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    Term Paper

    on

    Japan Tragedy and its Aftermaths

    Submitted by

    Name : Arvind Kumar

    Enroll No. : A2305210170

    Department : ASET

    Section : 3CSE 1

    Batch : 2010 - 2014

    In partial fulfilment of the requirement for B. Tech Degree

    Under the supervision of :

    Name of Faculty Guide : Dr. Vinay Tripathi

    Department : AIES

    Date :

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    A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t

    I ARVIND KUMARfeel great pleasure in submitting this project as the culmination of

    my guides efforts. This project required hard work; sincerity and devotion that I tried

    my best to put in this project and in turn gained a lot of knowledge from this project.

    I am deeply grateful to my faculty guide Dr. Vinay Tripathi who motivated me to take

    an environment related topic as a part of my Term Paper project and explore the

    consequences of nature against science.

    At last i am thankful to a number of news sources available widely which helped me out

    to prepare a research work on the topic.

    XARVIND KUMAR

    3CSE 1

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    C E R T I F I C A T E

    This is to certify that Mr. Arvind Kumar, student of B.Tech. in ASET

    Department has carried out the work presented in the project of the Term

    paper entitled JAPAN TRADEGY AND ITS AFTERMATHS from Amity

    School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh

    under my supervision.

    XDr. Vinay Tripathi

    Department of Environmental Sciences, AIES

    Amity University, Noida

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    I n d e x

    S. No. Topic Pg. No.

    1 Abstract 4

    2 What is Tsunami ? 5

    3 Important facts about Tsunami and Detection Techniques 6-7

    4. Earthquakes and their Effects on buildings 8

    5. Earthquake : Protection Measures 9-10

    6. Pacific Ring Of Fire 11

    7. Japan Tsunami Report : March 11, 2011 12

    8. The fatal flaw in Boiling Water Nuclear Reactors 13

    9. The worst case Scenario : Japan Nuclear Crisis 14

    10. Explosions at Japan Nuclear Power Plants 15

    11. Next Steps in Japan Nuclear Crisis 16

    12. Aftermaths 17

    13. Current Radiation levels in Japan 18

    14. Radiations in Japan may be worse then we thought 19

    15. References 20-21

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    A b s t r a c t

    This Term Paper report is a consolidated effort of combining authentic news sources and

    articles relating to the JAPAN TRADEGY AND ITS AFTERMATHS, MARCH 11, 2011.

    The paper starts with the brief description of the TSUNAMI and EARTHQAUKES along with

    their effects on environment, ways to mitigate them, and possible detection techniques

    deployed out in the suspected regions.

    Thereafter a brief report has been given about Pacific ring of fire and the March 11, 2011,

    Tsunami occurred at Japan after the violent 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the nuclear crisis

    happened out there and its consequences.

    Aftermaths of the disaster have been compiled up at the end of the report, all from authentic

    sources and informations.

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    T S U N A M I

    The term Tsunami has been coined from the Japanese term Tsu meaning harbour and

    namimeaning waves.

    [1]

    Tsunamis are waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or underwater landslides

    and can reach 15m or more in height devastating coastal communities.

    In recorded history, tsunamis worldwide have killed thousands of people. Tsunamis caused by

    nearby earthquakes may reach the coast within minutes. When the waves enter shallow water,

    they may rise to several feet or, in rare cases, tens of feet, striking the coast with devastating

    force. The Tsunami danger period can continue for many hours after a major earthquake.

    Fig. 1 : Formation of Tsunami [1]

    Tsunamis may also be generated by very large earthquakes far away in other areas of the

    Ocean. Waves caused by these travel at hundreds of kilometers per hour, reaching the coast

    several hours after the earthquake, see fig 1. Unlike ordinary tides, which are short, frequent

    and surface level, tsunami, are barely noticeable in their deep-sea formation stage. At this point

    despite a wavelength up to 100 km, they are shallow in depth and move at hundreds of

    kilometer per hour. If a quake hits Los Angeles, aTsunami can reach Tokyo in a time less than

    a Jetwould take to traverse the same distance.

    [1]

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    Important facts about Tsunami :

    Some tsunamis can be very large. In coastal areas their height can be as great as 10m or

    more (30m in extreme cases), and they can move inland several hundred meters.[2]

    All low-lying coastal areas can be struck by tsunamis.

