To this day, the impact of the leak at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant on the surrounding areas is still continuing 11 years later. It all started with an earthquake that occurred around the Fukushima region.
11 years ago, the earthquake lasted about three to six minutes and completely destroyed the area's infrastructure, including electricity, natural gas , water and railways. The earthquake was so severe that it moved the area east along its axis less than an hour before triggering a tsunami, the first of many to hit the country's northern coast.
According to reports, waves in some areas were as high as 25 to 30 meters, exceeding the protective seawall and extending to 10 kilometers away from Sendai Town. The rapidity of this series of events gave residents little time to evacuate villages in the area. All three operating nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant were successfully shut down during the emergency, but backup power and cooling systems failed because transmission towers were knocked down by the earthquake. fuel rods partially melted due to waste heat generated due to lack of backup power. External power supply was interrupted. Emergency backup diesel generator was successfully started, but less than an hour after the earthquake, a tsunami hit the nuclear power plant with waves as high as 14 to 15 meters. Because the emergency backup generators were located underground, they were flooded by seawater. Electrical equipment such as pumps and fuel tanks were washed away or damaged, causing the plant to completely lose power, leading to massive blackouts.
On March 12 and 14 of the same year, reactor No. 1 and Reactor No. 3 exploded respectively, causing serious consequences. On March 15, the government evacuated everyone within a 20-kilometer radius. The building housing Reactor No. 2 exploded again, releasing more radiation. Nuclear power plants also experienced multiple chemical explosions, severely damaging buildings. Radioactive material began leaking into the atmosphere, forcing thousands of people in the Pacific to leave their homes, and workers used high-pressure water cannons and seawater pumps to cool overheated facilities. The fallout from the incident became more severe in the following months, and the government eventually evacuated all residents within a 30-kilometer radius of the factory.
The ripple effects of this catastrophic event, which resulted in the deaths of more than 19,000 people and the evacuation of more than 465,000, are still continuing a decade later. The damage has also cost Japan's economy hundreds of billions of dollars, and cleanup efforts are estimated to take until 2051. About 150,000 people living near the damaged reactor had to be evacuated due to the threat of radioactivity. This in itself is certain to cause stress and evacuation-related deaths. According to reports, the earth is still leaking radioactive materials to this day.
One of the most recent announcements is that Japanese officials plan to release more than 1 million tons of radioactive water. Given the severity of the event, marine health consequences of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The direct health effects of radiation were relatively contained, not only among emergency workers, but also among residents. Other serious health consequences of the event included deaths during the evacuation. , increased mortality among displaced elderly people, and collapsed radiation emergency systems at nuclear power plants. A mental health survey found that the Fukushima accident caused serious psychological distress among residents in evacuation zones. In addition, there are lifestyle-related issues such as an increase in the proportion of overweight people, an increase in the prevalence of hypertension, and changes in health-related behaviors among evacuees, which may lead to future increases in cardiovascular disease.
These health effects are far more important than the physical effects, but have not yet been properly addressed. Hospital patients and elderly residents of nursing facilities were quickly evacuated by buses shortly after the accident. The evacuees were not accompanied by any medical personnel, and they were placed on the seats of packed buses, in full hazmat suits, without any form of medical care or even food for several hours during the evacuation. As a result, dozens of patients died during the evacuation, said to be to minimize radiation exposure.The life threat these people face is not radiation, but the lack of daily medical care, and the living conditions in shelters lead to several types of health problems, such as outbreaks of infectious diseases and mental stress. In addition, sudden changes in lifestyle abroad may Can lead to behavioral problems due to poor adaptability to new environments.
