Tokyo Electric Power Company, and Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency officials, announced that a shield will be built to entomb Reactor 1, at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
It was discovered that Reactor 1 did indeed experience fuel rod melt down! To try and reduce the amount of radiation spewing from the reactor a shield will be built around it. Construction will start in June. TEPCo still has to deal with contaminated water pouring from the building.
Japanese vehicle makers announced they’ve lost billions since the March 11 disasters.
Toyota was the biggest loser at $1.3 billion. Honda lost $900 million and Nissan almost $500 million.
The biggest problem for the Japanese car makers is the loss of production, due to lack of parts. The lack of parts is due to the “just in time” supply model that most of Japan’s industries rely on. This model means that the big producers do not make their own parts, and they don’t keep a lot of spare parts on hand. Instead they rely on smaller producers to supply those parts. Also, the smaller producers can not keep a stockpile of parts on hand, because they can’t afford to.
The March 11 disasters resulted in 60% of Japan’s nuclear plants going off line. Japan’s industries are almost totally reliant on electricity from the nuclear power plants. The result was factories all over Japan shut down.
Japanese car makers didn’t even try to forecast their performance for the next year, because the lack of electrical power will continue, at least ’till the end of the year.
In Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, tea crops are contaminated with cesium. Five samples tested positive for cesium, as high as 780 becquerels. National safe limit is 300 becquerels, however, Kanagawa has set its own safe limit at 500.
The farms with the contaminated tea have been requested to stop shipping the tea to market.
Officials with Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency say it’s too late now that fuel rods in Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 1 have melted down! Tokyo Electric Power Company officials wanted to pump more water into the reactor, in the hopes of stopping the meltdown.
Nuclear Safety officials think the melted rods have cooled enough in the water at the bottom of the reactor, that there might not be too much concern. However, TEPCo believes that holes in the reactor vessel have been created by the meltdown, which is causing large amounts of radioactive water to pour into the Pacific Ocean.
The Agency suggested that TEPCo should inject water only to the point of keeping the bottom of the reactor filled.
Two prefectures bordering Fukushima Prefecture, have discovered that plants are contaminated with cesium.
Tochigi and Ibaraki Prefectures have cesium contamination well about safe limits. As much as 3,600 becquerels of cesium has contaminated pasture land, and crops! The government’s safe limit is 300 bequerels.
Farmers are being told not to feed their animals the grass. Crops are so contaminated that farmers are being told not to harvest, or ship their crops. Some contaminated parsley had already been shipped to market.
13 March 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced that fuel rods in reactor 1 have melted. Government officials think this might be the cause of holes where highly contaminated water is pouring from.
TEPCo officials say that most of the fuel rods have melted and are now melting through the bottom of the reactor. Officials think the melted rods are cooling down at the bottom of the reactor because there is still water there.
TEPCo is now trying to find out how much water is actually in the reactor, and come up with a new plan to address the meltdown.
Even after Tokyo Electric Power Company plugged a leak, Reactor 3 is still pouring water contaminated with cesium into the Pacific Ocean.
The water is pouring out of a pipe containing electrical cables, but officials still don’t know where the water is originating. The latest tests of the ocean water showed cesium contamination at 620,000 times safe limits!
Tokyo Electric Power Company says contaminated water is pouring from Reactor 1. This after workers were finally able to enter the building and check gauges. The gauges showed that despite hundreds of tons of water being injected, the water levels were low.
TEPCo suspected faulty gauges. Workers checked the gauges again, after more water was pumped in, and they discovered the water levels actually dropped.
Now officials are worried that the water could be pouring from a hole in the reactor itself. When checked on the morning of 12 May, workers discovered the fuel rods fully exposed. Water levels are a full meter (3.2 feet) below the rods!
TEPCo is pumping in water, but the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency believes rods have started melting.
The Brown’s Ferry nuke plant in Alabama, is under investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Investigators say a cooling system failure is of “high safety significance”.
Last October the plant had a cooling valve problem, in reactor 1, that cause it to shut down. Operators say the valve is fixed. But there are concerns especially since the Brown’s Ferry plant is similar to the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.
Also, Brown’s Ferry Reactor 1 had been shut down for 22 years before being put back into operation in 2007.
Toyota has announced they have worked deals to secure, or substitute, 80% of the parts they are missing to build their cars.
The problem is that it’s not 100% of the parts they need. Last month Toyota officials said that it only took one missing part to shut down production.