Research
Paper – 2
Abdul
Rahman Al Ali – S980010553
Fukushima
Introduction
Fukushima had a strong impact on Japan.
It was one of the largest nuclear plant facilities, but in March 2011, the
plant took significant damage from an earthquake that was rated a 9.0 on the
Richter scale. Since this event, the world has witnessed various workers try to
prevent any exposure or damage to people around the plant, and that has been
rather difficult. Though the majority of these problems started after being struck
by a natural disaster, there could have been some kind of
precautions taken before this disaster. Japan has a well-known history of
natural disasters such as earthquakes. Despite how strong the earthquake was,
the outcome scenario of such disaster should have been anticipated. Also, the
controlling measurements should have been investigated and practiced to tackle and limit the radiation
exposure upon failure of the station. From the time it was decided to build
Fukushima plant until the disaster took place, there were many lessons and
ethical principles that could have been considered or used when addressing
problems and solutions.
Explain the
issue
Japan
imports most of its fossil fuel requirement as it lacks the natural resources.
Therefore, the idea behind building and utilizing nuclear plants such as
Fukushima was more sustainable, cheaper and
efficient on the long run in spite of the higher risk involved. Dealing with
such technology must not neglect the history of the climate change in Japan and
the likelihood of having earthquakes and tsunami waves that caused the accident.
Fukushima has worked with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to distribute
energy for the country since World War II. TEPCO has expanded its various ways
of generating energy to water, fuel, and nuclear. Many companies worked
together for this nuclear plant project but TEPCO was supposed to cover the
maintenance side. The accident took place on Friday, March 11, 2011 after the sudden Tohoku earthquake (Magnitude
=9) followed by a high tsunami wave (40 m) that covered the northeast side of
Japan where Fukushima plant was located. The accident caused over (15000) causalities, over (6000)
injuries and more than (2000) missing individuals. The natural strike left the
reactors in Fukushima three nuclear units in unstable condition causing the
fuel rods to melt down inside the cores. In such cases, the radioactive
material are vented to atmosphere or dumped in the sea before the temperature
further increases and cause explosion.
The station operating managers delayed the use of sea water pouring
inside the reactors to protect them which eventually resulted in the total
failure of the units. In addition, many controlling actions from the engineers
were improperly done which contributed to the accident.
Examine the
ethical issues involved and the different ways of looking at the problem
Being that they were ensuring that the
facility would run under certain provisions, TEPCO has not withheld their
earthquake standards with Fukushima. It is possible that this could suggest
falsified paper work or bad reports submitted but that needs to be taken into
account by their office in the midst of this recovery. The law should work to
eradicate the radiation effects from within the people first because there is a
plan available for the plant that will better executed within time. The people
should earn more concern to show that the plants end is not as much of a loss.
TEPCO has also just confirmed that they would take responsibility. Because of
relevant history with the project, it seems as though they should. In 2002, the
company was suspected of falsifying 29 cases of safety repair records. These
same needed safety repairs could have prevented the meltdown sparked initialized
from the earthquakes.
Kiyoshi
Kurokawa wrote in the report released 4th of July 2012 in Tokyo, “It
could and should have been foreseen and prevented. And its effects could have
been mitigated by a more effective human response.” Because of these events,
many of Japan’s atomic plants are also looking for an improvement of earthquake
standards as well. The operators reported combined losses of 1.6 trillion yen
($20 billion) in the year ended March owing to safety shutdowns of the
country’s 50 reactors and higher fuel bills when they started up gas and
oil-fired plants. (Inajima, Adelman, and Okada) Though the company is at a
loss, it should still be in their best interest to fix what has occurred for
the people it affects the most.
The
system is also set up for the company rather than the people in its vicinity.
(Willacy) The various businesses involved are more in a better stand monetarily
than the actual people that were affected by this disaster. People with more to
savor and opportunities of safety should work to help. There is one thing that
the public can do as of now. TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant, is
handing out "temporary compensation" payments - money handed out to
victims of the meltdowns, but which must be repaid. Aslihan Tumer, Green
peace's international nuclear project leader, says some of the companies are
continuing to profit from the reactor. "General Electric designed
Fukushima Mark 1 reactor, and both GE, Hitachi and Toshiba built and continued
servicing the reactor, and they are also still making, in some cases, money out
of the cleaning efforts, as well as the contamination." With the operator
TEPCO effectively nationalized, the Japanese taxpayer is now picking up most of
the compensation bill for the disaster. (Willacy) I can see where this is for
the businesses end benefit. The businesses do not want to lose large amounts of
money without knowing it can earn it back. Though the residents were given this
temporary compensation that must be repaid, it could be very well used for
their health, but at what cost? Treating radiation in a home and for multiple
people can be expensive. Citizens that possess and use for work are at more of
a disadvantage. As more contamination is found in the country, sales of
producing milk are banned, leaving these citizens without any way to generate
income.
“Even
if it is not safe, I need my fields for my work. I have no other place to go. I
don’t even want to think about escaping from my land,” He told the New York
Times. “I can’t keep going for too long,” said Kenzo Sasaki, 70, who estimates
that he is losing nearly $31,000 — not including the cost of feeding his herd —
for every month as banning the milk sales continues.
