Hi. I've found two impeccable, informative sources around this
disaster; the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC and Democracy
Now, on
often annoyingly repetitious, she is brilliant, has incredible curiosity
and asks the right questions of the experts she's assembled since
the tsunami hit
the discussion into social areas. She actually interviews anti-nuke forces
in
This morning’s DN is a fine example. The immediate source of this article, \
Rad-Green, is a forum, with tons of valuable contributions, as well as
naysayers and the occasional fantasy. The NY Times is always a staple
for breadth of coverage, good and not so good, depending on the issue.
Ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise
Digital Globe, via Reuters
The No. 3 reactor building of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant burned Monday after a blast following an earthquake and tsunami in this satellite image. 3 more images
""It's way past Three Mile Island already," said Frank von Hippel, a physicist and professor at
By HIROKO TABUCHI, DAVID E. SANGER and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: March 16, 2011
In a brief address to the nation at 11 a.m.
Fortunately, the prevailing winds were sweeping most of the plume of radioactivity out into the
The sudden turn of events, after an explosion Monday at one reactor and then an early-morning explosion Tuesday at yet another - the third in four days at the plant - already made the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station the worst nuclear accident since the
It diminished hopes earlier in the day that engineers at the plant, working at tremendous personal risk, might yet succeed in cooling down the most damaged of the reactors, No. 2, by pumping in seawater.
According to government statements, most of the 800 workers at the plant had been withdrawn, leaving 50 or so workers in a desperate effort to keep the cores of three stricken reactors cooled with seawater pumped by firefighting equipment, while crews battled to put out the fire at the No. 4 reactor, which they claimed to have done just after noon on Tuesday.
That fourth reactor had been turned off and was under refurbishment for months before the earthquake and tsunami hit the plant on Friday.
But the plant contains spent fuel rods that were removed from the reactor, and experts guessed that the pool containing those rods had run dry, allowing the rods to overheat and catch fire. That is almost as dangerous as the fuel in working reactors melting down, because the spent fuel can also spew radioactivity into the atmosphere.
After an emergency cabinet meeting, the Japanese government told people living within about 20 miles of the Daiichi plant to stay indoors, keep their windows closed and stop using air conditioning.
The two critical questions over the next day or so are how much radioactive material is spewed into the atmosphere, and where the winds carry it.
Even 7 minutes of exposure at that level will reach the maximum annual dose that a worker at an American nuclear plant is allowed.
And exposure for 75 minutes would likely lead to acute radiation sickness.
The extent of the public health risk depends on how long such elevated levels persist - they may decline because the fire at No. 4 reactor was extinguished - as well as how far and fast the radioactive materials spread, and whether the limited evacuation plan announced by the government proves sufficient.
In
In
The succession of problems at Daiichi was initially difficult to interpret, with confusion compounded by incomplete and inconsistent information provided by government officials and executives of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company.
But industry executives in close contact with officials in
Tokyo Electric Power said Tuesday that after the explosion at the No. 2 reactor, pressure had dropped in the "suppression pool" - a section at the bottom of the reactor that converts steam to water and is part of the critical function of keeping the nuclear fuel protected. After that occurred, radiation levels outside No. 2 were reported to have risen sharply.
"We are on the brink. We are now facing the worst-case scenario," said Hiroaki Koide, a senior reactor engineering specialist at the Research Reactor Institute of Kyoto University. "We can assume that the containment vessel at Reactor No. 2 is already breached. If there is heavy melting inside the reactor, large amounts of radiation will most definitely be released."
Another executive said the chain of events at Daiichi suggested that it would be difficult to maintain emergency seawater cooling operations for an extended period if the containment vessel at one reactor had been compromised because radiation levels could threaten the health of workers nearby.
If all workers do in fact leave the plant, the nuclear fuel in all three reactors is likely to melt down, which would lead to wholesale releases of radioactive material - by far the largest accident of its kind since
Even if a full meltdown is averted, Japanese officials have been facing unpalatable options. One was to continue flooding the reactors and venting the resulting steam, while hoping that the prevailing winds did not turn south toward
While Japanese officials made no comparisons to past accidents, the release of an unknown quantity of radioactive gases and particles - all signs that the reactor cores were damaged from at least partial melting of fuel - added considerable tension to the effort to cool the reactors.
"It's way past Three Mile Island already," said Frank von Hippel, a physicist and professor at
By Tuesday morning, Tokyo Electric Power said that it had fixed the valve and resumed seawater injections, but that it had detected possible leaks in the containment vessel that prevented water from fully covering the fuel rods.Then an explosion hit that reactor. After a series of conflicting reports about what level of damage was inflicted on the reactor after that blast,
Mr. Edano, however, said that the level of leaking at the No. 2 reactor remained small, raising the prospect that the container was sufficiently intact to protect the nuclear fuel inside.
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from
_______________________________________________
Rad-Green mailing list
Rad-Green@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1498/3507 - Release Date: 03/14/11
No comments:
Post a Comment