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Posts Tagged ‘radioactive’

Nuclear nightmare: Japanese reactor meltdown could propel ‘death cloud’ to US West Coast

March 14, 2011 3 comments

helium.com

Some Japanese officials have admitted that Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi atomic reactor No. 1 may experience a total meltdown. That disaster would be followed by the release of a deadly radioactive death cloud that would drift over the Pacific and poison the people of the U.S. West Coast.

A worried Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Yuji Kakizaki warned:“If the fuel rods are melting and this continues, a reactor meltdown is possible,” Kakizaki said.

A core meltdown of the nuclear pile occurs from an intense build-up of heat Read more…

Japan may have hours to prevent nuclear meltdown

March 12, 2011 Comments off

reuters.com

The Fukushima nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan is pictured in a 2008 file photo. REUTERS/KYODO/FilesThe Fukushima nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan is pictured in a 2008 file photo.

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Japanese officials may only have hours to cool reactors that have been disabled by Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami or face a nuclear meltdown.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T) is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual “station blackout” — the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating.

Daiichi Units 1, 2 and 3 reactors shut down automatically at 2:46 p.m. local time due to the earthquake. But about an hour later, the on-site diesel back-up generators also shut, leaving the reactors without Read more…