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Crucial
system fails at Japan's quake-damaged nuclear plant
Workers
at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant scrambling to fix broken cooling
system in 3 reactors
CBC,
19
March, 2013
Workers
at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan are
trying to fix a crucial part of the plant that stopped working today.
The
system that cools hundreds of spent fuel rods that are stored at the
facility has stopped working, which could have dangerous
consequences, CBC News producer Craig Dale has learned.
The
Tokyo Electric Power Company confirmed that it had a partial power
failure Monday evening and then discovered the problem with an
electricity supply unit.
Currently
the cooling systems in reactors one, three and four are not
operational and representatives from TEPCO are unsure how to fix
them.
However
TEPCO says it should have a solution within a few days and that the
fuel rods stored in the pools will remain safe for at least four days
without fresh cooling water
The
disabled plant was seriously damaged by the earthquake and subsequent
tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, which destroyed the plant's
power and cooling systems.
Three
reactor cores melted and fuel storage pools overheated because of
this. The plant is now using makeshift systems.
TEPCO
reports power failure at Fukushima, stops cooling system
Workers
at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant scrambling to fix broken cooling
system in 3 reactors
RT,
18
March, 2013
An
electrical fault at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has
left three of seven fuel pools without a supply of fresh cooling
water, the operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has
warned.
Tokyo
Electric Power Co (TEPCO) reported the blackout Monday night did not
affect the ongoing water injection at reactors No.1 and 3, which
suffered core meltdowns in the early days of the March 2011 nuclear
crisis, triggered by the earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO
assured the cause of the incident has been found and work to fix the
system has been started. So far the temperature in pools has remained
around 25 degrees Celsius, which is considered not dangerous. If the
cooling system cannot be fixed, temperatures would likely rise in the
fuel pools, becoming unsafe at 65 degrees. While it is unclear
how long repairs might take, the operator said fuel stored in the
pools would remain safe for at least four days without fresh cooling
water.
Meanwhile,
no abnormality has been detected in radiation levels in areas
surrounding the plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
However,
the day before TEPCO issued a worrying report saying it had
discovered a record 740,000 Becquerels per kilogram of radioactive
caesium in fish
caught in the waters near
the crippled Fukushima plant, two years after the nuclear disaster.
The
operator installed a net on the seafloor of the port exit near the
plant to prevent the fish from escaping.
The
March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima
Dai-ichi plant’s power and cooling systems, causing three reactor
cores to melt and fuel storage pools to overheat. The natural
disaster claimed around 19,000 lives and hundreds of thousands
evacuated. Some 160,000 are still not allowed back to their houses in
the vicinity of the power plant. Scientists say it could take up to
40 years to make some parts of the area safe again, while others warn
it may never be habitable
UPDATE:
Kyodo
at 6:41p ET: Fukushima Daiichi power failure still underway —
Residents anxious, Tepco remains unable to fix problem
Kyodo
News, 6:41p ET: [TEPCO] still remained unable as of Tuesday
morning to resume the spent fuel cooling system at its Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant after the system’s suspension on Monday
due to a power failure. TEPCO is continuing its probe into the cause
of the outage affecting the cooling system for the spent fuel pools
of the No. 1, 3 and 4 reactors. According to the Nuclear Regulation
Authority, the outage may have stemmed from the power distribution
board or cables attached to it. [...]
Kyodo
News, 4:20p ET: Residents of Fukushima Prefecture expressed
anxiety about an outage hit the disaster-damaged Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant on Monday. Masahide Matsumoto, mayor of Katsurao
village where all of its residents have been forced to evacuate after
the March 2011 nuclear disaster, said that the incident came at a
sensitive time as evacuation zones are scheduled to be reclassified
Friday and some residents are allowed to make day trips to their
homes. [...]
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