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TEPCO neglected seismograph failure for more than six months, failed to record the earthquake of March 13 at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3

February 22, 2021

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced on Wednesday that two seismographs installed in the reactor building of the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant had failed but had been left unrepaired for more than half a year, so they were unable to record data from a seismic intensity 6-weak earthquake that occurred late at night on the 13th of this month.

The water level in the reactor containment vessel dropped by more than 30 centimeters at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Units 1 and 3, possibly due to the magnitude 6-weak earthquake.

　The explanation was given by TEPCO when it reported on the effects of the earthquake at a Nuclear Regulation Authority meeting. TEPCO made no mention of the seismograph failure in its press conference after the quake or in its public documents, and had not announced it before that.

　Akira Ono, chief executive officer of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Decommissioning Promotion Company, apologized at the review meeting, saying, “We missed a chance to get valuable data and we regret it.

　According to TEPCO, seismographs were installed in March 2020, one on the operation floor and one on the first floor, both on the top five floors of the Unit 3 reactor building, and the one on the first floor broke down in July, four months after it was installed, when it was submerged in water due to rain, and the other broke down in October of the same year due to another cause.

　At a press conference on the evening of the 22nd, a TEPCO spokesperson said, “We had planned to install seismographs with countermeasures. The seismograph in the Unit 3 reactor was “installed on a trial basis” to study the earthquake resistance of the building where a hydrogen explosion occurred during the accident, he explained.

　At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, seismographs were installed on the basement floor of the reactor buildings of Units 1-6, but the equipment in Units 1-4, which were flooded by the tsunami, is not working. (Kenta Onozawa) https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/87498?fbclid=IwAR10pYQZCCKlLhFL8juxyOLZMvOCVTaiP7kQt1C0B46KSxj91KtREIEezP8

February 25, 2021 - Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2021 | Earthquake, Fukushima Daiichi, Seismographs