Breaking - 10:06 - Japan government says explosion heard at another nuclear reactor: local media

[TomClash]

Source: Australian Broadcasting Co.

No story yet.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/#entry-6a00e0097e4e6888330147e33686b3970b

[hedgehog]

1. MSNBC is running a banner stating an explosion at Unit 2 - no further info

Edit - I could really use a time-line on all this if someone has been able to keep it all straight!

[L. Coyote]

16. Explosion heard at third Japanese reactor Water levels dropped at plant's Unit 2

Posting this at 4:49 PDT

Explosion heard at third Japanese reactor
Water levels dropped at plant's Unit 2, following similar developments at Units 1, 3
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42066534/ns/world_news-asiapacific/
updated 10 minutes ago 2011-03-14T 23:37:47

SOMA, Japan — An explosion was heard at a third nuclear reactor in northeastern Japan on Tuesday, Japan's nuclear safety agency reported.

An agency spokesman speaking Tuesday on national television said the explosion was heard at 6:10 a.m. local time.

Radiation levels passed legal limits after the blast, Kyodo news network reported, and some workers at the No. 2 reactor were evacuated.

The explosion comes as Japanese engineers pumped seawater into Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant after coolant water levels there dropped, exposing uranium fuel rods.

The water drop left the rods no longer completely covered in coolant, thus increasing the risk of a radiation leak and the potential for a meltdown at the Unit 2 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

.............. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42066534/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

[Peace Patriot]

27. Here's an excellent summary of the whole situation, as of yesterday....

by LiberalEsto
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x632395

This can help orient you. I think the "unit 2" referred to (above) is the third nuke plant at the Fukushima 1 Dai-ichi site (described in LiberalEsto's summary). It is the Dai-ichi and Daini plants that are in trouble (a total of six or seven plants with cooling system problems or failures), not the Onagawa site (radiation was detected there, but it apparently came from Fukushima, 60 miles away).

The explosion Saturday was F-1 Dai-ichi. There was an explosion today at F-3 Dai-ichi. And this report from minutes ago seems to be about F-2 Dai-ichi. The explosions do not mean that the core is exploding, but that partial meltdowns are occurring, producing hydrogen steam pressure on the outer containment structures. Two such structures have been blown off (not the inner core containment structures) so far. The worst danger is fire, as I understand it, which could possibly start in the spent fuel pools (near the top of the containment structures). If complete meltdown occurs, fire could spread nuclear materials into the atmosphere. Without fire, if a complete meltdown occurs, it is not an explosion and the nuke material is supposed to sink into a structure underneath and be contained there (not go into the water table). Some radiation would escape but it wouldn't be the major catastrophe that explosion/fire would be. Some radiation has been escaping but, if Japanese authorities are to be believed, it has not been a lot. Another hazard is that F-3 (I believe) has plutonium in its fuel (yet more toxic than the other fuels).

I don't know what's happening at the F-Daini site, 10 miles away, where three nuke plants had cooling system failures, as of yesterday. (Depending on the state of the cores, the spent fuel pools and the containment structures, sea water could keep them contained for months, even years, but I wonder where that sea water ends up.)

I am a complete novice as to nuclear science and details of nuclear power. I'm just telling you what I've picked up from news reports and DU threads over the last few days. Don't quote me, in other words. And don't rely on me. Just giving you my skimpy overview. But it has been clear to me since yesterday that this situation could easily and quickly escalate into something far worse than we have seen in any nuclear accident so far. If several of these plants go to complete meltdown with fire, Japan could become a waste land, sea life in the Pacific could be gravely affected and other Pacific Rim countries could suffer radiation. The clustering of these nuke plants worries me, for one thing. (Fire in one--spread to the others?) And of course they never should have been built in the most earthquake-prone country on earth. I hope they never are again. I hope we decommission them all. A 9.0 earthquake may be rare but when it DOES happen, clearly all bets are off on nuclear power safety. The potential consequences are just too devastating to take the risk.

[MellonCollie]

2. BBC/SkyNews reporting that it's reactor #2 n/t

[Botany]

3. That would be reactor # 2?

Because #s 1 & 3 have already had explosions. (Just guessing)




or maybe #4?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. #2 is also the one they said has damage to the structure which houses the reactor

From your link:

9:43 AM

BREAKING: Japanese authorities are now saying part of the structure that houses one of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the country's north-east appears to be damaged.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano confirmed the damage, but said: "We have not recorded any sudden jump in radiation indicators."

