Cooling facility stops at Fukushima No. 5 nuclear reactor

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Cooling facility stops at Fukushima No. 5 nuclear reactor

TOKYO | Sat May 28, 2011 10:43pm EDT
(Reuters) - The system to cool the nuclear reactor and fuel pool has stopped at the No. 5 unit of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant in northeastern Japan, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said Sunday.

A Tokyo Electric official said the operator had started work to repair the cooling facility and hoped to restore the system within several hours.

The official said the breakdown of the cooling systems would not lead to a rapid rise in temperatures at the reactor and spent fuel pool.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 1 to 4 reactors were severely damaged after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, while damages at the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were less severe.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/29/us-tokyoelectric-idUSTRE74S0A620110529

[Exultant Democracy]

1. So several hours... didn't they say that in retrospect 1-3 melted down within a few hours?

[Confusious]

3. They were generating power at the time

Right now they are closer to cold shutdown then full operating temperature.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. 1, 2, 3 were at full power when the earthquake hit and the core was scrammed.

4, 5, 6 were 'cold off'. That's why 5, 6 didn't blow up like 1, 2, 3. 4 went because all of it's fresh, and old fuel was sitting in the cooling pool, and that boiled dry without circulation. 5, 6 didn't have nearly as much fuel in the pool, so they didn't boil dry.

They haven't started up 5, 6, so should be minimal danger here.

[StarsInHerHair]

2. so now it's getting even worse? & more "don't worry" bs-I feel sick to my

stomach whenever I hear that phrase now...........after Sept after Katrina & now this.

[defendandprotect]

5. "Damages at No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were less severe" ... yet here we are, again -- !!

Keep in mind there are 18 nuclear reactors in earthquake-prone Japan --

in three different facilities --

Think they are all the same design -- and all built to withstand earthquakes at

7.0 -- while this one was a 9 -- with more than 350 aftershocks.

[bananas]

8. Japan has around 55 reactors at 18 plants

Wikipedia says Japan has 55 operating reactors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Japan
I count around 18 operating locations in their lists:
List of reactors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_reactors#Japan
List of power stations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Japan#Nuclear

The IAEA PRIS database says Japan has 50 operating reactors, not counting the ones that have been just shut down at Fukushima and Hamaoka: http://www.iaea.org/cgi-bin/db.page.pl/pris.powrea.htm?country=JP&sort=&sortlong=Alphabetic

[defendandprotect]

10. Wow -- even worse -- !!

Maybe what I read was simply those that were the same design as Fukushima --

But thanks, I'll look at your link --

:)

[grahamhgreen]

6. Our party needs to be 100% no nuke.

[DeSwiss]

7. Well then.....

...I suppose it's just as well that the typhoon http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4866592&mesg_id=4866627">heading for Japan is weakening.

- Maybe luck's in their way for a change.....

K&R

[Fuddnik]

9. Don't worry, Be happy!

[truebrit71]

11. This could be very bad news indeed..

..with my limited knowledge of the situation i believe that the spent rods are even more nasty than the fuel rods in the reactrs, which leads me to think that things could get even worse quite rapidly...of course it'll take TEPCO two or three weeks to admit it, but that would just be par for the course...