Four years ago today, Japan was hit by a massive earthquake that registered 8.9 on the Richter scale and spawned a series of tsunami waves along the coast.
The tsunami waves reached run-up heights (how far the wave surges inland above sea level) of up to 128 feet (39 meters) at Miyako city and traveled inland as far as 6 miles (10 km) in Sendai. The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles (561 square kilometers) in Japan.
The waves overtopped and destroyed protective tsunami seawalls at several locations. The massive surge destroyed three-story buildings where people had gathered for safety. Near Oarai, the tsunami generated a huge whirlpool offshore, captured on video.
Of course, the most devastating damage, still being felt today and for the foreseeable future, was to the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The tsunami caused a cooling system failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which resulted in a level 7 nuclear meltdown and release of radioactive materials. About 300 tons of radioactive water continues to leak from the plant every day into the Pacific Ocean, affecting fish and other marine life.
The Green News Report‘s Desi Doyen joined me this morning to talk about the progress made in the wake of the Fukushima disaster (most notably in Germany), and the lack of progress, underscored by our failure to learn from our mistakes (most notably right here in the US and, ironically, in Japan).
I’ve had the opportunity to talk with preeminent nuclear educator, Dr. Helen Caldicott about the problems from Fukushima (and nukes in general) twice on this program. I figured that today was as good as any day to re-post the interviews here.
The first one was recorded Sept 20, 2013
The second one, just two weeks ago, on February 23, 2015. (The segment with Dr. Caldicott begins at around the 30 minute mark)
In the first hour, Susie Madrak joined me to talk a bit more about Hillary Clinton’s email issue – according to Republicans, a HUGE problem, and according to most others, just business as usual in the US of A. We also talked about the #47traitors in the Senate who signed on to Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran.
Never a dull moment!
Tomorrow, Jeff Sharlet joins me to talk about his latest for GQ about the “Men’s Rights Movement” (not kidding!), and to counter that, Amy Simon of She’s History brings some estrogen to the proceedings… radio or not!
