http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2016/11/22/earthquakes-rattle-japans-plan-to-restart-more-nuclear-react.html
[links in on-line article]
Earthquakes rattle Japan’s plan to restart more nuclear reactors
The Shinzo Abe government’s plan to restart nuclear power in Japan was
shaken to its core with a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck on
November 21, 2016 (the date here in the U.S.) just off the coast of the
destroyed Fukushima Daiichi atomic reactors. Fukushima Daiichi is also
the site of a huge radioactive waste tank farm that continues to expand
from an on-again off-again radioactive cooling water treatment system
for the three still unrecovered melted reactor cores. Little is
presently known about how the hastily built tank farm has fared during
the earthquake.
The four-unit Fukushima Daini nuclear power complex just seven miles
south of Fukushima Daiichi temporarily lost cooling to Daini’s Unit 3
spent fuel pool raising concerns for the overheating of high-level
nuclear waste configured as 2400 used fuel rods being stored underwater.
Fukushima Daini remains shutdown and barred from power operations along
with 38 operable units in Japan following the March 11, 2011 8.9M
earthquake and catastrophic tsunami. Only two of the nation’s nuclear
reactors have successfully returned to power operations amid intense
public and political opposition that continues to grow.
Tuesday morning’s 7.4M earthquake struck around 6 am (JST) 31 miles off
the east coast. The large earthquake set off coastal tsunami warnings
for several hours, eventually measuring up to a sea level rise of 55
inches. A second 5.5M earthquake struck shortly after with its epicenter
on land just 7 miles from Fukushima Daini with another tsunami warning.
Aftershocks continue to jolt the area with officials concerned that
another major quake can be expected within the week.
During times of natural disaster and national security threats, nuclear
power is more a dangerous societal liability than an asset. All of the
reactors’ safety systems and their nuclear waste cooling systems are
100% reliant upon offsite electrical grid power during normal
operations. If the electric grid is disturbed by disaster or sabotage,
nuclear power plants automatically shut down and emergency electrical
power systems kick in to service a subset of priority reactor safety and
cooling systems. If those systems fail or are disabled, nuclear power
stations typically have 4 to 8 hours of back-up battery power to prevent
a meltdown. Cooling capability to thousands of tons of high-level
nuclear waste (irradiated fuel rods) initially rely upon the same
off-site electrical power. Since the 9/11 World Trade Center aircraft
attacks and the 3/11 Fukushima nuclear disaster, reactor spent fuel
pools with high-density storage of nuclear waste are being equipped with
make-up water systems should a loss of power threaten to boil off the
water filled pools. Each pool containing up to 700 to 1000 tons of
thermally hot and highly radioactive nuclear waste can overheat, boil
off and catch fire without cooling.
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