The Earthquake: 3/11/2011
2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake
March 11, 2011 2:46pm
A 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake happened 45 miles (75km) east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tohoku Region of Honsyu Island of Japan.
This earthquake triggered Tsunami with the waves as high as 124’ (37.9m) hit coasts of Japan 20 to 30 minutes after the earthquake. Some 5 story high tsunami traveled as much as 6 miles (10km) inland.
As of April 4th, there are over 12,000 people confirmed killed and another 15,000 people missing. 125,000 building were damaged or destroyed with over 250,000 people lost their homes.
There were multiple power plants that went out of commission due to the earthquake and tsunami. Most notable is the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.
Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant
Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant, Operated by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), first commissioned 1971 with six (6) boiling water reactors. This facility is considered one of the 15 largest nuclear power generation plants in the world. This plant was the first nuclear power plant designed, developed and operated by TEPCO.
The reactors for Units 1,2 and 6 were supplied by General Electric, 3 and 5 by Toshiba and 4 by Hitachi. All six reactors are designed by General Electric with architectural design done by Ebasco. All construction were done by Kajima.
The plant suffered major damage from the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami disabling the reactor cooling systems. This lead to nuclear radiation leaks and triggered the 20km evacuation zone surrounding the plant.
Fukushima 50
It is the name given to a group of people working at Fukushima No1 Nuclear Power Plant units 4 reactor left behind when 750 other workers were evacuated. On the 15th of March, additional workers, firefighters and Japanese Self Defense Force joined with original 50 workers. By the 18th, the number grew to 580 and by the 23rd there were more than 1,000 workers, firefighters and soldiers at Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.
The Fukushima 50 came from such companies as Toshiba, Hitachi, Kajima, TEPCO, Kandenko and many small companies that have contract with those big companies. 20 workers had suffered injuries on March 18th, including one exposed to large amount of ionized radiation from the vapor. 3 more were exposed to over 100mSv radiation.
Their mission is to stabilize the reactor and maintain cooling by using seawater while the team of people are trying to bring outside power to the plants to restart the cooling system
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Please DON'T STOP GIVING! Ganbare Japan!
On behalf of all of us at PSP, Inc. thank you for your contributions and sincerely appreciate your generosity. More donations are needed for those victims of this tragic event in Japan. Please DON'T STOP GIVING! Every dollar helps in these unfortunate times. Continue to make donations. Here are some of the organizations, to which you can make donations to:
