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Racing The Clock To Cool A Reactor

 

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It’s been roughly 17 hours since a monstrous 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck just off shore of Honshu Island, Japan.  Damages from the main shock, massive tsunamis, fires, and dozens of heavy aftershocks (many over 6.0) continue to mount.

 

Emergency responders are obviously dealing with a number of simultaneous crises, not the least pressing of these being the search for survivors trapped in buildings and buried in rubble.


But even as these rescue efforts are underway, another threat looms at the heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear facility, where the failure of the cooling system on one of the reactors has sparked fears of a potential core melt.

 

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Although the reactor was successfully shut down after the quake, external power from the grid is required to operate vital coolant pumps. The nuclear core continues to generate immense heat, which must be carried away from the reactor to avoid catastrophic failure.

 

Right now, the badly damaged grid is not providing adequate electricity to run the  pumps, and onsite backup generators have failed.

 

Pressure is building up inside the reactor building, and reports indicate a major spike in radiation levels inside the plant. 

 

Limited evacuations from around the plant have been ordered, and plant operators are considering whether to vent potentially radioactive steam into the atmosphere to reduce the pressure.

 

Scientific American – in an article on nuclear plant cooling – explains that operators are now racing the clock in an attempt to avert an even greater disaster. 

 

While exact timing is uncertain, experts from around the nuclear industry have stated that the `window’ to correct this overheating crisis in the Fukushima reactor is probably on the order of 24-36 hours.  

 

 

How to Cool a Nuclear Reactor

Japan's devastating earthquake caused cooling problems at one of the nation's nuclear reactors, and authorities scrambled to prevent a meltdown

By David Biello  | March 11, 2011

 

 

The latest wire reports indicate that radiation levels may be as much as 1000x greater than normal inside the nuclear plant, and pressures are rising to dangerous levels.

 

Fukushima reactor pressure may have hit 2.1 times capacity: METI

TOKYO | Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:35pm EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Pressure inside a reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant may have risen to 2.1 times its designed capacity, Japan's trade ministry said on Saturday, exceeding the 1.5-times level announced a few hours earlier.

(Continue . . .)

 

 

URGENT: Radiation 1,000 times higher than normal detected at nuke plant

TOKYO, March 12, Kyodo

The amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level Saturday in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.

 

The discovery suggests radioactive steam could spread around the facility operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.

==Kyodo

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Earthquake
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