3rd, More Serious Explosion Jolts Japan's Fukushima N-Plant

World | March 15, 2011, Tuesday // 02:57|  views

Japanese medical personnel check local residents for radiation exposure in Kawamata village, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, 14 March 2011. EPA/BGNES

A third explosion, more serious than the previous two, has reportedly occurred at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which has been badly damaged by Friday's devastating earthquake.

The No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant experienced the latest explostion early Tuesday morning local time. Thus, all three reactors at the plant have affected by the damages from Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake in just four days as water pumps failed to cool down the ultra-hot fuel rods in the nuclear facility.

Officials from Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant owner, said the 6:14 a.m. explosion, unlike the two before, took place in the unit 2 reactor at or near the suppression pool in the primary containment vessel, where water and radioactive elements are collected. That raised the possibility of damage to the layers of protective steel.

The explosion - more serious than the earlier ones which occurred in reactor 1 on Saturday and reactor 3 on Monday - was followed by a brief drop in pressure in the vessel and a spike in radioactivity outside the reactor, the company said, as cited by The LA Times.

The explosion has led TEPCO to evacuate all nonessential personnel from the Fukushima nuclear power plant leaving only 50 out of 1 400 employees on the spot in the nuclear complex located only 250 km north of Tokyo.

Utility officials there reported that four out of five water pumps being used to flood the unit 2 reactor had failed and that the other pump had briefly stopped working. As a result, the company said the fuel rods, normally covered by water, were completely exposed for a couple of hours, hastening the partial meltdown of them that most experts think is underway.

According to a report by the Kyodo News agency, the fifth pump was later restarted and seawater mixed with boron was again injected in a desperate bid to cool the reactor, but the fuel rods remained partially exposed and ultra-hot. On Tuesday morning, Tokyo Elecric said that 2.7 meters of the rods were still exposed.

The other four pumps were thought to have been damaged by a blast Monday that destroyed a building at the nearby unit 3 reactor, Kyodo reported. That blast, like one on Saturday at unit 1, was caused by a buildup in hydrogen generated by a reaction that took place when the zirconium alloy wrapped around the fuel rods was exposed to steam.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that injections of seawater into units 1 and 3 had been interrupted because of a low level in a seawater supply reservoir, but the seawater injections were later restored.

The ability of workers to assess the damage was hindered by fears that another explosion might occur.

After Monday's explosion at unit 3, Japanese government officials were quick to assert that it did not damage the core containment structure, and they?said there would be little increase in radiation levels around the plant. But the explosion prompted Japan's nuclear agency to warn those within 12 miles to stay indoors. The blast also injured 11 people, one seriously.

The string of earthquake- and tsunami-triggered troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi plant began Friday, when a loss of grid power (caused the earthquake) followed by a loss of backup diesel generators (caused by the tsunami) led to the failure of cooling systems needed to keep reactor cores from overheating.

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Tags: Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power, plant, Earthquake, tsunami, TEPCO, Tokyo Electric, radiation

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