Fukushima: US Energy Department Official Warns Nuclear Facility Still Faces Grave Danger – Reactors Will Release Radioactive Steam For A Year Or More

Japanese scientist: Fukushima meltdown occurred within hours of quake (Washington Post, May 26, 2011):

At a second meeting Thursday related to the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, a U.S. Energy Department official warned that the nuclear facility still faces grave danger.

John E. Kelly, deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactor technologies, said that protective components at the facility could crack because of high salt levels. There “is still a concern about more massive failure” of steel in the “lower head,” an important part of the containment system, Kelly told an NRC advisory committee. About 100 to 200 tons of salt left by the emergency pumping of salt water to cool the reactors are probably corroding the containment components.

Kelly also stressed that Tepco would have to continue pumping water into the damaged reactor units and venting radioactive steam for a year or more.

Tepco has built a low-level waste storage facility on the site but has no plans to move the waste elsewhere, he added. “It could be almost 30 years before they could use the site, so it’s almost permanent.”

Kelly made his comments during a hearing of the NRC’s advisory committee on reactor safety, which is drawing lessons from the disaster for the U.S. nuclear industry.

Kelly said an enormous number of unknowns, including the cause of an explosion at the unit 4 reactor, the safety of pools of used nuclear fuel and the condition of key protective components, remain.

More damaging revelations emerged earlier Thursday in Tokyo, where Tepco told reporters that a new leak in a storage container had dumped an additional 60 tons of radioactive water into the environment.

A high-level team of investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Japan this week to begin a 10-day investigation of the crisis.

In the United States, the NRC is in the midst of a wide-ranging 90-day review of U.S. nuclear power plant safety regulations in light of Japan’s crisis, the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine.

2 thoughts on “Fukushima: US Energy Department Official Warns Nuclear Facility Still Faces Grave Danger – Reactors Will Release Radioactive Steam For A Year Or More”

  1. If the US government says it continues to be dangerous and that radioactive steam will be released into the atmosphere for the next year, it is probably 100X that bad. The US has acted shamefully in blacking out all news and information on this important story, I can believe nothing they say, nor should anyone else.

    The radiation continues unabated. This is the only place where one can find daily updates, which are much appreciated. Thanks to this website, those of us who realize the portend of this story can find valuable and credible information. Were it not for this site, we would not have received instructions how to handle acid rain. I live in Northern CA in a coastal rainforest & are still getting rain, we have had another 2 inches during the last 36 hours. Thanks again, Infinite Unknown!

    Regards,
    Marilyn Gjerdrum

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Marilyn Gjerdrum Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.