Worker error may have led to meltdown (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Water manually turned off: data
By MINORU MATSUTANI and MASAMI ITO
Staff writers/JAPAN TIMES

The emergency cooling system for reactor 1 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have been shut down manually before the tsunami hit on March 11, according to a Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman and documents recently released by the utility.

A part of the cooling system known as the isolation condenser was down for about three hours, which could have contributed to the reactor core's meltdown.

The finding upends the government's previous conclusion that the condenser was functioning normally on March 11.

"I learned (of the shutdown) through media reports today," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference Tuesday. "We have asked the Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency and other bodies to give detailed analyses and reports (on that matter)."

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110517x1.html

[KittyWampus]

1. Shifting the blame after they can no longer deny there's been meltdowns? Further, did the workers

have any viable options on that day considering the shitty, outdated design of the plant.

We already know nuclear plants have their lives extended well past the point they are safe and that inspectors look the other way when there are problems with operating systems.

[Fumesucker]

3. Exactly, I've been waiting for the blaming of the workers..

TEPCO did not disappoint me.

[bananas]

8. Bazinga! nt

[damntexdem]

11. And in any case, it still shows nuke power to be irresponsibly risky.

Workers, worker training, and emergency protocols and adherence to them are also all parts of the system that is claimed to make nuke power "safe," just as are other systems.

[malaise]

2. Blame the worker

Ah well.

[CountAllVotes]

4. it is easy to blame one person for this disaster

Shifts the blame from TEPCO!

Shame on them! :mad:

[MadHound]

5. Sorry, but the original human error on this meltdown occurred decades ago,

When they decided to put these reactors right on the eastern coast, a known tsunami and earthquake prone area.

That's where the human error occurred.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. TEPCO of course knows that reactor scram is SOP

with a quake...

move on boys, trying to blame the workers for SOP. Or did they forget what caused the tsunami?

[PearliePoo2]

7. More from the "does anyone know WTF they're doing" dept......

"The release of key data following the March 11 disaster was delayed because most of it was kept in computers and documents in the plant's central control room, where high levels of radiation prevented workers from entering, Tepco said."

"It is possible that a worker may have manually closed the valve (of the isolation condenser) to prevent a rapid decrease in temperature, as is stipulated by a reactor operating guideline," Tepco spokesman Hajime Motojuku told The Japan Times.

A worker may have stopped the condenser to keep cold water from coming into contact with the hot steel of the reactor to prevent it from being damaged.

[robdogbucky]

9. And yet, it's all hunky-dory

US halts 24-hour Fukushima monitoring

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it has halted 24-hour monitoring of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as conditions are slowly stabilizing there.

The commission announced on Monday that it was adjusting its response as Japan continues to implement its shutdown plan. But it said the US team of experts in Japan will remain in place and it will continue to support them and coordinate response efforts with federal and industry partners.

Meanwhile, the State Department is continuing to recommend that US citizens avoid travel within a 50-mile, or 80-kilometer, radius of the Fukushima plant. But it said based on studies, it believes it is safe to use the railway and expressway to transit through the area.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 13:56 +0900 (JST)

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/17_25.html

[EC]

10. I will bet that a supervisory type told the worker to

shut it down.