A damaged reactor container has the potential to release radiation into the atmosphere.

[jakeXT]

4. no 2

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77992.html

URGENT: Blast heard at Fukushima's No.2 reactor: gov't

TOKYO, March 15, Kyodo

The sound of a blast was heard Tuesday morning at the troubled No. 2 reactor of the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government said.

The incident occurred at 6:10 a.m. and is feared to have damaged the reactor's pressure-suppression system, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said, citing a report from the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

==Kyodo

[hedgehog]

5. When the authorities throw in the towel on attempting to salvage

a reactor by flooding it with sea water and then there are still problems, I start to really worry.

[jakeXT]

7. they had no fuel for over 2 hours

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said a steam vent of the pressure container of the reactor that houses the rods was closed for some reason, raising fears that its core will melt at a faster pace. It said it will try to open the vent to resume the operation to inject seawater to cool down the reactor.

Despite its earlier attempt to do so, however, water levels sharply fell and the fuel rods were fully exposed for about 140 minutes in the evening as a fire pump to pour cooling seawater into the reactor ran out of fuel and it took time for workers to release steam from the reactor to lower its pressure, the government's nuclear safety agency said.

Water levels in the No. 2 reactor later went up to cover more than half of the rods that measure about 4 meters at one point. TEPCO began pouring coolant water into the reactor after the cooling functions failed earlier in the day.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77943.html

[jtrockville]

6. BBC #2316: suppression pool may be damaged at #2

2316: Kyodo now says that the suppression pool may have been damaged at the second reactor.

[LiberalEsto]

32. I suspect the 2316 number means 23:16 or 11:16 pm

And that would be Greenwich Mean Time.

[jtrockville]

37. Ah, I was wondering how they came up with those numbers.

Your suspicion makes sense.

[hedgehog]

9. I've got to say this from working at different plants in different

industries over the years -

1. The hours between 2AM and 4AM are very hazardous. No matter how much sleep you've had, no matter how long you've worked third shift, your IQ drops by about 50 points between those hours. You don't see the information right in front of you, or you see it and do the wrong thing. Lots of accidents in those hours.

2. The more days in a row people work overtime, the higher the accident rate.

All of which says to me the longer this all goes on, the higher the possibility of real problems!

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Seriously, it takes very unusual people to work 3rd shift without issues.

[FBaggins]

25. Yep... that's why "dog watches" in the Navy are only two hours.

You can't stay as alert at that time even if you're reasonably rested.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Current news on Japan tv is breathtaking for downplaying the size of the problem.

" heard a big sound that could be an explosion at the plant" but "no details known so far"

"the container is a very important component that keeps radiation from leaking"
( NO SHIT)
and there may be "some" leaking from the container, but "no danger" except workers are being evacuated "just in case"
but no cause to worry about "impact on human health".

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

(In a nut shell, all three emergency back systems built by Toshiba have failed at 3 of the 4 plants.)

[enough]

11. NHK World English just reported that the operators of #2 plant have been told to evacuate.

This sounded somewhat outlandish to me, so I waited until I heard them say it twice before posting this.

http://www.livestation.com/channels/123-nhk-world-english

NHK WORLD is the international service provided by Japan's only public broadcasting network,

[reorg]

12. BREAKING: Higher radiation levels measured in Ibaraki

Wind has changed, now headed south in the direction of Tokyo.

[TomClash]

15. Mito?

That's like NY to Philly.

[reorg]

28. Yes, about halfway between the plant and Tokyo, I believe n/t

[zen_bohemian]

13. An "explosive impact" occurred at the No. 2 reactor at a quake-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan,

breaking on CNN

[L. Coyote]

17. Also unknown was the status of any nuclear waste that might be stored at the site ...

Also unknown was the status of any nuclear waste that might be stored at the site, and whether the pools housing used fuel were still being cooled to prevent a radiation release.

.............

the explosion at Unit 3 was not as dire as it might seem. ..........

The blast actually lessened pressure building inside the troubled reactor, and officials said the all-important containment shell — thick concrete armor around the reactor — had not been damaged. In addition, officials said radiation levels remained within legal limits, though anyone left within 12 miles of the scene was ordered to remain indoors.

