Japan Nuclear Crisis Deepens on Suspected Reactor Breach
This aerial view shows the quake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Japanese town of Futaba, Fukushima prefecture on March 12, 2011. Source: JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Gordon Woo, a catastrophist at Risk Management Solutions, discusses the need for nuclear power-plant operators to reevaluate tsunami risk in the wake of Japan's 9-magnitude earthquake that struck last week. Woo speaks from London with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg New Energy Finance's Chris Gadomski talks about the need for U.S. officials to re-examine safety measures of the country's nuclear facilities following radiation fears in Japan. Gadomski, speaking with Lisa Murphy on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack," also discusses the effort of Japanese crews to stabilize nuclear plants damaged by the March 11 earthquake. (Source: Bloomberg)
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Jason Gammel, an analyst at Macquarie Capital, discusses the outlook for the liquefied natural gas market amid nuclear power concerns in Japan. Gammel speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Stuart Biggs speaks from the airport in Sendai, Japan, about the impact of the March 11 tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis on the region. Japan was hit by a 5.7-magnitude aftershock and a second fire at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant as the government struggled to overcome the aftermath of the nation’s strongest earthquake on record. Linzie Janis also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Plumeri, chief executive officer of insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Plc, discusses the potential impact of Japan's earthquake and tsunami on the insurance industry. Plumeri, speaking with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack," also talks about the country's damaged nuclear reactors. (Source: Bloomberg)
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Olli Heinonen, senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, discusses the impact of a potential nuclear disaster in Japan. Radiation levels rose amid a series of explosions at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant after the March 11 earthquake and resulting tsunami. Heinonen speaks with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance Midday." (Source: Bloomberg)
A handout photograph taken on Tuesday, March 15, shows the building housing the No. 4 reactor, center, at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture. Source: Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Bloomberg
A file photograph shows channel boxes containing plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, known as MOX, fuel rods in a pool inside the building which houses the No. 3 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, taken Aug. 21, 2010. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said a reactor containment vessel may have been breached at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant, deepening Japan’s nuclear crisis and increasing the risks of radioactive leaks.
Pressure in the containment chamber of Dai-Ichi’s No. 2 reactor fell “substantially” today, said Masahisa Otsuku, a Tepco nuclear maintenance official. The company suspected damage following an explosion in the reactor building yesterday. About 70 percent of the fuel rods at the plant’s No. 1 reactor and a third of the No. 2 reactor’s fuel may have been damaged, and temperatures at spent-fuel-rod-cooling pools were rising, Tepco said.
Clouds of steam rose from the reactor buildings following a fire at Dai-Ichi’s No. 4 reactor this morning. Radiation levels at the No. 4 reactor hampered efforts to confirm whether the fire had been extinguished, a day after a similar blaze at the same structure.
“If you get enough cold water inside you may stop the generation of steam and then life will get easier. Until then it is a bitch,” said Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer based in Vienna. “As long as there is steam coming out it will carry radioactive particles and gases with it.”
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, facing a nation reeling from its strongest earthquake on record five days ago, said yesterday the danger of further radiation leaks has increased at the nuclear complex, 135 miles north of Tokyo, which has six reactors.
Spent Fuel Rods
Temperatures in the spent-fuel rod cooling pools of the shuttered No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were rising to as high as 63 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Fahrenheit) at 2 p.m. from 60 degrees Celsius at 7 a.m., said Tsuyoshi Makigami, head of nuclear maintenance at Tepco. The building that houses the No. 4 reactor at the nuclear plant has two holes in it and water in the spent fuel pool may be boiling, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said yesterday. Tepco is uncertain about the water levels in the three inactive reactors, Nos. 4, 5 and 6, Makigami said.
Exposed to air, the fuel bundles could chemically react with moisture, catch fire and spread radiation into the atmosphere, said Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Contamination
“Spent fuel is pretty hot and so it is stored under water to keep it cool,” said Kelley, who worked for 30 years at the U.S. Energy Department. “If the water leaks or boils away, then the fuel is exposed,” then after burning, the uranium corrodes and releases cesium, contaminating the area, he said.
A Tokyo Electric worker at the Fukushima nuclear plant is being treated for radiation exposure, the nuclear safety agency said. Tokyo Electric said it hadn’t decided whether to bring workers back after the utility evacuated 750 of its 800 employees following yesterday morning’s blast.
A core group of 50 workers remain at the plant to manage the reactors, Tepco said. Those engineers were temporarily evacuated this morning when dangerous radiation levels were detected, but have now returned, chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said.
Tepco is building a power cable to supply electricity to the plant’s cooling systems, spokesman Daisuke Hirose said. The systems were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The Yomiuri newspaper reported earlier today that if the plan succeeds, the company may be able to stabilize its reactors. Hirose said there is no timetable for completion.
Explosions
The latest incidents follow a blast at the No. 3 reactor March 14 after a buildup of hydrogen gas, and a similar explosion at the No. 1 reactor on March 12.
About 140,000 people within a radius of 20 to 30 kilometers from the plant were ordered to stay indoors. The magnitude-9 temblor and tsunami have led to what Kan has called Japan’s worst crisis since World War II. More than 450 aftershocks have followed. The death toll reached 3,771 with 7,843 missing as of 2 p.m. today, the National Police Agency said. The number of dead and missing exceeds the more than 6,400 who died in the 1995 Kobe earthquake.
In a national address today, Emperor Akihito expressed his condolences to victims of the earthquake and tsunami, and told the people of Japan not to give up.
Japan has distributed 230,000 units of potassium iodide to evacuation centers surrounding nuclear plants, according to officials. The ingestion of iodide can help to prevent the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid.
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