Gauge Newsletter January 2020 | Page 42

Unlike the Chernobyl power plant, the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was considered one of the safest nuclear power plants in the world. However, we had to witness the world’s second-biggest nuclear meltdown there. The six reactors of the power plant came online one at a time beginning in 1970 and the last in 1979. Also, there were two planned reactors which were canceled due to the nuclear accident. On March 11, 2011, Japan faced one of the biggest natural disasters known by humankind. A magnitude-9 earthquake shook northeastern Japan and it unleashed a savage tsunami. More than 120,000 buildings were destroyed, 278,000 were half-destroyed and 726,000 were partially destroyed. The number of confirmed deaths was 15,894 as of June 10, 2016, according to the reconstruction agency. More than 2,500 people are still reported missing. Nuclear fuel pellets are not much larger than a sugar cube Less than an hour after the earthquake, the first of many tsunami waves hit Japan’s coastline. The tsunami waves reached run-up heights of up to 128 feet. These tsunami waves were the reason for the meltdown of the power plant. Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant Page 40 University of Peradeniya GAUGE Magazine