    A tsunami consists of a series of waves. Often the first wave may not be the largest. The

    danger from subsequent tsunami waves can last for several hours after the arrival of the

    first wave.

    When the ocean is deep, tsunamis may be less than a foot high on the oceans surface, can

    travel at speeds up to 500 mph without being noticed and cross the entire ocean in less

    than a day.

    Tsunamis can move even 50 km per hour on coastal plain, faster than a person can run.

    Sometimes a tsunami causes the water near the shore to recede, exposing the ocean floor.

    This is natures Tsunami warning and should be checked.

    The force of some tsunamis is enormous. Large rocks weighing several tons along with

    boats and other debris can be moved inland several meters by tsunami wave activity.

    Homes and other buildings are destroyed. All floating material and water move with great

    force and can kill or injure people.[3]

    Tsunamis can occur at any time of day or night.

    Tsunamis can travel up rivers and streams that lead to the ocean.

    Hawaii is the U.S. state at greatest risk for a tsunami they get about one per year and a

    damaging one every seven years. The biggest tsunami that occurred Hawaii happened on

    April 1, 1946, where the coast of Hilo Island was hit with 30 foot waves coming in at 500

    miles per hour. 170 people died as a result.[4]

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    Fig. 2 : Tsunami Wave Train Formation [1]

    Detecting Tsunami :

    With the use ofsatellite technology it is possible to provide nearly immediate warning

    of potentiallytsuna-migenic earthquakes. Warning time depends upon the distance of

    the epicentre from the coast line. The warning includes predicted times at selected

    coastal communities where the tsunami could travel in a few hours. Coastal tidal

    gauges can stop tsunamis close to the shore, but they are useless in deep oceans.

    Tsunami detectors, linked to land by submarine cables, are deployed 50 odd kms. out

    at sea. Tsunameters transmit warnings of buoys on the sea surface, which relay it to

    satellites.[5]

    .

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    E A R T H Q U A K E S

    Earthquake : Any abrupt disturbance within the earth that is tectonic or volcanic in origin and

    that results in the generation of elastic waves. The passage of such seismic waves through the

    earth often causes violent shaking at its surface.[1]

    GROUND MOVEMENTS[1]

    The ground movements caused by earthquakes can have several types of damaging effects.

    Some of the major effects are:

    1. Ground shaking, i.e. back-and-forth motion of the ground, caused by the passing

    vibratory waves through the ground.

    2. Soil failures, such as liquefaction and landslides, caused by shaking;

    3. Surface fault ruptures, such as cracks, vertical shifts, etc.

    4. Tidal waves (tsunamis), i.e. large waves on the surface of bodies of water that can

    cause major damage to shoreline areas.

    EFFECT ON BUILDINGS[1]

    As the vibrations and waves continue to move through the earth, buildings on the earths

    surface are set in motion. Each building responds differently, depending on its construction.

    When the waves strike, the earth begins to move backward and forward along the same line.

    The lower part of a building on the earths surface immediately moves with the earth. The upper

    portion, however, initially remains at rest; thus the building is stretched out of shape.

    Gradually the upper portion tries to catch up with the bottom, but as it does so, the earth moves

    in the other direction, causing a whiplash effect. The vibration can cause structural failure in

    the building itself, or to an adjacent building having different response characteristics.

    Taller buildings also tend to shake longer than short buildings, which can make them relatively

    more susceptible to damage.

    Fig 3. Shaking of short and tall building due to

    ground acceleration

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    PROTECTION MEASURES

    The primary objective of earthquake resistant design is to prevent collapse during earthquakes

    thus minimising the risk of death or injury to people in or around the buildings. There are certain

    features which if taken into consideration at the stage of architectural planning and structuraldesign of buildings, their performance during earthquakes will be appreciably improved.

    Some of these are stated below :

    1) Building configuration[6]

    The building should have a simple

    rectangular plan.

    Long walls should be supported by

    Reinforced Concrete columns as shown

    on the right side.

    Large buildings having plans with

    shapes like T, L, U and X should

    preferably be separated into rectangular

    blocks by providing gaps in between.

