Just In: Blackout at Fukushima Daiichi — Cooling at fuel pools stopped, all power’s been down 3h

Just In: Blackout at Fukushima Daiichi — Cooling at fuel pools stopped
March 18th, 2013 at 9:36 am ET

It has a power failure with the Fukushima 1st nuclear plant. 1, 3 and 4 the spent fuel pool alternative cooling system and the like of the machine stops.

enenews.com...

[Alert] All power’s been down in Fukushima plant for over 3 hours, Tepco investigating the reason

fukushima-diary.com...

[Breaking] Power blackout in Fukushima plant, coolant system of the pools in reactor 1,3,4 lost power

fukushima-diary.com...

Power outage in the cooling system stops the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
March 18, 22 hours and 50 minutes

18 days before 7 pm, a power outage occurs at the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1 and Unit 3, the system has stopped to cool the spent fuel pool of Unit 4 in it, TEPCO to determine the cause you had to.

Results before 7 pm April 18, a momentary power failure occurs in significant seismically isolated building has become the center of convergence of the work of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, TEPCO found out, part of the power plant is shut down I have found that.

Although it would not affect the water injection into the reactor in Unit 3 Unit 1 Unit 1 and Unit 3, the cooling system has been stopped in the spent fuel pool of Unit 4 it. Unit 1 and Unit 3, water temperature is turned 16 degrees and 25 degrees, about 0.1 degrees to 0.3 degrees per hour, in the spent fuel pool of Unit 4, the temperature rise of the house of TEPCO it is expected to be about 04 to more than 65 degrees are set forth in the provisions of the. Spent fuel pool cooling system is no prospect of recovery is standing.

The fact that there was trouble in the vicinity of the cable according to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, led to the switchboard of the high-pressure power plant, TEPCO I are looking into the cause. In this problem, it is that change is not to the value of the monitoring posts to measure the value of the radiation that has been established in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant.

www3.nhk.or.jp...

Well this does not look good. How long until this becomes a major event again? Hours? Thanks for the news and links!

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so what does that mean? how long before problems occur? replying to keep up with op.

I hope they get a handle on this.

The spent fuel pool in building four is what scares me the most; that is uncharted territory.

Some perspective on the implications:

The storage pool in the No. 4 reactor building has a total of 1,535 fuel rods, or 460 tons of nuclear fuel, in it. The 7-story building itself has suffered great damage, with the storage pool barely intact on the building’s third and fourth floors. The roof has been blown away. If the storage pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and explode, causing a massive amount of radioactive substances to spread over a wide area. Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and French nuclear energy company Areva have warned about this risk.

If that cooling water supply is lost, it will be just a few hours at most before that waste is on fire.

Matsumura was told that if the fuel pool at unit 4 collapses or the water spills out, so much radiation will spew out for 50 years that no one will be able to approach Fukushima:

Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4—with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground—collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4. In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced.

If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.

It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on NO.4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide.

Source

The article is long, but, worth the read. It is peppered with links to various sources.

I am hoping to hear an update soon.

reply to post by MariaLida


This maybe the straw that brakes the camels back

ill be keeping an eye on this thread thanks for the heads up MariaLida

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reply to post by Vasa Croe


Reactor 4 was running pretty hot at the time apparently, but there should be at least a couple of days before it reaches any kind of critical region, and there is a risk of another release. Now that they aren't dealing with a tsunami, and major loss of life, they should be able to handle this just fine.

reply to post by Zaphod58

I admire your optimism. Although I'm sure they will restore power and everything will go back to 'normal', I don't think they are handling anything 'just fine'. I think they are hanging by a thread most days. Not only are they still dealing with wide spread structural issues across the facility, they have consistent problems with cooling, power and the ever present threat of radiation. I doubt anyone over there has a clear picture on what exactly is going on in the jumbled mess of those reactors.

I think they are just trying to move forward with cleaning up the mess but there has (and will be) many major and minor setbacks along the way. Even if they were able to get everything under control today, that is one area of the world that won't be habitable in our lifetime.

reply to post by fenceSitter


"Just fine" means that they will have power restored to the tank before it is in danger of going critical. Not that they aren't hanging on by a thread. I realize they are still hurting in terms of getting the plant shut down, or repaired, or whatever they are doing with it. But they have at least a couple of days to get power back, either through generators (enough to get the cooling system running), or restored completely to the plant.

Really? They said that about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the bombs dropped there were "dirty" bombs. Today background radiation is barely elevated and people live there just fine.

Originally posted by daryllyn

It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on NO.4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide.

This is quite a statement...

has a margin of about four days before the temperatures would be expected to reach levels of concern.

enformable.com...

really, 4 days?

