Japan reactor core may be breached
Posted by
JAC on 3/25/2011, 6:44 am
The neutron beams yesterday were a dead give away.
This is not good.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/4499787-418/japan-nuclear-plant-reactor-core-may-be-breached.html
ASSOCIATED PRESS Mar 25, 2011 04:42AM
http://twitter.com/AP
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7490739.html
TOKYO - Japanese nuclear safety officials said Friday that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached, raising the possibility of more severe contamination to the environment.
"It is possible that somewhere at the reactor may have been damaged," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency. But he added that "our data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions," implying that the damage may have occurred in Unit 3's reactor core but that it was limited.
Officials say the damage could instead have happened in other equipment, including piping or the spent fuel pool.
Operators have been struggling to keep cool water around radioactive fuel rods in the reactor's core after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami cut off power supply to the plant and its cooling system.
Damage could have been done to the core when a March 14 hydrogen explosion blew apart Unit 3's outer containment building.
This reactor, perhaps the most troubled at the six-unit site, holds 170 tons of radioactive fuel in its core. Previous radioactive emissions have come from intentional efforts to vent small amounts of steam through valves to prevent the core from bursting. However, releases from a breach could allow uncontrolled quantities of radioactive contaminants to escape into the surrounding ground or air.
Operators stopped work Friday at units 1 through 3 to check on radiation levels.
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In this thread:
Japan reactor core may be breached - JAC, 3/25/2011, 6:44 am- TEPCO forced to change strategy at plant - JAC, 3/25/2011, 10:36 pm
- Re: Japan reactor core may be breached - Anung Mwka, 3/25/2011, 7:10 pm
- Level 7 according to one expert - JAC, 3/25/2011, 4:22 pm
- Didn't take long - here's our first mention of corium AKA China Syndrome - JAC, 3/25/2011, 4:19 pm
- Re: Japan reactor core may be breached - BobbiStorm, 3/25/2011, 2:02 pm
- A long vertical crack and a different kind of leak - JAC, 3/25/2011, 1:17 pm
- Detailed close-up aerial video of wrecked reactors at Fukushima - JAC, 3/25/2011, 12:19 pm
- Japan's Prime Minister: Nuclear Situation Grave - JAC, 3/25/2011, 12:03 pm
- Citizens taken to hosiptal for high-level radiation exposure - JAC, 3/25/2011, 8:40 am
- Re: Japan reactor core may be breached - hillsboroughweather, 3/25/2011, 7:59 am
- Japan reactor leaks at faster rate than Chernobyl - JAC, 3/25/2011, 7:45 am
- Corium - you may be hearing this term in the coming days - JAC, 3/25/2011, 7:42 am
- High-level radiation suspected to be leaking from No. 3 reactor's core - JAC, 3/25/2011, 6:53 am
- NYT: Possibility that radiation from mox fuel in reactor could be released - JAC, 3/25/2011, 6:50 am
- Water contamination in nuclear plant likely from damaged reactor core, official says - JAC, 3/25/2011, 6:48 am
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