By Dayonte Dixon –
Many people have heard of the devastation that occurred in Japan.
Recently there was a 9.0 earthquake in Japan, but the worst of it was that it set off a 30-foot tsunami that wiped out much of northeastern Japan.
And the bad news continues even after the earthquake and tsunami.
That alone killed more than 10,000 people and left many without food to eat or clean water to drink.
Raya Aya, who teaches Japanese to Penn Manor student Jing Li through a cyber arrangement, lives in Tokyo.
“The earthquake and the tsunami itself were huge,” said Raya. “Can you imagine that you would be the one looking for the loved one in a deserted area for a week.”
Even more bad news is that it shut down the power at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan. There have been many different suggested scenarios that could happen according to the news in Japan.
The Obama administration has rushed the most sophisticated devices to detect problems at the site.
The devices were strapped onto a plane or helicopter and flew over the plant. The devices detected harmful radiation in the immediate vicinity of the plant. The United States warned its citizens to stay at least 50 miles away from the plant at all times.
At this time the United State’s biggest fear is that the efforts by Japanese military to get water into four of the six reactors of the plant has failed. Also that the Japanese have failed to get electricity back in the plant so that the reactors would be able to function.
“There is no danger for us because the radiation (from the nuclear plant in Japan) won’t reach this far.” Said Brock Kauffman, senior at Penn Manor high school.
Just to be safe, president Obama has ordered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of the nuclear plants in the United States.
Experts from the United States and Tokyo met to compare notes on the issue and the United States suspect that the company has underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage.
Even as recent as Tuesday smoke was spotted coming out of the building that houses the number three reactor, the most badly damaged of the plant’s half-dozen reactors. It tapered off after two hours, but more smoke was seen near reactor number two, about 20 minutes later, according to officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
A senior at Penn Manor High School, Peter Ashworth says “I think they (Japan) are telling the truth, but I doubt they’re telling all of it… that’s what most countries do.”
Authorities concluded that the smoke was just steam, but also acknowledged that the radiation of the plant had spread one kilometer west.
Authorities have forced workers to evacuate and also have taken further steps so that the radiation doesn’t effect the people. But higher than normal levels of radiation has been detected in local produce.
America is safe