Straight Talk

Explosion may have damaged containment at Japan nuclear reactor, IAEA says

by Stephen Hui on March 15th, 2011 at 9:59 AM
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      The third explosion at the earthquake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan may have damaged the primary containment vessel of one reactor, the United Nations nuclear watchdog says.

      "After explosions at both Units 1 and 3, the primary containment vessels of both Units are reported to be intact. However, the explosion that occurred at 04:25 UTC on 14 March at the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 may have affected the integrity of its primary containment vessel. All three explosions were due to an accumulation of hydrogen gas," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement today (March 15).

      Amid fears of a nuclear meltdown, the IAEA noted that a fire occurred at the No. 4 reactor after the blast at reactor No. 2.

      "An evacuation of the population from the 20-kilometre zone around Fukushima Daiichi is in effect. The Japanese have advised that people within a 30-km radius shall take shelter indoors. Iodine tablets have been distributed to evacuation centres but no decision has yet been taken on their administration," the agency stated.

      "A 30-kilometre no-fly zone has been established around the Daiichi plant. Normal civil aviation beyond this zone remains uninterrupted. The Japan Coast Guard established evacuation warnings within 10 kilometres of Fukushima Daiichi and 3 kilometres of Fukushima Daini."

      In an earlier statement today, the IAEA said that radiation levels have decreased at the Fukushima site.

      "At 00:00 UTC on 15 March a dose rate of 11.9 millisieverts (mSv) per hour was observed. Six hours later, at 06:00 UTC on 15 March a dose rate of 0.6 millisieverts (mSv) per hour was observed," the agency noted.

      According to Reuters, officials in Tokyo have reported that radiation levels in the capital, which lies 240 kilometres south of Fukushima, rose to 10 times normal in the wake of the blasts.

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      Comments

      6 Comments

      amazed

      Mar 15, 2011 at 10:24am

      Nuke advocates are still in denial about the stupidity of nuclear power and are still clinging onto the black swan illusions of nuclear power giving us an infinity supply of energy when uranium is a finite resource (uranium miners are pushing it and are corrupt). Nuclear is just making the world more unsustainable and over populated.

      amazed says, keep up the denial, seth and others

      Mar 15, 2011 at 1:09pm

      "They do not have the situation under control," said Robert Alvarez, a nuclear expert at the Institute for Policy Studies and a former Energy Department official.

      The company's acknowledgement that a "suppression pool" at the bottom of Unit 2, designed to serve as a last line of defense against a meltdown, was believed to have been breached could represent a major escalation of the crisis, said Victor Gilinsky, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

      "If that is true, then there is a path to the control room, the workers and the outside environment," he said.

      The cooling problems at Unit 2 represent the most serious development yet in the crisis at the plant, said nuclear specialist Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

      When the fuel rods get too hot and react with water, they produce hydrogen gas that vents from the reactor into the containment building. When enough hydrogen accumulates, it becomes explosive. Containment buildings around two other reactors at the Fukushima complex already suffered explosions, on Saturday and Monday.

      Engineers had begun using fire hoses to pump seawater into the Unit 2 reactor — the third at the plant to receive the last-ditch treatment — after the emergency cooling system failed. Company officials said workers were not paying sufficient attention to the process, however, and let the pump stall, allowing the fuel rods to become partly exposed to the air.

      Once the pump was restarted and water flow was restored, another worker inadvertently closed a valve that was designed to vent steam from the containment vessel. As pressure built up inside the vessel, the pumps could no longer force water into it and the fuel rods were once again exposed.

      Four officials from Tokyo Electric Power in dark suits and looking somber began their nationally televised news conference hours after the onset of the problems at the Unit 2 reactor by bowing and apologizing for the worry caused.

      In something of a contradiction, officials at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that, even in a worst-case scenario, the three troubled reactors at Fukushima had been depressurized by the release of radioactive steam, which would decrease the destructiveness of any breach, according to Kyodo News.

      But other nuclear experts said it remained possible that an overheated uranium core in any of these reactors could melt down and breach its containment vessel, exposing the environment to a radioactive plume.

      Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Japan+fears+nuclear+disaster+after+reac...

      amazed says

      Mar 15, 2011 at 4:08pm

      I feel better now Fan'o Truth, pop a couple iodine pills, nothing at all to worry over. None of the operators will likely live more than two of three years after this incident. How long did the response team live after the Chernobyl incident and is the land inhabitable around Chernobyl? Use some common sense, nobody is going admit how bad it is to avoid a panic in Japan and it is very bad. I forgot, most people lack common sense or would rather put their heads in the sand to avoid the reality. There there let me tuck you in bed, here is your warm bottle of milk.

      worriedinwa

      Mar 16, 2011 at 1:04am

      They keep denying anything terrible has happened. History repeats itself again and again. Keep going, creating new ways to fix old problems and create new ones, ahh the cycle.

      morechitlins

      Mar 16, 2011 at 10:01am

      Hey guys, I skyped with my friend in Japan who was evacuated since he was around 30km of that area. All this news you're reading is a bunch of fear mongering BS. My friend said everything is pretty much under control. The elevated radiation levels he says aren't even harmful (1% of the TSA scanners).

      Read this: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=277801&id=504383283&saved#!/notes/...