ELECTRIC RE-LEAF
@AxleIngram
Tackling the motoring issues that matter
ON 11 March this year it will be the 10th anniversary of one of the worst disasters that Japan has ever endured. Earthquakes are common in the region, but the tremor in 2011, 43 miles off the North East Coast of Honshu island, was the largest the country had experienced since records began.
The earthquake measured nine on the Richter Scale and immediately caused damage to properties in the region, but the worst was yet to come. The violent shift in the ocean floor at the quake’s epicentre triggered a tsunami which, upon striking the coastline, caused unimaginable destruction.
Compounding the disaster was the damage to three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The initial emergency shutdown procedures jumped into action after the earthquake, and worked successfully. However, the resulting surge of water, with waves over 50ft high, overwhelmed the plant’s sea defences, knocking out the back-up generators that cooled the reactors.
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