WE ARE IN THE LAPS OF THE GODS
Sunday March 13 2011
spreading, we are in the laps of the gods'
WORLD NEWS
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE - 'THE RADIOACTIVE WAVE IS SPREADING, WE ARE IN THE LAPS OF THE GODS'
Sunday March 13 2011 by Stuart Winter and Hilary Douglas additional reporting by Roddy Ashworth
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AS a dust cloud hung over Japan’s earthquake-stricken nuclear plant at Fukushima Dai-ichi yesterday, fears rose that a new Chernobyl catastrophe might be on the way.
Late last night it emerged that cooling systems had also failed at a second neighbouring nuclear reactor, hours after an explosion at a nearby unit made leaking radiation the greatest threat to the country.
The danger grew as the shocked population was still trying to cope with the huge natural disasters of both earthquake and tsunami.
The Japanese government said radiation from the first plant appeared to have decreased after Saturday’s blast, which produced a cloud of white smoke that obscured the complex.
But the situation was grave enough for officials to pump corrosive sea-water into the reactor to avoid meltdown yesterday evening.
Following this brief respite of relief Japan’s nuclear safety agency reported an emergency at a second reactor unit at Fukushima Daiichi, when its cooling systems malfunctioned.
Clearly they don’t know if the concrete dome has been damaged by the earthquake or not
Dr John Large, one of Britain’s leading nuclear experts
Operator Tepco said it was preparing to release some toxic steam to relieve pressure in the No.3 reactor at the plant 150 miles north of Tokyo, which would release a small amount of radiation, following an explosion and leak yesterday morning in the facility’s No.1 reactor.
The government insisted radiation levels were low following yesterday morning’s initial explosion, saying the blast had not affected the reactor core container, and the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been told by Japan that levels “have been observed to lessen in recent hours”.
But Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the number of people exposed to radiation from the plant could reach 160.
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Yesterday workers in protective clothing were scanning people arriving at evacuation centres for radio-active exposure.
Around 140,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the plant and another nuclear facility nearby, while authorities prepared to distribute iodine to people in the vicinity to protect them from radioactive exposure.
“There is radiation leaking out, and since the possibility is high, it’s quite scary,” said Masanori Ono, 17, standing in line yesterday to be scanned for radiation at an evacuation centre in Fukushima.
Before news of the problem with reactor No. 3, the nuclear safety agency said the plant accident was less serious than both America’s Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union.
An official at the agency said it had rated the first incident a 4 according to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
Three Mile Island was rated 5 while Chernobyl was rated 7 on the 1 to 7 scale, the official said.
However, one of Britain’s leading nuclear experts, Dr John Large, warned: “The exclusion zone keeps being raised. First it was three kilometres, then 10, now 20, so the radioactive wave is spreading widely. It is in the lap of the gods where it ends up.”
When Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant went into meltdown 25 years ago, vast areas of Europe were coated in radioactive dust, putting farms out of business and leaving millions fearing long-term health issues. Even British farms felt the effects of the radioactive particles.
Yesterday’s winds were blowing away from Japan’s most heavily populated areas but contaminated dust could be swept by the high-altitude jet stream across the Pacific towards the United States.
There are fears that billions of dollars worth of crops will have to be destroyed if a “poison cloud” hits America’s West Coast. The jet stream could carry any contamination into the prairie wheat fields that cover more than 50 million acres.
Dr Large, who has visited the Fukushima plant, criticised its safety procedures. The Sunday Express can reveal that Tepco has a chequered record with breaches of the most basic safety guidelines.
In 2002, the president and four senior executives were forced to resign after allegations that safety records had been falsified on 29 occasions.
Professor Paddy Regan, from the University of Surrey, said: “It’s not clear what has exploded. If the pressure vessel, the thing that actually holds all the nuclear fuel, were to explode, this is basically what happened at Chernobyl. Then you get an enormous release of radioactive material.”
Robin Grimes, professor of materials physics at Imperial College, London, said: “As long as that steel inner vessel remains intact then the vast majority of the radiation will be contained.”
Dr Large said: “This plant has gone through all the steps that occurred at Three Mile Island, and that led to total meltdown. The inner box has failed completely and it seems that they have let some radiation out into the outer dome. When that exceeded design pressure, they then let some radioactivity out to release the pressure.
“Clearly they don’t know if the concrete dome has been damaged by the earthquake or not. The combination of water and steam will likely have led to a zirconium steel explosion, and ultimately hydrogen being released. This is the most likely cause of the dramatic explosion you saw.”
He added: “It looks like the reactors automatically shut down following the earthquake, causing a massive collapse of power to the grid.
“It needed their generators to start them up again but they didn’t count on the tsunami then knocking the generators out. Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to envisage that? Tsunamis do follow earthquakes at sea.”
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/234 ... z1GTuSwqoh
**I personally don't like the title of this article... but the read was of interest.
