nuclear-news

Bloomberg: Tepco considered shooting firearms at No. 3 reactor building

Bloomberg: Tepco considered shooting firearms at No. 3 reactor building
 August 7th, 2012 By ENENews Title: Tepco Weighed Using Firearms to Avoid Fukushima Explosion

Source: Bloomberg
Author: By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Yuji Okada
Date: Aug 7, 2012  

As the first hydrogen explosion rocked the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) officials scrambled to prevent a second blast, at one point weighing the use of firearms to shoot a hole in the reactor building to release the pressure.

[…]

Officials were discussing methods to release hydrogen gas building up inside the facility housing the No. 3 reactor after the first explosion rocked the No. 1 unit on March 12, 2011. Videos show officials considering the use of firearms and a helicopter to drop an object into the reactor housing to make a hole, with those who proposed the actions at one point suggesting they may sound “wild” or “absurd.”

[…]

Some in the U.S. government were coming up with similar plans:

• WaPo: US gov’t emails reveal serious discussion of setting off explosives at Fukushima reactor
• Kyodo: U.S. eyed blasting hole in Fukushima reactor with military explosives — Reflected sense of alarm within gov’t over cooling failure

August 8, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2012