Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown
The Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown, also known as the The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, was caused by an unprecedented triple disaster. Starting from a 9.0M earthquake that occurred off the northeast of Japan, it then triggered a large tsunami that rose a height over 30 meters, travelling as far as 10km inland. These disasters damaged Japan’s oldest nuclear power plant, prompting a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which claimed over 16,000 lives. It is the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 and only the second disaster to measure Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. There have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident, but over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes to ensure this.
- Serves as a good example of how seemingly unrelated events (an earthquake under the ocean) can trigger something as far removed as a stock market crash
- Large Earthquake occurred under the ocean off the coast of japan
- Earthquake create damage inland and a large Tsunami
- The Tsunami crashed into Japanese coast and disabled coiling systems at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station (amongst other damage)
- The plant could not cool itself and exploded / melted down
- The Tokyo Stock Exchange Crashed
Fukushima Global Currency Market Intervention
- The disaster weakened the Japanese stock markets and economy
- Japanese Insurance companies had to purchase yen to pay out claims - strengthening the yen
- The G7 countries sold yen and bought other currencies in order to weaken the Yen
- The weakened Yen gave Japan an economic Boost (cheaper exports) to help deal with the disaster