Fukushima Nuclear Disaster – Implications for Japanese Agriculture and Food Chains
Munich Personal RePEc Archive Fukushima nuclear disaster – implications for Japanese agriculture and food chains Bachev, Hrabrin and Ito, Fusao Institute of Agricultural Economics, Sofia, Tohoku University, Sendai 3 September 2013 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/49462/ MPRA Paper No. 49462, posted 03 Sep 2013 08:50 UTC Fukushima Nuclear Disaster – Implications for Japanese Agriculture and Food Chains1 Hrabrin Bachev, Professor, Institute of Agricultural Economics, Sofia, Bulgaria2 Fusao Ito, Professor, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan 1. Introduction On March 11, 2011 at 14:46 JST the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred with the epicenter around 70 kilometers east of Tōhoku. It was the most powerful recorded earthquake ever hit Japan with a magnitude of 9.03 Mw. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami that reached heights of up to 40 meters in Miyako, Iwate prefecture and travelled up to 10 km inland in Sendai area. The earthquake and tsunami caused many casualties and immense damages in North-eastern Japan. According to some estimates that is the costliest natural disaster in the world history [Kim]. Official figure of damages to agriculture, forestry and fisheries alone in 20 prefectures amounts to 2,384.1 billion yen [MAFF]. The earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear accident3 in one of the world’s biggest nuclear power stations - the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Okuma and Futaba, Fukushima prefecture. After cooling system failure three reactors suffered large explosions and level 7 meltdowns leading to releases of huge radioactivity into environment [TEPCO]. Radioactive contamination has spread though air, rains, dust, water circulations, wildlife, garbage disposals, transportation, and affected soils, waters, plants, animals, infrastructure, supply and food chains in immense areas.
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