

Why I am not worried about Japan’snuclear reactors - mikecarlton
http://mitnse.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

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lispm
Given the recent events this post is just cynical.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?_r=1)

New Blast Reported at Nuclear Plant as Japan Struggles to Cool Reactor By
HIROKO TABUCHI, KEITH BRADSHER and MATT WALD Published: March 14, 2011

TOKYO — An explosion early Tuesday morning damaged the No. 2 reactor at
Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the third in a series of
blasts that have now hit each of the three crippled reactors at the plant,
plant officials said. Enlarge This Image

It was not immediately clear if the blast was caused by the buildup of
hydrogen, as occurred at the two other reactors at Daiichi — one on Saturday
and the most recent one on Monday, when there was also a large explosion at
the No. 3 reactor. Some early reports in the Japanese press suggested the
latest explosion amounted to a different and more critical problem than the
previous two.

This explosion, reported to have occurred at 6:14 a.m., happened in the
“pressure suppression room” in the cooling area of the reactor and inflicted
some degree of damage on the pool of water used to cool the reactor, officials
of Tokyo Electric Power said. But they did not say whether or not the incident
had impacted the integrity of the steel containment structure that shields the
nuclear fuel.

Radiation levels around plant spiked after the explosion to 8,217
microsieverts an hour from 1,941 about 40 minutes earlier, the company said.
Some emergency workers there were evacuated, though the levels would have to
rise far higher to pose an immediate threat to health, officials said.

Any damage to the steel containment vessel of a nuclear reactor is considered
critical because it raises the prospect of an uncontrolled release of
radioactive material and full meltdown of the nuclear fuel inside. To date,
even during the four-day crisis in Japan that amounts to the worst nuclear
accident since Chernobyl, workers had managed to avoid a breach of a
containment vessel and had limited releases of radioactive steam to relatively
low levels. ...

