Monday, March 14, 2011

The nuclear crisis spreads in Japan

Following the devastating earthquake that struck Japan last Friday, the nuclear alarm has spread to four nuclear power plants in the northeast, the area affected by the earthquake. While the alert does not stop in Fukushima, where Saturday was a blast and a leak of radioactivity in Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushima Daini recognized as problems, "this central Tokai Sunday reported problems with refrigeration and a fourth, Onagawa, decreed state of emergency, although the authorities have declared Nipponese, late at night, that the level of radioactivity at this point have returned to normal.

Friday's earthquake caused the automatic stay of eleven of the 51 nuclear plants are in Japan. Although the alert was raised after the earthquake and leakage of information, both the authorities and the operators of nuclear plants have worked to send messages of calm. "The reactor temperature drops regularly," said Japan Atomic Power, manager of the nuclear Tokai No.

2 (in the prefecture of Ibaraki), shortly after the Kyodo news agency announced that the cooling system of the plant had stopped after the tsunami . A spokesman for Japan Atomic Power acknowledged that "a sea water pump, powered by a diesel generator, stopped by the tsunami. However, another bomb and another system work well and the reactor temperature decreases regularly." Also in Onagawa (in Miyagi Prefecture), the alert was accompanied by a message of calm.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it had declared the "first (ie lowest) state of emergency" after the identification of high radioactivity levels near the plant. However, the IAEA has received notification from the Japanese authorities that the radiation levels have returned to normal levels.

The IAEA said the three reactors at the plant were "under control". Shortly thereafter, Japan's nuclear safety agency said that Onagawa has no cooling problems and the increase of radiation coming from the radioactive leak in Fukushima Daiichi (150 km south of Onagawa) and was between the levels of radiation safe similar to those received an x-ray.

Is this plant, where the three reactors were operating when the earth shook, the problems are of most concern to the authorities. "The situation remains dire," admitted Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, but warned that "is totally different from the Chernobyl accident." In this plant, have been forced to release radioactive steam into the air to try to ease the pressure on the reactor.

After the explosion on Saturday in reactor number 1 and the problems in reactor 3, on Sunday the plant manager also acknowledged that the number 2 reactor needed to be injected seawater for cooling, as is being done in the other two. Even before that transcend the problems in reactor number 2, the Japanese government said Sunday that there is a risk of another explosion, similar to that of Saturday in the nuclear power plant facilities.

Although the authorities explain that Saturday's blast did not affect the first reactor vessel, had not ruled out a process activated partial core meltdown. "There's a possibility. We can not confirm this because it is in the reactor [# 1]. But we're running it under that hypothesis," the minister said spokesman Yukio Edan.

However, the authorities have not been spared from criticism. The accident has raised questions about the preparedness of authorities to an earthquake and the threat it could pose nuclear industry. Edan spokesman words did not help. "Unlike the reactor number 1, we aerated and injected water at an early stage," he said in reference to the Number 3 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, which seemed to acknowledge that he acted too late Saturday.

"The crisis management is inconsistent," the Asahi newspaper headline, claiming that the information and instructions for expanding the evacuation area were very slow. After Saturday's blast was extended to evacuate people in the area. Fukushima nuclear alert has forced the evacuation of 210,000 people near the central Fukushima Fukushima Daiichi and Daini.

In the latter, however, it appears that cooling issues in its four reactors, which forced the evacuation, have been controlled. According to a note by the IAEA, the Japanese authorities had informed them that three of the reactors Daini conserve power while the fourth is in a safe stop and under the right temperature.

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