Mar 12 2011

Explosion rocks quake-hit Japanese nuke plant

Fukushima has ordered people living within a 20km area to evacuate

TV footage shows crumbled walls of building at site, leaving only skeletal metal frame standing

TOKYO – The walls of a building at a nuclear power station crumbled Saturday following an explosion only hours after Japanese officials said they feared the reactor could melt down.

Smoke poured out of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility where authorities had warned Friday of a failure of its cooling system resulting from a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

It was not clear if the damaged building housed the reactor.

Several workers were injured by the blast at Fukushima Unit 1, Japanese TV station NHK reported.

Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of one building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame block standing. Puffs of smoke were spewing out of the plant.

‘Radioactive vapors’

Pressure has been building up in the reactor – it’s now twice the normal level – and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that it was venting “radioactive vapors” to relieve that pressure. Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area.

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  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…

    Approximately its life expectancy.

    • RiaD on March 12, 2011 at 13:48
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    just…. GHA!

    • RiaD on March 12, 2011 at 14:51
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    is THE argument against nuclear power.

    it. is. not. safe.

    • Edger on March 12, 2011 at 16:34
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    A March 12 explosion at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Japan, appears to have caused a reactor meltdown.

    The key piece of technology in a nuclear reactor is the control rods. Nuclear fuel generates neutrons; controlling the flow and production rate of these neutrons is what generates heat, and from the heat, electricity. Control rods absorb neutrons – the rods slide in and out of the fuel mass to regulate neutron emission, and with it, heat and electricity generation.

    A meltdown occurs when the control rods fail to contain the neutron emission and the heat levels inside the reactor thus rise to a point that the fuel itself melts, generally temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing uncontrolled radiation-generating reactions and making approaching the reactor incredibly hazardous. A meltdown does not necessarily mean a nuclear disaster. As long as the reactor core, which is specifically designed to contain high levels of heat, pressure and radiation, remains intact, the melted fuel can be dealt with. If the core breaches but the containment facility built around the core remains intact, the melted fuel can still be dealt with – typically entombed within specialized concrete – but the cost and difficulty of such containment increases exponentially.

    However, the earthquake in Japan, in addition to damaging the ability of the control rods to regulate the fuel – and the reactor’s coolant system – appears to have damaged the containment facility, and the explosion almost certainly did. There have been reports of “white smoke,” perhaps burning concrete, coming from the scene of the explosion, indicating a containment breach and the almost certain escape of significant amounts of radiation.

    Read more: Red Alert: Nuclear Meltdown at Quake-Damaged Japanese Plant | STRATFOR

    A nightmare….

  6. http://www.godlikeproductions….

    (embed doesn’t work)

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    And more here:

    http://rt.com/news/nuclear-pla…

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