Nuclear reactor temperature at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant rises to 82°C

The bottom of one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in eastern Japan rose to 82 degrees Celsius (179.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday afternoon, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) said on Monday.

According to Tepco, the safety equipment at the No. 2 reactor of the nuclear plant showed that the temperature had reached about 82 degrees Celsius (179.6 degrees Fahrenheit) at 2:15 p.m. local time on Sunday. The temperature has been increasing gradually since February 2, less than two months after the company announced a cold shutdown. Channel6newsonline

Japanese Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 design, just approved for construction in US by NRC, has major safety flaw

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds Associates has warned the AP1000 has a major safety flawBy a 4 to 1 vote, the Commissioners of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) today approved the combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) of Southern Nuclear Company, paving the way for two 1,100 megawatt-electric Toshiba-Westinghouse "Advanced Passive" AP1000s to be built at the Vogtle nuclear power plant near Augusta, Georgia. NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko cast the sole "no" vote, while Commissioners Kristine Svinicki, George Apostolakis, William Magwood IV, and William Ostendorff voted in favor. Chairman Jaczko had previously cast the sole dissenting votes against such controversial proposals as: the 20 year license extension at the Oyster Creek, NJ GE BWR Mark I, the oldest operating reactor in the U.S. and identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4; and the Private Fuel Storage, LLC high-level radioactive waste "parking lot dump" targeted at the tiny Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah. Recently, Beyond Nuclear's Linda Gunter pointed out that Chairman Jaczko, although not perfect, shows concern for safety that sets him apart from the other four NRC Commissioners.

Beyond Nuclear responded to the Vogtle Units 3 and 4 NRC approval with a media statement, pointing out that a NRC license does not ensure project success.

Japanese nuclear giant Toshiba, which acquired the U.S. nuclear giant Westinghouse some years ago, was the reactor supplier and architect at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3. That atomic reactor suffered the worst explosion of all at the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe, and its high-level radioactive waste storage pool is filled with debris. The Unit 3 reactor building appears as a mound of twisted rubble.

Read more, including updates, at our "New Reactors" section...

Fairewinds reveals design flaw in Mark Is that "new and improved" extra hardened vents cannot solve

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen (pictured at left), in a video now posted at the homepage of Fairewinds Associates, explains that a non-radioactive test performed at the Brunswick, North Carolina General Electric Boiling Water Reactor of the Mark I design 40 years ago, supports his theory that the primary reactor containment head at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 lifted, due to elongation of bolts, allowing hydrogen gas generated by the meltdown in the reactor core to escape into the secondary or outer reactor containment building. "It only took a spark" to then detonate the hydrogen gas, destroying the reactor containment building. Thus, and very significantly, all the talk (including in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Fukushima Task Force deliberations) about "hardening" the vents at U.S. and other Mark Is around the world is irrelevant. This is a flaw in the Mark I design that any hardening of the vents to make them "new and improved" cannot solve. Arnie shows a photo revealing that the vent at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 appears to have been functioning before the explosion -- steam is visible exiting the top of the Unit 1 "smoke stack." Despite this, it did not prevent the explosion that followed.

Japanese government withholding release of Fukushima “worst case” scenario in hopes of reviving its nuclear industry

With the approach of the first commemorative anniversary of Japan’s March 11^th triple disaster, The Japan Times (02/08/2012) reports that the Japanese government is still withholding from public release its Fukushima reactor accident consequence calculations for the "worst case" scenario “so shocking” that it would have caused mass panic throughout Japan particularly in Tokyo.

A special advisor to Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Professor Hiroshi Tasaka, who has a doctorate in nuclear engineering, was part of the select group of Japanese experts who reviewed the secret “worst case” scenario drafted by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission in the midst of the nuclear catastrophe. The report identified that the biggest public health risk was not from the exploding and melting reactors themselves but fires and explosions involving the 1,500 super radioactive “spent” fuel assemblies stored in pools above and outside of the containments structures for the General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors.  Under the secret scenario, Professor Tasaka said that based on Japanese radiation protection protocols, the government was  to advise and assist the 13 million people in Tokyo to voluntarily “migrate” from the densely populated city which is located 150 miles away from the nuclear accident.

With only two of Japan's 54 nuclear power plants currently operational, Professor Tasaka said, "at this stage, all of the risks should be put on the table."

In a similar Washington Post story (02/07/2012), communications from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission commenting on its "worst case" Fukushima scenario revealed that while the federal agency was telling the US public that there was no risk to public health here, they chose not to publicly disclose that they were not ruling out dangerous levels of radioactive iodine reaching populations in Alaska.

Tepco Injects Boric Acid Into Reactor as Temperatures Rise

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. injected boric acid into a reactor at its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to prevent an accidental chain reaction known as re- criticality after temperatures rose in the past week.

“ 'It was too early to say the plant is safe in December. They declared cold shutdown even though nobody is sure about the location of melted fuel,” Tetsuo Ito, the head of the Atomic Energy Research Institute at Kinki University in western Japan. “A similar incident will probably occur again.' ” Bloomberg