    2) Foundation[6]

    Buildings which are structurally strong to withstand earthquakes sometimes fail due t o

    inadequate foundation design. Tilting, cracking and failure of structure may result from soilliquefaction.

    Soil liquefaction refers to

    transformation of soil from a

    solid state to a liquid state as a

    consequence of increased

    pressure.

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    Control on openings in walls

    Door and window openings in walls should preferably be small and more centrally located. Too

    many or large openings will make the wall vulnerable to collapse during earthquakes. The

    location of openings should not be too close to the edge of the wall.

    3) Reinforced concrete bands in masonry buildings[6]

    For integrating the walls of an

    enclosure to perform together like a

    rigid box reinforced

    concrete bands are provided which

    run continuously on all external and

    internal walls including fixed partition

    walls. One or more of the following

    bands may be necessary in a

    building. Plinth band, lintel band,

    roof band, and gable band are

    names used for the band depending

    on the level of the building where the

    band is provided.

    4) Vertical reinforcement[6]

    Vertical reinforcement should be provided at corners and junction of walls. It shall be

    passing through the lintel bands and floor slabs or floor level bands in all storeys.

    Earthquake doesnt kill people. It is the badly

    designed buildings that kill the people. So to

    prevent an earthquake hazard from becoming

    a disaster our buildings should be properlydesigned incorporating the earthquake

    resistant design features into it.

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    Pacific Ring Of Fire and Japan[7] [8] [9]

    The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

    occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is

    associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic

    belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of

    the world's active and dormant volcanoes. It is sometimes called the circum-Pacific belt or the

    circum-Pacific seismic belt.[7]

    About 90% of the world's earthquakes and 80% of the world's largest earthquakes occur along

    the Ring of Fire. The next most seismic region (56% of earthquakes and 17% of the world's

    largest earthquakes) is the Alpide belt, which extends from Java to Sumatra through the

    Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the third most

    prominent earthquake belt.[8]

    Japan also sits in the unfamous Ring Of Fire ans ten percent of the world's active volcanoes are

    found in Japan, which lies in a zone of extreme crustal instability. They are formed by

    subduction of the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. As many as 1,500 earthquakes are

    recorded yearly, and magnitudes of four to six on the Richter scale are not uncommon. Minor

    tremors occur almost daily in one part of the country or another, causing slight shaking of

    buildings. Major earthquakes occur infrequently; the most famous in the twentieth century were:

    the Great Kant earthquake of 1923, in which 130,000 people died; and the Great Hanshin

    earthquake of 17 January 1995, in which 6,434 people died.

    On March 11, 2011 a magnitude 9.0 Earthquake hit Japan, the country's biggest ever and the

    fifth largest on record, according to US Geological Survey data.[9]

    Undersea earthquakes also

    expose the Japanese coastline to danger from tsunamis.

    In Japan regions near / off the shore of Hongshu, experience a lot of earthquakes frequently of

    average magnitudes of 5.0 on Richter Scale, this region experienced 19 earthqaukes in the

    month of july only.[15]

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    Japan Tsunami Report : March 11, 2011[10]

    All across more than Japan, they felt it, a violent 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011.

    It was centered about 80miles off the eastern coast and Tsunami Warning went up

    immediately. In coastal cities people knew what to do next, run to higher ground.

    In Casanuma people retreated to high rise roof-tops and could only watch in horror as the

    Tsunami waves inundated their city knocking building into rouble and mixing into a kind of

    Tsunami Soup filled with vehicles, building parts and trees. Some Tsunami waves reached as

    far as 3miles inland.

    As the nation struggled with a rescue effort, it also faced the worst nuclear emergency since

    Chernobyl; explosions and leaks of radioactive gas took place in three reactors at the

    Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that suffered partial meltdowns, while spent fuel rods

    at another reactor overheated and caught fire, releasing radioactive material directly into the

    atmosphere. Japanese officials turned to increasingly desperate measures, as traces of

    radiation were found in Tokyo's water and in water pouring from the reactors into the ocean. A

    month after the quake, nuclear officials put the crisis in the same category of severity as the

    Chernobyl disaster. In May, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who had been criticized for showing a

    lack of leadership, said Japan would abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors, saying his

    country needed to start from scratch in creating a new energy policy that should include

    greater reliance on renewable energy and conservation.

