jackovesk
12th March 2011, 02:29
NEW YORK | Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:18pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japanese officials may only have hours to cool reactors that have been disabled by Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami or face a nuclear meltdown.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T) is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual "station blackout" -- the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating.
http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/03/12/1226020/204544-nuclear-reactor.jpg
Radiation levels 1000 times above normal at nuclear power plant as massive earthquake and tsunami claim hundreds of lives.
Daiichi Units 1, 2 and 3 reactors shut down automatically at 2:46 p.m. local time due to the earthquake. But about an hour later, the on-site diesel back-up generators also shut, leaving the reactors without alternating current (AC) power.
That caused Tepco to declare an emergency and the government to evacuate thousands of people from near the plant. Such a blackout is "one of the most serious conditions that can affect a nuclear plant," according to experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S. based nuclear watchdog group.
"If all AC power is lost, the options to cool the core are limited," the group warned.
TEPCO also said it has lost ability to control pressure at some of the reactors at its Daini plant nearby.
The reactors at ***ushima can operate without AC power because they are steam-driven and therefore do not require electric pumps, but the reactors do require direct current (DC) power from batteries for its valves and controls to function.
If battery power is depleted before AC power is restored, the plant would stop supplying water to the core and the cooling water level in the reactor core could drop.
RADIATION RELEASE
Officials are now considering releasing some radiation to relieve pressure in the containment at the Daiichi plant and are also considering releasing pressure at Daini, signs that difficulties are mounting. Such a release has only occurred once in U.S. history, at Three Mile Island.
"(It's) a sign that the Japanese are pulling out all the stops they can to prevent this accident from developing into a core melt and also prevent it from causing a breach of the containment (system) from the pressure that is building up inside the core because of excess heat," said Mark Hibbs, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
While the restoration of power through additional generators should allow TEPCO to bring the situation back under control, left unchecked the coolant could boil off within hours. That would cause the core to overheat and damage the fuel, according to nuclear experts familiar with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.
It could take hours more for the metal surrounding the ceramic uranium fuel pellets in the fuel rods to melt, which is what happened at Three Mile Island. That accident essentially frozen the nuclear industry for three decades.
Seven years later the industry suffered another blow after the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded due to an uncontrolled power surge that damaged the reactor core, releasing a radioactive cloud that blanketed Europe.
The metal on the fuel rods would not melt until temperatures far exceed 1,000 degrees F. The ceramic uranium pellets would not melt until temperatures reached about 2,000 degrees F, nuclear experts said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-quake-nuclear-us-analysis-idUSTRE72B04C20110312
...UPDATE...
US did not deliver coolant to Japan nuclear reactor
(Reuters) - The U.S. military did not provide any coolant for a Japanese nuclear plant affected by a massive earthquake on Friday, U.S. officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier had said that U.S. Air Force "assets" had delivered "some really important coolant" to a Japanese nuclear power plant.
One U.S. official said he believed Clinton was told Japan had requested the material, that the United States had agreed to provide it, and that an operation to do so was under way.
Ultimately, however, Japan did not need assistance from the United States but Clinton did not appear to have been updated before she made her public remarks.
"We understand that ultimately the Japanese government handled the situation on its own," said another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/japan-quake-nuclear-coolant-idUSN1125270120110311
...UPDATE...
The building, on the far-right ***ushima No1 power plant in the picture above has 'Blown Up...'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyv4KrQpmtY&feature=youtu.be
Thanks for the link RAKMEiSTER...
Emergency teams were worked to release dangerous pressure on a reactor at risk of melting down.
The Fu.kushima No1 and No2 power plants, 10 reactors in total, have been declared nuclear emergency sites, as the count of dead and missing people from Friday’s northern Honshu disaster exceeded 1,200.
The explosion at the No.1 plant’s No.1 reactor about 3:40pm local time injured four workers and vented radioactive material into the air.
But a Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official was unable to say whether the blast happened within the at-risk No.1 reactor or the just the containment building, which appeared to be severely damaged.
