nuclear-news

Children, pregnant women, first in new evacuation outside Fukushima zone

Japan evacuates villages outside nuclear zone By   Mark Willacy  ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 16 May 11, Japan began evacuating people from outside the official exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after it was revealed fuel rods there probably melted hours after March’s devastating earthquake.

With radiation levels remaining high, small children and pregnant women were the first to be moved, with thousands more to be shifted into shelters and temporary housing. More details have emerged about the meltdown in Fukushima’s No. 1 reactor, with revelations the fuel rods were likely exposed to the air for as long as 14 hours – a fact not discovered until last week.

It appears the rods melted just hours after the earthquake and tsunami struck, dropping to the bottom of the pressure vessel at the core.It was the news the people of Litate village had been dreading…..After the plant’s operator, TEPCO, told the Japanese people that things were stabilising at Fukushima, it is now clear they knew far less about the situation than they were willing to admit.

About 8,000 Litate residents and those in the nearby village of Kawamata are being asked to move, joining the tens of thousands who have already been forced out of their homes by the nuclear crisis…..Japan evacuates villages outside nuclear zone – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

May 16, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment

Now damage likely to nuclear fuel cores in 3 Fukushima reactors

Damage suspected at other reactors Herald Sun May 16, 2011 SUBSTANTIAL damage has occurred in fuel cores at two other reactors of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear complex.The announcement by operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., further complicates the already daunting task of bringing the reactors to a safe shutdown while avoiding the release of high levels of radioactivity.

The revelation followed an acknowledgment on Thursday that a similar meltdown of the core took place at Unit Number One. The operator, known also as Tepco, said that the unit lost its reactor core 16 hours after the plant was struck by a magnitude-9 earthquake and a giant tsunami on the afternoon of March 11.

Workers also found that No. 1 Unit’s reactor building is flooded in the basement, reinforcing the suspicion that the containment vessel is damaged and leaking highly radioactive water…..Damage suspected at other reactors | Herald Sun

May 16, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011 | Leave a comment