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BC Canada in Danger of Nuclear Fallout?
“If There Were a Reactor Meltdown or Major Leak at Fukushima, the Radioactive Cloud Would Likely be Blown Out … Towards the US West Coast”
Washington’s Blog
March 13, 2011
UPDATE: Nuclear Expert: Radiation Could Spread To West Coast
Agence-France Presse notes:
California is closely monitoring efforts to contain leaks from a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear plant, a spokesman said Saturday, as experts said radiation could be blown out across the Pacific.
***
“At present there is no danger to California. However we are monitoring the situation closely in conjunction with our federal partners,” Michael Sicilia, spokesman for California Department of Public Health, told AFP.
“California does have radioactivity monitoring systems in place for air, water and the food supply and can enhance that monitoring if a danger exists,” he added.
***
Experts have suggested that, if there were a reactor meltdown or major leak at Fukushima, the radioactive cloud would likely be blown out east across the Pacific, towards the US West Coast.
***
“The wind direction for the time being seems to point the (nuclear) pollution towards the Pacific,” said Andre-Claude Lacoste of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, briefing journalists in Paris on the Japanese crisis.
***
Earlier the NRC said it was “examining all available information as part of the effort to analyze the event and understand its implications both for Japan and the United States.”
Japanese Officials: Nuclear Fuel Rods Melting in 3 Reactors
Outlook grim following two explosions
By Katy O'Donnell
Monday, March 14, 2011 | 12:18 p.m.
Japanese officials confirmed Monday that nuclear fuel rods appear to be melting inside three reactors compromised by Friday’s earthquake, though nuclear experts differ on whether the outer chamber of a reactor melting in fact constitutes a partial “meltdown.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday that "although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening."
Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in northeastern Japan exploded earlier Monday, wounding 11 workers; it had been under emergency watch for an explosion after a hydrogen blast at Unit 1 of the plant on Saturday. Edano said the Unit 3 reactor’s inner containment vessel was intact.
More than 180,000 people have been evacuated from the area, and as many as 1,500 have been examined for radiation, according to USA Today.
By Katy O'Donnell
Monday, March 14, 2011 | 12:18 p.m.
Japanese officials confirmed Monday that nuclear fuel rods appear to be melting inside three reactors compromised by Friday’s earthquake, though nuclear experts differ on whether the outer chamber of a reactor melting in fact constitutes a partial “meltdown.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Monday that "although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening."
Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in northeastern Japan exploded earlier Monday, wounding 11 workers; it had been under emergency watch for an explosion after a hydrogen blast at Unit 1 of the plant on Saturday. Edano said the Unit 3 reactor’s inner containment vessel was intact.
More than 180,000 people have been evacuated from the area, and as many as 1,500 have been examined for radiation, according to USA Today.
Japan's nightmare gets even WORSE: All THREE damaged nuclear reactors now in 'meltdown' at tsunami-hit power station
By RICHARD SHEARS
Last updated at 4:13 PM on 14th March 2011
Fuel rods appear to be melting inside three over-heating reactors
Experts class development as 'partial meltdown'
Earlier blast at Fukushima nuclear plant felt 25 miles away
Eleven workers injured after hydrogen ignited
180,000 people have been evacuated from the area
Engineers desperately trying to cool reactors with sea water
Up to 160 people so far exposed to radiation
The Japanese nuclear reactor hit by the tsunami went into 'meltdown' today, as officials admitted that fuel rods appear to be melting inside three damaged reactors.
There have been explosions inside two over-heating reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, and the fuel rods inside a third were partially exposed as engineers desperately fight to keep them under control after the quake knocked out emergency cooling systems.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said it was 'highly likely' that the fuel rods inside the reactors are melting.
Some experts class that a partial meltdown of the reactor, but others would only use that term for times when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell.
Japan is fighting to avoid a nuclear catastrophe after the tsunami. There was a hydrogen explosion at the reactor in Unit Three of the power station earlier today, in which eleven workers were hurt by the blast that was felt 25 miles away.
Read more
Last updated at 4:13 PM on 14th March 2011
Fuel rods appear to be melting inside three over-heating reactors
Experts class development as 'partial meltdown'
Earlier blast at Fukushima nuclear plant felt 25 miles away
Eleven workers injured after hydrogen ignited
180,000 people have been evacuated from the area
Engineers desperately trying to cool reactors with sea water
Up to 160 people so far exposed to radiation
The Japanese nuclear reactor hit by the tsunami went into 'meltdown' today, as officials admitted that fuel rods appear to be melting inside three damaged reactors.