This is just odd. It cannot run hot for too long. Well, strong wind and rain storms are raging across Japan right now so maybe all the extra rain will have some kind of positive effect.

Sorry i have some job to do, some new info ..

[Alert] Common pool of 6377 fuel assemblies lost power too, Fukushima is under storm warnings

TEPCO and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and can not identify the cause of the Fukushima Daiichi power outage.

At the Fukushima Daiichi power outage, seems to have also stopped cooling of the shared pool. In the fuel storage pool body 6377.

translate.google.com...

[Alert] Fukushima emission to reach Tokyo area from afternoon of 3/19/2013

According to the meteorological agency of Switzerland, the emission from Fukushima would reach Tokyo area by wind after 15:00 of 3/19/2013.

fukushima-diary.com...

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday a problem with electric power has occurred at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, leading to the suspension of the system to cool spent fuel pools of the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 units.

The incident, however, so far has not affected the ongoing water injection to the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors, which suffered core meltdowns in the early days of the March 2011 nuclear crisis, according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority. No abnormality has been detected in radiation levels in areas surrounding the plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

english.kyodonews.jp...

Spent fuel pool cooling stops at the Fukushima Daiichi power failure

TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Day = 11 Units 1, 2, 3, 4 from front right 18, TEPCO announced that there is a power failure before 7:00 pm in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Alternative cooling system, such as spent fuel pool of Unit 1, 3, and 4 stops, do not stand the prospect of recovery at the time of 25 minutes 19 midnight.

The power outage was also temporarily important building seismic isolation is hitting the accident response, I was immediately restored. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, and no problems have arisen in the water injection into the reactor of Unit 1-3. Cooling off when shared pool to store body fuel 6377.

Although the "Do switchboard, can be caused by cables that are connected" and TEPCO have not been able to determine the cause Regulatory Agency, with TEPCO. TEPCO announced an outage, it was 10 o'clock afternoon after about three hours occur. 2013/03/19 00:49 [Kyodo News]

www.47news.jp...

translate.google.com...

JNN #Fukushima Daiichi LIVE Camera:

www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by BlackPhoenix

has a margin of about four days before the temperatures would be expected to reach levels of concern.

enformable.com...

really, 4 days?

Thanks for clearing that up for us.

As long as they can get power back to the cooling system, even if it's just through portable generators, then they can bring #4 temperature down, and buy even more time before it's a risk to release. In another day or two I'll get nervous, but until then, I wouldn't panic about it, or start the doom and gloom predictions just yet.

They should prepare for an incident that is 10 times as bad as Chernobyl. It's the only way to be confident about things. Expect a big fire, and poisoned water.

There is no other way, unless DARPA builds hoverdrones with claws to take the rods out in the next month or so. We can get to Mars with a rover but we can't get to Fukushima on our own planet. Some radioactive absorption palettes put in the way would be useful somewhere, convert that disaster into something energetic.

Some UFOs would come in handy right now, go in there and steal the radioactive rods. Someone should put an ad on Earth Craigslist: free nuclear rods, you pick up.

If only they built a dark matter converter we might be able to suck all that black radiation out of the way. It's not enough that they throw water on it. They need super ionated water, designed to pick up stray radiation.

Record levels of radiation contamination have been found in fish near Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant.

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
2:48PM GMT 18 Mar 2013

One fish, a greenling measuring 38 cm in length, was contaminated with 740,000 becquerels per kg - more than 7,400 times the recommended government limit regarded as safe for human consumption.

The discovery is likely to reignite fears that Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may still be leaking radioactive contamination into the ocean more than two years after it was damaged in a major earthquake and tsunami.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

reply to post by Zaphod58

Really? They said that about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the bombs dropped there were "dirty" bombs. Today background radiation is barely elevated and people live there just fine.

The stuff leaking out of the plant is just as 'dirty' as the bombs.

You have to remember that this is uncharted territory. Chernobyl is the main basis for comparison and that was a completely different situation.

I would say that since little has been accomplished in the way of getting things stabilized after over 2 years from the initial disaster is an indicator that they are not handling things 'just fine'.

There is major damage to building four, from the quake as well as the hydrogen explosion that happened shortly after. The pool is suspended near the top of the building. The building is leaning and barely has a roof meaning that there is no barrier between the pool and the outside environment, and no hope of containing anything should the pool collapse or ignite if cooling measures fail.

Originally posted by BlackPhoenix

has a margin of about four days before the temperatures would be expected to reach levels of concern.

enformable.com...

really, 4 days?

4 days from now will be March 22nd. Or 3.22.2013. Since this is a conspiracy website, Skull and Bones 322 'order of death' anyone?