...outside sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format. for Reference: Map of Chernobyl retrived from http://www.greenfacts.org/en/chernobyl/figtableboxes/map-chernobyl.htm The novel emphasizes that the "dead zone" around Chernobyl is actually rich in plant- and wildlife (which have tolerance levels for radiation different than humans). In this area, wild animals such as wolves have not only flourished in the absence of human activity, but have no fear of the humans they do encounter. http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/chernobyl-bg.html Flora and fauna There has been an ongoing scientific debate about the extent to which flora and fauna of the zone were affected by the radioactive contamination that followed the accident. Cases of mutant deformity in animals of the zone include partial albinism and other external malformations in swallows[2][3][4] and insect mutations.[5] A study of...
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...------------------------------------------------- The Chernobyl-accident Saturday the 26th April 1986, reactor number four exploded at the nuclear power plant near the town of Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union. It is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale - the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. The accident had disastrous consequences - Many people died because of radioactive contamination, and the Chernobyl accident cost the former Soviet Union hundreds of billions of dollars, and some observers believe it may have hastened the collapse of the Soviet government. The reason why the disaster actually took place was because the engineer Nikolai Formin wanted to try an experiment. The nature behind this experiment was to check whether the turbines of the power plant could produce enough energy to keep the cool-down pumpers running until the emergency generator was automatically started (in order to continue the producing of energy). To successfully run this experiment they had to switch off the security system. As a part of the experiment they decreased the reactors energy level so that it only was supposed to use about 25 % of its capacity. For an unknown reason this didn’t happen. Instead the generator used under 10% of its capacity. They noticed they were losing control at this point, so they started all...
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...resources, human recourses and capabilities in responding to the demand for metals and minerals necessary to produce in diverse products, ranging from mobile phones to cars. It is focusing on searching, mining and processing the Earth's mineral resources as an effort to maximize shareholders’ value (Rio Tinto 2012). Rio Tinto, Japan faced a great deal of issues due to the earthquake (Vibert 2011). For instance, employees are losing of direction when business is to recommence. Most of the infrastructures such as power systems, public transports and communication channels in disaster-affected areas are destroyed. Furthermore, there are a great deals of uncertainties arose due to the earthquake and its aftermath especially the effect of radioactive contamination on water supply. Lacking of medical infrastructures to help the injuries as their numbers exceeds the affordability of the hospitals is also a concern. Rio Tinto has to act as a corporate residence and deal with these to assure shareholders’ return. This report aims to suggest a solution to deal with the issues identified. The report contains decision criteria acting as targets and measures for the recommendations. TOWS analysis is then put the Rio Tinto’s strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats together with the recommended alternatives to implement. It is recommended that Business Resilience and Recovery Programme should implement in Rio Tinto Japan immediately after the earthquake on 11 March 2011 to effectively mitigate...
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..."Discuss with reference to this BP case study the problems of corporate risk and liability entailed by the factors of uncertainty and lack of reliability of equipment. (in this case the blow-out preventer) State other examples and analyse them. How can companies plan for such contingencies and manage a major disaster when it arises in a damage limitation exercise?" The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 22 April 2010 is perhaps the most striking example of a corporate disaster due to a company’s lack of certainty regarding some of its operations. First, it is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of oil industry, then it took the authorities and the companies almost three months to stop the leak and finally the spill caused extensive damage to wildlife and marine habitats and to the Gulf’s tourism and fishing industry, leading to one of the most complex trial of the US. And even more important, this accident was not caused by a natural disaster like Fukushima’s nuclear disaster was. What is more is that the responsible for this disaster are said to be BP and Transocean, hence companies with the means and power to prevent and stop such a disaster from happening. One might expect from a firm like BP to have efficient and safe equipment, especially when one knows how dreadful an oil spill can be. It seemed however that building oil gusher at such depths made it almost impossible for them to be absolutely sure of their equipment safety, a problem combined to a series...
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...faint hearted with radioactive isotopes filling the air, water and earth beneath them. With terrible agricultural and medical consequences looming, scientists had to act fast and on a very large scale. Using lessons from Chernobyl, scientists have enlisted the assistance of sunflowers and their fast growing capabilities. Could sunflowers be the ray of hope for this country left devastated? Sunflowers in Fukushima How Fukushima became contaminated Similar in severity to Chernobyl’s 1986 Nuclear Disaster, in March, 2011, Fukushima and the surrounding area went into crisis. Fukushima was hit hard with an earthquake followed by a tsunami which breached the power plant and lead to disaster. With safety measures catastrophically failing, pressure was building in Fukushima Daiichi and engineers had no choice but to open the unfiltered vents to release the pressure from the reactor (Bunn / Heinonen, 2011). Overall the disaster was a series of safety failures, equipment failures and nuclear meltdown which all resulted in the release of radioactive materials into the environment. Consequences of contaminated soil Soil containing radioactive isotopes is particularly concerning to humans in the immediate area. Due to the agricultural aspect of Fukushima, farming was affected in Japan and risk of contaminated crops and live stock was high which in turn caused widespread panic and had the potential to lead to malnutrition (Nakanishi, 2013). The radioactive isotopes of greatest...