There have been explosions inside two over-heating reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, and the fuel rods inside a third were partially exposed as engineers desperately fight to keep them under control after the quake knocked out emergency cooling systems.
Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said it was 'highly likely' that the fuel rods inside the reactors are melting.
Some experts class that a partial meltdown of the reactor, but others would only use that term for times when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell.
Japan is fighting to avoid a nuclear catastrophe after the tsunami. There was a hydrogen explosion at the reactor in Unit Three of the power station earlier today, in which eleven workers were hurt by the blast that was felt 25 miles away.
Read more
Sunday, March 13, 2011
And the aftershocks go on: 275 new tremors hit quake-torn Japan as fears grow for missing 10,000 in flattened port town
By JO MACFARLANE
Last updated at 4:10 AM on 14th March 2011
42 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble
Official death toll hits 1,597, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
Toll will soar after around 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture
Second explosion at nuclear power plant
Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8-magnitude
Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai
Forty-two survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the flattened town of Minami Sanrik, where up to 10,000 people are feared to have perished.
Around half the town's 18,000 residents are missing but search and rescue teams are still working desperately through the rubble to try and find more people.
Police are also trying to stop people returning to their homes.
Despite the first tsunami warning being issued to the town that lies two miles from the coastline, some residents decided to stay in their homes instead of fleeing – leading to the high number of missing people, CNN reported today..
Most of the houses in Minami Sanriku have been completely flattened and waterlogged and one house was found even with seaweed inside.
Read more
Last updated at 4:10 AM on 14th March 2011
42 survivors have been pulled out of the rubble
Official death toll hits 1,597, but many hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
Toll will soar after around 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture
Second explosion at nuclear power plant
Number of people contaminated with radiation could reach 160
Region hit by hundreds of aftershocks, some up to 6.8-magnitude
Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
70,000 people evacuated to shelters in Sendai
Forty-two survivors have been pulled from the rubble in the flattened town of Minami Sanrik, where up to 10,000 people are feared to have perished.
Around half the town's 18,000 residents are missing but search and rescue teams are still working desperately through the rubble to try and find more people.
Police are also trying to stop people returning to their homes.
Despite the first tsunami warning being issued to the town that lies two miles from the coastline, some residents decided to stay in their homes instead of fleeing – leading to the high number of missing people, CNN reported today..
Most of the houses in Minami Sanriku have been completely flattened and waterlogged and one house was found even with seaweed inside.
Read more
Second nuclear meltdown likely under way in Japan, official says
Japanese officials were trying frantically to thwart partial meltdowns presumed under way Sunday at two earthquake-stricken nuclear reactors in Japan.
Fuel rods were briefly exposed and radiation levels briefly rose above the legal limit at the second reactor Sunday, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.
A partial meltdown in the unit is "highly possible," he told reporters. "Because it's inside the reactor, we cannot directly check it but we are taking measures on the assumption of the possible partial meltdown."
He also said a hydrogen explosion could occur at the reactor, Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. That would follow a Saturday blast at Unit 1 of the same complex as operators attempted to prevent a nuclear meltdown by injecting sea water into it.
Japan's largest electric utility Sunday released what it said was slightly radioactive air at Unit 3.
Both reactors are among three shut down Friday at the Fukushima Daiishi plant when their cooling functions stopped after the area was jolted by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake.
click for full story..
Fuel rods were briefly exposed and radiation levels briefly rose above the legal limit at the second reactor Sunday, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.
A partial meltdown in the unit is "highly possible," he told reporters. "Because it's inside the reactor, we cannot directly check it but we are taking measures on the assumption of the possible partial meltdown."
He also said a hydrogen explosion could occur at the reactor, Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. That would follow a Saturday blast at Unit 1 of the same complex as operators attempted to prevent a nuclear meltdown by injecting sea water into it.
Japan's largest electric utility Sunday released what it said was slightly radioactive air at Unit 3.
Both reactors are among three shut down Friday at the Fukushima Daiishi plant when their cooling functions stopped after the area was jolted by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake.
click for full story..
Hydrogen blast occurs at Fukushima plant's No. 3 reactor: agency
TOKYO, March 14, Kyodo
A hydrogen explosion occurred Monday morning at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's troubled No. 3 reactor, the government's nuclear safety agency said, urging about 600 residents in a 20-kilometer radius to stay indoors.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed that the 11:01 a.m. blast did not damage the container of the No. 3 reactor, allaying concerns that the explosion may have caused a massive release of radioactive substance.
TEPCO said three workers, including its employees, were injured by the blast. All of them suffered bruises.
''According to the plant chief's assessment, the container's health has been maintained,'' Edano told a press conference. ''The possibility is low that massive radioactive materials have spattered.''
