MSNBC's Rachel Maddow lucidly explains the problem of spent fuel pools which has been the source of the risk of radiation from the damaged Fukishima nuclear power plants. (HT Bob Wenzel)
Showing posts with label radiation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radiation. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Aftermath of Japan’s Earthquake: Risk of A Nuclear Reactor Meltdown
The aftermath of Japan’s horrible 1-2 earthquake-tsunami punch has brought to light another potential catastrophe: growing risk of an outbreak of radioactive contamination from a meltdown in one of the affected nuclear reactors.
From Marketwatch.com:
Japanese nuclear authorities warned of a meltdown Saturday of the core of a nuclear reactor at a plant in Fukushima operated by Tokyo Electric Power Corp., also known as Tepco, according to Kyodo News. Authorities said that there was a high possibility that nuclear fuel rods at the reactor of Tepco's Daiichi plant may be melting or have melted, Reuters reported, citing Jiji news. The Daiichi No. 1 nuclear reactor is about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake damaged the plant's cooling mechanism, leading to overheating that reportedly damaged the fuel rods in the reactor's core
Should this become a sad reality, expect a global political backlash on Nuclear energy. The debate have already began as this link shows.
A breakdown of Japan Energy Sources from Wikipedia.org and MutantFrog.com
Meanwhile, demand for traditional oil, natural gas and coal is expected to take up the slack from Japan’s debilitated nuclear energy (Bloomberg).
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