Skip to main content

Friday Update

UPDATE AS OF 11:30 A.M. EDT, FRIDAY, APRIL 8:
No nuclear power plants were seriously damaged in the heavy aftershock that rattled northeastern Japan Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported. The epicenter of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake was 12.5 miles from the Onagawa nuclear power plant and about 75 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi site, where engineers are working to restore fuel cooling capabilities that were lost in the original March 11 temblor and tsunami.

Fukushima Daiichi
At Fukushima Daiichi, the injection of cooling water into the reactor pressure vessels of reactors 1, 2 and 3 continued Friday, along with injection of nitrogen gas into the containment vessel of reactor 1. The nitrogen will prevent possible ignition of hydrogen that may be accumulating in the containment. Tokyo Electric Power Co. is continuing the discharge of low-level radioactive water from a waste storage tank into the Pacific Ocean to make room for highly radioactive water pooled in the basement of the reactor 2 turbine building.

Isolated spikes in radiation inside reactor 1 containment have been associated with possible fuel movement during the April 7 aftershock, but radiation dose rates elsewhere at the site continue to decline.

The government lifted restrictions on shipments of raw milk and some produce from municipalities near Fukushima Daiichi. An official said tests show the food is safe to consume.

The aftershock of April 7 caused minimal, if any, disruption at other nuclear power plants.

Fukushima Daini
All reactors have been shut down since the March 11 earthquake. There have been no changes in the radiation readings at on-site monitoring posts.

Onagawa
All reactors have been safely shut down since the March 11 earthquake. Reactor cooling operations continue with power from the electric grid. A small amount of water was spilled from the spent fuel storage pools of all three reactors. Workers also found water leaks in several locations at the plant. Cooling for a spent fuel pool was lost briefly. There was no change in off-site radiation levels.

Tokai Daini
The plant has been shut down since the March 11 earthquake. No abnormalities have been observed.

Higashidori
The plant was shut down for maintenance at the time of the aftershock. Fuel had been removed from the reactor core and stored in the spent fuel pool. Off-site power was lost in the aftershock, and the plant operated for a few hours on backup generators. Later, off-site power was restored.

Tomari
Reactors 1 and 2 were in operation at the time of the aftershock. Hokkaido Electric Power Co. reduced the generating power to 90 percent of capacity.

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
Off-site electric power was lost in the aftershock. Backup power supply to the site is operating the cooling systems.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should