    Japan is the most seismological studied country in the world and with more then 1200 high

    precision GPS stations, a Geophysicist at University of Alaska used the data to create a

    visualization of the disaster which could be used to design far better detection systems.

    As of April 25, the official death toll had been raised to 14,133, and more than 13,346 people

    were listed as missing, although there may be some overlap between the two groups. The final

    toll is expected to reach 20,000. More than 130,000 people remained housed in temporary

    shelters; tens of thousands of others evacuated their homes due to the nuclear crisis.

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    The Fatal Flaw in Boiling Water Nuclear Reactors[11]

    A boiling water reactor has an Achilles heel -- a fatal flaw -- that is invisible under normal

    operating conditions and most failure scenarios. The flaw has to do with the cooling system.

    A boiling water reactor boils water: That's obvious and simple enough. It's a technology that

    goes back more than a century to the earliest steam engines. As the water boils, it creates a

    huge amount of pressure -- the pressure that will be used to spin the steam turbine. The boiling

    water also keeps the reactor core at a safe temperature. When it exits the steam turbine, the

    steam is cooled and condensed to be reused over and over again in a closed loop. The water is

    recirculated through the system with electric pumps.

    The design's vulnerability comes into play if the electric pumps lose power. Without a fresh

    supply of water in the boiler, the water continues boiling off, and the water level starts falling. If

    enough water boils off, the fuel rods are exposed and they overheat. At some point, even with

    the control rods fully inserted, there is enough heat to melt the nuclear fuel. This is where the

    term meltdown comes from. Tons of melting uranium flows to the bottom of the pressure vessel.

    At that point, it's catastrophic. In the worst case, the molten fuel penetrates the pressure vessel

    gets released into the environment.

    Because of this known vulnerability, there is huge redundancy around the pumps and their

    supply of electricity. There are several sets of redundant pumps, and there are redundant power

    supplies. Power can come from the power grid. If that fails, there are several layers of backup

    diesel generators. If they fail, there is a backup battery system. With all of this redundancy, it

    seems like the vulnerability is completely covered. There is no way for the fatal flaw to ever be

    exposed.

    Unfortunately, shortly after the earthquake, the worst-case scenario unfolded.

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    The Worst-case Scenario in Japan's Nuclear Crisis[11]

    The nuclear power plants in Japan weathered the earthquake itself without difficulty. The four

    plants nearest the quake's epicenter shut down automatically, meaning that the control rods

    were fully inserted into their reactor cores and the plants stopped producing power. This is

    normal operating procedure for these plants, but it meant that the first source of electricity for

    the cooling pumps was gone. That isn't a problem because the plant could get power from the

    power grid to run the pumps.

    However, the power grid became unstable and it shut down as well. The second source of

    electricity for the cooling pumps was gone. That brought the backup diesel generators into play.Diesel generators are a robust and time-tested way to generate electricity, so there were no

    worries.

    But then the tsunami hit. And unfortunately, the tsunami was far larger than anyone had

    planned for. If the backup diesel generators had been higher off the ground, designed to run

    while submerged in water or protected from deep water in some way, the crisis could have been

    averted. Unfortunately, the unexpected water levels from the tsunami caused the generators to

    fail.

    This left the last layer of redundancy -- batteries -- to operate the pumps. The batteries

    performed as expected, but they were sized to last for only a few hours. The assumption,

    apparently, was that electricity would become available from another source fairly quickly.

    Although operators did truck in new generators, they could not be hooked up in time, and the

    coolant pumps ran out of electricity. The fatal flaw in the boiling water design -- thought to be

    impossible to uncover through so many layers of redundancy -- had nonetheless become

    exposed. With it exposed, the next step in the process led to catastrophe.

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    Explosions at Japan's Nuclear Power Plants[12]

    With the batteries dead, the coolant pumps failed. With no fresh coolant flowing into the reactor

    core, the water that kept it cool began boiling off. As the water boiled away, the tops of the fuel

    rods were exposed, and the metal tubes holding the uranium fuel pellets overheated and

    cracked. The cracks allowed water to enter the tubes and get to the fuel pellets, where it began

    generating hydrogen gas. The process is called thermolysis -- if you get water hot enough, it

    breaks down into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

    Hydrogen is a highly explosive gas -- recall the Hindenburg explosion, in which the Hindenburg

    was full of hydrogen gas. In Japan's nuclear plants, pressure from the hydrogen built up, andthe gas had to be vented. Unfortunately, so much hydrogen vented so quickly that it exploded

    inside the reactor building. This same chain of events unfolded in several different reactors.