"We have no evidence of harmful radiation exposure" from Monday's blast, Deputy Cabinet Secretary Noriyuki Shikata told reporters.

On Saturday, a similar explosion took place at the plant's Unit 1, injuring four workers and causing mass evacuations. A Japanese official said 22 people had been confirmed to have suffered radiation contamination and up to 190 may have been exposed.

........... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42066534/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

[BradBlog]

18. BREAKING: THIRD EXPLOSION AT FUKUSHIMA - REACTOR UNIT 2...

Source: BRAD BLOG

BREAKING: THIRD EXPLOSION AT FUKUSHIMA - REACTOR UNIT 2...

I was working on an UPDATE, concerning Fukushima Daiichi's reactor Unit 2 on last night's live blog thread (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8393) following the explosion at Unit 3, when news just broke that there has been an explosion now at the Unit 2 reactor.

The new explosion follows two others, said to have been hydrogen explosions first at Unit 1, and then Unit 3 a day later, and news late last night that the emergency cooling system at Unit 2 had been damaged during the Unit 3 blast, resulting in the uranium fuel rods at 2 becoming dangerously, and completely exposed for a number of hours before sea water injection was resumed in hopes of colling the number 2 reactor.

Now, according to various reliable sources on Twitter over the last few minutes...

"@thedeadhandbook: NHK: "A big sound" at Unit No 2. Half of fuel rods 2.7 meter length is exposed."

"@thedeadhandbook: NHK: operators evacuated from the site 'just in case.' Damage to "pressure suppression room"

"@Reuters: Fresh explosion heard at stricken Japan reactor http://reut.rs/gQJl88"

"@norishikata: We need to very closely watch what is happening to Unit 2. Most workers on-site evacuated, with minimum staff remaining."

"@AkikoFujita: Explosion at Reactor unit #2 at 6:10am. Gov't: "Radioactive levels up, but level not immediately harmful to human bodies."

"NHK: NISA says rad levels not high to cause damage to human health, but if containment vessel damaged could be serious consequences"

In the case of Units 1 & 3, according to Japanese officials, the containment vessels housing the fuel rods was not breached, though "partial meltdowns" of at least some of the rods was being presumed. Whether or not that is the case again in Unit 2, now remains to be seen...

DEVELOPING COVERAGE: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8394

Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8394

[redwitch]

19. Minimum staff remaining.

God help them.

[fascisthunter]

20. I feel so sick thinking about the men and women at the plant

trying to do all they can to prevent more disaster. It really tears me up...

[wtmusic]

22. Heroes, all. nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

24. You and me both.

Such devoted people. I've nothing but respect for them and compassion for their families.

[LiberalEsto]

30. 50 employees at the Fukushima Daiichi plant

just reported on BBC a little while ago, quoting Tokyo Electric Co.

[wtmusic]

21. Bad to worse. nt

[grahamhgreen]

35. How many windmills have blown up?

[wtmusic]

23. "at or near the pressure vessel"

"Tokyo Electric officials are now holding a news briefing. They say the blast at reactor 2 happened "near the pressure vessel". They also confirm that some staff at the nuclear power plant are being evacuated."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

Not good at all.

[FBaggins]

26. Explosion between inner and outer containment?

No... not good. Certainly the worst so far.

[wtmusic]

34. Sounds that way. nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

29. Authorities say the number 2 reactor's container has been damaged.

That, coupled with the radiation levels after the blast, doesn't sound good to me.

I cannot imagine being one of the 50 people who are staying behind to try and lessen further disaster. They're amazing human beings.

[No Elephants]

31. Nothing to worry about. If everyone has six eyes, it seems normal.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

33. Radiation at Fukushima plant briefly hits 8,217 micro sievert per hour (8X annual limit)

Kyodo News

http://english.kyodonews.jp/

[creeksneakers2]

36. Japan Suspects Nuclear Reactor Container Damaged

Japan Suspects Nuclear Reactor Container DamagedMar 14, 2011 – 7:15 PM READING hi

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/14/explosion-heard-at-japan-nuclear-plant/

AP TOKYO (AP) - Japan's nuclear safety agency says it suspects an explosion at a nuclear power plant may have damaged a reactor's container and fears a radiation leak.

(snip)

But the agency says it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds the generator's nuclear core might have been damaged.

(snip)


The latest blast happened in the plant's Unit 2 near a suppression pool, which removes heat under a reactor vessel, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.