Across
town, Shoichi Abe, 62, milks about 30 cows in his own dingy barn. He has been
unable to sell his 1,100 pounds of daily production since the March 11
earthquake damaged the milk-processing plant at the local farm co-op. Now the
government has extended that prohibition indefinitely. Mr. Abe said, “It’s
costing us 70,000 yen a day” — about $860. (Willacy) As if money was already
short, some citizens may not have access to drinking water. Residents were
advised not to drink the tap water. After radioactive iodine was detected in
Tokyo’s water supply the government issued a warning that infants should not
consume the city’s tap water there. This announcement was made after water with
210 Becquerel’s of radioactive iodine per kilogram was found in water from a
treatment plant in Katsushika Ward in Tokyo. The safe limit for infants is 100 Becquerel's
of radioactive iodine per kilogram, and 300 for adults Becquerel's per
kilogram.
The
safe limit and fears about spreading contamination from a crippled nuclear
plant led to a panicked rush to buy water in Tokyo. So much bottled water was
bought it became scarce nationwide, Japanese authorities considered a plan to
import bottled water from overseas. (Hayes) Countries that have citizens with
jobs that affect a percentage of the other citizens working should definitely
receive some help. You had a purpose to provide something essential but if that
is no longer possible for you by law, it should not be held against you by law
either. There should be more to do with regards to Public Safety.
Utilitarianism would show support of the public being served because the
majority of people would acquire the happiness and benefit of the situation.
The people of the city need to be helped after understanding that they did
nothing wrong and the building has its issues. In the eyes of virtue ethics,
there are the cardinal virtues to encounter.
If this situation was to occur on US soil, though I would hope not,
various health evacuations and protocol will be taken into account while trying
to act quickly for first exposure. That
was done similarly in Japan but there is not a FEMA within their government for
the people in the meantime. There must be some kind of justice done towards the
people of that town seeing that it is not fair they are without necessary
natural resources.
Give your
own position and explain why?
With regards
to the future, Japan wants to build an offshore wind farm to replace the
nuclear plant. Wind power is going to be a lot safer than nuclear power, but
the main hope is that it will suffice the prior market. Over the next two
years, the Japanese government will continue taking incremental steps to prove
the floating offshore turbine technology, testing three additional types of
floating turbine technology. The best-performing turbine type may then be
chosen to power a larger offshore wind farm – up to 1,000 MW – located off the
Fukushima coastline. (Del Franco) Japan has done research on wind power with
America in the past and agrees that there could be positive results from doing
so. The hope is that these wind turbines will help overcome and outperform the
work done with nuclear power. Depending on how this is accomplished and if this
is accomplished, there will be more effort put towards the wind farm.
Japan
has had a strong economic fall within the country. Financially, the cost of
damages and recovery is still being calculated and the repairs that are trying
to be met currently. The failure of the Fukushima plant was a terrible event
affecting many lives and much more, but hopefully there can be some real aid
given by the country and health studies. Two years ago, I had a chance to visit
Japan as part of academic gathering to witness the Japanese industrial
technology in many fields that is related to our study. The trip was arranged
by the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi and one of the leading
companies in Japan in that produces energy. During the trip, I noticed the
impact of the Fukushima accident on most of the areas and plants that we
visited. As we were told by many high-rank officials in the energy sector, the
Japanese Emperor issued a direct law to
conserve energy in most of the industrial and domestic working places.
The indoor temperature of most of the places that we stopped by was controlled
not less than (24 degrees). Many of the multi-stories buildings used solar
panels on the roofs and the tilted surfaces
to lower the dependency on other energy resources such as fossil and
nuclear. Most of the offices had automatic lighting sensors. Even the domestic
cooking oil was collected from the houses and the restaurants to be recycled to
produce bio-fuel. It seemed that the government enforced many regulations to
further reduce the need of nuclear energy. I had a short discussion with one of
the senior engineers that we met during this trip about the nuclear energy
scheme in Japan. Surprisingly, he indicated his astonishment when he learned
that the UAE is developing a peaceful nuclear program as an energy alternative.
He mentioned how catastrophic the impact of Fukushima accident on Japan and
questioned why the UAE bother to implement such dangerous technology when it
has enough fossil fuel. I responded that the natural resources are diminishing
all over the world not to mention the green house effect that results from
using them. I also mentioned that the UAE has the right to establish another
form of energy resource such as nuclear plant as long as it abides by the
highest safety standards and work ethics related to it. That surely involves
learning of the nuclear accidents such as Fukushima and enforces the best risk
management procedures in case of any failure. Finally, I think that the people
who were responsible about Fukushima Plant failed to outweigh the value of the
Japanese people over maintaining the plant and setting up the best methods to
predict and control the emergency scenarios.
Bibliography
·
Hayes, Jeffrey. "Impact Of Fukushima
Radiation On Farmers, Food, and Water." Facts and Details.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=1753>.
·
Inajima Tsuyoshi, Jacob Adelman, and Yuji
Okada. "Fukushima Disaster Was Man-Made, Investigation Finds." Bloomberg.
N.p., 5 Jul 2012. Web. 10 Apr 2013.
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-05/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-was-man-made-
investigation-rules.html>.
·
Willacy, Mark. "Residents paying
back Fukushima compensation." ABC News. N.p., 19 Feb 2013.
Web. 12 Apr 2013.
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-19/companies-not-paying-compensation-at-fukushima/4528150>.
