Second explosion at damaged Japanese nuclear power plant
Posted Mar 13, 2011 09:51:28 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TOKYO, JAPAN (NEWS1130) – There’s been a second hydrogen explosion at a nuclear facility in Japan.
John Keeley with the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington DC says we should be concerned but says, at this point, we don’t have any indications that public health and safety have been compromised.
Keeley says the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility remains fluid and admits more pressure could be building and another explosion is possible. “Could it happen to another reactor? Yes, it could. But so far, the construction of the plant and its’ 40 year old cement and steel containment systems have weathered a remarkable natural disaster and two explosions.”
He notes both of the explosions were caused by a failure of cooling systems because the backup power systems that were supposed to kick in to keep the reactor cool failed after the tsunami. “When pressure builds up in a reactor, there has to be a steam release. That releases hydrogen and hydrogen is highly combustible when it’s mixed with oxygen and that’s what happened with Unit #1. It appears that’s what happened at Unit #3.”
He doesn’t believe there would be a radioactive release even if there was a meltdown as long as the primary containment systems continue to hold.
Keeley says the nuclear industry learned a great deal from the leak at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Keeley expects there will be plenty to take from this incident given time.