An International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman said in Vienna the nuclear watchdog was “urgently seeking further information” from Japan.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/japan-races-to-avert-nuclear-meltdown-as-tsunami-death-toll-threatens-to-top-1200/story-fn84naht-1226020358630
***This is not looking good folks...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Japanese officials may only have hours to cool reactors that have been disabled by Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami or face a nuclear meltdown.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T) is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual "station blackout" -- the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating.
http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/03/12/1226020/204544-nuclear-reactor.jpg
Radiation levels 1000 times above normal at nuclear power plant as massive earthquake and tsunami claim hundreds of lives.
Daiichi Units 1, 2 and 3 reactors shut down automatically at 2:46 p.m. local time due to the earthquake. But about an hour later, the on-site diesel back-up generators also shut, leaving the reactors without alternating current (AC) power.
That caused Tepco to declare an emergency and the government to evacuate thousands of people from near the plant. Such a blackout is "one of the most serious conditions that can affect a nuclear plant," according to experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S. based nuclear watchdog group.
"If all AC power is lost, the options to cool the core are limited," the group warned.
TEPCO also said it has lost ability to control pressure at some of the reactors at its Daini plant nearby.
The reactors at ***ushima can operate without AC power because they are steam-driven and therefore do not require electric pumps, but the reactors do require direct current (DC) power from batteries for its valves and controls to function.
If battery power is depleted before AC power is restored, the plant would stop supplying water to the core and the cooling water level in the reactor core could drop.
RADIATION RELEASE
Officials are now considering releasing some radiation to relieve pressure in the containment at the Daiichi plant and are also considering releasing pressure at Daini, signs that difficulties are mounting. Such a release has only occurred once in U.S. history, at Three Mile Island.
"(It's) a sign that the Japanese are pulling out all the stops they can to prevent this accident from developing into a core melt and also prevent it from causing a breach of the containment (system) from the pressure that is building up inside the core because of excess heat," said Mark Hibbs, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
While the restoration of power through additional generators should allow TEPCO to bring the situation back under control, left unchecked the coolant could boil off within hours. That would cause the core to overheat and damage the fuel, according to nuclear experts familiar with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.
It could take hours more for the metal surrounding the ceramic uranium fuel pellets in the fuel rods to melt, which is what happened at Three Mile Island. That accident essentially frozen the nuclear industry for three decades.
Seven years later the industry suffered another blow after the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine exploded due to an uncontrolled power surge that damaged the reactor core, releasing a radioactive cloud that blanketed Europe.
The metal on the fuel rods would not melt until temperatures far exceed 1,000 degrees F. The ceramic uranium pellets would not melt until temperatures reached about 2,000 degrees F, nuclear experts said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-quake-nuclear-us-analysis-idUSTRE72B04C20110312
...UPDATE...
US did not deliver coolant to Japan nuclear reactor
(Reuters) - The U.S. military did not provide any coolant for a Japanese nuclear plant affected by a massive earthquake on Friday, U.S. officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier had said that U.S. Air Force "assets" had delivered "some really important coolant" to a Japanese nuclear power plant.
One U.S. official said he believed Clinton was told Japan had requested the material, that the United States had agreed to provide it, and that an operation to do so was under way.
Ultimately, however, Japan did not need assistance from the United States but Clinton did not appear to have been updated before she made her public remarks.
"We understand that ultimately the Japanese government handled the situation on its own," said another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/japan-quake-nuclear-coolant-idUSN1125270120110311
...UPDATE...
The building, on the far-right ***ushima No1 power plant in the picture above has 'Blown Up...'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyv4KrQpmtY&feature=youtu.be
Thanks for the link RAKMEiSTER...
Emergency teams were worked to release dangerous pressure on a reactor at risk of melting down.
The Fu.kushima No1 and No2 power plants, 10 reactors in total, have been declared nuclear emergency sites, as the count of dead and missing people from Friday’s northern Honshu disaster exceeded 1,200.
The explosion at the No.1 plant’s No.1 reactor about 3:40pm local time injured four workers and vented radioactive material into the air.
But a Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official was unable to say whether the blast happened within the at-risk No.1 reactor or the just the containment building, which appeared to be severely damaged.
An International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman said in Vienna the nuclear watchdog was “urgently seeking further information” from Japan.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/japan-races-to-avert-nuclear-meltdown-as-tsunami-death-toll-threatens-to-top-1200/story-fn84naht-1226020358630
***This is not looking good folks...