Japan Earthquake 2011: Nuclear Meltdown Looms As New Threat IWAKI, Japan -- A partial meltdown was likely under way at a second nuclear reactor, a top Japanese official said Sunday, as authorities frantically tried to prevent a similar threat from nearby unit following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. Some 170,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area covering a radius of 12 miles (20 kilometers) around the plant in Fukushima near Iwaki. A meltdown refers to a very serious collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to manage temperatures. A complete meltdown would release uranium and dangerous byproducts into the environment that can pose serious health risks. Japan dealt with the nuclear threat as it struggled to determine the scope of the twin disasters Friday, when an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the most powerful in its recorded history, was followed by a tsunami that ravaged its northeastern coast with breathtaking speed and power. Still, a partial meltdown in the unit is "highly possible," he told reporters. Share +
2012 - Ouragan Sandy : les centrales nucléaires vulnérables aux événements climatiques À deux doigts de la catastrophe nucléaire Sandy s’est accompagné de vents violents, de trombes d’eau et de fortes marées qui ont provoqué de graves inondations dans de nombreuses régions, des phénomènes qui peuvent dangereusement mettre à mal le fonctionnement des installations nucléaires. En effet, une inondation peut endommager ou arrêter les pompes qui permettent le refroidissement des réacteurs. En particulier, les végétaux et débris charriés par les eaux peuvent obstruer les filtres des pompes. Par ailleurs, des vents violents peuvent couper l’alimentation électrique, privant la centrale du courant nécessaire pour assurer ses fonctions vitales et notamment le refroidissement du réacteur et le fonctionnement des pompes. Centrale nucléaire inondée (ici, celle de Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, touchée en 2011 par de fortes inondations). Par ailleurs, le plus vieux réacteur du pays, Oyster Creek [2], a été placé en état d’alerte. Une technologie hautement vulnérable au changement climatique
Japan earthquake | Page 3 So what do we know? Here's a run down of events so far: - The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire. - The earthquake struck at 1446 local time (0546 GMT). - 22 people are confirmed dead, with many more missing. - The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. - There were several strong aftershocks. - Stunning TV footage showed the tsunami carrying the debris and fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. - Sendai is 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo and the epicentre at sea was not far away. - Thick smoke was also pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area. - UK airlines have cancelled flights to Tokyo.
Nuclear Power Whistleblowers Charge Federal Regulators With Favoring Secrecy Over Safety Richard H. Perkins and Larry Criscione are precise and formal men with more than 20 years of combined government and military service. Perkins held posts at the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration before joining the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Division of Risk Analysis in 2008. Criscione landed at the agency a year later, after five years aboard the USS Georgia as a submarine warfare officer. Now both men are also reluctant whistleblowers, stepping out publicly to accuse the NRC of being both disconcertingly sluggish and inappropriately secretive about severe -- and in one case, potentially catastrophic -- flood risks at nuclear plants that sit downstream from large dams. "When you're working with sensitive information, you just don't talk about it, so what I'm doing I find to be both perverse and uncomfortable," Perkins said. Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the NRC, calls the matter one of incomplete context. Richard H. Sandra J.
Japan quake: Fears of second nuclear reactor blast 13 March 2011Last updated at 17:14 IAEA chief explains how Japan's power plants have been affected in the aftermath of the quake There is a risk of a second explosion at the quake-hit Fukushima power station, Japanese officials have said. However, chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano said the facility could withstand the impact and the nuclear reactor itself would not be damaged. Technicians are frantically battling to cool reactor 3 following a blast at the building housing reactor 1 on Saturday. A state of emergency has also been declared at the Onagawa plant to the north of Fukushima. The first - or lowest - state of emergency was reported by Tohoku Electric Power Company, said the UN nuclear watchdog the IAEA. It was declared "as a consequence of radioactivity readings exceeding allowed levels in the area surrounding the plant. Continue reading the main story Scale of nuclear accidents Level 7 - Major release of radioactive material. (Source: UN nuclear agency, IAEA) Risk of explosion Analysis
Pour le patron de l'AFCN, "le risque nucléaire n'est plus acceptable" "Nous devons vivre avec cela : il y a toujours un risque lié à l’énergie nucléaire. Et nous devons aussi nous demander si le risque est acceptable pour la société. Je pense qu’aujourd’hui il ne l’est plus." Ces déclarations sans détours, remarquables chez quelqu’un qui a fait l’essentiel de sa carrière dans le nucléaire, c’est le directeur général depuis 2006 de l’Agence Fédérale de Contrôle Nucléaire qui les faisait ce lundi dans l’émission "De Ochtend" de Radio 1 (VRT). La société doit choisir Considérant la catastrophe de Fukushima et l’affaire des microfissures dans les cuves des centrales belges (et sans doute dans 350 autres dans le monde), il ajoute : "Nous voyons les risques de l’énergie nucléaire et donc je préférerais avoir une autre source d’énergie. Trop de liens entre contrôleur et contrôlé ECOLO a notamment réclamé que le directeur de l’AFCN reste en place le temps que les contrôles des cuves de réacteurs par ultrasons soient terminés sur l’ensemble du parc nucléaire belge.
Japanese nuclear plants' operator scrambles to avert meltdowns TOKYO - Japanese authorities said Sunday that efforts to restart the cooling system at one of the reactors damaged by Friday's earthquake had failed, even as officials struggled to bring several other damaged reactors under control. Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have not found a way to stabilize overheated reactors and feared the possibility of partial nuclear meltdown, which could potentially cause a further release of radioactive material, Japan's top government spokesman said Sunday. Engineers were having trouble, in particular, with two units at the nuclear facility - one of which lost its outer containment wall Saturday in an explosion. Meanwhile, officials declared a state of emergency at a nuclear power plant in Onagawa, where excessive radiation levels were reported. "At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion," Edano said. But Edano also insisted that an explosion would have no impact on human health.
This nuclear plant tried to fix a leak with plastic, tape, and broomsticks Once, nuclear power plants represented the height of America’s technological prowess. But now that they’re getting old, they’re no longer gleaming fortresses of high-tech success. And when they break, sometimes they’re fixed the old-fashioned way — with a little ingenuity and masking tape. The photo above was given to a local ABC news team in San Diego. It’s a picture from inside the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which sits on the California coast between Los Angeles and San Diego. The plant confirmed that, yes, it’s a picture from inside one of its units, but wouldn’t say when it could have been taken. Now, no one’s claiming that this leaky pipe is about to spew radioactive waste everywhere. This is part of the system that takes in ocean water which is circulated through condensers and then returned to the ocean. But that’s not exactly the problem.
Japanese high-energy physics facilities hit by the earthquake | Jon Butterworth | Science Since Japanese friends and colleagues are major collaborators at CERN, the horrible news and pictures of the earthquake and tsunami come with added immediacy. The situation is obviously very serious. The T2K neutrino experiment was just about to announce important new results when the earthquake struck. A series of planned seminars around the world has been postponed until the results can be announced first in Japan as planned. The websites of the major high-energy physics labs, KEK and J-PARC, are currently offline, along with all email addresses of my colleagues there. Of course my thoughts, like those of many, are with those friends and colleagues affected, their families, and all victims of this disaster.