NHK confirmed that Japan has asked for international help in averting a major nuclear catastrophe. They need help cooling the reactors.
It’s interesting that most nuclear “experts” being interviewed around the world keep saying this could not turn into another Chernobyl. It sure looks like it’s possible to me.
Officials are reporting that a loud bang was heard from inside reactor 2, at Fukushima nuclear plant 1.
It is believed that it is the “Separation Chamber” cracking (some reports call it “Suppression Pool”, some called it the “Pressure Suppression Room”). Workers at the plant have been moved to “safer” positions, workers not directly involved with cooling efforts have been evacuated. An official said this chamber is a last line of defense for preventing higher levels of radiation leaking. He also said this could be the worst case scenario taking place.
It was explained that if the separation chamber is breached then contaminated coolant/water with higher levels of radiation can leak out. The chamber may have cracked due to the intense heat from the exposed fuel rods. The fuel rods had been fully exposed, more than once. Workers have been having trouble maintaining levels of coolant, even with pumping in sea water. Officials claim that the water levels have been brought back up, but at least 2 meters of the rods are still exposed.
Officials keep saying that radiation readings are safe, there in Japan. They fail to point out that the winds have been blowing the radiation clouds over the Pacific, towards Hawaii. If the winds shift, and blow the radiation towards Japan, then the radiation levels there would increase greatly. The U.S. Navy has moved their ships further away from Japan after several aircrews, on helicopters, were exposed to radiation.
NBC news reported that the reason the back up generators failed is because the fuel tanks were above ground tanks, and were swept away by the tsunami.
NHK reporting that reactor 2, at Fukushima plant 1, is no longer venting and attempts at cooling have failed. The reactor’s vents closed automatically and can not be opened. Sprayers spraying water on the rods stopped working.
U.S. Navy says U.S. helicopters were hit by radioactive plume while flying over coast line of disaster area. 17 service members tested positive for radiation contamination. The U.S. Navy is now moving their ships further away from Japan. At the time the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was 160km (100 miles) away.
Reuters is reporting that Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, has suspended an agreement that was meant to delay the closing of Germany’s older nuclear plants.
Merkel points to the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan as the reason. She has decided that Germany’s old nuclear plants need to be shut down, by their originally planned closure dates. Another German official suggests that the events in Japan may result in all nuclear power plants, in Germany, being shut down.
NHK is presenting an official ‘explainer’ of why the nuclear safety and backup systems failed. I’ll try to put it simply.
1: Earthquake triggered automatic shut down procedures, which involves raising/exposing fuel rods. This still requires cooling of the rods.
2: Cooling of raised rods failed because main power supply cut. Back up generators came on, but failed when tsunami hit the plants. They could not be restarted.
3: A third backup cooling system failed. This is a steam reclamation system that collects steam off the hot rods, condenses it to water, then sprays the water on the rods. It failed because coolant levels dropped too much for steam to be created. Officials say coolant levels might have leaked due to structural damage caused by the quake and tsunami. They can not be sure what happened to the coolant, until they can inspect the structures.
The failed safety & back up systems are causing the raised fuel rods to partially melt down. The report suggests that all the reactors along the coast line hit by the quake/tsunami are in partial melt down. An official now says they obviously didn’t expect such a powerful natural disaster when they planned the safety/back up systems. In Fukushima Prefecture alone, one of the hardest hit areas, there are 10 reactors.
There are a total of 55 plants, with anywhere between 2 and 6 reactors each, in Japan. There are 2 plants under construction, with another 11 planned. In the United States there are at least 104 commercial nuclear plants. Most of the plants are east of the Rocky Mountains, in highly populated areas.
The failure of all these systems, in Japan, will give anti-nuclear activists plenty of ammo for the demand to end the use of nuclear power plants.
200 plus aftershock/quakes greater than magnitude 5 have hit all over Japan (if I heard right, this was in a 24 hour period). These are not just in the area of the main quake, but all over Japan, another sign of a major geological event.
At least half a million people are in emergency shelters. The shelters are running out of food and water.
At least 15,000 people are officially missing.
Fukushima nuclear plant 1; officials admit that reactor 2 fuel rods melted/permanent damage, caused by a huge drop in coolant levels. Pumping in water failed the first time, because the rods were so hot it all evaporated. They are attempting to pump in more water.
For the first time in Japan’s modern history, reserve military forces are being called up. Also, 13 countries are currently helping with rescue efforts. As many as 96 countries are offering help.
To help with the economy, which has literally been stopped, the Bank of Japan has injected billions in cash, and has announced that it will increase asset purchases.
There is home video from survivors, which demonstrates the surrealness of the event. In one video people have run up a hill near their town. They are heard screaming at others to hurry up, “Run, run faster!”, as the wall of water engulfs their town and heads towards the hill they are on. One survivor said the event made it impossible to think, you just ran. Another survivor, after seeing the total destruction of her town, and loss of life, said “It would have been better if I died.”.
Bank of Japan officials are issuing millions in cash, into the Japanese economy. This is due to the earthquake and tsunami destroying a major part of Japan’s infrastructure.