    The explosions did not rupture the pressure vessels holding the nuclear cores, nor did they

    release any significant amounts of radiation. These were simple hydrogen explosions, not

    nuclear explosions. The explosions damaged the concrete and steel buildings surrounding the

    pressure vessels.

    The explosions also indicated that things had gotten out of control. If water were to continue

    boiling off, a meltdown would be almost assured.

    So operators decided to flood the reactors with seawater. This is a last-ditch effort to control the

    situation, since seawater completely ruins a reactor, but it's better than a meltdown. In addition,

    the seawater was mixed with boron to act something like a liquid version of the control rods.

    Boron absorbs neutrons and is one of the main constituents in the control rods.

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    Next Steps in Japans Nuclear Disaster[12] [13]

    The nuclear incidents in Japan are described as Level 6 INES events (International Nuclear and

    Radiological Event Scale). Three Mile Island was a Level 5 event. Chernobyl was a Level 7

    event, and that is the top of the event scale[9]

    . Obviously, it's a serious situation.

    Japan has lost a significant portion of its electrical generating capacity. Approximately a third of

    Japan's electricity comes from nuclear power plants, and about half of that capacity has been

    lost (approximately 20 percent of total generating capacity) .[10]

    That capacity will need to be

    replaced in some way.

    At 40 years old, these reactors are nearing the end of their design lifespans anyway. One

    alternative is to simply rebuild the plants. The two problems with this approach are that it will be

    a very lengthy process -- possibly taking a decade or more -- and the general public in Japan

    may have no appetite for new nuclear reactors. It is still too early to tell.

    There are a number of Mark 1 reactors in the United States. It is certain that they will be

    decommissioned or altered to take advantage of the lessons learned in Japan. Other reactors

    may also be altered as needed.

    The nuclear industry was hoping for a renaissance of nuclear power in the United States now

    that more than three decades have elapsed since the Three Mile Island incident shut down new

    nuclear plant construction in the United States. The events in Japan may stop this renaissance.

    Or they may spur research in other, possibly safer, nuclear technologies.

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    A f t e r m a t h s[14]

    1. PM Naoto Kan sent 50,000 troops for the rescue and recovery efforts following Fridays

    9.0 magnitude quake.

    2. Police said between 200-300 bodies were found along the coast of Sendai, the biggest

    city in the area near the quakes epicentre.

    3. The damage at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant added to the worries where the two

    reactors had lost cooling ability.

    4. Residents in Miyagi prefecture, who spent night on top of a building, were rescued

    Saturday morning, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.

    5. A second, magnitude 6.6 qauke struck central Japan along the northwest coast around

    4 a.m. local time on Saturday, causing buildings to sway.

    6. Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants near

    Onahama after the units lost cooling ability when the power went out.

    7. The government ordered residents near one of the plants to evacuate because reactor

    cooling systems failed and pressure inside was rising.

    8. The Defence Ministry dispatched dozens of troops trained to deal with chemical disaster

    to the plant in case of a radiation leak.

    9. Train services in north-eastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serve 10 million

    people a day, were also suspended. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.

    10.In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street

    for safety. The tremor bent the upper tip of the iconic Tokyo Tower, a 1,093-foot steel

    structure inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris

    11.Mobile phone lines were crammed, preventing nearly all calls and text messages. So

    people formed lines at Tokyo's normally vacant public phone booths dotting the city.

    12.A large fire erupted at an oil refinery in Ichihara city and burned out of control with 100-

    foot-high flames whipping into the sky.

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    Current Radiation Levels in Japan[16]

    Radiation levels are measured in units called rems for "Roentgen equivalent man." The

    average background exposure that most people absorb simply by living on Earth is 130 to 150

    millirems (mrem, or thousandths of a rem) per year. In S.I. Units we use Sieverts as the unit, 1Sievert = 100 rems.

    Radiation levels at Japan Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 1 had spiked to 100 sieverts per hour

    following earthquake aftershock and tsunami.

