Japan reports emergency at second nuclear reactor (unit 3 at the same plant)

AP ^

[janetjanet998]

TOKYO – Japan's nuclear safety agency is reporting an emergency at a second reactor in the same complex where an explosion had occurred earlier. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said early Sunday that the cooling system malfunctioned at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The agency said it was informed of the emergency by Tokyo Electric, the utility which runs the plant. No further details of the troubles at Unit 3 were immediately available. An explosion occurred at another reactor in the complex on Saturday, destroying the building housing the reactor and handing authorities an urgent complication amid rescue and relief efforts a day after Friday's earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's northeastern coast.

[janetjanet998]

: Top of MOX fuel rods 3 meters above water at Fukushima plant: TEPCO

Ok from the research i just did nuclear fuel rods are 12-14 feet long....if the above is true then 9 feet of the rods, most of them, were exposed

I still can’t find out what reactor uses MOX

I think only one does (#3)

[janetjanet998]

ok I can confirm what I posted about earlier. one of the reactors does indeed have MOX rods and it is indeed number 3...and 9 feet of them were exposed(a rod is 12-14 feet)

But the BBC’s Chris Hogg in Tokyo says the second reactor is a different type which uses MOX (plutonium plus uranium) fuel and the consequences of a problem there are potentially more severe.

Quoted by Kyodo, Tepco said the tops of the MOX fuel rods were 3m above water.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...acific-12724953

on a side noye why would Japan have MOX rods in the first place? They are used to make nuclear weapons

[RedhairRedhair]

Unit 3 uses MOX fuel.

Plutonium is blended with uranium as a way to get rid of weapons grade plutonium such that it does not have to be disposed of as nuclear waste.

There are 10 plants I Japan that are authorized to use MOX but I think only 7 do.

[Gondring]

Nice viewer....Thank you.

[TGIAO]

If the explosion was strong enough to destroy the concrete containment building, is it not reasonable to assume that the “pipes” used to supply the reactor vessal were at least damaged, and therefore they are really going to have a hard time supply cooling water (even sea water) to the core?

[silverleaf]

again. not a nuc design expert and did not stay in Holiday Inn Express last month

but is it rational to assume all of the cooling “pipes” feeding the reactor core would be in the walls of the reactor building like the plumbing in your house?

The safety system is designed to absorb the loss of the reactor walls

So should not core cooling system “pipes” be encased and buried as is the reactor core?

Or that the Japanese have a workaround

Surely their safety engineers learned from the US mistakes at TMI, even if the systems are different

If this can all be contained there is not a more proficient and ingenious nation than Japan to do so

Now, ask why the IAEA has dithered around and watched the likes of Pakistan, North Korea and Iran become (military) nuclear powers. Better to have 6 meltdowns in Japan than ONE in any of those countries -maybe even China which has demonstrated an extraordinary lack of industrial and building code integrity

[matt04]

Thanks for the link. If only MSM reports were this concise.