SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A damaged reactor building at the Fukushima power plant where an electricity failure has left spent nuclear fuel rods without fresh cooling water. (Photograph: Tepco/EPA)
Power Outages at Fukushima Reveal Precariousness of Damaged Nuclear Facility
Fuel storage pools lose ability to circulate fresh cooling water
Mar 19, 2013
Revealing the still precarious conditions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, a power outage on Monday night has left storage pools for radioactive materials without working cooling pumps, the plant's owner TEPCO announced.
If the level of the water drops below a safe threshold, the exposed fuel rods could release radioactivity or risk further damage to the plant.
As the New York Times reports:
The company, known as Tepco, said the current loss of cooling water was manageable because temperatures would remain at safe levels for at least four days, and the plant also has backup systems.
Still, the problems underscore the continuing vulnerability of the plant, which is beginning a complex cleanup of the three damaged reactors that is expected to take decades. Some experts have warned that the current cooling systems, some of which were hastily built by engineers frantically struggling to regain control of the overheating reactors, could be knocked out by another large earthquake.
Much of the ongoing concern has focused on the pools near the reactors that are used to store spent fuel rods. These contain far more radioactive material and have less shielding from the outside than the reactors, raising the specter of another massive release of contaminated particles.
Subsequently, however, the BBC reported:
Cooling systems to spent fuel ponds at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have been partially restored after a power failure, operator Tepco says.
The outage hit ponds at reactors 1, 3 and 4, although cooling to the reactors themselves was not affected.
Cooling had been restored to the pool at reactor 1, with cooling at the reactor 3 and 4 pools expected to resume on Tuesday evening, Tepco said.
________________________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Revealing the still precarious conditions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, a power outage on Monday night has left storage pools for radioactive materials without working cooling pumps, the plant's owner TEPCO announced.
If the level of the water drops below a safe threshold, the exposed fuel rods could release radioactivity or risk further damage to the plant.
As the New York Times reports:
The company, known as Tepco, said the current loss of cooling water was manageable because temperatures would remain at safe levels for at least four days, and the plant also has backup systems.
Still, the problems underscore the continuing vulnerability of the plant, which is beginning a complex cleanup of the three damaged reactors that is expected to take decades. Some experts have warned that the current cooling systems, some of which were hastily built by engineers frantically struggling to regain control of the overheating reactors, could be knocked out by another large earthquake.
Much of the ongoing concern has focused on the pools near the reactors that are used to store spent fuel rods. These contain far more radioactive material and have less shielding from the outside than the reactors, raising the specter of another massive release of contaminated particles.
Subsequently, however, the BBC reported:
Cooling systems to spent fuel ponds at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have been partially restored after a power failure, operator Tepco says.
The outage hit ponds at reactors 1, 3 and 4, although cooling to the reactors themselves was not affected.
Cooling had been restored to the pool at reactor 1, with cooling at the reactor 3 and 4 pools expected to resume on Tuesday evening, Tepco said.
________________________________
Revealing the still precarious conditions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, a power outage on Monday night has left storage pools for radioactive materials without working cooling pumps, the plant's owner TEPCO announced.
If the level of the water drops below a safe threshold, the exposed fuel rods could release radioactivity or risk further damage to the plant.
As the New York Times reports:
The company, known as Tepco, said the current loss of cooling water was manageable because temperatures would remain at safe levels for at least four days, and the plant also has backup systems.
Still, the problems underscore the continuing vulnerability of the plant, which is beginning a complex cleanup of the three damaged reactors that is expected to take decades. Some experts have warned that the current cooling systems, some of which were hastily built by engineers frantically struggling to regain control of the overheating reactors, could be knocked out by another large earthquake.
Much of the ongoing concern has focused on the pools near the reactors that are used to store spent fuel rods. These contain far more radioactive material and have less shielding from the outside than the reactors, raising the specter of another massive release of contaminated particles.
Subsequently, however, the BBC reported:
Cooling systems to spent fuel ponds at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant have been partially restored after a power failure, operator Tepco says.
The outage hit ponds at reactors 1, 3 and 4, although cooling to the reactors themselves was not affected.
Cooling had been restored to the pool at reactor 1, with cooling at the reactor 3 and 4 pools expected to resume on Tuesday evening, Tepco said.
________________________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.