To be honest, I don't understand why they call it an internship. It is actually more like a field-trip rather than an internship. But anyway, I would gladly put this as an internship in my curriculum-vitae LOL. The journey of this internship was started from 27th of September. There were in total three places that we visited, first was Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute AIST (FREA), the second one was the tsunami-damaged area of Ishinomaki, and the last one was International Research Institute of Disaster Science which is located at Aobayama campus. Primarily the aim of this internship to gain experience and exposure of research from various disciplines which are collaborated to solve specific problems. That is the reason why the course is named "Multi-Interdisciplinary."
Our arrival at Fukushima was welcomed by the staff there, and they guided us to a lecture room for a short introduction about this facility. The director of the institute itself was the one who gave us the short lecture. So basically, FREA is an Institute established after Great East Japan Earthquake in Koriyama city, Fukushima under the umbrella of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) which aims to be a global innovation hub concerning renewable energy. Several potential renewable energy sources are studied and researched intensively to ensure its global usage in the near future. In FREA, the research topic consists of 6 main issues which are, Hydrogen Energy Carrier, Heat Utilization, Wind Power, Photovoltaic Power, Geothermal Energy, Shallow Geothermal and Hydrogeology.
I was particularly interested in Hydrogen Energy Carrier. So, the basic concept of Hydrogen Energy Carrier is to utilize hydrogen as an energy storage system. For example, energies obtained from a wind turbine, solar panel, and geothermal power are used to electrolyze water into Hydrogen and Oxygen. This Hydrogen takes a form of gas in which it is ready to use. The hydrogen is then compressed or transformed into other forms which have smaller volume such as fuel cell or ammonia. Japan aims for hydrogen society by 2020 in which Hydrogen will conquer the market of the Car industry. However, there is a catch here, the conversion energy obtained to hydrogen is pretty low up to now. And the technology itself is not cheap either, making it difficult to get into the market. Some people even being skeptical about this system. For example, Elon Musk. He thinks this system is redundant and not efficient because there is too much energy loss during the process. It would be more efficient if let say, the energy from the solar cell in the form of electricity is directly stored in a solid-state battery. So far, in term of efficiency, solid-state battery wins. But concerning energy density and performance, fuel cell wins. So, it is a race between the two of them. I am so excited to see which one will conquer the market.
After having a short tour around the facilities, we had a small discussion, and we departed to Ishinomaki. The moment I arrived at Ishinomaki, I was a bit shocked because everything was just flat, especially nearby the coastal area. Japan seems to be effective and efficient when it comes to building something, and yet even seven years after the tsunami, the progress of rebuilding Ishinomaki is still going on. It just showed me how devastating the tsunami was. Everything was wiped out into open flat ground. It gave me chill down to my spine only by seeing that scenery, imagining what would I do if I were in their shoes. The story of Ishinomaki was quite tragic to listen. So, two days before the tsunami happened, there had been an earthquake and evacuation alarm was delivered to everyone due to a prediction of a tsunami. Everyone successfully evacuated but the tsunami didn't happen. Two days later, an earthquake occurred again, and there was a tsunami alarm. Ironically, everybody was skeptical, and they thought it might be a false alarm again. So everybody stayed. Sadly, that was the fateful day. The story couldn't be worse than that. By listening to the story, I felt like I was slapped right on my face. I usually was typical of the person who might ignore that kind of alarm as well considering how inaccurate the prediction is. No matter how inaccurate a disaster alarm is, I realize that it is not something to joke about. From an engineering perspective, we should learn from this incident, and strive to level up our technology into perfection. And for the countermeasures, the government in Ishinomaki does not allow any civilization exists near the coastal area, everything is moved up into the higher area. They also built a taller wall at the beachfront and close to the river bank. With a better accuracy of the prediction method, coupled with improved strength and height of the water breakers, I hope Ishinomaki becomes more resilient to any tsunami in the future. Of course, we would pray that a tsunami will never happen again, but sometimes it is just inevitable as a part of nature itself.
On the last day, we visited the International Research Institute of Disaster Science at Aobayama. The first 30 minutes was a short lecture given by a researcher from Thailand. He showed us how He simulates a tsunami in a computer and observes its consequences. I just knew that even without an earthquake happened, a tsunami might occur as well. This usually occurs when the epicenter is located far enough from the coast, making the quake is undetectable, and there are no obstacles for the wave to travel in between. This kind of tsunami ever happened in Japan. For that, we have to rely on our satellite technology to detect the incoming tsunami. After He finished his presentation, we had a small discussion, and we watched a documentary film about the tsunami tragedy from the perspective of Ishinomaki local citizen. The story was heart-touching. It showed us how they lost their family and relatives, how everything was destroyed at an instant. Overall, I gained and learned a lot of things from this internship.
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