Despite a disaster drill held a week before the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was ill-prepared, according to a new report.
After the twin disasters hit the area around the plant, it affected the workings of the Dai-ichi facility in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture), causing it to spew radiation into the air and nearly suffer a meltdown.
The report, released on June 18 by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) noted that the plant was so ill-prepared that plant workers had bring protective gear and an emergency manual from far away buildings and also had to borrow equipment from a contractor already on-site.
The data is based on interviews with plant workers and plant data, showing just how desperate the plant workers were to control the plant. as they worked with unfamiliar equipment while fearing for their life from radiation exposure.
The earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and thus cooling systems needed to keep the nuclear reactors from melting down. As a result, three nuclear reactors suffered partial meltdowns and emitted several explosions each.
TEPCO has also been severely criticized for not acting quick enough to vent gases or adding sea water as a possible solution to keep the nuclear cores cool. A consideration was that adding sea water would permanently corrode and render the reactor useless - so there were financial concerns.
In a related story, see here for how the Tama Zoo in Tokyo prepared for a possible earthquake that came six days later. HERE
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph
After the twin disasters hit the area around the plant, it affected the workings of the Dai-ichi facility in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture), causing it to spew radiation into the air and nearly suffer a meltdown.
The report, released on June 18 by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) noted that the plant was so ill-prepared that plant workers had bring protective gear and an emergency manual from far away buildings and also had to borrow equipment from a contractor already on-site.
The data is based on interviews with plant workers and plant data, showing just how desperate the plant workers were to control the plant. as they worked with unfamiliar equipment while fearing for their life from radiation exposure.
The earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and thus cooling systems needed to keep the nuclear reactors from melting down. As a result, three nuclear reactors suffered partial meltdowns and emitted several explosions each.
TEPCO has also been severely criticized for not acting quick enough to vent gases or adding sea water as a possible solution to keep the nuclear cores cool. A consideration was that adding sea water would permanently corrode and render the reactor useless - so there were financial concerns.
In a related story, see here for how the Tama Zoo in Tokyo prepared for a possible earthquake that came six days later. HERE
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph
