BREAKING: Fukushima Daiichi plant has lost power

[FourScore]

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/03/alert-all-powers-been-down-in-fukushima-plant-for-over-3-hours-tepco-investigating-the-reason/:

Over 3 hours before this post, Fukushima plant lost power. (19:00 of 3/18/2013)

The coolant system of the spent fuel pools of reactor1, 3 and 4 has been out of operation for over 3 hours already.

Seismic isolation building has lost power too. Tepco is still investigating the reason.

It is currently the top Japanese news story:

http://enenews.com/fukushima-daiichi-power-blackout-top-story-japan-news-sites-video

LOSS OF POWER SEEN AT 2:49:

Live Cam Video 3 minutes = 1 hour


To make matters even worse, Fukushima is under severe storm warnings tonight:



http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/03/alert-common-pool-of-6377-fuel-assemblies-lost-power-too-fukushima-is-under-storm-warnings/

I will update as often as I can.

UPDATE: Tepco is receiving power from Tohoku-Electric Power Co, but they are having some problems with sending it to the coolant system of SFPs. http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/03/alert-fukushima-emission-to-reach-tokyo-area-from-afternoon-of-3192013/

MOST RECENT UPDATE FROM KYODO NEWS:

Electricity trouble occurs at crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant

TOKYO, March 18, Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday a problem with electric power has occurred at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, leading to the suspension of the system to cool spent fuel pools of the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 units.

The incident, however, so far has not affected the ongoing water injection to the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors, which suffered core meltdowns in the early days of the March 2011 nuclear crisis, according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

No abnormality has been detected in radiation levels in areas surrounding the plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

UPDATE: Now up on AP. TEPCO states the spent fuel pools will remain safe for at least 4 days:

Crippled Japanese nuclear plant suffers blackout

March 18, 2013 12:33 PM EST | AP

TOKYO — A power failure at Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant on Monday night has left three fuel storage pools without fresh cooling water for hours, the plant's operator said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the power failure at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was brief at its command center but continued for hours at three of the seven fuel storage pools and at several other facilities, including one that treats water contaminated with radioactivity.

TEPCO said the reactors were unaffected and no other abnormalities were found. TEPCO spokesman Takeo Iwamoto said the utility plans to restore power to the pool cooling systems as soon as it can determine the cause of the failure.

The utility said the nuclear fuel stored in the pools will remain safe for at least four days without fresh cooling water...

http://enenews.com/ap-fukushima-plant-blackout-has-continued-for-hours-3-fuel-pools-without-fresh-cooling-water

[MadHound]

1. Oh this could get very ugly very quickly.

Do they at least have functioning generators on site?

[FourScore]

6. They are receiving power from Tohoku-Electric,

but they are having some problems with sending it to the coolant system of the Spent Fuel Pools. http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/03/alert-fukushima-emission-to-reach-tokyo-area-from-afternoon-of-3192013/

[MadHound]

8. Great,

The one place where it is absolutely critical that they have power.

[FourScore]

9. Yes and no.

The reactors are still being cooled. The spent fuel pools are not being cooled. If left too long, these SPF's could catch fire, perhaps even become re-critical. It is an alarming and very dangerous situation, but TEPCO does have some time to fix it before it escalates out of control.

[FBaggins]

27. Seriously?

Two years of clarifications on these points and you still think that things could "get very ugly very quickly"?

The reactors were shut down over two years ago. There is much MUCH less heat being produced.

[FourScore]

31. I guess in your world, it's all as wholesome as apple pie.

Nothing to see hear. Just move along...

[FBaggins]

35. So "in your world" ...

... things are either "wholesome as apple pie" or about to kill millions of people worldwide?

Sorry... but this simply isn't a big deal. It's not apple pie, but it's also not worth making the news.

[FourScore]

40. You might want to let the japanese news outlets know that...

since it's their top story right now.

Besides, I never said it's about to kill millions of people.

It is a POTENTIALLY very dangerous situation. They have some time to fix it. But to ignore the potential for danger is either ignorant or naive.

You may not think it is a big deal. We'll agree to disagree on that one.

[FBaggins]

42. It's enenews' top story.

Since they exist to pump Fukushima fears... that's no surprise.

Nor would I be surprised to find it on Godlikeproductions or similar conspiracy/UFO nutcase sites.

Besides, I never said it's about to kill millions of people.

Oh? so you caught the hyperbole? Note - it doesn't make any more sense to read my comment as "apple pie".

It is a POTENTIALLY very dangerous situation.

Nope. It doesn't get "very dangerous" unless they ignore it for many days. There's no reason to think they'll do that... nor that power would be unavailble for that long in the absence of a destroyed infrastructure ala 3/11/11

[chervilant]

52. BTW,

For a disaster they've predicted will require 'at least four decades' to repair and clean up, anything less than a month is "very quickly."

[99Forever]

2. That's not good.

(Yes, that was completely understated and in no way meant to insult)

Do you have any handle of what this might mean if they don't get the power back on line?

[AtheistCrusader]

13. If it's just the fuel pools they will begin to heat.

That increases the rate of loss of water from the pools via evaporation. If the water level drops too much, we get back to a point where the spent fuel overheats, and the zircalloy cladding can burn, offgas hydrogen, fires etc.

Should take a while, more than a day to see the pools drop though, and the problem can be temporarily stopgapped by simple smaller generators, and fire pumps to spray in water.

Doesn't sound like the reactors have lost cooling. They probably can't go re-critical, but overheating could lead to increased degradation of the containment, and complicate cleanup.

[99Forever]

14. Thanks AC.

Generally what I thought, but I'm far from a nuke expert. Scary stuff.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Yeah, it's definitely not good.

The spent fuel is probably the larger of the remaining threats from that site. That stuff has to be kept cool and submerged. If for no other reason than to lower the overall radiation dose of being in the area, due to 'skyshine' (all the bad particles scatter in the atmosphere, so the stuff wouldn't just radiate straight up, away from the site, it would raise the dose of the entire site). The workers HAVE to get in there and continue the cleanup. Can't do that if the pools are bare, even if they DON'T catch fire (which they necessarily must if cooling is totally lost for long enough and no other cooling can be brought to bear)

[madokie]

3. Here we go

thanks for the heads up

[bunnies]

4. "Fukushima emission to reach Tokyo area from afternoon of 3/19/2013"

OMG.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/03/alert-fukushima-emission-to-reach-tokyo-area-from-afternoon-of-3192013/

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Well, here we go, reviving the nukes out now in Japan

Will keep an eye on this for obvious reasons.

[madokie]

10. My offer to open my home to a Japanese family still stands

[WillyT]

11. Great...

& Rec !!!

[grahamhgreen]

12. Nuclear: Expensive, dirty, dangerous tech from a bygon era.

[Katashi_itto]

16. K &R

[BlancheSplanchnik]

22. ...

[ReRe]

17. I invision a time in the not too distant future....

...when we will not be able to eat any seafood, period. With all the oils spills and reactor mishaps. I won't miss it, as I don't eat much fish anyway, but I'm an anomaly.

[Autumn]

48. I have been having a rough time. I used to eat a lot of fish

now it scares the hell out of me.

[ReRe]

50. Just think...

... we can't eat seafood, GMOs are ruining the rest of our food supply. Are we being driven back to the agrarian age?

[StrayKat]

18. Tepco is reporting that the current water can contain the fuel for at least 4 days.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130318/as-japan-nuclear/?utm_hp_ref=media&ir=media

[leftyohiolib]

21. why does the bp oil in the gulf keep coming to mind?

[SheilaT]

36. What predicted impending quake?

[StrayKat]

39. Sorry, I reread the article.

[FBaggins]

24. It's far longer than that.

I haven't seen the statement, but I'd bet it's related to the water staying below some temperature for that long.

There hasn't been fresh fuel added to the pools for over two years, so the produced heat would be pretty low. I'd estimate a week or more to hit the boiling point and a number of days to boil low enough to be a problem.

And, of course, all they have to do during that time is add water. Since there hasn't been an earthquake/tsunami that destroyed access to the plant... and there aren't ongoing meltdowns and explosions to worry about... I'd say pumping a little water wouldn't be that hard in the unlikely event that a power outage lasted for days.

[StrayKat]

29. What about reactor #1?

According to Tepco, the pool water of reactor1 is extremely contaminated compared to other 3 spent fuel pools, which is 5266 times worse than the spent fuel pool of reactor4.

http://fukushima-diary.com/

[FBaggins]

34. What about it?

"Contamination" doesn't have anything to do with the amount of decay heat being produced. It's a simple matter of the amount of spent fuel and the age of same. Since the "youngest" fuel in the pool is about two and half years old... there isn't much heat. The less heat there is, the longer it takes to raise the temperature of that much water.

5266 times worse than the spent fuel pool of reactor4.

That's a comparison of the amount of Cesium... which simply isn't a big factor in decay heat production.

Take, for instance, that contamination level of 23.7 Billion Bq/m3. One gram of Cs137 has an activity level of over one hundred times that amount... but there are many tons of uranium/plutonium/etc in the spent fuel.

In short... F-diary doesn't know what they're talking about. They're just good at scaring people.

[StrayKat]

37. Thanks for the explanation. n/t

[UnrepentantLiberal]

44. 65 degrees

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-power-failure-cooling-445/

TEPCO assured the cause of the incident has been found and work to fix the system has been started. So far the temperature in pools has remained around 25 degrees Celsius, which is considered not dangerous. If the cooling system cannot be fixed, temperatures would likely rise in the fuel pools, becoming unsafe at 65 degrees. While it is unclear how long repairs might take, the operator said fuel stored in the pools would remain safe for at least four days without fresh cooling water.

[FBaggins]

45. That explains the discrepancy. Thanks!

I'm not sure why they chose 65 degrees. It's probably a regulatory limit.

It fits my estimate of a week and a half or so to boil... then additional days to boil down to a dangerous level.

Hard to believe that there's any risk at all of them not being able to add water by that point.

[FarCenter]

19. Nothing on NHK World -- OTOH, big story on effect of possible earthquake

Nankai Trough quake damage to cost $2.3 trillion

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20130318_25.html

The Japanese government has released a new projection that nearly 10 million people will seek refuge if a large earthquake occurs in the Nankai Trough region.

A mega-quake and tsunami are forecast along the Pacific coast near central to western Japan.

New damage estimates were released on Monday. Previous estimates included as many as 323 thousand casualties.
...

Officials say up to 34.4 million people will have no water immediately following the earthquake.

Of them, some 4.6 million people will still be without water even one month later. Power outages will hit 27.1 million households, and even one week later 880 thousand will still be without power.

Earthquakes are a much bigger risk than nuclear power in Japan. Note that the tsunami caused almost all the deaths, not the Fukushima reactor meltdown.

[leftyohiolib]

26. tsunamis dont have a half-life

[madokie]

46. Immediate deaths that is

Long term I'm not so sure

[talkingmime]

20. Oh shit.

[derby378]

23. Oh, Lord, not again...

The people in that region have had enough adversity for at least one lifetime. I hope this doesn't get any worse than it already is.

[Katashi_itto]

25. It's just a matter of time. The Saltwater used to cool the plant right after the accident is

corroding the cooling tanks. They wont last another eight years, if that.

[marions ghost]

41. It never really was over

...and won't be for a long long time...this is a constant threat.

[NickB79]

30. Unfortunately, fracking IS the new "alternative energy"

Japan is importing gobs of natural gas from around the world, including gas fracked here in the US.

And they've recently announced success at mining for methane hydrates, aka FRACKING THE OCEAN: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2013/03/japan-taps-methane-hydrate-fro.html

It's a fucked-up world we live in.

[Cleita]

38. TEPCO is still in charge?

They should have been taken off the job when the first meltdown happened. I can't see where anyone would give them any credibility for telling the truth about safety.

[NealK]

49. I totally agree. n/t

[cstanleytech]

43. This is why nuke power is not viable for any country be it the US, Iran, Japan, China....et cetera

and its why discouraging the building of nuclear plants should be done.

[malaise]

47. Holy shite

This looks serious

[chervilant]

51. Wow.

I've read the posts herein above, and I find it's the same kind of 'back and forth' I've seen before in threads about Fukushima.

I wonder why anyone trusts TEPCO's 'reporting.' I wonder why anyone tries to 'quantify' the dangers posed by this nuclear disaster, as though their cautionary words mitigate the DECADES required to 'clean up' this site.

TEPCO, the Japanese government, OUR government and the IAEA seem to be working hard to assuage the fears of the Hoi Polloi, but I doubt that they're telling us the truth.

[SidDithers]

53. Power at Fukushima nuclear fuel ponds 'partially restored

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21840080

Cooling had been restored to the pool at reactor 1, with cooling at the reactor 3 and 4 pools expected to resume on Tuesday evening, Tepco said.

It is assessing the cause of the outage, which began on Monday evening.

The "highest priority" was being placed on restoring the cooling system to the spent fuel pool at reactor 4, Kyodo news agency quoted Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) spokesperson Masayuki Ono as saying.

The hottest of the ponds, its temperature stood at 30.5C on Tuesday morning, Tepco said, well below the safety limit of 65C. It estimated it would take four days to reach that limit.

Sid

[Miami4Obama]

54. I am always looking for news on Japan as my young brother lives there with wife.

He lives in the beautiful prefecture of Kanazawa, and I am always on the lookout for what's happening in Japan. He's been there since he went as a JET Program Instructor. At the end of the contract he was so happy there that he stayed and is doing pretty well, and I am amazed at how he speaks the language so flawlessly and perfect. I will keep coming to this post for more info on the nuclear thing. thanks so much for posting it. Although it is not near where my bro lives but still, it's something that must be followed.