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

An accident like this can greatly reduce peoples' confidence in power plants, especially because the media limits the coverage of the VAST safety networks in place at nuclear plants. Against the Odds has a really great podcast about this: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/meltdown-at-fukushima-triple-disaster/id1553335461?i=1000557164492 it covers how hard the people at the nuclear plant worked to try and prevent the nuclear reactor from overheating. It also shows how the tsunami caused a perfect storm that caused all the safety checks to stop working.

An accident certainly could happen in the US, although it would not occur in the same way. The best safety measures would be to ensure multiple ways in which power can be restored despite a variety of potential conditions (lack of fuel, flood, snow storm, etc.)

In general, nuclear reactors are extremely efficient and we have the science to make them less risky. Although, when things go bad, they go really, really bad. Nuclear damage to the body is irreversible. It's a really tough question that's hard to answer without knowing the long term effects of previous failures, like Fukushima.