3rd Nuclear Explosion in Japan
Tokyo Electric Power Co. has experienced a third explosion in..
..Fukushima, Japan, after the nation’s strongest earthquake on record caused power failures, according to authorities in Tokyo, Japan - today.
This is just the beginning - although they claim there is no danger for leakage as of yet.
US authorities are monitoring the situation and more details will be coming out today.
In older news we have sources who say.... (March 13)..
Radioactive elements in the vapor from the Dai-Ichi No. 1 reactor could pose a threat to public health, in Tokyo. The plant, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Tokyo, lost power after the earthquake yesterday and about 5,800 residents near the plant were ordered to evacuate.
The plant is currently using a battery to run systems that keep the reactor’s fuel from overheating, officials of the trade ministry’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety agency told reporters yesterday.
Allowing overheating would cause water that covers the fuel to evaporate and “you could uncover the fuel eventually,” causing a meltdown, said Jim Malone, chief nuclear fuel development officer for Lightbridge Corp. (LTBR), the McLean, Virginia-based developer and consultant on atomic fuel.
Lack of adequate cooling for a reactor may cause a core meltdown, the most dangerous kind of nuclear power accident, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Reactor Meltdown
A meltdown poses the threat of a breach in a reactor’s containment building, causing the release of massive amounts of radiation, according to the agency’s website. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania resulted in a partial meltdown, without a breach in the containment building, according to the commission.
The 1986 Chernobyl accident in Russia caused the release of at least 5 percent of the radioactive reactor core, according to the World Nuclear Association, which represents the industry.
A battery, which can last about eight hours, is being used to cool the Dai-Ichi reactor for now, Japanese agency officials said yesterday. Another six batteries have been secured, and the government may use military helicopters to fly them in, they said.
The 8.9-magnitude quake struck at 2:46 p.m. local time and unleashed a tsunami as high as 7 meters (33 feet), engulfing towns along the northern coast and killing hundreds. The temblor hit 130 kilometers off the coast of Sendai, north of Tokyo, at a depth of 24 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A 7.1- magnitude aftershock followed at 4:25 p.m., it said.
One person is confirmed dead at the Dai-Ni nuclear power plant, which is also also in Fukushima, said Atsushi Sugiyama, a Tokyo Electric spokesman. Two people from the Dai-Ichi plant are missing, he said.
