Pick a number, and that reactor is described as being near a meltdown. The news coverage coming out of Japan is even more confused when American media deciphers it. Hopefully hard facts come in soon…
Meltdown occurred according to Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
URGENT: March 12 00:00 PST: Explosion at Nuclear Facility
VIDEO of explosion at nuke plant.
Reuters Live Earthquake News Feed
Several people appear to be injured at Fukushima nuclear plant – NHK
Walls and roof of a building at site destroyed by blast – NHK via Sky News
UPDATE: 22:50 PST: BREAKING NEWS: Pressure successfully released from Fukushima No. 1 reactor: agency
UPDATE: 21:47 PST: Meltdown underway at Reactor #1? http://twitter.com/#!/dicklp
Fukushima fuel cores are melting at 2000C and dropping onto steel floor. Steel melts at 1500C. Could still be brought under control, but Four other Fukushima nuke reactors are struggling with similar problem. If multiple meltdown begins, it will be uncontrollable.
Nuclear reactor coolant systems are running on batteries, and the coolant has reached the boiling point. Extremely critical situation currently at several earthquake affected nuclear reactors. Officials are concerned that a Three Mile Island 1979 meltdown could happen here. Reuters Link
From the LA Times:
Conditions appear to be worsening at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan, according to local media.
The Kyodo news agency reported that the cooling system has failed at three reactors of Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant. The coolant water’s temperature had reached boiling temperature, the agency reported, citing the power plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power.
The cooling system failure at the No. 2 power plant came after officials were already troubled by the failure of the emergency cooling system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which officials feared could cause a meltdown.
I read hysterical headline after hysterical headline in the MSM. The once-great Times of London, online version http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/, has as its top headline (datelined only an hour or two ago) : Nuclear fear grips Japan
“The people of Japan were told last night to brace themselves for their most brutal ordeal since the Second World War after last Friday’s earthquake: nuclear threat, a massive human toll and unprecedented disruption to life. Leading the long list of crises was the struggle to reduce temperatures …”
The IAEA has been putting out updates from time to time, and basically each update is less alarming than the previous one. The latest says “The Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that radioactivity levels at the site boundary of the Onagawa nuclear power plant have returned down to normal background levels. The first (ie lowest) state of emergency was reported at the plant earlier on Sunday after an increased level of radioactivity was detected at the site boundary. Investigations at the site indicate that no emissions of radioactivity have occurred from any of the three units at Onagawa. The current assumption of the Japanese authorities is that the increased level may have been due to a release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant….” and before that “Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) that venting of the containment of reactor Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started at 9:20 AM local Japan time of 13 March through a controlled release of vapour. The operation is intended to lower pressure inside the reactor containment.
Subsequently, following the failure of the high pressure injection system and other attempts of cooling the plant, injection of water first and sea water afterwards started. The authorities have informed the IAEA that accumulation of hydrogen is possible….“.
Now I can’t prove that there won’t be a major nuclear incident, and the authorities might be lying, but from all that I have read in various apparently knowledgeable and informed sources, it seems that the situation is being dealt with reasonably successfully, the risks are by no means extreme, and reasonable precautions are being taken. The Times doesn’t seem to want to focus on any of this, but simply prefers to engage in reckless fear-mongering. When the Japanese have finished hosing down the reactor, please can they turn their hoses on The Times and the rest of the MSM.
Has there been any reporting on what substances are being released by that burning oil refinery nearer to Tokyo? Which has been burning out of control for three days now, and reportedly will be allowed to burn itself out. Must be an awful lot of burnt hydrocarbons and maybe even a bit of radioactive particles there also.
According to World Nuclear News pressure in unit 1 is now around 3 bars, which suggests a temperature of about 130C. Unit 3 is at about 2 – 2.2 bar, suggesting around 120C.
That’s datelined 8:34pm GMT.
And latest TEPCO updates:
All 6 units of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have been shut down.
[There is no update from the previous press release.]
