BBC reporting that cooling systems at 2nd nuclear power plant are malfunctioning.

[coyote]

2252: The Tokyo Electric Power Company has said the cooling systems of three reactors at second nuclear power plant, Fukushima-Daini, are malfunctioning, according to the Kyodo news agency. The plant is 11km (7 miles) to the south of Fukushima-Daiichi, where the cooling system one of its reactors is not working and pressure is rising.

Update:2310: More from the Tokyo Electric Power Company: It says the ability to control pressure in some of the reactors at Fukushima-Daini has been lost. Pressure is stable inside the reactors, but rising in the containment vessels, a company spokesman says.


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

[malaise]

1. They need power to work the pumps

Send generators urgently

[cliffordu]

2. Aren't these things supposed to GENERATE ELECTRICITY????

what do the pumps run on, squirrels??

[driver8]

7. You can't generate electricity if you can't cool the reactor...

if you can't cool the reactor, you have to shut it down.

There are usually diesels and batteries for back up, but I have heard that the diesel is not working properly and the batteries have just about had it.

This is going to be ugly.

[Hannah Bell]

9. they're already shut down, reported this am. but the cores need to be cooled for 24 hours.

they're pumping on special power but it's not enough to cool to standard.

this is what i read this am

[Pharaoh]

3. This is what happens

when you build reactors on major fault lines. Let alone the ring of fire!

[wtmusic]

4. Tepco says has lost ability to control reactor pressure

at Fukushima Daini nos. 1, 2, 4 reactors

http://twitter.com/REUTERSFLASH

[Esse Quam Videri]

6. Oh sh*t

That's not good

[Thunderstruck]

5. If those plants melt down it will be the worst human catastrophe in history.

[snot]

8. Are there nuclear plants in California?

If a plate has shifted in the Pacific . . .

[roamer65]

11. Diablo Canyon...PG&E.

[roamer65]

10. Where is the US military on this...GODDAMMIT?????

Get power generators in there NOW!!!!!

[Ian David]

12. We've already shipped them some kind of special coolant or something.

The only thing that can save them now is Godzilla.

[k2qb3]

14. They won't melt down...

These are 40 Y/O boiling water reactors, they're not exactly state of the art but they aren't 60 Y/O russian vodka-cooled deathtraps either.

All these reactors have successfully been scrammed, the rods are retracted, so it's not 3-mile island either. They need to keep water in the core until they get it cooled down, that generates a lot of steam, the steam is what runs the turbines, directly in this case. Most US reactors use a pressurized cooling system that then heats different water to create steam to turn the turbines. Anyway with the plant shut down and insufficient power they're having trouble keeping the steam pressure under control, under normal circumstance the steam would condense and be boiled again but the loop isn't functioning properly, there should be emergency provision to vent the steam directly into the condensation pool, which is why it took so long before they had any serious pressure problem, apparently that hasn't been enough to maintain safe pressure in all of these reactors, though it sounds like some of them are still within design limits.

The really worst case scenario is that they'll have to vent steam, it actually sounds like they've done that on at least one reactor already, there are provisions in place to scrub the steam on its way out of containment but there would be tritium and deuterium released, these are radioactive heavy-water isotopes but they aren't all that hot, not even in the same league compared to the fuel itself or a bomb. tritium is used in watch faces and so on to make stuff glow in the dark.

The scariest number reported so far is a 240Rem reading inside the plant, about 1000 times normal and enough to reach our annual OSHA maximum exposure in about two months. This indicates a steam release, intentional or otherwise.

I wouldn't want to be nearby when they release the steam, don't want to breathe it, but it's extremely unlikely there'll be any long term effects for anyone outside the plant, especially since they've evacuated everyone around the sites.

[Ian David]

15. I wonder if they could vent the steam into another pool of water or something.

Like frothing the cream in a cappuccino.

[k2qb3]

16. There should be a containment pool...

But at some point the temperature of the whole system gets high enough to produce too much pressure...

I'm shocked they didn't have better power backup systems in place.

[Poll_Blind]

13. I can honestly say I believe they are doing everything humanly possible to...

...stop this nightmare from happening. I don't know if they can, but I have no doubt that our attempts to stop it will literally involve throwing everything we have at this. Unfortunately, we can't just teleport these things around and the coast itself is arguably destroyed as far as salvage goes. I don't know what machinery we have access to but I have faith that, succeed or fail, right now we are trying to do everything we can.

PB