the highest on the scale that measures the severity of this type of phenomenon.

It happened in Japan on March 11, 2011, exactly at 2:46 p.m. Earthquake measuring nine on the Richter scale triggered tsunami with tidal waves of up to 40 meters, with its epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, 130 kilometers from the Ojika peninsula and a depth of 10 kilometers, paralyzing the activity of 11 nuclear power plants, including that of Fukushima.

The phenomenon had a depth of 29 kilometers and a duration of six minutes, also generating 1235 aftershocks. A few hours after the earthquake and its tsunami, the Karangetang volcano on the Celebes Islands in Indonesia erupted. The violence of the earthquake shortened the length of days by 1.8 milliseconds according to studies.

The earthquake cut off the flow of electrical power, and the power plant’s standby diesel engine and lack of power crippled the power plant’s cooling mechanism, which had six boiling water reactors.

Today, specialists attribute the causes of the disaster not to natural phenomena such as the earthquake and the tsunami that followed, but to faulty water reactor design and poor containment system, unable to act effectively when faced with a lack of cooling problem due to a lack of external electrical input.

Such a catastrophe prompted Japan to decide to completely eliminate nuclear power plants which, before the accident, produced 30% of the country’s electrical energy.

Some horror figures

It was the strongest earthquake that Japan has faced in its history and the fourth most powerful in the world for the past 500 years. Until now, the largest had taken place in December 1994 with a magnitude of 7.8.

In addition to the deaths, disappearances and injuries, 470,000 people had to be displaced from the region, including 165,000 transferred to live in shelters Yes 260,000 households had no running water, 170,000 homes without electricity (not counting the effects of the aftershock of April 8, of magnitude 7.1) and 70,000 were evacuated from the perimeter of 20 kilometers around the Fukushima plant.

A month later, 13,135 bodies were found. And it was determined that 92.5% drowned. As the earthquake happened during school hours, as reported Save the children (NGO which works for the rights of the child) Thousands of children were uprooted from their homes, 236 were orphans, 378 primary and secondary students died and 158 others disappeared. An Ishinomaki primary school lost 74 out of 108 students and 10 out of 13 teachers and staff.

Consequences of the tragedy

Skin burns, hair loss, infertility, thyroid cancer are some of the effects on people’s health that the nuclear tragedy has caused.

In the World Health Organization (WHO) report “Assessment of the health risks of the nuclear accident following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, based on a preliminary estimate of the radiation dose “, it is specified that the estimated risk of some cancers has increased in some population groups in Fukushima Prefecture, “It is therefore requested that continuous surveillance and long-term health examinations be maintained.”

“The main concern indicated in the report is the risk of contracting cancer in certain organs and in relation to certain demographic factors,” said Dr María Neira, of the WHO Department of Public Health and Environment. “A breakdown of data by age, sex and proximity to the nuclear power plant has an increased risk of cancer among the inhabitants of the most polluted areas. Outside these areas, no significant increase in the incidence of this disease is expected ”.

The document states that the health of those at high risk should be monitored over the long term, highlighting monitoring to be practiced throughout the decades as a responsible attitude towards loss, suggesting permanent environmental control, especially things related to water and food. Without leaving aside the control of the psychosocial consequences which caused such devastation in the population.

Fukushima hoy

Tragedy experts are convinced that the disarmament of the nuclear power plant will take between thirty and forty years, which will generate an approximate total expenditure of nearly two trillion yen (over 17,500 million euros), according to estimates by Japan’s Ministry of Industry. That’s not all. They are also pessimistic because they find it impractical, with a great chance of failure.

Ten years later, nearly 40,000 people remain displaced places where they lived, and a very majority percentage does not want to return because after what they lived, they are afraid of what happened and because the radiation could affect them.

Greenpeace has revealed in public reports that 85% of the special decontamination area continues to be affected by radioactive waste and that the plan to dismantle the plant is unworkable.

“Successive Japanese governments have distorted the ineffectiveness of the decontamination program and they ignored the radiological risks. They also mistakenly claimed that the Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning plan will turn the site into clean land by mid-century, ”said Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace East Asia.

The paper of Greenpeace establishes that only 15% of the determined area has been decontaminated. The remaining 85% of this area (about 840 square kilometers) continues with cesium (the heaviest of the Group IA alkali metals of the periodic table, except francium; it is found in the inorganic components). This means a latent risk for thousands of workers who perform decontamination tasks.

Additionally, in some areas where evacuation measures were removed in 2017, radiation levels exceed minimum safe limits, which could put those living there at risk of cancer.

Greenpeace expert reports seem categorical a decade later: “Recovering the place as it was before is not possible, we must therefore recognize what is already in reality: a nuclear waste storage site ”.