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Japan Nuclear Energy: As has created one of the biggest disasters in history

It is too difficult to know exactly all the damage that has been generated the tsunami in Japan, the country is far more who have suffered the impact toughness. Thus, from Educambiente we take a tour of how we got to this situation, making a series of explanations that show in detail the steps that have been followed until now.

Indian Ocean Tsunami. Source: Wikipedia

start with what has generated all this excitement, the tsunami. What is a tsunami? A tsunami is the Japanese word for tidal wave, coined in 2004 because of the disaster that occurred in the Indian Ocean (remember Indonesia, Thailand ...). So we proceed to the explanation of what a tsunami. In short it is an action that occurs at sea causes the displacement of an unusual amount of water leads to the creation of oversized waves and unimaginable power. Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes at sea, earthquakes. The Japanese case is also the result of an earthquake in the sea with a moment magnitude of 8.9 Richter Scale (the scale used to measure this type of natural disasters).

8.9 To better understand what is best to go down in history and compare with other data that illustrate better the event. The earthquake that occurred recently in Chile and that was the death of 525 people and a figure of over 2 million homeless, was of a magnitude of 8.8. And also the current record is held by Chile, in 1960 at a location near Valdivia reached 9.5 Scale, with a figure of over 2,000 dead.

Japan before and after the tsunami. Source: European Space Agency

So as we explain an earthquake. Earthquakes are generated by the collision of tectonic plates (rigid plates that make up the lithosphere stone or earth surface) that cause the release of energy, and one of these releases may be in the form of earthquakes. This energy can be of such magnitude that may cause the removal of entire sites. Recent studies indicate that after everything that happened in Japan, the island has moved 4 meters to the east.

Placas tectónicas. Fuente: cprcalahorra.org

Queda explicado el como se ha producido el tsunami. Ahora viene el mayor problema. Japón es un país muy estrecho que dispone de energía nuclear. La energía nuclear es la que se obtiene a partir de reacciones nucleares. Produce gran cantidad de energía pero tiene una serie de inconvenientes muy graves sobretodo para el medio ambiente: se generan gran cantidad de residuos nucleares peligrosos y que perduran durante muchos años. Además es muy vulnerable frente a los accidentes tanto humanos como provocados por la Tierra.

En The following image shows where the nuclear plants in Japan, where the epicenter of the earthquake:

Source: focoblanco.com.uy

Most of them are in coastal locations. Japan is very prone to natural disasters because of its location and has a total of 17 plants. In this catastrophe have damaged the closest to the earthquake: Onagawa , Tokai Daini and especially the two plants Fukushima (Daini and Daiichi) . If plants are not prepared for such contingencies can happen what happened in Chernobyl in 1986, the biggest nuclear disaster of all time.

The environmental consequences of Chernobyl were devastating. Disproportionate levels of radiation in the area that led to the evacuation of large clouds of radiation that came to France and even the English coast. Because radiation is followed numerous cases of cancer, birth defects ... and above all, was a very important club for the atmosphere as much fuel was sent to her, working on the already weakened membrane that surrounds the Earth. Here we show a graph where you can watch the international scale of nuclear accidents or events:

Source: saludable.infobae.com

Following the chart, the Chernobyl accident was considered as maximum. At present it is still debating the level that is reaching the disaster in Japan. Estimates state that has reached level 6 with significant environmental damage, although more moderate claim that the situation is at level 4 of the scale, local accident consequences. It was thought that after what happened in Chernobyl was to learn from mistakes. This is an example of what not and to do something with this energy, to assess whether the pros outweigh the cons.

The subsequent picture shows the operation of the reactor:

Source: ElMundo.es

Finally we want to show the video that follows, an animation showing children the problem that has been generated in Japan in relation to the nuclear plant.