At 2:46 in the afternoon, on March 11th, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude
earthquake caused a 55.88 meters tsunami wave that reached 6 miles inland.
Houses and business buildings were reduced to piles of scattered wood, vehicles were carried away by the rushing water, and boats lay on the streets.
As
the water receded, debris and people were dragged back into the ocean. This
earthquake and the subsequent tsunami caused two of the nuclear reactors
closest to the epicenter to shut down. The inundation caused by the tsunami
also led to the failure of the backup generators.
With the power source and backup power source shut off, the reactor cores overheated
causing the fuel rods to partially melt and burn through the containment
vessels, exposing the nuclear material, releasing radiation into the atmosphere.
This and the accumulation of hydrogen gas set off a fire.
They
attempted to stabilize the reactors by pumping seawater into them. Drainage
from the water caused further contamination in the surrounding ocean causing the need for a mass evacuation from those lands as well. The official total of dead and missing was nearly 20,000.
Você pode gostar
