© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com
____________________________________________________

This is dedicated to all the victims of the recent Fukushima disaster in Japan. God bless them.
I took the photo in a park close to my home (Brussels, Belgium). I also made the quick miniature sketch based on the Fukushima nuclear plant site.

Some details of the above image HERE

See the whole "Pencil Vs Camera" album

More facts:

The "Fukushima nuclear accidents" are a series of ongoing equipment failures and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Reactors 4, 5 and 6 had been shut down prior to the earthquake for planned maintenance. The remaining reactors were shut down automatically after the earthquake, but the subsequent 14 metres tsunami flooded the plant, knocking out emergency generators needed to run pumps which cool and control the reactors. The flooding and earthquake damage prevented assistance being brought from elsewhere.

Evidence arose of partial core meltdown in reactors 1, 2, and 3; hydrogen explosions destroyed the upper cladding of the buildings housing reactors 1, 3, and 4; an explosion damaged the containment inside reactor 2; and multiple fires broke out at reactor 4. In addition, spent fuel rods stored in spent fuel pools of units 1–4 began to overheat as water levels in the pools dropped. Fears of radiation leaks led to a 20 kilometres (12 mi) radius evacuation around the plant. Workers at the plant suffered radiation exposure and were temporarily evacuated at various times. On 18 March, Japanese officials designated the magnitude of the danger at reactors 1, 2 and 3 at level 5 on the 7 point International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). Power was restored to parts of the plant from 20 March, but machinery damaged by floods, fires and explosions remained inoperable.

On 25 March, Japan's nuclear regulator announced a likely breach and radiation leak in the containment vessel of the unit 3 reactor, the only one at the plant using MOX fuel. World wide measurements of radioactive fallout released from the reactors were reported by New Scientist to be "nearing Chernobyl levels". It reported that the preparatory commission of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization had measured levels of iodine-131 at 73% and caesium-137 at 60% the levels released from the Chernobyl disaster. Food grown in the area was banned. Tokyo officials declared its tap water unsafe for infants for a short time. Plutonium has been detected in the soil around the plant in five locations. The soil samples were taken on 22 March 2011.

The IAEA announced on 27 March that workers hospitalized as a precaution on 25 March had been exposed to between 2 and 6 Sv of radiation at their ankles when standing in water in unit 3. The international reaction to the accidents was also concerned. The Japanese government and TEPCO have been criticized for poor communication with the public. On 20 March, the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano announced that the plant would be closed once the crisis was over.
Read more

Update: See THIS VIDEO showing some 18 Pencil Vs Camera images in progress (with a small animation and an original musical composition).
____________________________________________________

For more information about my artwork: info@benheine.com
____________________________________________________

Random features: