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| Daichi Nuclear Reactor No. 4, Fukushima-ken, Japan - pre-March 11, 2011. |
The title of this blog is implying how one thing leads to another. A 9.0 earthquake, A 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami, no power to the six Fukushima Daichi nuclear reactors, partial meltdown, release of radiation into the air, near total-disaster, coming back from the brink, a couple of solutions are coming very soon.
And that's where we are. Of course, Japan still is looking for survivors, the dead, trying to recreate its infrastructure: roads, water, sewage; feed people. Find shelter for people... it seems so stupid to trivialize it in a mere sentence, doesn't it?
As of today, the earthquake and tsunami have caused the death of some 6,500 people, with another 10,300 still missing. As well, there are about 400,000 people homeless. Add in the fact that it's been pretty damn cold in Sendai - near-freezing temperatures and people living in tents or other make-shift shelters near the northeast coast, and well... it's not good. Lack of food, water, medicine and ways to keep warm thanks to a shortage of electricity.
Let's look closer at the danger Japan is currently facing - nuclear.
I'm not going to get into a debate over the merits of nuclear power. I'm not going to get into a debate about building nuclear reactors on an island known to suffer earthquakes. Just know that the Daichi nuclear reactors in Okuma-machi (town of Okuma), Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture) were designed and tested (somehow) to withstand a 7.9 Richter Scale earthquake. That's a pretty damn strong earthquake, but obviously, no one anticipated a 9.0 temblor. Is that anyone's fault? Yes, but what the heck is the country supposed to do to create power for itself. Canada has a lot of hydro electric, but we also have nuclear power. In the U.S., there's gas, oil, coal, wind, hydro-electric and nuclear.
(As an aside - everyone talks about the merits of the electric car. It is great. However... in the US, with some 60% of it's electricity generated from coal burned and turned into steam via turbine to generate electricity... you're going to get more bad crap in the air from the burning of coal to run your electric car than if it was just run on gas. So there.)
The photo above shows off the Daichi No. 4 nuclear reactor in Fukushima-ken. It looks nice.
Now take a look at the next two photos. Taken a few days apart when things started to hit the proverbial fan. Yeesh.
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| Daichci reactor No. 4, as of March 14, 2011 |
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| Daichi reactor No. 4, as of March 17, 2011 |
As of Friday, March 18, Japanese engineers believe that an effective way to prevent a major radiation leak would be to bury the whole plant in sand and concrete - just like what the Soviets did in Chernobyl back in 1986. Of course, burying it is considered a last resort.
Part of the problem with burying the reactors in concrete is that radiation levels would still be high - and would mean having to essentially fence off that part of the country for decades. There would be no nuclear explosion, however.
What has given nuclear officials hope, however, is the fact that workers are attempting to fix the power cables leading into two of the reactors - hopefully by Saturday (today) - which will enable plant workers to restart the water pumps. The water pumps in the reactors are used to pump water all over the nuclear fuel rods to keep them cool. It's when the rods start to over-heat and melt, well, that's called a meltdown, and an explosion would be a-coming. Now... unlike Chernobyl, Japan's nuclear power plants have something called a containment shield. Granted it might not be enough to stop everything, but it is a heck of a lot better than what the poor Soviets (now Russians) had.
On Thursday, workers brought in vehicular portable water canons to spray at the reactors - as well as a pair of CH-47 Chinook Japanese self-defense helicopters carrying scooped seawater to dump on the plants - and it did what it needed to do... with steam visibly rising from the damaged buildings, it means that something got cooled.
On Friday, workers continued to spray water at Daichi No. 3 - the most critical of the six nuclear reactors at the facility owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The company is trying to restore power to the water pumps at Daichi No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 by Saturday. It is hopeful that No. 3 will be connected by Sunday.
By the way... look at the photos again... and realize that these images are for Daichi nuclear reactor No. 4... which isn't even the one that is really in bad shape. The bad one, again, is No. 3. Holy crap.
And - I'm unsure why they are doing this now when things are seemingly more optimistic - but Japan raised the severity rating on the INES international scale. With seven being the most severe (Chernobyl), Japan has raised its rating from a 4 to a 5... which if you are keeping count is what the U.S. rated the infamous Three Mile Island disaster (Unit No. 2 near Middleton, Pennsylvania) back on March 28, 1979.
Somewhere hoping Japan doesn't need to make concrete plans,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by Diana Ross. Should you be so inclined, you can see a young and skinny Diana HERE.
PS: All photos are hand-outs from the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
