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In press: April 2, 2012 IN PREPARATION Volume 8, Number 3 • FUKUSHIMA: ONE YEAR LATER On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, killing more than 20,000 persons, displacing tens of thousands, and causing havoc in the infrastructure and economy of the country. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the cooling systems of three of the operating reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station failed and meltdown of the reactor cores occurred. Over the following days, a series of hydrogen gas explosions took place. Radionuclides (mainly 131I and 137Cs) were released to the atmosphere and transported over many tens of kilometers from the site, contaminating soil and water. Seawater was used to cool the damaged reactor cores, and water contaminated with radioactivity was released to the ocean. Considerable amounts of used fuel were stored in nearby pools, and with the loss of water, the pools contributed to the release of radioactivity. One year after the tragedy at Fukushima, this issue of Elements provides a summary of what is known about the environmental impact of this nuclear accident. ____________________________________ A publication of the Mineralogical Society of America, the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Geochemical Society, the Mineralogical Association of Canada, The Clay Minerals Society, the International Association of GeoChemistry, the European Association of Geochemistry, the Société Française de Minéralogie et de Cristallographie, the Association of Applied Geochemists, the Deutsche Mineralogische Gesellschaft, the International Association of Geoanalysts, the Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrologia, the Polskie Towarzystwo Mineralogiczne (Mineralogical Society of Poland), the Sociedad Española de Mineralogía (Spanish Mineralogical Society), the Swiss Society of Mineralogy and Petrology, The Meteoritical Society, and the Japan Association of Mineralogical Sciences. |
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