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...Nuclear Accident in Japan Name Course Instructor Date The disaster that happened in Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power station was one rated 7 by the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) scale. This means that the disaster had a high radioactive material releases. The disaster was caused by a tsunami ranging to 15 meters The tsunami had been caused by strong earthquake- the strongest earthquake to ever hit Japan. It affected the cooling systems of three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors by stopping the cooling as a result of interruption in the power supply. With no cooling in the reactors, the energy released from radioactive decay rose threatening not to be handled by the containment structures at the plant (Eisler 17). Water exposed to high levels of radiation threatened to damage the containment structure due to hydrogen build up. With damage to the containment structure, the environment was at high risk of full blown radiation contamination. The danger posed by the accident was the accident was the spread of radioactive contamination to water or the environment that the nearby residents came into contact with. This is why the Japanese government budgeted close to $14 billion for the radiation clean up and immediate relocation of residents (Eisler 29). One of the isotopes still found in the accident site is Cesium-137 that decays according to the following equation 55Cs^137 --> 56Ba^137 + -1e^0. The isotope could lead to development of acute radiation...
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...the mass lethality of an explosive device, plus exposure to radiation; this device causes mass fear and panic in a population and could have a serious effect on the nearby area and environment. A dirty bomb is a type of radiological dispersion device (RDD) which combines some type of explosive combined with some type of radioactive material. The explosive element of a dirty bomb will produce the most amount of damage and causalities depending on the amount and type of explosive material and shrapnel used. There is usually not enough radiation to kill or cause severe illness depending on the radioactive material; the type of radiation that is used and the amount of exposure to the victims. Depending the situation though a dirty bomb can cause a great deal of panic, fear and chaos, including contamination of buildings and property. Dirty Bombs are not a nuclear device. Nuclear bombs are tremendously more powerful and can destroy entire cities and produce catastrophic amount of casualties. The radiation fallout of a nuclear weapon can spread tens to hundreds of square miles and effect an area for years with radioactive contamination. Dirty bombs can be capable of contaminating a few blocks or a few miles depending...
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...Classification of accidents by severity and scale: Accident - minor accident with minor damage. Accident to the great detriment called - major accidents. Catastrophe - a large-scale accident that led to numerous casualties, significant property damage and other severe consequences. Accidents include the damages of: - Machines - Equipment - Vehicles - Power systems, buildings. They may be accompanied by explosions, fires, release of chemical, radioactive substances, without considerable material damage and serious human casualties (explosions can be caused by improper use of household and gas stoves or gas cylinders). In most cases, these accidents are evoked by violation of the production technology, a large depreciation of equipment, failure to comply with security measures, irresponsibility, drunkenness, negligence of the workers. TYPES OF ACCIDENTS: Transport accidents (catastrophes) 2 Fires, explosions 3 Accidents with release of hazardous chemical substances (HOV) 4 Accidents with release of radioactive substances 5 Accidents with release of biologically hazardous...
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... This tsunami caused the failure of 3 nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi I plant, one of the biggest power plants in the world. Since the incident, 400 tons of radioactive water has been dumping daily into the ocean, contaminating sea life as well as the atmosphere. As of 2013 at least 42 commercial fish species from around the area where the spill happened have been deemed contaminated and unsafe for consumption, with large meaty fish such as tuna and salmon being amongst the biggest carriers of radiation. Japan has stopped the export of all possibly contaminated goods and the FDA is also monitoring products that are entering the United States for possible radiation. The danger does not end there however; the radioactive element called cesium has been recorded in fish and crustaceans as far as the California Pacific Coast. It was projected that “the debris plume likely will reach […] California beaches and the beaches of British Columbia, Alaska, and Baja California within three years” (Eugene, Upton 2014) of the incident. Not surprisingly, three years later the state of the Pacific Ocean is of much more concern to both consumers and fishermen, as more and more fish that are caught off the Pacific Coast in the United States are turning up radioactive. Consequently, this contamination of radioactive materials is also affecting the atmosphere, as cesium can be found in rain water as well. This means it is likely the United States food supply has also been affected...
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...Medical uses Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. In nuclear medicine procedures, radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs or cellular receptors. This property of radiopharmaceuticals allows nuclear medicine the ability to image the extent of a disease process in the body, based on the cellular function and physiology, rather than relying on physical changes in the tissue anatomy. In some diseases, nuclear medicine studies can identify medical problems at an earlier stage than other diagnostic tests. Nuclear medicine, in a sense, is "radiology done inside out", or "endo-radiology", because it records radiation emitting from within the body rather than radiation that is generated by external sources like X-rays. Treatment of diseased tissue, based on metabolism or uptake or binding of a particular ligand, may also be accomplished, similar to other areas of pharmacology. However, the treatment effects of radiopharmaceuticals rely on the tissue-destructive power of short-range ionizing radiation. Industrial uses Radiation sources provide critical capabilities in the oil and gas, electrical power (utilities) construction, manufacturing and food industries. They are used...
