FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT RADIATION STATUS, NIVES at LEVEL 7, Apr 14th 2011

Latest Fukushima Nuclear, Apr 14th, 2011. TEPCO announced today that the disaster level according to INES is at 7 equaling it to the nuclear Chernobyl accident. The amount of radioactive materials released into the surrounding area is 10% of those released after the Chernobyl accident, but still qualifies Fukushima to be at level 7 - major accident. At this time, washing leafy vegetables and consuming less milk is only a precautionary measure, more news will follow.

March 21st: Radiation level around Fukushima Daiichi have raised due to rainfall. A typical person in Japan recieves an average radiation dose of 3.75 miliSieverts/year. Radiations at levels above 100 milliSieverts/year are proven to cause cancer. Short-term exposures of emergency workers at Nuclear power plants are allowed up to 250 milliSieverts. Currently radiation levels are below 3 miliSieverts.

Latest Fukushima Nuclear, March 20th: External power connected to reactors 5 and 6, dose equivalent down from 3.44 mSv/hr to 2.75mSv/hr; Fuel ponds temperatures reduced: reactor 5 (from 68°C to 43°C), reactor 4 (from 57°C to 52°C). Reactor 3 pressure built up but no need for significant venting (sources: world nuclear news)  

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Latest Fukushima Nuclear, March 19th: Radiation remains 80-760 nGy/hr. RADIATION MAP AVAILABLE HERE.* All reactors 1-4 are rated as INES level 5 - "action with wider consequences". Radiation level within 20km harmful, 20-30 km radius: people should stay inside, radius fo 30km or more: level of radiation is not harmful to health. For more info on nuclear reactors see attached file "March18th situationFukushima".

March 17th:  Risk still high on reactors 2 and 3 of Fukushima I Nuclear power plant. Reactor 3 at highest radiation level. RADIATION MAP AVAILABLE HERE. *Scale is in nanoGrays/hr (10^-9 Gray per hour). 2,5 Gray radiation to whole body = death in several weeks, 100 Gray radiation = death within 24 - 48 hrs. According to Tokyo electric Power Company the dose equivalent on the edge of compound of Fukushima power plant is now at 8.22 milliSieverts. Radiation of 50 – 110 milliSieverts causes F1 cancers, 680 – 1100 milliSieverts results in death. (Source: Health risks from exposure to low levels of Ionizing radiation, BEIR VII phase, National Research Council)

March 17th: Dropping of water from helicopters on Reactor 3 in progress.

March 16th: Highest risk at Reactor 3 as it has highest radiation levels. Reactor 3 is the only one that uses Plutonium in its fuel mix. Smoke appeared at Reactor 3 of Fukushima I Nuclear power plant, cause unclear. Additional threat to population posed by rain as it can contain radioactive particles. (source:Kyodo news)

Fukushima Nuclear power plant compound consists of Fukushima I and Fukushima II power plants with 10 BWR nuclear reactors in total. The process of producing power is not that hard to comprehend: the nuclear reaction in the reactor boils the water, water turns into steam, is then guided towards turbines which it propels, the turbines drive the generators which finally produce electricity. The steam is later directed through condensers which cool it down and turn it back to water completing the cycle.

There are two ways to control the output of the reactor: by lowering and raising control rods and/or by changing the water flow through the reactor core. The normal way of controlling the reactor output power is by manipulating the flow of water through the core through increasing/decreasing water pump speed. More water means higher rate of absorption of neutrons by the fuel which results in a higher power output. Control rods are designed to absorb neutrons without fissioning themselves. By lowering the control rods into the water the number of neurons lowers, thus lowering the number of reactions and lowering output power. To raise the power, the control rods are pulled out.

What went wrong

The effects of the earthquake led to cooling problems in reactors 1,2 and 3. Others were under scheduled maintenance at the time of the earthquake. Japan’ nuclear safety agency rated the incident as level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale-INES (accident with local consequences) ( info from March 13^th ).

 

Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1)
Reactor 1	MAR 15th: Cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, hydrogen explosion, seawater pumped in
Reactor 2	MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, seawater pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, damage to containment system, potential meltdown feared.
Reactor 3	MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater pumped in, hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby MARCH 16th: smoke appeared-cause unclear, pressure of core vessel stable; Updated! severe damage to containment vessel unlikely, no water poured in to cool spent-fuel storage pool. March 17th: Water being poured over reactor from helicpoters
Reactor 4	MAR 15th: Under maintenance when quake struck, fire caused possibly by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, pool water level feared receding. MARCH 16th: fIRE at core broke out again because first fire not put out completely. RADIATION still high, may be due to the boiling storage pool for spent fuel rods. Updated! No water poured in to cool pool, spraying of boric acid being considered.
Reactor 5	MAR 15th: Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool. MAR 18th: Temperature still slightly rising, now @ 65°C
Reactor 6	MAR 15th: Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool.
Fukushima Daini (No. 2)
Reactor 1	MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, then cold shutdown.
Reactor 2	MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, then cold shutdown.
Reactor 3	MARCH 15th: Cold shutdown.
Reactor 4	MARCH 15th: Cooling failure, then cold shutdown.

(source: Kyodo)

The highest risk-level is currently at the Reactor 2 in Fukushima I plant, where according to the engineering team, valves in charge of reducing the amount of steam inside the reactors could not be opened. Current radiation levels are at 8.22 milliSv at the edge of power plant compound. According to Tokyo Electric Power Plant company that is 8-times the amount people can be exposed to in 1 year.

This is not a usual  TaintedGreen.com article as it doesn’t debate how green nuclear technology is, the purpose of this article is solely to provide much sought information on the true state of the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant compound.