Edano said the blast that blew away the roof and the walls of the building housing the container was similar to an explosion Saturday at the No. 1 reactor of the same plant, following Friday's magnitude 9.0 quake.
It had been widely expected that the No. 3 reactor would follow the same path.
The top government spokesman said operations to pour seawater into the reactor to cool it down were continuing and the level of pressure in the container was stable.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said wind was not blowing in the area. The radiation level had not significantly risen, it added.
The Tokyo metropolitan government is also examining radiation levels in the metropolis.
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been shut down since the quake and some of its reactors have lost their cooling functions, leading to brief rises in the radiation level over the weekend. As a result, cores at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors have been partially melting.
Earlier in the day, TEPCO reported to the government that the radiation level at the plant had again exceeded the legal limit and pressure in the container of the No. 3 reactor had briefly increased.
On Monday, radiation at the plant's premises rose over the benchmark limit of 500 micro sievert per hour at two locations, measuring 751 micro sievert at the first location at 2:20 a.m. and 650 at the second at 2:40 a.m., according to the report.
The hourly amounts are more than half the 1,000 micro sievert to which people are usually exposed in one year.
The maximum level detected so far around the plant is 1,557.5 micro sievert logged Sunday.
The utility had been pouring seawater into the plant's No. 1 and No. 3 reactors to help cool their cores, which are believed to have partially melted after part of the fuel rods were no longer covered by coolant water when levels fell following the quake.
The seawater injection stopped around 1 a.m. due to the shortage of water left in tanks, but resumed for No. 3 reactor at 3:20 a.m., according to the nuclear safety agency.
The halt of coolant water injection apparently caused rising pressure in the reactor container and an increase in the radiation level at the plant, the agency said.
TEPCO at one point planned to release radioactive steam from the No. 3 reactor container to depressurize it and ordered workers to vacate the site. But as the pressure later lowered, workers resumed operations at the site, according to the agency.
Edano said pressure in the No. 1 reactor container has been stable and seawater injection for the reactor will resume later.
==Kyodo
A hydrogen explosion occurred Monday morning at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's troubled No. 3 reactor, the government's nuclear safety agency said, urging about 600 residents in a 20-kilometer radius to stay indoors.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed that the 11:01 a.m. blast did not damage the container of the No. 3 reactor, allaying concerns that the explosion may have caused a massive release of radioactive substance.
TEPCO said three workers, including its employees, were injured by the blast. All of them suffered bruises.
''According to the plant chief's assessment, the container's health has been maintained,'' Edano told a press conference. ''The possibility is low that massive radioactive materials have spattered.''
Edano said the blast that blew away the roof and the walls of the building housing the container was similar to an explosion Saturday at the No. 1 reactor of the same plant, following Friday's magnitude 9.0 quake.
It had been widely expected that the No. 3 reactor would follow the same path.
The top government spokesman said operations to pour seawater into the reactor to cool it down were continuing and the level of pressure in the container was stable.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said wind was not blowing in the area. The radiation level had not significantly risen, it added.
The Tokyo metropolitan government is also examining radiation levels in the metropolis.
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has been shut down since the quake and some of its reactors have lost their cooling functions, leading to brief rises in the radiation level over the weekend. As a result, cores at the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors have been partially melting.
Earlier in the day, TEPCO reported to the government that the radiation level at the plant had again exceeded the legal limit and pressure in the container of the No. 3 reactor had briefly increased.
On Monday, radiation at the plant's premises rose over the benchmark limit of 500 micro sievert per hour at two locations, measuring 751 micro sievert at the first location at 2:20 a.m. and 650 at the second at 2:40 a.m., according to the report.
The hourly amounts are more than half the 1,000 micro sievert to which people are usually exposed in one year.
The maximum level detected so far around the plant is 1,557.5 micro sievert logged Sunday.
The utility had been pouring seawater into the plant's No. 1 and No. 3 reactors to help cool their cores, which are believed to have partially melted after part of the fuel rods were no longer covered by coolant water when levels fell following the quake.
The seawater injection stopped around 1 a.m. due to the shortage of water left in tanks, but resumed for No. 3 reactor at 3:20 a.m., according to the nuclear safety agency.
The halt of coolant water injection apparently caused rising pressure in the reactor container and an increase in the radiation level at the plant, the agency said.
TEPCO at one point planned to release radioactive steam from the No. 3 reactor container to depressurize it and ordered workers to vacate the site. But as the pressure later lowered, workers resumed operations at the site, according to the agency.
Edano said pressure in the No. 1 reactor container has been stable and seawater injection for the reactor will resume later.
==Kyodo