Some sites, such as Stratfor, are irresponsibly terming it a “nuclear meltdown,” but, no official confirmation of that as of yet, though there are fears of it happening: Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant
A massive explosion has rocked a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday’s devastating earthquake.
A huge pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured.
Japanese officials fear a meltdown at one of the plant’s reactors but say the container housing it was not damaged.
Officials ordered the evacuation zone around the plant expanded from a 10km radius to 20km. BBC correspondent Nick Ravenscroft said police stopped him 60km from the Fukushima-Daiichi plant.
Japan’s nuclear agency said on Saturday that radioactive caesium and iodine had been detected near the number one reactor of the power station.
The agency said this may indicate that containers of uranium fuel inside the reactor may have begun melting.
Obviously, as one cruises around the Liberal-o-sphere, this means that all nuclear power is bad and that is should all be stopped, and, instead, we can go with wind and solar for all our power. If they left those methods get beyond the planning/implementation stages.
Of course, I wonder how those methods would have stood up with an earthquake and tsunami knocking them down, breaking the wind turbines and solar panels, covering them with water, and flooding the storage batteries.
Anyhow, everyone wish for the best, and keep the Japanese people in your prayers. They are still being rocked by aftershocks that are larger than most regular earthquakes, and there are still serious concerns over more tsunamis from the aftershocks. Watching the video, seeing the pictures, I’m not sure of “tragic” covers it.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
This nuclear incident is serious beyond all imagination given the surrounding geography was in its pristine and serene condition.
Given the destruction in this area by the Earthquake and Tsunami and the need to get into this area and contain this breech is a catastrophe of enormous proportions.
This was simply the containment building succumbing to the pressures within the building caused by the exposed rods releasing radioactive steam and they were unable to vent enough steam to keep the build from literally crumbling.
This is going to pale in comparison to the Katrina event the United States faced. The USA could afford to lose New Orleans sized geography.
Japan cannot afford to lose 100 square miles of her nation which is already small and overcrowded.
The magnitude of this event cannot be overstated.
Considers the worst-case scenario that the earthquake, tsunami and explosion damaged the containment system:
At this point, events in Japan bear many similarities to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Reports indicate that up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) of the reactor fuel was exposed. The reactor fuel appears to have at least partially melted, and the subsequent explosion has shattered the walls and roof of the containment vessel — and likely the remaining useful parts of the control and coolant systems.
And so now the question is simple: Did the floor of the containment vessel crack? If not, the situation can still be salvaged by somehow re-containing the nuclear core. But if the floor has cracked, it is highly likely that the melting fuel will burn through the floor of the containment system and enter the ground. This has never happened before but has always been the nightmare scenario for a nuclear power event — in this scenario, containment goes from being merely dangerous, time consuming and expensive to nearly impossible.