Japan’s nuclear situation similar to Chernobyl Nuclear meltdown
JAPAN (Channel 6 News) — Already beset by problems stemming from an 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck March 11, Japanese citizen experienced a life-threatening nightmare as three reactors exploded at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant, with a fourth catching fire.
The problems at the nuclear reactor were caused when the power supply was knocked out by the earthquake and the fuel rods overheated from the resulting of cooling.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that anyone within 12 miles of the plant should have to leave, and anyone within 18 miles should stay indoors.
Kan said, “The radiation level has risen substantially. The risk that radiation will leak from now on has risen.”
He further stated, “A worrisome situation remains, but I hope to take the lead in overcoming this crisis. I will take all measures so that the damage does not expand.
Yukio Edano, Japan’s chief press secretary, said that a partial meltdown was already underway, and that further explosions could take place at the plant.
NHK, a Japanes broadcasting service, reported radiation levels had reached 8217 microhertz, approximately eight times the amount for one person to face in a year.
Japanese officials had already feared that the earthquake may have caused a partial meltdown of fuel rods in the reactor. Officials at the plant have been attempting to cool down the reactors with seawater, but to no avail.
The current crisis is the worst nuclear disaster to strike Japan since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Arnold Gundersen, a technician who had worked on nuclear plants of the same type as Fukushima Daiichi, told The New York Times that such a strategy was ineffective, saying, “You’re looking at thousands of gallons a day potentially out as long as a year.”
The difference between a partial meltdown and a full meltdown is that in a partial meltdown, the fuel rods are only damaged, while in a full meltdown, they almost completely melt away.
Both partial and full meltdowns can have serious consequences. For example, an explosion that occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979 was caused by a partial meltdown, and the island remains sealed off to this day.
Another comparable disaster occurred at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986. Unlike the plants at Fukushima or Three Mile Island, the reactor at Chernobyl was not held in a sealed container.
Norm Rubin, the director of nuclear research Energy Probe, a Canadian-based company that opposes nuclear power, told CTV News that allowing the reactors to overheat was, “a big no-no.”
He further stated that the magnitude of the problem was unprecedented, saying, “We’ve never been in a situation where more than one reactor is in crisis at the same time at the same facility.”
Japan currently has 54 nuclear plants, second in the world behind France. The heavy reliane on nuclear power is a holdover from the 1950’s and is a result of the fact that Japan has no oil and is otherwise resource-poor.
PHOTO: CNN
Jeez, is these reactors go, the whole of Japan is toast!
The tsunami and earthquake were bad enough but now 4 reactors could go nuclear. We had better hope that the Japanese can stabilise the reactors or Japan could be a wasteland by the end of the year!
it does not matter if he can spell or not his idea remains the same and he conveyed it well enough to get the point across. why dont you act civil and talk about how f****d Japan could be instead of pointing out his spelling and grammatical errors.
p.s. you wrote in all caps and i made it a point to only capitalize Japan
Kyle, if they had a meltdown it would cover half the U.S. with 750 rads (a lethal dose of radiation) in 10 days.
John, you may be right in that these people shouldn’t be worrying about grammatical errors, but if you were trying to make a point of using correct punctuation and putting capitals in the right place, you have made a bit of a fool of your self. Capitals also belong at the beginning of a sentence, after the period, as well as at the beginning of a country’s name. Writing your whole paragraph in lower case is no better than writing the entire thing in upper case.
“8217 microhertz” ???
you probably meant microSieverts…
MAN JAPANS IS IN BIG TROBLE RIGHT NOW IF THAT NUCLEAR REATOR GOES
OFF WE CAN SAY BYBY TO JAPAN
MAN JAPANS IS IN BIG TROBLE RIGHT NOW IF THAT NUCLEAR REATOR GOES
OFF WE CAN SAY BYBY TO JAPAN.
I can’t understand why people are bickering about spelling and grammar when so many lives are at stake! This is a disaster. It impacts all life on this planet. We need to look at ways to mitigate this problem. Unfortunately we haven’t been told exactly how much radiation we are dealing with and how quickly it will reach North America. I believe we should be taking potassium iodide to protect ourselves. The government disagrees, probably because they don’t want to alarm people.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/15/bc-iodine-sales-kendall-radioactivity.html
This disaster is an unprecedented tragedy for the Japanese people. It isn’t their fault and it is a lesson to the entire world to look for safer ways to create energy. A big wake up call, but unfortunately too late for many.
Clearly we need to increase the safeguards in place for nuclear power plants, however what many people are unaware of is that the number of people killed due to pollution from coal power plants every year dwarves the number of people killed through history from nuclear meltdowns. Nuclear power is the cleanest safest form of power mankind has yet developed. It gets a bad rap because its polluting remnants(nuclear waste) can easily be seen, and must be stored underground for a long period of time. However the unseen pollution from traditional plants (coal) takes an equal amount of time to escape the atmosphere, and meanwhile astronomically increases our atmospheric CO2 levels.
As a measure, 0 people died as a result of 3 mile island, 68 people died as a result of chernobyl, 100 people die per year for every 1000 MW generated by coal!!!!!
Its a very serious situation over there, and my heart goes out to those people who are suffering. That being said, this article was thrown together a little to quickly. Fact checking is definetely in order. Three mile island is not closed. It still has reactor 2 producing energy to this day. Some editing may be needed.
hate to say it, but someone is a very successful troll
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