'On narrow roads to the north: a physicist travels to Fukushima': IOP Scotland Public Lecture

General event

'On narrow roads to the north: a physicist travels to Fukushima': IOP Scotland Public Lecture

  • Event time: 7:30pm
  • Event date: 20th November 2014
  • Speaker: (University of Glasgow)
  • Location: University of Glasgow

Event details

On 11 March 2011, the north-eastern region of Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. With an epicentre 20 miles underneath the sea, the earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the shorelines of Tohoku and claimed more then 16,000 lives.

But the Great Tohoku Earthquake is most remembered for the resulting nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear powerplant complex on the shorelines of Japan’s Fukushima Province. Scientists from the University of Glasgow are collaborating with Fukushima University in studying the radioactive pollution in this agriculturally-dominated province as well as the effectiveness of disaster remediation efforts.

This lecture will review the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the collaborative research undertaken by physicists from both universities as well as a personal account of the speaker’s travels through the evacuation zone.

Björn Seitz is a Senior Lecturer in the Nuclear Physics Group of the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. He conducts a wide range of research in experimental nuclear physics and the development of advanced detectors for fundamental and applied physics. He is highly active in schools and public engagement, and in 2014 was a guest speaker at the Orkney International Science Festival.

Lecture is free and open to all.

For further details see www.tinyurl.com/glasgow-iop

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