A person who is believed to be have been contaminated is escorted to a radiation-treatment center.Photo: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
_______________________________________________________________________________Melting Fuel Rods in Three Reactors Raise Fear of Nuclear Disaster in Japan
3/14/11nymag.com
Japanese officials said nuclear fuel rods appear to be melting inside all three of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano: "Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening." The plant suffered its second reactor explosion in three days on Monday as technicians frantically tried to jury-rig a new cooling system. Operators have resumed pumping seawater into reactor 2, but fuel rods may have been exposed for more than two hours after the pump's fuel ran out. Full meltdowns, in which molten nuclear fuel melts its way through containment vessels, could release catastrophic amounts of radiation, putting first responders and those attempting to fix the problem in even more danger. However, according to the BBC, experts say a Chernobyl-scale disaster is unlikely "because the reactors are built to a higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures." What happens when those safety measures fail? We may be about to find out.
The scary developments in Japan have prompted some excellent explainers about nuclear power and the dangers posed by the damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactors — especially useful for those of us whose knowledge is limited, as Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker noted, to what we've seen on The Simpsons.
READ MORE
___________________________________________________________________________
JAPAN CLAIMS: Fukushima Reactor Intact After Hydrogen Explosion; Meltdown Still Possible
ByMar 14, 2011
Japan said the Fukushima Dai-Ichi No. 3 reactor is intact after an explosion, while operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said a meltdown remains possible at the station 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of the capital.
The vessel containing the reactor’s radioactive core is intact after the blast at 11:01 a.m. local time, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said today. A meltdown may occur should the reactor’s fuel rods remain exposed, Tokyo Electric Managing Director Akio Komori said at a separate press briefing.
The likelihood of a large radiation leak is very small, even as radiation levels at the No. 3 reactor are rising, said Edano, the government’s spokesman. Tokyo Electric said at least four employees and two contractors were injured in the blast.
Asia’s largest utility is seeking to avoid a meltdown of at least two reactors at the nuclear power station by flooding them with water and boric acid to eliminate the potential for a catastrophic release of radiation into the atmosphere. The cooling system failed at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors after the March 11 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in Japan.
The cooling system at the No. 2 unit has also stopped, the Yomiuri newspaper reported today, citing information received by Fukushima prefecture.
Shares Slump
Tokyo Electric shares slumped 24 percent. Today’s explosion followed a similar blast on March 12 after a hydrogen leak at the station’s No. 1 reactor. That blast destroyed the walls of the reactor building and injured four workers. No damage was reported to the container of the No. 1 unit, Tokyo Electric said.
There are six boiling-water reactors at the Fukushima Dai- Ichi station, three of which were shut for maintenance before the earthquake. Unit No. 1 is a General Electric Co. model that can generate 439 megawatts of power and began commercial operation in 1971, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The No. 2 reactor was built by GE Toshiba and the No. 3 by Toshiba Corp.
The residual heat removal system for the No. 1 reactor has recovered, and they have started the process of cooling the unit, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said in a statement today. Sea water is still being pumped into the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors, it said. Flooding the reactors with sea water renders them useless for future power production.
Sea Water Retained
Tokyo Electric said the sea water used to cool the two reactors is being retained at the station. “We will look into what we will do about the water,” spokesman Shogo Fukuda said by telephone today.Japanese officials yesterday evacuated more than 200,000 people and handed out iodine, used to protect the thyroid from radioactivity, as they extended an exclusion zone around the plant to 20 kilometers.
Winds in the area of the Fukushima plant are blowing at less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) per hour generally in a northeasterly and northerly direction, according to a 9 a.m. update from the Japan Meteorological Agency today.
The disaster at Fukushima isn’t the first quake-related accident for Tokyo Electric. A 6.8-magnitude temblor on July 16, 2007, caused a fire and radiation leaks that shut down the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s biggest. It took almost two years to restart.
READ MORE
.
.
.
.
.
(PRESS PLAY>) LIVE STREAMING VIDEO
___________________________________________________________________________
.
.
___________________________________________________________________________
Another reactor at Fukushima nuke plant loses cooling functions
TOKYO, March 13, Kyodo
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday another reactor of its quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plants had lost its cooling functions, while at least 15 people at a nearby hospital were found to have been exposed to radioactivity.The utility supplier notified the government early Sunday morning that the No. 3 reactor at the No. 1 Fukushima plant had lost the ability to cool the reactor core. The reactor is now in the process of releasing radioactive steam, according to top government spokesman Yukio Edano.
It was the sixth reactor overall at the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants to undergo cooling failure since the massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck Japan on Friday.
The disaster raised fears over radioactive leaks from the plants after cooling systems there were hampered, most seriously at the No. 1 reactor.
An explosion Saturday at the No. 1 plant blew away the roof and the walls of the building housing the No. 1 reactor's container.
The government and nuclear authorities said there was no damage to the steel container housing the troubled No. 1 reactor, noting that the blast occurred as vapor from the container turned into hydrogen and mixed with outside oxygen.
Tokyo Electric Power has begun new cooling operations to fill the reactor with sea water and pour in boric acid to prevent an occurrence of criticality. Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said in a press conference Sunday morning that there had been no major changes in the results of monitoring radioactivity near the No. 1 reactor.
Following the explosion, the authorities expanded from 10 kilometers to 20 km the radius of the evacuation area for residents living in the vicinity of the Fukushima plants.
The Fukushima prefectural government said Saturday that three people had their clothes contaminated with radioactive substances while fleeing from the No. 1 nuclear plant.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Sunday that 15 people were found to have been contaminated at a hospital located within 10 km from the No. 1 reactor. Edano said there was a possibility that nine people who fled on a bus had been exposed to radioactivity.
___________________________________________________________________________
NUCLEAR EMERGENCY VIDEO
.
.
.
______________________________________________________________________________
Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth's axis
March 12, 2011_________________________________________________________________________
(CNN) -- The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.
"At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).
The temblor, which struck Friday afternoon near the east coast of Japan, killed hundreds of people, caused the formation of 30-foot walls of water that swept across rice fields, engulfed entire towns, dragged houses onto highways, and tossed cars and boats like toys. Some waves reached six miles (10 kilometers) inland in Miyagi Prefecture on Japan's east coast.
The quake was the most powerful to hit the island nation in recorded history and the tsunami it unleashed traveled across the Pacific Ocean, triggering tsunami warnings and alerts for 50 countries and territories as far away as the western coasts of Canada, the U.S. and Chile. The quake triggered more than 160 aftershocks in the first 24 hours -- 141 measuring 5.0-magnitude or more.
The quake occurred as the Earth's crust ruptured along an area about 250 miles (400 kilometers) long by 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide, as tectonic plates slipped more than 18 meters, said Shengzao Chen, a USGS geophysicist.
Japan is located along the Pacific "ring of fire," an area of high seismic and volcanic activity stretching from New Zealand in the South Pacific up through Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coasts of North and South America. The quake was "hundreds of times larger" than the 2010 quake that ravaged Haiti, said Jim Gaherty of the LaMont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
. Click Here to Read More.
__________________________________________________________________________
.
.
.
__________________________________________________________________________
Reciprocal links:
http://HermannHearsay.blogspot.com/(Hermann Area News, Commentary & Discussion)
Post views:
No comments:
Post a Comment