Unit 1(Shut down)
– Reactor has been shut down. However, the unit is under inspection due
to the explosive sound and white smoke that was confirmed after the big
quake occurred at 3:36PM.
– We have been injecting sea water and boric acid which absorbs neutron
into the reactor pressure vessel.
Unit 2(Shut down)
– Reactor has been shut down and Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System
has been injecting water to the reactor. Current reactor water level is
lower than normal level, but the water level is steady. After fully
securing safety, measures to lowering the pressure of reactor
containment vessel has been taken, under the instruction of
the national government.
Unit 3(Shut down)
– Reactor has been shut down. However, as High Pressure Core Injection
System has been automatically shut down and water injection to
the reactor was interrupted, following the instruction by
the government and with fully securing safety, steps to lowering
the pressure of reactor containment vessel has been taken. Spraying
in order to lower pressure level within the reactor containment vessel
has been cancelled.
– After that, safety relief valve has been opened manually, lowering
the pressure level of the reactor, which was immediately followed
by injection of boric acid water which absorbs neutron, into
the reactor pressure vessel.
If we’re going to be comparing numbers for deaths due to energy sources and include those from harvesting the raw materials, we get to include agricultural deaths from growing and harvesting the raw materials for biofuels like ethanol. Now farming, that is a dangerous profession.
http://msucares.com/safety/death/index.html
Sure, people are going to gripe about using nuclear power for the electricity for their curly lightbulbs and electric cars. Do they care about, or even know about, the lives that are lost for a more “carbon neutral” fill-up of their Prius?
Ah, a correction.
“wayne says: March 12, 2011 at 10:42 pm | pwl, bless you for that effort and thank your dad again (and again) for some very pertinent info.”
Ah, the audio interview (and now as a video too on this comment thread) was not of my dad… it was by Evelyn, one of the writers at skepchick.org, and HER dad.
The last I checked I’m still a guy named Peter (aka pwl) and my dad was a civil engineer who built over 400 bridges and even a chemical weapons destruction facility in the USA but he wasn’t a nuclear engineer unless he kept that secret. Oh, and I run the http://PathsToKnowledge.net blog. Unless I’ve had a sex change and a parent transplant in the last few hours that is. [:)]
You can view more of Evelyn’s posts here: http://skepchick.org/author/evelyn/
Evelyn has the transcript of her interview with her dad here: http://skepchick.org/2011/03/full-transcript-now-available-for-interview-with-my-dad-a-nuclear-engineer-about-the-japan-nuclear-disaster.
[:)]
Evelyn’s bio and the transcript of her interview with her nuclear engineer dad is actually here:
“Evelyn Mervine: I am a geologist, writer, traveler, and aspiring polyglot. I am currently a 5th-year PhD student in the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. I will obtain my doctorate in Marine Geology & Geophysics (with a Geochemistry focus) sometime in 2011. I have a B.A. double major in Earth Science and Arabic from Dartmouth College. One reason I write this blog is to maintain my sanity as I finish up my PhD. In the midst of much stress, long days in lab, and long nights writing thesis chapters, I write to remind myself of why I love geology. I also write to document some of my geological adventures and to share my love of geology with others. ”
http://georneys.blogspot.com/2011/03/conversation-with-my-dad-nuclear.html
Andy Dawson,with regard to the hydrogen gas; lead acid battery’s generate large amounts of hydrogen and these were being used to power the reactor. Where are the back-up battery’s stored in these reactors?
Crap, another explosion reported!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/government-confirms-hydrogen-explosion-at-stricken-japanese-nuclear-plant/2011/03/13/ABRc31S_story.html
Government confirms hydrogen explosion at stricken Japanese nuclear plant
By The Associated Press, Sunday, March 13, 1:54 AM
TOKYO — Japan’s chief cabinet secretary says a hydrogen explosion has occurred at Unit 3 of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit of the facility.
Another hydrogen explosion comparable to Fukushima 1 last Saturday took place at Fukushima 3, about 95 minutes ago.
