journal features

fukushima power plant in meltdown

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2011.03.16

It looks like reactor 2 at fukushima must now be in meltdown. Radiation levels outside the plant are fluctuating and sky-high.

What you need to read is all right here. This is not finger pointing, it's just a cold hard look at the observable facts.

Secondly, we've just learned from a discussion on NHK that while NHK cameras were able to point out smoke billowing from reactor four, TEPCO staff replied that they no longer had the ability to access the outside of that reactor. The responses from viewers, as they came in on the NHK website was simple: so who's going to fix this?

The answer is: no one. The plant is melting down, it's no longer possible for anyone to do anything about it, and it's time to get far away and hope for helpful winds. Elevated radiation levels have been found in Tokyo, against the prevailing wind.

Another excellent and lucid article puts it this way:

Another serious risk involves the more than 200 tons of spent nuclear fuel that is stored in pools adjacent to the reactors, Alvarez said. Those cooling pools depend on continually circulating water to keep the fuel rods from catching fire. Without power to circulate the water, it heats up and potentially boils away, leaving the fuel rods exposed to air.

An aerial image of the Fukushima plant shows the loss of high-capacity cranes needed to move equipment to service the reactor. The photo also appears to show that the spent fuel pool is steaming hot, which may indicate the water is boiling off, Alvarez said.

How did it get like this? A string of bad luck, bad assumptions, out-dated design, and of course human error:

Engineers had begun using fire hoses to pump seawater into the Unit 2 reactor — the third at the plant to receive the last-ditch treatment — after the emergency cooling system failed. Company officials said workers were not paying sufficient attention to the process, however, and let the pump stall, allowing the fuel rods to become partially exposed to the air.

If you'd like a more detailed view on the reactor designs at issue, see this technical description of what's involved. There is no tertiary containment at one of these plants, it's a very simple design that's long since been outdated (needless to say, there are dozens of these plants around the world).

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force