The operators tried to maintain the cooling function in darkness and in danger from aftershocks, but to no avail.
The reactors’ water then transformed into steam that was ejected into the containment vessel, causing water levels in the reactors to drop, exposing the core.
Without cooling, the temperature and pressure inside the boiling water reactors rose. Since the electrical cooling equipment no longer worked, a non-electrical emergency cooling system started to cool the core. However, when tsunamis arrived 27 and 35 minutes later, they too experienced a total loss of power known as a “station blackout.”Īfter the reactors shut down, their cores continued to generate large amounts of heat from fission product decay. Emergency diesel generators fired up to supply electricity. The quake also knocked down the towers of the transmission lines, cutting off electricity from the outside, according to the government accident investigation commission report. What happened in Fukushima in 2011?Īt 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which shut down all reactors at the power plant. For example, they granted operating permits for countermeasures such as adding complementary facilities without requesting fixes to structural flaws. However, in practice, Japanese regulators have often compromised their reviews. To be sure, the Nuclear Regulation Authority set stricter and more rational standards following the accident. Most Japanese remain concerned that a severe accident will occur again. Perhaps it is no surprise that, in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, more than 60 percent of Japanese citizens opposed restarting nuclear power plants. This sole reliance on a closed group of experts may reproduce conditions that led to the Fukushima accident. The authority also did not provide information or form a consensus on nuclear power use. Then the authority restarted plants based on the results, without clarifying for the public what had caused the Fukushima accident. Toward this end, the authority’s staff conducted a review to determine whether individual facilities satisfied earthquake and severe accident countermeasure requirements. “It is natural for professionals to determine safety,” the Nuclear Regulation Authority argued following the Fukushima disaster. While this process remains in progress, it is worth asking: Are the restarted Japanese nuclear power plants safe? Sole reliance on expert judgment. Since then, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which was established in 2012, set new standards, examined all plants, and allowed those that passed to restart. Following, they reviewed their nuclear regulations that had been widely criticized as influenced by promotion groups and the former nuclear regulatory body. Immediately after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident in 2011, the Japanese government shut down all of its nuclear power plants. Will the restarted nuclear power plants that have passed the conformity assessment following the Fukushima disaster be able to withstand such an earthquake?
0 kommentar(er)
