lunes, 14 de marzo de 2011

Meltdown alert at Japan reactor


Sea water is being pumped into reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after its fuel rods were fully exposed twice.
International nuclear watchdogs said there was no sign of a meltdown but one minister said a melting of rods was "highly likely" to be happening.
The crisis was sparked by Friday's 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami.
Thousands of people are believed to have died, and millions are spending a fourth night without water, food, electricity or gas. More than 500,000 people have been left homeless.
'All our effort'
On Monday a hydrogen blast at the Fukushima Daiichi's reactor 3 injured 11 people and destroyed the building surrounding it. The explosion was felt 40km (25 miles) away and sent a huge column of smoke into the air.
It followed a blast at reactor 1 on Saturday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said there were signs that the fuel rods were melting in all three reactors.
"Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening," he told reporters

Both explosions at the plant were preceded by cooling system breakdowns but the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said neither blast penetrated the thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores.
It said radiation levels outside were still within legal limits.
But shortly after Monday's blast, Tepco warned it had lost the ability to cool Fukushima Daiichi's reactor 2.
Officials battled all Monday and into the early hours of Tuesday to try to keep water levels up in order to cool the nuclear fuel rods, but on two occasions the rods have been fully exposed.
Exposure for too long a period of time can damage the rods and raise the risk of a meltdown.

BBC