The United Nations has asked a team of its nuclear experts to meet with Japanese officials on Tuesday, May 25, 2011 to visit the Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture) Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear facility that nearly suffered a meltdown as a result of generators losing power to cool the core in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Rumours abound that possibly all three of the reactors on-line at the time of the twin disasters may have had most of its nuclear fuel rods melt, implying that a major nuclear disaster may have been imminent.
The team will assess the nuclear facility and Japan's deadline (self-imposed) to stabilize it by early 2012.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the owner and operator of the Dai-ichi facility has released a report suggesting that the fuel rods in Unit 2 and Unit 3mostly melted during the early days of the crisis, which had beensuspected but not confirmed. Again, the report suggests, but still does not confirm.
The report also notes that it appears as though chunks of nuclear fuel may entered the inner containment chambers, or drywell, causing some damage which implies that the severity of the nuclear problem was understated, which is saying something considering it was already classified as a Level 7 nuclear problem--the worst it could get.
Last week, TEPCO had announced a similar finding of nuclear fuel chunks in Unit 1.
"We should have made a more cautious damage estimate based on a worse scenario," states Hosono Goshi (surname first), director of Japan's nuclear crisis task force.
When the nuclear reactor fuel rods in Units 1, 2 and 3 started melting after the tsunami knocked out its cooling systems, there were repeated releases and explosions of radiation into the air. Unit 4 was off-line but had a lot of spent and still radioactive fuelrods which needed cooling, while Unit 5 and Unit 6 were alreadyoff-line for maintenance before March 11 and were taken into a stateof cold shutdown by the end of March.
TEPCO says that the melted fuel rods that appear to have fallen into a lump at thebottom of each of the three pressure containment vessels, do not currently pose a problem because it is still covered with the water beingpumped into the chamber, and are at temperatures far below dangerouslevels.
Over two months later, the plant is still leaking radiation, but at much lower levels than immediately after the accident, and Japanese officials hope to bringthe entire plant to a cold shutdown--halting all radioactive leaks --by January 2012 at the latest.
The nuclear disaster has caused the evacuation of over 80,000 people from their homes 20-kilometers (12.5-miles) aroundthe plant, forcing many to live in makeshift rooming facilities like school .
For those that defy the evacuation order--and there are still a few out there--they face a fine of Y100,000 ($1,200 Cdn) or 30 days in detention... like in a school gymnasium? So far, no one has been arrested for violating the evacuation order. I'm guessing that no one wants to go into the evacuation zone, and even if they were unafraid, security officials do not want to create more ill will with the people of Japan affected by this problem.
TEPCO is still trying to determine what to do with the radioactive water leaking from the reactorcores into the reactor and turbine buildings, trenches and pits. The containers holding the radioactivewater pumped from those areas are almost full, which has led to worries that it could overflow and leak back into the sea again.
TEPCO plans to installreprocessing equipment to pump the contaminated water from the turbine basements where it is pooling and place it into the reactoras coolant.
As well, TEPCO plans to construct a special cover over each reactor building to contain radiation releases.
The Japanese government has appointed University of TokyoProfessor Hatamura Yotaro (surname first)--an expert on industrial disasters--to head a panel of outside experts to investigate the Fukushimaaccident.
The nuclear crisis has raised questions about Japan's poor showing of its nuclear industry, and has prompted Japan to scrap plans for it to rely on nuclear power for half its electricity needs. Currently, only one-third of Japan's electricity is derived from nuclear power.
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph.
Rumours abound that possibly all three of the reactors on-line at the time of the twin disasters may have had most of its nuclear fuel rods melt, implying that a major nuclear disaster may have been imminent.
The team will assess the nuclear facility and Japan's deadline (self-imposed) to stabilize it by early 2012.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the owner and operator of the Dai-ichi facility has released a report suggesting that the fuel rods in Unit 2 and Unit 3mostly melted during the early days of the crisis, which had beensuspected but not confirmed. Again, the report suggests, but still does not confirm.
The report also notes that it appears as though chunks of nuclear fuel may entered the inner containment chambers, or drywell, causing some damage which implies that the severity of the nuclear problem was understated, which is saying something considering it was already classified as a Level 7 nuclear problem--the worst it could get.
Last week, TEPCO had announced a similar finding of nuclear fuel chunks in Unit 1.
"We should have made a more cautious damage estimate based on a worse scenario," states Hosono Goshi (surname first), director of Japan's nuclear crisis task force.
When the nuclear reactor fuel rods in Units 1, 2 and 3 started melting after the tsunami knocked out its cooling systems, there were repeated releases and explosions of radiation into the air. Unit 4 was off-line but had a lot of spent and still radioactive fuelrods which needed cooling, while Unit 5 and Unit 6 were alreadyoff-line for maintenance before March 11 and were taken into a stateof cold shutdown by the end of March.
TEPCO says that the melted fuel rods that appear to have fallen into a lump at thebottom of each of the three pressure containment vessels, do not currently pose a problem because it is still covered with the water beingpumped into the chamber, and are at temperatures far below dangerouslevels.
Over two months later, the plant is still leaking radiation, but at much lower levels than immediately after the accident, and Japanese officials hope to bringthe entire plant to a cold shutdown--halting all radioactive leaks --by January 2012 at the latest.
The nuclear disaster has caused the evacuation of over 80,000 people from their homes 20-kilometers (12.5-miles) aroundthe plant, forcing many to live in makeshift rooming facilities like school .
For those that defy the evacuation order--and there are still a few out there--they face a fine of Y100,000 ($1,200 Cdn) or 30 days in detention... like in a school gymnasium? So far, no one has been arrested for violating the evacuation order. I'm guessing that no one wants to go into the evacuation zone, and even if they were unafraid, security officials do not want to create more ill will with the people of Japan affected by this problem.
TEPCO is still trying to determine what to do with the radioactive water leaking from the reactorcores into the reactor and turbine buildings, trenches and pits. The containers holding the radioactivewater pumped from those areas are almost full, which has led to worries that it could overflow and leak back into the sea again.
TEPCO plans to installreprocessing equipment to pump the contaminated water from the turbine basements where it is pooling and place it into the reactoras coolant.
As well, TEPCO plans to construct a special cover over each reactor building to contain radiation releases.
The Japanese government has appointed University of TokyoProfessor Hatamura Yotaro (surname first)--an expert on industrial disasters--to head a panel of outside experts to investigate the Fukushimaaccident.
The nuclear crisis has raised questions about Japan's poor showing of its nuclear industry, and has prompted Japan to scrap plans for it to rely on nuclear power for half its electricity needs. Currently, only one-third of Japan's electricity is derived from nuclear power.
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph.
