Angelo McCaw 1

The Ethics of Fukushima Fukushima had a strong impact on Japan. It was one of the largest nuclear plant facilities, but in March 2011, the plant took significant damage from an earthquake that was rated a 9.0 on the Richter scale. Since this event, the world has witnessed various workers try to prevent any exposure or damage to people around the plant, and that has been rather difficult. Though the majority of these problems started after being struck by a natural disaster, there could have been some kind of precautions taken before this disaster. The work done after the fact to prevent any further problems should have been intact immediately a problem was discovered. During the time span of building the nuclear plant to its present, there are ethical principles that could have been considered or used when addressing problems and solutions. The idea behind the plant was to use the energy as power for the people; that are what the majority of nuclear plants and multiple other plants are used for. Merely because it is for the people does not mean that the energy is free. For the majority of places, you will have to pay to use the amount of energy used. Fukushima has worked with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to distribute energy for the country since World War II. TEPCO has expanded its various ways of generating energy to water, fuel, and nuclear. Many companies worked together for this nuclear plant project but TEPCO was supposed to cover the maintenance side. Being that they were ensuring that the facility would run under certain provisions, TEPCO has not withheld their earthquake standards with Fukushima. It is possible that this could suggest falsified paper work or bad reports submitted but that needs to be taken into account by their office in the midst of this recovery. The law should work to eradicate the radiation effects from within the people first because there is a plan available for the plant that will better executed within time. The people should earn more concern to show that the plants end is not as

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much of a loss. TEPCO has also just confirmed that they would take responsibility. Because of relevant history with the project, it seems as though they should. In 2002, the company was suspected of falsifying 29 cases of safety repair records. These same needed safety repairs could have prevented the meltdown sparked initialized from the earthquakes. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, wrote in the report released 4th of July 2012 in Tokyo, It could and should have been foreseen and prevented. And its effects could have been mitigated by a more effective human response. Because of these events, many of Japans atomic plants are also looking for an improvement of earthquake standards as well. The operators reported combined losses of 1.6 trillion yen ($20 billion) in the year ended March owing to safety shutdowns of the countrys 50 reactors and higher fuel bills when they started up gas and oil-fired plants. (Inajima, Adelman, and Okada) Though the company is at a loss, it should still be in their best interest to fix what has occurred for the people it affects the most. The system is also set up for the company rather than the people in its vicinity. (Willacy) The various businesses involved are more in a better stand monetarily than the actual people that were affected by this disaster. People with more to savor and opportunities of safety should work to help. There is one thing that the public can do as of now. TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima plant, is handing out "temporary compensation" payments - money handed out to victims of the meltdowns, but which must be repaid. Aslihan Tumer, Greenpeace's international nuclear project leader, says some of the companies are continuing to profit from the reactor. "General Electric designed Fukushima Mark 1 reactor, and both GE, Hitachi and Toshiba built and continued servicing the reactor, and they are also still making, in some cases, money out of the cleaning efforts, as well as the contamination." With the operator TEPCO effectively nationalized, the Japanese taxpayer is now picking up most of the compensation bill for the

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disaster. (Willacy) I can see where this is for the businesses end benefit. The businesses do not want to lose large amounts of money without knowing it can earn it back. Though the residents were given this temporary compensation that must be repaid, it could be very well used for their health, but at what cost? Treating radiation in a home and for multiple people can be expensive. Citizens that possess and use for work are at more of a disadvantage. As more contamination is found in the country, sales of produce and milk are banned, leaving these citizens without any way to generate income. Even if it is not safe, I need my fields for my work. I have no other place to go. I dont even want to think about escaping from my land, He told the New York Times. I cant keep going for too long, said Kenzo Sasaki, 70, who estimates that he is losing nearly $31,000 not including the cost of feeding his herd for every month that the sales ban continues. Across town, Shoichi Abe, 62, milks about 30 cows in his own dingy barn. He has been unable to sell his 1,100 pounds of daily production since the March 11 earthquake damaged the milk-processing plant at the local farm co-op. Now the government has extended that prohibition indefinitely. Mr. Abe said, Its costing us 70,000 yen a day about $860. (Willacy) As if money was already short, some citizens may not have access to drinking water. Residents were advised not to drink the tap water. After radioactive iodine was detected in Tokyos water supply the government issued a warning that infants should not consume the citys tap water there. This announcement was made after water with 210 Becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram was found in water from a treatment plant in Katsushika Ward in Tokyo. The safe limit for infants is 100 becquerel's of radioactive iodine per kilogram, and 300 for adults becquerels per kilogram. The safe limit and fears about spreading contamination from a crippled nuclear plant led to a panicked rush to buy water in Tokyo. So much bottled water was bought it became

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scarce nationwide, Japanese authorities considered a plan to import bottled water from overseas. (Hayes) Countries that have citizens with jobs that affect a percentage of the other citizens working should definitely receive some help. You had a purpose to provide something essential but if that is no longer possible for you by law, it should not be held against you by law either. There should be more to do with regards to Public Safety. Utilitarianism would show support of the public being served because the majority of people would acquire the happiness and benefit of the situation. The people of the city need to be helped after understanding that they did nothing wrong and the building has its issues. In the eyes of virtue ethics, there are the cardinal virtues to encounter. If this situation was to occur on US soil, though I would hope not, various health evacuations and protocol will be taken into account while trying to act quickly for first exposure. That was done similarly in Japan but there is not a FEMA within their government for the people in the mean time. There must be some kind of justice done towards the people of that town seeing that it is not fair they are without necessary natural resources With regards to the future, Japan wants to build an offshore wind farm to replace the nuclear plant. Wind power is going to be a lot safer than nuclear power, but the main hope is that it will suffice the prior market. Over the next two years, the Japanese government will continue taking incremental steps to prove the floating offshore turbine technology, testing three additional types of floating turbine technology. The best-performing turbine type may then be chosen to power a larger offshore wind farm up to 1,000 MW located off the Fukushima coastline. (Del Franco) Japan has done research on wind power with America in the past and agrees that there could be positive results from doing so. The hope is that these wind turbines will help overcome and outperform the work done with nuclear power. Depending on how this is accomplished and if this is accomplished, there will be more effort put towards the wind farm.

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Japan has had a strong fall within the country. Financially, the cost of damages and recovery is still being calculated and the repairs that are trying to be met currently. The failing of the Fukushima plant is a terrible event affecting many lives and much more, but hopefully there can be some real aid given by the country and health studies. Having to leave your home and knowing you cannot return because of radiation should allot you some help. If it is outside of your control, you should be able to get help through the situation, or there should be some aid given to those that ask..

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Bibliography Hayes, Jeffrey. "Impact Of Fukushima Radiation On Farmers, Food, and Water." Facts and Details. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=1753>. Inajima Tsuyoshi, Jacob Adelman, and Yuji Okada. "Fukushima Disaster Was Man-Made, Investigation Finds." Bloomberg. N.p., 5 Jul 2012. Web. 10 Apr 2013. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-05/fukushima-nuclear-disaster-was-manmade- investigation-rules.html>. Willacy, Mark. "Residents paying back Fukushima compensation." ABC News. N.p., 19 Feb 2013. Web. 12 Apr 2013. <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-19/companies-notpaying-compensation-at-fukushima/4528150>.