Major Japanese manufacturers have closed, mainly because employees and supplies can not get to the factories. Farm lands have been destroyed by the tsunami.
Japan must focus on financing a major recovery effort, and this will affect U.S. Treasury Bonds. Japan was one of the biggest buyers of U.S. bonds, helping the U.S. government deal with its debt, but now that money will go to rebuilding efforts. Also, Japan might be forced to sell off its existing holdings of U.S. bonds, to help pay for the rebuilding of their country. This will affect interest rates in the United States.
For all those electronic junkies out there, get ready for withdrawal symptoms. Japan is a crucial electronics supplier, but don’t expect anything now. About 40% of lightweight chips, for computers and phones, are supplied by Japan. Objective Analysis, a semiconductor research firm, said “This may cause phenomenal shortages…”. You can bet this will affect prices of goods, and trading in stock markets around the world.
Like your Blue-Ray movies? Forget it, Sony shut down operations at their Blue-Ray plant in Japan, thanks to the disaster.
Were you thinking about getting one of those gas saving Toyota Prius, or Honda Fit? They are made mainly in Japan, and production has been halted.
Speaking of gas. Expect fuel prices to go up, even more. Japan is being forced to turn to other sources of fuel to run electric generators, now that their nuclear plants are going critical. Already two tanker ships, with LNG, were diverted from their original destination in Russia, to Japan.
Russia Today is reporting that massive smoke is pouring from reactor 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant 1, Monday morning Japan time. People living on Russian territory near Japan have received warnings from Japan about a second melt down.
Video on YouTube shows the reactor 3 explosion is bigger than the reactor 1 blast.
RT is also reporting that there are warnings of an approaching tsunami. Reuters says the claim of an approaching tsunami came from a local Japanese TV station.
Reuters says the announcement of an explosion came from a Japanese nuclear agency official. A Canadian news source says the reactor 3 explosion was felt 40km away. 3 plant workers injured, 7 are missing.
Officials are also trying to determine if high radiation levels in Miyagi Prefecture are from a local nuclear power plant, or is coming from the damaged Fukushima plants.
Despite officials downplaying the threat of radiation contamination, hospitals in Miyagi Prefecture are reporting more and more people coming in with radiation poisoning.
Part of the reason why officials are not strongly concerned about radiation is that winds are blowing towards the Pacific Ocean.
Japanese Self Defense forces are also warning of a tsunami, but Japan’s Meteorlogical Agency says otherwise. Fukushima Prefecture officials claim it could be 3 meters high.
A local East Idaho TV news reporter interviewed an official at the Idaho National Laboratory, regarding the safety of the INL’s nuclear reactor during a seismic event. INL’s emergency director Riley Chase made almost the same statements that Japanese officials made right before their nuclear disaster.
“If we were to have a seismic event, the safety systems would shut that reactor down…”, also, “…we have diesel generators that run, and we have battery backed-up systems that will provide and constantly keep cooling…”
I’d like to remind people that this is what the officials said in Japan. Their safety systems and back up systems failed. This is because the quake and tsunami in Japan was much stronger than anyone planned for. The Japanese systems were set up to withstand a 7.9 quake. It is now clear that the event was much, much stronger. I believe if we in Eastern Idaho experienced such a strong event the INL system would fail as well. A major fault line does run through East Idaho, from Salt Lake up to Yellowstone.
On the plus side, the INL reactor is low power, and is run for 6 weeks each time it’s powered up. So hope that the big one hits when the reactor is shut down.
By the way, the INL reactor is not the only nuclear plant in East Idaho. Idaho State University has a graphite reactor on its Pocatello campus. Shouldn’t be much concern, their ANG-201 reactor produces only 5 watts of power (at least that’s the maximum it is allowed to produce).
I have talked to long time building maintenance employees at the University, and they have told stories of the radioactive waste, from ANG-201, being stored in unmarked buildings. The story I heard was that some maintenance employees were on the roof of a building when they were suddenly told to get off the building. They were sent for medical exams, where they learned they were being checked for radiation exposure. Apparently the building they were on was being used to store radioactive waste.
This brings up the issue of radioactive waste. In the United States storage of radioactive waste has become a problem, because no one wants it in their back yard. So what happens to it? Some nuclear plants in California have simply been building up a stockpile of waste on their property. Here in East Idaho, the INL has been dealing with the problem of contaminated waste for decades. If the U.S. experiences a major seismic event near nuclear plants, not only will the reactors become an immediate threat, so will the waste.
As of 1600 Mountain Time, March 13, here is what Japan’s NHK is reporting on the status of Fukushima nuclear plants.
Plant 1:
Reactor 2 coolant levels low. Pressure and gas build up. Use of external generators failed.
Reactor 3 possible explosion imminent. Pressure and gas build up. Relief valves malfunctioning. Coolant levels dropping. Sea water having little affect. Nuclear power rods exposed by 2.2 meters, partial meltdown occurring.
Reactor 1, exploded, sea water being pumped in to flood reactor, but it is taking longer than expected.
Plant 2:
Reactors 1, 2 and 4 cooling system failure.