The Effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant on the Environment

The catastrophic placement of the nuclear plant allowed 300 metric tons of radioactive waste to pour out into the Pacific Ocean over the span of two weeks, and is still pouring tons of radiation in the Pacific Ocean today. The Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto decided that the government had to step in to intervene because the company TEPCO could not handle all the radiation leakages. This problem could have been preventable if they had made their facilities up to the proper code and standards to withstand both an earthquake and a tsunami. Unfortunately, many of these precautions weren’t taken and some major political figures were fired as a result of this incident including the Prime Minister (Brandl, 2014). The Fukushima disaster marked the largest single artificial waste outflow into the sea. The main reasons for the radioactive material discharging from the vessels was because gas pressures were too high in the container. To lower the pressure they, purposely vented it, subsequently dumping coolant water which contains most of the radioactivity into the sea. The contaminated water flooded into the sea, nesting of the surface, so when organisms need to come to the top of surface for hunting or survival needs they will be affected by the polluted water. It is not just the organisms at the surface that are affected, but over time the contaminated water descends and harms all other life in the sea.
The radioactivity is still