What Exactly Went Wrong At The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant?

As the 8.9 earthquake occurred and the tsunami struck the Japanese shores the nuclear power plants were stopped automatically. The reactor at unit 1 was stopped which means the heat already generated by the reactor was no longer being taken for heating up the water for rotating the turbine. This heat generated and also the heat of the reflector was to be cooled. The cooling system requires pumps for pumping in the cool water for cooling the system but due to the discontinued supply of electricity, generators had to be installed. These generators worked for some time and then stopped due to some damage caused by the earthquake. The heat kept on increasing and finally there was a nuclear explosion. The reason was not clearly stated as the atomic reactor container was safe.

The radiations then started spreading and an area of 20 km radius was under the threat. A population of about 2 lakhs has been evacuated and around 22 have been reported to be affected by the radiation. This did not end here. Unit no. 3 was the second in line. It had been forewarned that this unit might also see an explosion as the cooling process was getting slower and was not sufficient for the too hot reactors. Today, at 11:01 am there was a hydrogen explosion at unit 3. The reactor container at unit 3 is safe too. The count of injured workers comes up to 11 after this blast. Radiation of 10.65 microsieverts has been reported to leak but is not much harmful as it is much below the 500 microsieverts level.

The government is now experimenting with the sea water to cool the reactors. This is the first time ever that sea water is being used to cool the nuclear reactors. This might result in turning the reactors useless but the Japanese government is ready to suffer this lose for the present safety measures.

There is also an alert for the meltdown of the fuel rods which will prove extremely fatal and will bring out the old memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s been feared that this blast might end up being as fatal as the blast during the 2nd world war. The electricity production has fallen down by 25%. There is a 3 hour power cut in a lot of areas whereas a lot of them are in complete blackout. This electricity rationing is expected to continue till the month of April.

After the nuclear blast at Chernobyl in 1986, it was stated that were enough measures taken to assure that such crises won’t occur in the future. But after the Fukushima blast, all stands false.

What is your say CEans?