Module 7 peer responses
Peer 1 Kayla
I chose the 2011 Fukushima Meltdown happened because of a 9.0 earthquake that triggered a tsunami in Japan. The wave overcame the nuclear powerplant and flooded the reactors. With the flooding of the reactor’s radiation leaked from the power plant forcing an evaluation of the area. The residents only had 10 minutes to evacuate before the tsunami hit and with the combined tsunami and the radiation leak a 500, 000 people were forced to leave the area. While there was a backup plan and the nuclear plant did detect the earthquake and emergency generators were activated, the flooding caused by the tsunami knocked out the generators causing chemical explosions which caused structural damage and then caused radioactive material to leak into the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean (BBC News, 2021). While there were no deaths because of the nuclear meltdown, 16 people were injured and it caused people to be exposed to radiation as efforts were made to “cool the reactors and stabilize the plant” (BBC News, 2021). The World Health Organization released reports that there were “no adverse health effects” that were reported among the residents of Fukushima there was a report of one worker who died after the exposure of radiation and the family was properly compensated (BBC News, 2021). While this was a natural disaster that caused a human error and there was an emergency plan in place, I don’t think that anyone would have created an emergency plan or protocol that would have guessed that an earthquake that caused a tsunami would have flooded the reactors. I think that this directly relates to the movie, because there was an emergency plan in place, it’s just the magnitude of the natural disaster was not considered. While Japan is used to tsunami’s, by the photo you can see just how close the water is to the nuclear power plant, while I can see that was likely a part of an emergency plan, it will cause significant problems as it did in the meltdown. Luckily no one died because of the explosion, so that is a plus, but the long-standing effects of this disaster are still in effect today. Honestly, it is hard to make a plan for EVERY POSSIBLE INSTANCE that could occur. No one can even think of all the scenarios, so while this was a man-made disaster and seen as a lack of planning, you can see safeguards were in place and there was at least a plan, the plan just failed.
Bibliography
BBC News. (2021, March 10). Fukushima disaster: What happened at the nuclear plant? Retrieved from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56252695
Peer 2 Melissa
The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is a warning tool in development that may be utilized by national, state, local and tribal governments, or anyone else in the IPAWS framework to send warnings and alerts to a geo-targeted population’s mobile phones. It is a receive-only system, that delivers Presidential, Imminent Threat, and Amber alerts and warnings to all cell towers in the area which are then received by cellular devices in the area. It is a great tool for delivering alerts and warnings to everyone in a specific area. However, like all warning systems, CMAS has its advantages and disadvantages.
CMAS is a great tool to reach everyone in an area. Using CMAS, the alert or warning issued is received by everyone with CMAS-capable phones close enough to the tower to which the message was sent. The CMAS-capable phones will receive the message if they are in the tower’s range, regardless of the phone carrier it uses. Another advantage of the system is that there is no subscriber cost. The system is free to everyone, no money needs to be paid out of pocket from subscribers to receive messages from CMAS.
The most important advantage of CMAS it’s zero impact on the load on cellular systems. CMAS utilizes cell broadcast technology to disseminate messages instead of SMS networks to avoid congestion. This is the most important advantage because it allows the system to continue being used during disasters. In a disaster event, cellular system load is increased, and at times overwhelmed, by victims calling out for help and reaching out to loved ones that may have been impacted to see if they’re okay. If the system was also using the SMS system, it would increase this load even further, and the message may be delayed reaching the population due to the traffic or not received at all. Since CMAS uses cell broadcast technology, it applies no extra strain on the cellular system and allows to system to continue being used to provide messages quickly and keep people safe.
While there are many benefits to the system, it comes with its own set of drawbacks, which is why the system is only operational in some areas and is not ready for widespread, active use. For instance, while most phones today have CMAS capabilities, some phones, especially older ones, may not work with the system. The populations carrying these non-CMS-capable phones are likely to be more vulnerable, such as the elderly or poor populations, leaving them unaware of hazards. In addition, the county is only currently capable of broadcasting to areas from the county level and up. It still cannot target smaller areas for isolated incidents, such as neighborhoods or cities.
The biggest disadvantage of CMAS is the message limitations. Messages have a limit of 90 characters of text and cannot include images or hyperlinks. This is problematic because 90 characters are extremely short, about 10-20 words. In many instances, alerts and warnings cannot be cut down to 90 words and still provide enough important information, especially when additional information cannot be attached to it in the form of a picture or hyperlink. Valuable information can easily be cut out from these messages or the need for more than one message may need to be disseminated, which could lead to confusion or misunderstanding. People need enough information to make informed decisions and protect themselves from harm.
(Word Count: 564)
References:
Capitalize My Title. (2021, July 14). How Many Words Is 90 Characters? Capitalize My Title. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://capitalizemytitle.com/character-count/90-characters/
Merrick, D. (2022, June). Alerts and Warnings. Google Docs. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17xmLrUt-hHoSJNdFByx2IOeltMddvFX2Y4GlS2OJzlY/edit#slide=id.p1.
