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Latest on Fukushima nuclear accident
Japanese authorities have confirmed there was an explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Saturday afternoon but said it did not occur at its troubled No. 1 reactor, brushing off concerns that the quake-triggered problem could develop into a catastrophe.I'm not sure I'd brush off anything at this point. Chief Cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told an urgent press conference that the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has confirmed there is no damage to the steel container housing the reactor, although the 3:36 p.m. explosion resulted in the roof and the walls of the building housing the reactor's container being blown away. The top government spokesman said TEPCO has begun new cooling operations to fill the reactor with sea water and pour in boric acid to prevent an occurrence of criticality, noting it may take several hours to inject water into the reactor. Sea water and boric acid? That's nothing to brush off. They're admitting defeat. In addition, it will take about 10 days to fill the container with sea water, he said. There is a great possibility that the reactor will be decommissioned as the injection of sea water containing salt and impure substances will make it difficult to operate it safely again, experts say. TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants have lost their cooling functions after the area was jolted by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake Friday. Due to failure to cool down the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, radioactive cesium and iodine were detected near the facility Saturday. The detection of the materials, which are created following atomic fission, led Japan's nuclear safety agency to admit the reactor had partially melted -- the first such case in Japan. Following the blast that occurred as vapor from the container of the No. 1 reactor turned into hydrogen and mixed with outside oxygen, Edano said the authorities expanded from 10 kilometers to 20 km the radius of the area to be evacuated by residents living in the vicinity of the Fukushima plants as a precaution. Three people had their clothes contaminated with radioactive substances while fleeing from the No. 1 nuclear plant Saturday afternoon, according to the Fukushima prefectural government. The nuclear safety agency said no decontamination work is needed for them, but asked the Self-Defense Forces to check whether 87 others who were vacating the area with the three have been exposed to radiation. Officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said new cooling operations have so far been proceeding smoothly, and the melting of the core has not been aggravated. The melting temperature for pellets containing cesium, a nuclear fissile material, is around 2,800 degrees Celsius and the release of celsium indicates that the reactor has heated up significantly. The Fukushima prefectural government said the hourly radiation from the No. 1 plant reached 1,015 micro sievert before the explosion, an amount equivalent to that permissible for a person in one year. Posted by: Steve White 2011-03-12 |
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