EdaGjergo

PHYS485

Review#4

11/07/13

Recovery from a Major Nuclear Incident:

A Review of Response Toward a Fukushima-like
Event
Shih-Yew Chen, Illinois Institute of Technology
Not only in the US, but all over the world, the use of nuclear power as a source of
energy is often unwelcomed by public opinion. On one side, many scientists promote nuclear
power plants as our only available, sustainable, and green option for the near future; on the
other side, the nuclear public scare caused by tragedies like Fukushima (2011) and Chernobyl
(1986), along with a misinformed portrayal from the entertainment industry, has brought a
disapproval rate for new nuclear plants to 50% in the US, according to a CBS poll1 .
Shockingly, a G8 nation like Italy does not even have an operating reactor, due to a ban
passed almost unanimously by voters in a 2011 referendum2 .
The Fukushima nuclear accident, second in gravity only to Chernobyl, was caused by
an earthquake and tsunami, which caused a power outage. The temperatures in the reactor
went up, and it melted, while the top blew off due to accumulation of hydrogen. The
Fukushima accident has posed serious challenges at the end of our technological
advancements. The area affected by nuclear contamination is as large as the state of
Connecticut. Luckily, there arent any cancer cases caused by exposure to radiation yet,
whether in Chernobyl there had been 60.000 deaths in the first year. While its reassuring to
know that the health of the inhabitants of the region hasnt been affected by radiation, both
the natural and nuclear disasters have unprecedentedly shattered the local economy.

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2

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301503544_16220046020503544.html?tag=contentMaincontentBody
http://referendum.interno.it/referendum/refe110612/RFT0003.htm

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EdaGjergo

PHYS485

Review#4

11/07/13

Economy and societal problems are the true challenge that Fukushima has to face. For
example, farmers that have worked the lands for generations have been displaced forever.
If prevention is not enough, an essential goal is to allow for the fastest recovery
possible. It has been shown, by comparing recovery times from disasters all over the world,
that recovery is mainly driven by local economic forces. That is why the East Coast has
readily almost returned to normal from Hurricane Katrina, and Haiti still today bears the sign
of its 2010 earthquake.
Prevention or recovery from sources of radiation are a high necessity in current
society, as radiation is used anywhere from hospitals to space missions. How will we manage
to get the average hospital radiation worker, which can get up to five times as much radiation
as to what is the regulated limit, to a lower exposure that doesnt pose his life in danger? How
can we ensure that manned missions to Mars will reach the planet with its astronauts all
alive, once the spaceship departs from the protection offered by Earth through its magnetic
field, and is exposed to cosmic radiation? These and many others are the many challenges
offered by the field of health physics.

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