Breaking:Explosion at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi plant heard around 0630 GMT

reuters ^ | 3-12-11

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Just in:

Explosion at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi plant heard around 0630 GMT

NHK footage shows steam-like smoke coming from Tepco's Fukushima plant

[justa-hairyape]

What an explosion. The roof went ballistic then vaporized. And the Japanese government claims only 4 workers received non-life threatening injuries ?

[Lady Heron]

Oh I agree, and we have a better idea of where problem areas are but the world still has a bunch of nuke plants in very stupid places and sitting on fault lines and on islands prone to earthquakes that cause tsunamis in worse case situations is the height of stupidity. I am not an anti-nuke nut. Just a person who thinks common sense needs using when placing your nuke plant on the ground.

[fatima]

Dear God,I just woke up.Thanks for the info greedo ((((Hugs))))

[Lady Heron]

The other reactors in Japan seemed to handle the 8.9 earthquake admirably.

One is in melt down probably and 4 more are in emergency mode....no there is a huge problem having nuke plants in an earthquake zone.

[Cvengr]

You know, yesterday, I kept running across youtube videos or clips from japan, loaded even before the tsunami, reporting explosions at the nuclear plants.

There were also posts correcting them at the time when they were looking at oil refinery fires and calling them the nuclear plants.

I know Japan has its own breed of terrorists and revolutionaries. I wonder how security has been maintained in the area during this mayhem. This environment probably provides ripe conditions for revolutionaries to spark even more calamity.

Situation reads as though its bad enough without further conjecture, but I offer this to encourage discernment of the reports in an age of information warfare and multiple governments having been toppled or attacked around the mid-East.

[advertising guy]

journalist observation

MSNBC / CNN have their known American anchors and both have a damned English anchor side by side ( BBC etc) and both mention UN responses not American responses but dammit

FOX does the exact thing

what in hell can an English anchor add that our news sources don’t equally know

bastards

[lefty-lie-spy]

Thanks. It seemed faster than that. Where did you find the info?

[justa-hairyape]

Funny thing was, a freeper posted that a hydrogen explosion was possible in a BWR, just minutes before the report came in. Its on one of the earlier threads. Then we all jumped to these new explosion threads.

[advertising guy]

military relatives feet on the ground there as it happened

[spunkets]

Thanks for the link. That zoom in at 47s is the containment building's roof being blown off by the reactor exploison. That white "smoke" is concrete dust and steam. After the initial shock wave a "black cloud' in the center of the rising "white smoke" can be seen that falls back down very quickly. That was the pulverized reactor and contents falling back down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvC4WQrQwTs

[redgolum]

Just saw this.

Explosion or a steam pop off going? From a distance, they look the same.

[listenhillary]

There really isn’t a place on earth that isn’t a potential hazard of some sort. The fact that the island moved 8 feet tells us that this big ball of rock we’re sitting on isn’t quite so stable after all. We also have big balls of rock and ice hurtling through space and some hit the earth.

Build them in space or suspended in the ocean?

Japan has 55 reactors. I still say that they have performed admirably after an 8.9 earthquake.

[justa-hairyape]

Latest info from BBC. Wonder what the peak radiation release was ?

1202: Government spokesman says the nuclear reactor container at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant has not been damaged, and the level of radiation has dropped following the explosion earlier on Saturday, AFP reports.

[newzjunkey]

no there is a huge problem having nuke plants in an earthquake zone.

Don't be alarmist. This is ONE problem after the 7th largest quake on record and a massive tsunami caused failure of all 16 diesel powered backup generators. Japan has 55 operating nuclear reactors with more under construction.

Fewer will die or be injured from this accident than the quake, tsunami or in the morning commute. Try to keep some perspective here.

[greedo]

The smart FReepers say it is fake and I hope it is.

I am not one of the smart FReepers, but thanks for the hug anyway.

[spokeshave]

After the initial shock wave a "black cloud' in the center of the rising "white smoke" can be seen that falls back down very quickly. That was the pulverized reactor and contents falling back down

I saw that...and if so we are in more serious do-do.

[justa-hairyape]

More BBC Tweets. So we are down to a metal casing. No concrete protection ?

1218: It seems clear now from Mr Edano's comments that the nuclear plant building that was blown apart earlier did house a reactor, but the reactor was protected by its metal casing.

[newzjunkey]

Looks like good news

On that note, I think it's time to turn in.

[justa-hairyape]

Tend to agree with your assessment, there was definitely a darker spherical cloud obscured within the grey blast clouds. If you are correct, the Japanese government is not currently telling the truth.

[chessplayer]

“I’m sick by this now, and this will ruin nuclear power from now on. The damn thing entirely failed.”

Yup. Unless a breakthrough in fusion power is made, energy from nuke plants is finished.