    Exposure to this level of radiation will cause immediate death. According to the NIH radiation

    levels of 4 sieverts per hour will cause fatality in 50% of people and at 6 sieverts per hour

    death is almost certain. 100 sieverts per hour is far above the 100% lethal dosage amount of 6

    sieverts per hour.

    Chart 1. Radiation Levels in japan, as of 09.04.2011

    The radiation spike of chart 1. came after an earthquake caused to reactors at a separate

    nuclear power plant to start leaking radiation.

    However, as we all know Japan has not been honest throughout this crisis. It should also be

    noted that The NY Times recently reported that the Fukushima reactors are very vulnerable to

    aftershocks at this point because the massive weight in the reactor pools caused by trying to

    inject more water to cool the reactors.

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    Radiations in Japan may be worser then we thought[17] [18]

    Japanese officials pleaded for calm presently, but for the first time they acknowledged that

    radiation levels near the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant are being recorded at levels that can be

    dangerous to humans. They also said radioactive material was being released into the air inplumes.

    1. It could get worse.

    The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has already suffered a partial meltdown, but nuclear experts say

    there are warning signs that efforts to control the plant's reactors are failing. And in the case of a

    total nuclear meltdown, they say the amounts of radioactive material released into the

    atmosphere would be catastrophic.

    The detection of Cesium -137 near the crippled plant -- a highly radioactive material that has

    rendered wide swaths of land -- the red forest near the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl

    uninhabitable for hundreds of years to come -- was evidence that the situation was becoming

    increasingly critical.

    2. It's unpredictable.

    The radioactive plumes being released by the plant are undoubtedly dangerous, but predicting

    where they will travel is difficult. Today, winds blew the plumes toward Tokyo, raising radiation

    levels there, but prevailing winds are forecast to send them away from Japan and out into thePacific.

    A lot will depend on the weather while experts don't agree about the threat the plumes pose to

    the western United States and Canada, they are careful to note that the ones created by the

    1986 Chernobyl disaster -- although very much diluted and less dangerous -- were carried

    across the entire Northern Hemisphere only.

    The true impact of radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant may not be known for decades.

    3. The radiation could enter the food chain.

    The other problem we have here is that in addition to being exposed to these doses of radiation

    outright, is that some of the radioactive products that will fall out of the environment will then get

    put into the food chain.

    The major concern is iodine-131, or radioiodine, which is quickly absorbed into milk and other

    dairy products and causes Thyroid Cancer very easily, though Potassium Iodide capsules can

    be used as Thyroid blocking agents in radiations breakout.[18]

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    References

    1. Disaster management and preparedness, Publisher : "CBSE",

    Authors : "Prof A.S Arya, Shri Ankush Agarwal and Shri Arvind Nagaraju, Shri Anup

    Karanth, Dr. Kamla Menon and Ms. A. Venkatachalam,Ms. Balaka Dey, Shri Hemang

    Karelia, Ms. Malini Narayanan"

    2. National Geographic Article, "http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070402-

    tsunami.html"

    3. CNN news, "http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/quake.facts/"

    4. Facts about Tsunami, "http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-tsunamis"

    5. Tsunami Detection Techniques,

    "http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2009/teams/5/detection.html"

    6. Guidelines For Improving Earthquake Resistance Of Housing BMTPC,

    "http://www.bmtpc.org/pubs/improving.htm"

    7. Geography.about.com, "Ring of Fire - Pacific Ring of Fire",

    "http://geography.about.com/cs/earthquakes/a/ringoffire.htm"

    8. U.S. Geological Survey Earthquakes FAQ, "http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/#1"

    9. Smh.com.au, "LIST: Japan quake seventh largest in history",

    "http://www.smh.com.au/environment/list-japan-quake-seventh-largest-in-history-

    20110311-1brew.html"

    10. Times News, 14 July 2011,

    "http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/japan/index.html"

    11. HowStuffWorks, "http://science.howstuffworks.com/japan-nuclear-crisis2.htm"

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    13. Izzo, Phil. "Economists React: If Worst Happens in Japan, All Bets Are Off" Wall Street

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    references continued

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    14. Msnbc News Article, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42023385/ns/world_news-

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    15. USGSSurvey,

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