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... in preparation for a possible nuclear attack during the Cold War. From 1944-1974 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) with the help of several other government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health, conducted over 4,000 secret and classified radiation experiments and releases on millions of unknowing US citizens. In order to assess how the human body metabolizes radioactive material, people unknowingly participating in the experiments were exposed to nuclear fallout from testing of more than 200 atmospheric and underground nuclear offense weapons as well as a hundred more secret releases of radiation into the environment. The tested people: Orphanages provided children food containing radioactive material, hospital patients received plutonium injections during routine stays, and deceased bodies previously exposed to radiation were exhumed without familial consent for examination. The most affected area: Residents of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico were affected most, living in environments containing radioactive contaminated food and water sources. The investigation effort: On January 15, 1994, President Clinton appointed the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The President created the Committee to investigate reports of possibly unethical experiments funded by the government decades ago. Member of committee: The members of the Advisory Committee were 14 private citizens from around the country:...
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...(TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Following this severe breach in security, numerous radioactive isotopes and radioactive particles were released into the environment, specifically the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding air/atmosphere, thus contaminating groundwater, soil and seawater, as well as effectively shutting down a myriad of Japanese fisheries. The ocean and air mainly came in contact with high levels of Iodine-131, Cesium-137, and Cesium-134, as well as lower levels of Tellurium, Uranium, and Strontium, which were concentrated closer to the surrounding area of the nuclear power plant. However, the impact that these radioactive materials will have upon the United States, in particular, has caused quite the national controversy. Despite heavy national acceptance of the occurrence of the disaster, two popular and opposing hypotheses have formed as a result of the Media’s lack of focus on recent analyses of the impending effects of Fukushima Disaster upon the U.S.: (1) the radioactive material that leaked as a result of the TEPCO nuclear power plant failure will not have a drastic, threatening effect on the United States, specifically the West Coast, due to the supposedly limited leak of radioactive material and more importantly the short half-lives of the radioactive isotopes released and the accepted likelihood that the Pacific Ocean dilutes the leaked radioactive material; as opposed to (2) the radiation leaked as a result of the tsunami will become a national...
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...POLLUTION 2 Effects of Water Pollution Industrial development and production in western first-world countries has long ago reached the level when it is able to dramatically affect the environment. Among such industryrelated problems as air pollution, soil contamination, radioactive waste, and so on, the problem of low-quality water stands as one of the first places in terms of its importance for the survival of humankind. Therefore, information about the negative effects of water pollution should be not only studied, but spread among the general populous, taken into consideration, and prevented. One of the biggest problems connected to poor water quality is that entire food chains are drastically affected or even become extinct because of increased toxicity. Such pollutants as lead or cadmium get into water, and contaminate microorganisms living in it. These microorganisms are consumed by bigger species – such as plankton – which, in its turn, is eaten by even larger animals, and so on. Eventually, this chain leads to human beings, because people all over the world consume fish and seafood. Thus, by polluting oceans people worsen their overall wellbeing. Another problem connected to the contamination of water is the disruption of entire ecosystems. An ecosystem is the way of interaction between creatures that inhabit a certain area, and depends on each other. Water pollution can severely damage the subtle connections between the living species inhabiting certain...
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...Marco Crespo Professor Joyce Martin En12 07 February, 2014 Phytoremediation: Seeing Through a Beneficial Solution An accident happened on April 26, 1986, when a unexpected surge of power during a system test destroyed unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl in Ukraine, former Soviet Union. A devastating amount of radioactive material was released into the environment. 30 kilometres around the plant around the plant was closed after the accident. About one hundred fifteen thousand people were evacuated around 1986 and in the following years, about two hundred thousand more were also forced to vacate. Sadly, the problem did not end there. Three years after the incident, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assessed the situation around the Chernobyl. Toxic metals and radioactive emission like iodine, cesium-137, plutonium and strontium were found in the plants, soil and even animals. Ever since 1991, the Canadian Nuclear Association also noted that there is a sudden increase in the rate of thyroid cancer. This is happened because cesium-137 or radioactive cesium, with a mass number of 137, has the capability to enter the food chain and can be delivered around an internal dosage of radiation before it can be metabolically eliminated. To prevent this from spreading, livestock were only fed plants that are uncontaminated or plants that cannot accumulate heavy metals. After that, a method was introduced to clean the soil from the toxins. This is called...
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...environmental issue any more, as the pollutants are being dumped in the environment at a rate which far exceeds the rate at which it can accommodate them. Causes The factors which contribute to environmental pollution exist in plenty. While air pollution is attributed to burning of fossil fuels, water pollution is associated with drainage of waste. Similarly, noise pollution is caused when the level of noise crosses certain decibels, and soil pollution or land pollution is caused as a result of contamination of soil due to the introduction of chemicals in the same. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on agricultural land results in contamination of soil. These chemicals stay in the soil for a long time and eventually come in contact with our body through the food that we consume, which is grown in the polluted soil. While thermal pollution is attributed to its use as coolant by power plants and industries, radiation pollution is attributed to accidents involving radioactive substances as a result of human error. That, however, is just a brief explanation, and each of these causes of pollution are attributed to numerous human activities. For instance, air pollution is caused when various harmful gases are released in the atmosphere from industrial plants and automobiles. The concept of water pollution includes the...
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