NHK confirmed that Japan has asked for international help in averting a major nuclear catastrophe. They need help cooling the reactors.
It’s interesting that most nuclear “experts” being interviewed around the world keep saying this could not turn into another Chernobyl. It sure looks like it’s possible to me.
Officials are reporting that a loud bang was heard from inside reactor 2, at Fukushima nuclear plant 1.
It is believed that it is the “Separation Chamber” cracking (some reports call it “Suppression Pool”, some called it the “Pressure Suppression Room”). Workers at the plant have been moved to “safer” positions, workers not directly involved with cooling efforts have been evacuated. An official said this chamber is a last line of defense for preventing higher levels of radiation leaking. He also said this could be the worst case scenario taking place.
It was explained that if the separation chamber is breached then contaminated coolant/water with higher levels of radiation can leak out. The chamber may have cracked due to the intense heat from the exposed fuel rods. The fuel rods had been fully exposed, more than once. Workers have been having trouble maintaining levels of coolant, even with pumping in sea water. Officials claim that the water levels have been brought back up, but at least 2 meters of the rods are still exposed.
Officials keep saying that radiation readings are safe, there in Japan. They fail to point out that the winds have been blowing the radiation clouds over the Pacific, towards Hawaii. If the winds shift, and blow the radiation towards Japan, then the radiation levels there would increase greatly. The U.S. Navy has moved their ships further away from Japan after several aircrews, on helicopters, were exposed to radiation.
NBC news reported that the reason the back up generators failed is because the fuel tanks were above ground tanks, and were swept away by the tsunami.
NHK reporting that reactor 2, at Fukushima plant 1, is no longer venting and attempts at cooling have failed. The reactor’s vents closed automatically and can not be opened. Sprayers spraying water on the rods stopped working.
U.S. Navy says U.S. helicopters were hit by radioactive plume while flying over coast line of disaster area. 17 service members tested positive for radiation contamination. The U.S. Navy is now moving their ships further away from Japan. At the time the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier was 160km (100 miles) away.
France 24 reporters, in Japan, are reporting that tens of thousands of bodies have been found.
The reporters say at least 2000 bodies have been found on beaches and along the coast line.
Another reporter said that in one city local police are keeping people out of one part of the city. The reporter asked why and was told that they found at least 13,000 bodies piled in that part of the city.
Currently, the official Japanese government report of dead is at 1800. It’s clear that the Japanese officials are masters of understatement.
Reuters is reporting that Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, has suspended an agreement that was meant to delay the closing of Germany’s older nuclear plants.
Merkel points to the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan as the reason. She has decided that Germany’s old nuclear plants need to be shut down, by their originally planned closure dates. Another German official suggests that the events in Japan may result in all nuclear power plants, in Germany, being shut down.
NHK is presenting an official ‘explainer’ of why the nuclear safety and backup systems failed. I’ll try to put it simply.
1: Earthquake triggered automatic shut down procedures, which involves raising/exposing fuel rods. This still requires cooling of the rods.
2: Cooling of raised rods failed because main power supply cut. Back up generators came on, but failed when tsunami hit the plants. They could not be restarted.
3: A third backup cooling system failed. This is a steam reclamation system that collects steam off the hot rods, condenses it to water, then sprays the water on the rods. It failed because coolant levels dropped too much for steam to be created. Officials say coolant levels might have leaked due to structural damage caused by the quake and tsunami. They can not be sure what happened to the coolant, until they can inspect the structures.
The failed safety & back up systems are causing the raised fuel rods to partially melt down. The report suggests that all the reactors along the coast line hit by the quake/tsunami are in partial melt down. An official now says they obviously didn’t expect such a powerful natural disaster when they planned the safety/back up systems. In Fukushima Prefecture alone, one of the hardest hit areas, there are 10 reactors.
There are a total of 55 plants, with anywhere between 2 and 6 reactors each, in Japan. There are 2 plants under construction, with another 11 planned. In the United States there are at least 104 commercial nuclear plants. Most of the plants are east of the Rocky Mountains, in highly populated areas.
The failure of all these systems, in Japan, will give anti-nuclear activists plenty of ammo for the demand to end the use of nuclear power plants.
200 plus aftershock/quakes greater than magnitude 5 have hit all over Japan (if I heard right, this was in a 24 hour period). These are not just in the area of the main quake, but all over Japan, another sign of a major geological event.
At least half a million people are in emergency shelters. The shelters are running out of food and water.
At least 15,000 people are officially missing.
Fukushima nuclear plant 1; officials admit that reactor 2 fuel rods melted/permanent damage, caused by a huge drop in coolant levels. Pumping in water failed the first time, because the rods were so hot it all evaporated. They are attempting to pump in more water.
For the first time in Japan’s modern history, reserve military forces are being called up. Also, 13 countries are currently helping with rescue efforts. As many as 96 countries are offering help.
To help with the economy, which has literally been stopped, the Bank of Japan has injected billions in cash, and has announced that it will increase asset purchases.
There is home video from survivors, which demonstrates the surrealness of the event. In one video people have run up a hill near their town. They are heard screaming at others to hurry up, “Run, run faster!”, as the wall of water engulfs their town and heads towards the hill they are on. One survivor said the event made it impossible to think, you just ran. Another survivor, after seeing the total destruction of her town, and loss of life, said “It would have been better if I died.”.
I am looking into seismic events around the Pacific Ring of Fire. I was thinking of doing a review of the past 12 months, however, it has become clear by going back just to January of 2011, that the Ring of Fire is going non-stop with seismic events, so it might be a daunting task.
The events picked up frequency and intensity since the end of February, especially around Japan. Hawaii is also seeing a change in seismic activity.
People might say: Hawaii and volcanoes, so? The recent volcanic activity in Hawaii is cause for concern because the type of seismic readings geologist have gotten have radically changed. The tremors have become denser. Back in February a U.S. Geological Survey report said there was a “…unusually high number…” of volcanic tremors.
The most recent Global Volcanism Program report (from the first week of March) on volcanic activity shows almost all activity is around the Pacific Ring of Fire. Most activity is in East Asia, mainly Japan, but also in Kamchatka, Luzon (Philippines), and Java (Indonesia). There is also activity in Hawaii, Mexico and Guatemala. A volcano in the British Caribbean colony of Montserrat is also active, but that’s not in the Pacific.
Something of interest, in looking at maps I have discovered that Hawaii, Guatemala, Luzon and the volcanic activity in Mexico, takes place between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. Even Montserrat, in the Caribbean, is between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator (as well as Haiti, remember their big quake?).
I hope to get more done on this, to establish a time line that shows whether there is an increase in geologic activity, or not.
WeatherSpace.com is reporting that two volcanoes, on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula north of Japan, and one other volcano in Indonesia, erupted almost at the same time.
They erupted on March 12. They are considered to be connected to the big quake event in Japan. They are part of the Ring of Fire.
The Shinmoedake volcano on the southern island of Kyushu, has erupted, again. The volcano started erupting back in January. This was part of a series of volcanic events that lead some people to predict a major geologic event for Japan.
The volcano had settled down for the past two weeks, but now, after the big quake event, it has roared back to life. Witnesses say it is hurling huge boulders, and ash.