Posted on 03/11/2011 3:34:41 AM PST by TSgt
A fire has broken out at one of Japan's nuclear power plants after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the country today, according to news agency reports.
The fire is reported to be at Tohoku Electricity’s Onagawa plant. The Japanese government has declared a nuclear power emergency situation, the news agency Jiji said, quoting the Japanese defence ministry .
However, the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna saidthe four Japanese nuclear power plants closest to the earthquake have been safely shut down. "The four Japanese nuclear power plants closest to the quake have been safely shut down," the agency said in a statement, adding it was liaising with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on further details of the situation.
All Japanese ports have closed close, with discharge operations halted, after the earthquake and the resultant tsunami, shippers say. A tsunami 10 metres high hit the port in Sendai, northern Japan, with Sendai airport subsequently flooded, according to television reports. The tsunami swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships and cars. Several other airports, including Tokyo's Narita, were closed and rail services halted.
Tokyo Electric Power said the power had been cut to 4 million homes. Among other reports of damage, Japanese media reported a fire at JFE Holdings' steel plant in Chiba. JFE, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker, said there was no major impact. Cosmo Oil said its Chiba refinery had been hit by a fire in storage tank, and it was still working to extinguish it. JX Nippon Oil, Japan's top refiner, halted operations at three refineries in Sendai, Kashima and Negishi, Jiji News said. Television showed black smoke pouring out of an industrial area in Yokohama's Isogo area.
By 2pm UAE time at least 22 people were reported killed in the earthquake, the biggest to hit Japan in 140 years.
Electronics giant Sony, one of the country's biggest exporters, shut six factories, while Toyota said it had halted production at a parts factory and two assembly plants in the area, and Nissan, the country's second-largest automaker, stopped operations at four factories, media reported.
Experts are predicting that the earthquake will have a serious effect on Japan’s economy, which the Bank of Japan has been struggling to revive. With Japanese interest rates already near zero, analysts said the central bank and the government had few options but to inject more money into the economy, even if it risked swelling the already bloated deficit. Tsutomu Yamada, a market analysts at Kabu.com Securities. said: "The extent of the damage is hard to tell but it seems devastating for the northern Japan economy. The government must act quickly to announce support packages and the central bank should pump more money into the economy,"
The earthquake in 1995 that devastated Kobe in Japan caused $100 billion in damage.
A tsunami warning has been issued for the entire Pacific basin except the mainland United States and Canada following a huge earthquake that hit Japan on Friday, the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.
we can be assured that Zero will be focusing like a laser to make safe his and wookie's Kobe beef supply in Japan...lots of "Wednesday Night at the White Hut" bashes ahead...
Apparently a passenger train on a coastal route is unaccounted for......poor people
LOL!!
I was watching NHK, Japan's "public broadcasting network" and they mentioned Obama's statement. The picture they showed had me almost on the floor with laughter. Obama, looking to his right, had this sour, mean look on his face like someone just egged his favorite suit. The caption was "American President."
It was truly the kind of photo that might be used as late night punchline.
Does he sound secure? I worry about that reactor....I tend believe the opposite of what the press says. IF they had already come out and said ‘all is secure’ so fast already, I tend to believe that all is ‘not so secure’...
I hope our ‘American in Tokoyo’ FReeper is ok...
Please check in AIT.
The chain reaction can be shut off immediately by inserting control rods, but immediately after shutdown the core continues to produce heat due to radioactive decay.
Immediately after shutdown the core will prduce about 7% of the normal operating power. For a 3000 MW (thermal) plant, that means ~200 MW is still being produced (equal to the heat from 2 million 100 Watt light bulbs).
The power drops off very quickly, but if you have no place to dump 200 MW of heat things get dicey pretty quick.
Americannitokyo has been posting on this thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2687048/posts
“Can they just “turn it off?””
No. If you immediately stop the nuclear reaction (fairly easy to do) there is heat generated from the short-half-life isotopes that want to warm the core up more.
You need to remove that heat just to keep the core at the same temp.
If you have lost power you rely on offsite power and diesel gensets to run the megawatt or two of very big, reliable pumps to cool the core (if it’s water cooled). Plants are designed for this, emergency cooling is a big design/construction cost and effort.
From what I’ve been reading, they have power for pumps and valves but not enough water.
I should add to that that the next biggest design is containing the core if all else fails. If it slags, it’s unlikely to leak out unless containment is breached somehow. Expensive and very very newsworthy but still “safe” enough.
Does anyone happen to know what brand of DCS the plant is running?
Isn’t that the truth? Every time I hear the name mentioned, especially in times like these, I absolutely cringe...then curse the stupidity of so many American people.
My prayers are also going up for the Japanese families who lost students in the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake just a few weeks ago. What a double whammy. May the Lord of heaven & earth give them comfort.
“If you have lost power you rely on offsite power and diesel gensets to run the megawatt or two of very big, reliable pumps to cool the core (if it’s water cooled). Plants are designed for this, emergency cooling is a big design/construction cost and effort.”
Fox News is reporting that at least at one of the nuclear power plants the generators are failing.
Hopefully I'll hear more from him soon. I appreciate your concern. :-))
Kyodo news reports a fire has broken out in the turbine building of Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture.
It's not immediately clear if there is a risk of a radioactive leak as a result of the fire at the plant.
Kyodo also reports that an emergency core-cooling unit had been activated at Fukushima nuclear plant, without giving further details.
Evacuation ordered
FNC now reporting the cooling mechanism has failed
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