Fukushima Traged

It all started on Friday,

11 March 2011, 2.46 pm .
Fukushima Daiichi: Before the
incident..
Fukushima Daiichi is a nuclear power plant 250km
northeast from Tokyo. It has 6 reactors successively
commissioned during the 1970s.

Units 1,2 and 3 were operating at full power.

Unit 4 was unloaded.
Units 5 & 6 were in cold shutdown.

The reactor vessel boils the water to produce

steam that flow through the turbine to generate
electricity and gets turned back into water within
condenser. The water is then returned to the
reactor vessel. The cooling medium of condenser is
the sea water from Pacific Ocean
Fukushima Daiichi: Earthquake hit..
The Great East Japan Earthquake of
magnitude 9.0 happened at 2.46 pm
on Friday 11 March 2011.
Seismic sensors triggered insertion
of control rods as designed to stop
the fission process of all 11 nuclear
reactors in the region.
However, the residual heat still need
to be removed.
Fukushima Daiichi: Problem arose
The operator of plant need circulating
water to remove the decay heat
Main electric power lost during
earthquake, pump do not work
Back-up diesel generator kicked in as
designed, everything so far okay until
an hour ago
The 15 metres tsunami hit, taking out
the diesel generators and also heat
exchangers for dumping reactor waste
heat and decay heat to the sea.
Fukushima Daiichi was designed only to
withstand a 6 metre tsunami
Fukushima Daiichi: Disaster

Without Residual Heat Removal (RHR)

System, the residual heat in reactors
core continue to rise
This caused the fuel rods in reactors 1,
2, and 3 to overheat and partially melt
down
Melted material fell to the bottom of
the containment vessels and bored
sizable holes in the floor of each vessel
Those holes partially exposed the
nuclear material in the cores
Fukushima Daiichi: Explosion
Explosions resulting from the buildup
of pressurized hydrogen gas occurred
in the outer containment buildings
enclosing reactors 1 and 3 on March
12 and March 14
A third explosion occurred on March
15 in the building surrounding reactor
2.
Containment vessel housing the fuel
rods heavily damaged.
The explosion led to the release of
radiation from the plant.
Fukushima Daiichi: Efforts
Workers sought to cool and stabilize the
cores by pumping seawater and boric
acid into them
Workers at the plant also try to cool the
reactors using truck-mounted water
cannons and water dropped
from helicopters.
These efforts temporarily slow down the
release of radiation
However, they were suspended several
times after rising steam or smoke
signaled an increased risk of radiation
exposure.
Fukushima Daiichi: Effects
Increased levels of radiation in some
local food and water supplies
prompted Japanese and international
officials to issue warnings about
their consumption.
Radiation levels remained high in the
evacuation zone after several months
Government officials remarked that
the area may be uninhabitable for
decades.
As the fifth anniversary of the disaster
approaches, signs of mutations in
plants and DNA-damaged organisms
were beginning to appear.