TEPCO: Fukushima nuclear meltdown actually occurred just 16 hours after earthquake, more meltdowns on the way
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) The truth has finally come out, as officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) now admit that fuel in Reactor 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex melted just 16 hours after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the area on March 11, 2011. When asked why it took more than two months to reveal this critical information, TEPCO officials claim that a lack of data left the company unaware of the core's true condition until only recently -- and new reports indicate that other meltdowns could soon follow.
According to a recent report from The Mainichi Daily News (MDN) in Japan, TEPCO officials recently announced that, based on new data, water levels in the pressure vessel at Reactor 1 began to drop rapidly within just a few hours after losing power at 3:30 pm on March 11. By 7:30 pm, fuel was fully exposed, and by 9 pm, reactor core temperatures reached an astounding 2,800 degrees Celsius, or 5,072 degrees Fahrenheit. And by 6:50 am the next morning, a full meltdown occurred (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news...).
So for all the time that electric power was out in multiple reactors, causing the cooling systems to fail, and during the months after it was widely known that water levels were consistently dropping in Reactor 4 due to leaks, TEPCO played the ignorance card, acting as though it had no idea how serious the situation at the plant actually was. Surely the company must know, even without access to a detailed analysis, that when cooling systems fail and fuel rods become fully exposed, a meltdown is sure to follow -- even regular folks with no background in nuclear technology can put two-and-two together to figure that one out.
But apparently TEPCO thinks it can keep playing dumb, and that the world will simply believe whatever it says. This new revelation, however, proves that the company is greatly underestimating the fallout from the situation at best, and deliberately hiding the truth at worst. Either way, the situation is far more dire than we have all been led to believe.
"[TEPCO] could have assumed that when the loss of power made it impossible to cool down the reactor, it would soon lead to a meltdown of the core," said Hiroaki Koide, professor of nuclear safety engineering at Kyoto University, to MDN. "TEPCO's persistent explanation that the damage to the fuel had been limited turned out to be wrong."
And shortly after the announcement about Reactor 1, The Telegraph reported that two more Fukushima reactors may soon suffer a meltdown as well. Efforts to cool fuel in Reactors 2 and 3 have failed, and experts say that if the reactors cores have not already melted, they soon will (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8517861/Japan-meltdown-feared-at-two-more-Fukushima-reactors.html..).
http://www.naturalnews.com/032437_Fukushima_nuclear_meltdown.html
核廠爐心熔了2月 日本才公開
更新日期:2011/05/17 10:05
東京特派員陳世昌／16日電
日本311大地震已經滿兩個月，日本政府和東京電力公司現在才宣布福島核電廠早已發生核災中最嚴重的爐心熔解事故，引發輿論痛批。
日本媒體16日一起向東電與日本政府開砲，福島核廠一號爐爐心熔解竟然在事發兩個月後才公開，且二號爐與三號爐也可能有同樣狀況。但菅直人政府還說，不會改變當初所提的六到九個月就要讓這四座原子爐冷卻下來的「工程進度表」，似乎是癡人說夢。
資料的分析顯示，一號爐在地震發生引發海嘯的四小時後就已發生爐心熔解。
震災後一號爐一直處於沒有冷水可以冷卻的情況下，當時爐心已開始熔解。而東電開始對一號爐注水，是爐心溶解開始十個小時後的3月12日早上。
福島核電廠受到地震與海嘯襲擊後，因為備用的柴油發電機進水而無法啟動，造成原子爐內的核燃料棒在沒有冷卻水的情況下全部露出水面，四小時到五小時半以後，就開始出現爐心熔解現象。
核燃料棒本來是包覆有金屬的保護皮，但燃料棒若長期暴露於水面外時，溫度可以高達數千度，如果不及時灌入冷卻水，就會熔毀，進而掉到容器底部燒毀容器。
這個情況，有可能發生氫氣爆炸，大量輻射塵散入大氣，對當地帶來嚴重的汙染。過去美國三哩島核災就是爐心熔解。
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/110517/2/2ro3i.html
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