On Friday, March 11, 2011, Japan was hit with an earthquake that measured 8.9 (Please help me with this)

Question

Shortly thereafter, a 13 foot wall of water engulfed the coastal villages and towns. The Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant, which consists of 6 reactors, was built to withstand the earthquake. When the earthquake hit, three of the reactors were disabled for maintenance. The remaining three were shut down as planned. As the power was out, emergency generators were being used to cool down the decay heat of the fuel that was remaining. When the tsunami hit, it engulfed the generators, causing their shutdown, and stopping any efforts to cool the reactors. The full effects of the Japanese nuclear crisis are not known yet, and they probably will not be known for years.

Now, answer these questions as the nuclear plant owner -

What impact might this accident have on people's confidence in nuclear power?

Is there any evidence that interest in building more nuclear power plants has slowed, either in Japan, or worldwide?

Could an accident like this happen in the United States? How can safety plans be strengthened?

Does the interest in reducing our dependence on foreign oil justify the risk?

(i am in 10th grade so please reply accordingly. THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!!!!!!!!!!)

Answer 1

Question #1 and question #2 -With any nuclear disaster such as in Japan as mentioned above, Chernobyl in Russia and three Mile Island in the united States there is a natural alarm by the public regarding the population of that country in particular those impacted directly by the release of radiation. But this obvious knee Jerk desire to halt all nuclear power plants being built or going online has to be tempered with the facts. How many nuclear power plant accidents resulting in a release of radiation that has caused widespread death and destruction in relation to how many nuclear power plants are online and operating with no incidents in the world, very few. It can be analogized to the natural hysteria that takes place with an airline crash with hundreds of lives lost. But as above, putting into perspective, the number of airline crashes in relation to the number of actual flights that takes place daily is extremely low, making the benefit versus the risk acceptable. Japan has not reduced its use of nuclear power pants it has slowed but is still in a growth phase with expected growth of 20% of Japans energy to be obtained by the year 2030. Other countries are accelerating their growth of nuclear power with China, then Russia, followed by India, and the Republic of Korea.

Question #3 - Accidents can always happen, but with each incident and the in depth investigation that takes place elucidating the cause(s) the nuclear industry puts in further safeguards that address the failures that instigated the accident. We learn from our mistakes designing safer and more efficient and productive use of nuclear energy as a source that can be converted to electrical power. Safety plans that can be more efficiently used are techniques with redundant systems in place to cool an overheated reactor. Place the emergency cooling systems that flood the reactor with water above the level of the input generator mediated water that naturally cools the reactor. Have more sensitive instrumentation not dependent on human evaluation, (IVMR In Vessel Melt Retention) that automatically detects the minimal beginnings of rising reactor temperatures and releases cooling water to the reactor pit with immediately bypassing human "oversight". Calculate and plan for sufficient back up generators to pump water to cool the reactor. Calculate redundant shielding of radiation leaks evaluating for the worse scenario.

Question #4 - Oil is a hydrocarbon that releases carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) that prevents the biosphere from cooling in the evening and resultant rising temperatures during the day with minimal scientific doubt the contributor of global warming that is already resulting in the polar ice caps melting leading to rises in levels of sea water, heating of the atmosphere and oceans leading to changes in weather patterns steered by the jet stream and ocean currents, these are deleterious weather changes leading to drought, stronger and increased frequency of highly powerful hurricanes and tropical cyclones, inland and coastal.flooding that will result in massive loss of live secondary to starvation because of the diminishment of crop planting, viability and harvesting, flood and storm deaths, coastal erosion and destruction of property. Temper this with the immediate fright of a radiation leak that has and will affect a minimal proportion of the population versus the entire worlds population impacted negatively and dramatically with the continue accelerated use of fossil fuels.