GE + MOX = doomsday
http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-exploded-nuclear-plant-uses-mox.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-11/japan-reactor-damaged-in-quake-may-need-to-vent-radiation-official-says.html
http://www.gepower.com/prod_serv/products/nuclear_energy/en/new_reactors/abwr.htm
Trolls say best and brightest (like BP)
Explosion rocks third Fukushima reactor
14 March 2011
Another explosion has rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, this time at the third reactor unit. Initial analysis is that the containment structure remains intact.
News of the explosion came at the same time as details of an earthquake but it is unclear if the events are connected.
Chief cabinet secretary Yukiyo Edamo appeared on television stating that the blast was a hydrogen explosion. He said contact had been made with the plant manager whose belief is that the containment structure, important to nuclear safety, remains intact.
The rationale for that statement, Edamo said was that water injection operations have continued and pressure readings from the reactor system were with a comfortable range.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Explosion_rocks_third_Fukushima_reactor_1402111.html
Don’t know of others but, I had never heard explicitly the portion bolded below:
I have also just seen there was reports of a second explosion.
link to story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/ts_nm/us_japan_quake
pwl says:
March 13, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Ah, a correction.
“wayne says: March 12, 2011 at 10:42 pm | pwl, bless you for that effort and thank your dad again (and again) for some very pertinent info.”
Ah, the audio interview (and now as a video too on this comment thread) was not of my dad… it was by Evelyn, one of the writers at skepchick.org, and HER dad.
The last I checked I’m still a guy named Peter …
————
LOL. Check at the bottom of: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/11/nuclear-meltdown-race-to-save-reactors-in-japan/#comment-619711 .
Here is a YouTube Video of the second explosion.
This one was much bigger than the one earlier. Good news is that it sounds like the containment building is still sound.
@MVB
“…thousands in the surrounding areas from cancers later.”
Of course, cancer wasn’t invented by Chernobyl. There would have been “thousands” if Chernobyl had not happened. Last time I looked at Dr. Gale’s site, they weren’t attributing anywhere near that many to Chernobyl.
Am I wrong or is this all pretty silly? If it had been a hydroelectric damn or a Natural gas burning plant wouldn’t we have large numbers of fatalities already?
One thing is for sure: Since windmills are becoming a vital part of our national infrastructure, they should be designed to withstand the same seismic forces as nuclear plants.
Sadly, even though this would increase their price by an order of magnitude or two, they will still be affordable (because of taxpayer subsidies).
P Solar You must have a kind of twisted sense proportion or really bad sense of scale.
Our media is nuts to be focused on this.
What you see here is the inherent safety of nuclear power. After days of unplanned and catastrophic happenings we have no one dead no one injured and a few people needing to take an extra shower. We have people still able to try new things to save the plants and minimize the mess. If it had been any other kind of power station generating this kind of power we would be talking about the dead, hundreds of dead fire fighters or thousands of drowned civilians
Can someone with a better background than me do a realistic update?
@Wondering Aloud
Exactly. And, if there had been a tsunami to go with it… Wait, there was. A handful from the reactor accidents plus how many from the quake/tsunami?
MVB
millisieverts are not the same as millirem. I only saw a measurement in millisieverts did you do a conversion?
So who allowed this earthquake and tsunami to go forward.
There were no environmental impact statements filed with the relevant governmental organizations, and we all know that Nature doesn’t really do anything, it’s all man-made … so what public official allowed this disaster to proceed ??
I demand that heads roll.
Wikipedia as a reference source? Are you kidding me? They banned an AGW (anthropogenic global warming) activist last year because he was fraudulently entering “scientific” material.
When the general public can revise scientific matters without any professionally trained degreed graduate substantiation you cannot use it for argumentive purposes.
The lame stream media is no source for facts when it does not suit their agenda and nuclear power is not in keeping with the Green Agenda.
Rolling power cuts have started in the Tokyo area today (now 1:28 pm local time, Monday).
Public trains are partly stopped, partly in smaller frequency, to save electric power.
This may reduce CO2 emission to some extent 😉