This presentation was done for the course Advanced Listening and Speaking 2 of the ICPNA. Good morning miss and classmates. What I wanna do today is to talk you about Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor Disaster. In March 2011 was the 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku, that magnitude was 9.0 – 9.1. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan and triggered a powerful tsunami. The tsunami caused nuclear accidents, like the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactor Disaster. As you can see in that picture, there are two damaged reactors. What happened? The nuclear energy release a big quantity of heat, it needs cooling and water is employed to cool the nuclear reactor, at the same time these water move the turbines and generate electricity. When the tsunami happened, the cooling system fails, the temperature of the reactor was so high that the structure was damaged, the backup systems of cooling failed, the reactor began to overheat and exploded. Radiation was released in the air and water. Massive atmospheric emissions and hundreds of tonnes of contaminated water. Also, the reactor was so damaged making them impossible to restart. As you can see, the Fukushima Daiichi reactor is together to the sea. The risk of radiation was so big that towns, villages, and cities in and around the Daiichi nuclear plant exclusion zone had an evacuation. The international reaction was diverse and widespread, inter-governmental agencies immediately offered help, the nuclear energy was presented as unreliable and dangerous. For these reasons, no restarting this reactor was a political decision too. It could explan why the sister nuclear plant Fukushima Daini was shut down. To summary, Fukushima Daiichi reactor is being shut down for technical and political reasons. The reactor was so damaged that is impossible to restart and insist on it could be put the nuclear industry into the eye of the storm.

7. Should the Fukushima
Daiichi be repaired or closed?