The world watched breathless the news of the earthquake that hit Japan last Friday and the almost on-line coverage of both the quake and the tsunami that followed. I guess those videos showed clearly, how nature can annihilate even the best-designed, best build and best thought-off human constructions. They also showed us how Japanese differ from a lot of other nations, I am sure that such a quake would have a lot more casualties had it occurred in other areas of this planet.
Thankfully for Japan, its continuous exposure to earth shakes has created stronger buildings, better infrastructures and more prepared citizens, which all contributed in keeping the number of casualties low. No, I do not believe that we have heard the total number of casualties so far, I do not believe there will be less than 10,000 casualties as some reporters say, I am sure they'll be much more, and that's is sad, but on the other hand, if you consider that a 5.9 Richter-scale quake, which hit Athens some years ago had 150 casualties, I would have expected this one to have a much higher death toll.
No matter how devastating the consequences of the earthquake and the tsunami were however, there is another much more severe issue that should really concern us much more. That of the problems faced in some of Japan's nuclear power plants following the quake and the tsunami.
According to the latest reports, there were two similar explosions in the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, in two different reactors. While I am not a nuclear scientist, I dare say I have a good understanding of how a nuclear power plant works, having researched the subject some 35 years ago, for an article I wrote for a Greek newspaper, when the Greek government was considering building such a nuclear plant in Greece. Based on that experience and on what we hear from the Japanese government, I am afraid that these problems at the nuclear power plants may have much more severe consequences than those caused by the natural phenomena.
From what we learn, it is clear that the cooling circuit in those reactors, have been severely damaged. That means that the cores of the reactors, even though they have been automatically shut down (meaning that the nuclear reaction has stopped) after the quake stroke the area, are still generating heat (massive amounts of heat, actually) which can not be removed from the reactor vessel. The heat generated increases the temperature inside the reactor to surreal levels. That is a very serious condition, which can possibly lead to a core melt-down. If this happens, then the radioactive material from the core can leak to the ground under the reactor, or if the pressure inside the shield reactor vessel raises enough, it can blow the reactor vessel apart, with massive amounts of radiation leaking to the atmosphere.
I sincerely hope that Japanese engineers manage to keep the reactors temperature under control, and tame the beast. If not, then I am afraid Japan will face again the devastating results of an atomic "explosion".
So please join me in praying for the Japanese people. Humanity doesn't need to witness such a tragedy again.
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