Japan's Nuclear Plant Suffered Triple Meltdown
Fukushima Plant Suffered Triple Meltdown
About 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area around the complex. Acting under advice from Tepco, the Japanese authorities only slowly expanded the evacuation area in March, from an initial 3km radius to 20km. Villages outside the zone are this month being emptied of their populations to escape radiation.
May 25, 2011
Irish Times - Engineers in Japan’s ruined Fukushima nuclear plant have revealed it suffered a triple meltdown in the four days after being battered by a huge earthquake and tsunami on March 11th.
The news confirms fears that reactor three, which contains controversial mixed uranium-plutonium fuel, known as Mox, was among the casualties of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Mox is considered thousands of times more toxic than uranium nuclear fuel.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said yesterday that most of the nuclear rods inside reactors two and three had melted and fallen to the bottom of their containment vessels. Last week the company admitted that most of the fuel rods in reactor one had melted after the plant’s cooling systems were knocked out.
“The situation inside two and three is almost the same,” said Tepco spokesman Yoshimi Hitosugi last night.The company said the fuel in reactor three took about 60 hours to melt. The reactor melted down 100 hours after the magnitude nine quake struck.
Critics suspect Japan’s largest utility concealed the extent of the damage to the five-reactor complex in the immediate aftermath of the disaster to avoid causing panic, a charge Tepco denies.
“Of course we assumed that there had been a meltdown inside the reactors but until we could confirm the data we were unable to release this information,” said Mr Hitosugi.
About 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area around the complex. Acting under advice from Tepco, the Japanese authorities only slowly expanded the evacuation area in March, from an initial 3km radius to 20km.
Villages outside the zone are this month being emptied of their populations to escape radiation.
Thousands of Fukushima residents confronted government officials in Tokyo this week to demand they reverse a decision to raise by 20 times radiation limits for schools in the area. The decision, which raises radiation exposure on children from 1 to 20 millisieverts per year – the maximum permitted dose for German nuclear workers – has caused bitter controversy.
“It’s already two months since the accident and our children have been exposed to so much radiation,” said housewife Mika Okano.
“It’s the government’s job to protect young people. Instead, they’re putting them in danger to defend nuclear power.”
Japan’s ministry of education has promised to review the decision in the summer holidays, but many parents said that would be too late.
“Would they send their own children to live in Fukushima?” asked Sumie Kojima? “It’s shameful that they would do this. They should evacuate everyone from the prefecture.”
Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Japan yesterday on a fact-finding tour. Among the issues they will be examining is the huge and growing stockpile of radioactive water – about 80,000 tons – pumped from the reactors, which Tepco engineers are struggling to reprocess or dump.
Fukushima: Melt Down in 3 Reactors and a Spent Fuel Radioactive Cocktail
May 24, 2011Grant Lawrence - As you might recall, the Japanese Tsunami was blamed for the nuke melt down at Fukushima. But it appears at least one nuclear reactor was in meltdown before the Tsunami. And it could also be that up to 3 nuclear reactors were in melt down before the Tsunami.
Japanese officials are now admitting that 3 reactors have been melting down from nearly the start of the crisis. But they lie so much it is hard to keep track of all their lies about Fukushima.
...In a belated acknowledgment of the severity of Japan’s nuclear disaster, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said Tuesday that three of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant’s reactors most likely suffered fuel meltdowns in the early days of the crisis.But reactors in meltdown are not the only problem at Fukushima.
The plant’s operator also said that it was possible that the pressure vessels in the three stricken reactors, which house the uranium fuel rods, had been breached as well...[Source: New York Times]
The radioactive waste, also known as spent fuel, in containment cells or "spent fuel pools" are damaged and is being released into the surrounding area.
....With the recent tragedy at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, legitimate questions are being asked about how utilities, the nuclear industry and governments are caring for spent nuclear fuel that remains dangerous for living beings for 100,000 years or longer.The news now is horrific. But keep in mind that this is just what we are being told. The truth would likely make for many sleepless nights for most intelligent people.
Unused nuclear fuel is made up of uranium mixed with low concentrations of the radioactive isotope of uranium (U-235) encased in hardened zirconium tubes. At some power plants, as is the case in one of the Fukushima reactors, U-235 is mixed with plutonium recovered from nuclear weapons. In either case, a portion of the fuel is “used up” in about 18 months and has to be replaced with fresh fuel.
The remains of uranium and plutonium fission are a cocktail of radioactive isotopes, including iodine, cesium, strontium, cobalt, krypton, molybdenum and about 20 other elements. Some of the elements are gases like iodine and krypton, while most are solids. Some of the radioactive materials decay quickly, while others last a very long time. Some are metabolized by living beings while others are inert. When removed from the nuclear reactor, the spent fuel is physically hot as well as radioactive.
In a belated acknowledgment of the severity of Japan’s nuclear disaster, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said Tuesday that three of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant’s reactors most likely suffered fuel meltdowns in the early days of the crisis. ....[Source: NewsReview.com]
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