Since it was just the 25th anniversary of the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, I thought I'd write a bit more about the reactor situation. Thankfully, the situation in Japan is nowhere near the disaster of Chernobyl, it still appears that it will take a very long time before things are resolved. The current timeline is about six to nine months to clean everything up, but they're constantly running into new problems and challenges.
There's a lot of information regarding this situation, but I'll try to sum things up in short order. Maybe this will be a little more detailed information than you are getting in America.
At the Daiichi nuclear power complex, there are six reactors. Reactors five and six didn't get as much damage and their main problem was that the power went out, but now that the power is being restored again, there's not much in the news about them. Reactors one through four are the ones that got the major damage.
Reactor four was not in operation because of servicing, so there was no nuclear fuel in the reactor chamber. It did have a lot of used fuel rods being store in a pool. The water leaked out and these caught on fire. Since then water is being pumped into the pool. The level is still low, but all the rods are completely submerged and are in a relatively safe state although they still could need more cooling.
Reactors one and three were both in use. When the power and the pumps went out, the water inside the reactor started to vaporize and the fuel rods started to heat and possibly melt. On these two reactors, steam was vented to help reduce the temperature, but there was a lot of hydrogen being vented too which caused both of the reactor's outer buildings to explode.
In reactor two, the hydrogen gas in the containment vessel that surrounds the reactor seems to have exploded in a lower area of the structure causing some kind of internal damage.
Right after the earthquake, water from outside the reactor building was pumped into the reactor chambers to keep things cool. Unfortunately, because of the damage, contaminated water is leaking out which has to be treated and put somewhere. The main dilemma being that they can't stop pumping water because the reactors will over heat, but at the same time they can't fix the damage because of all the contaminated water that is leaking into the reactor and turbine buildings.
They've been getting international help including robots from America to check things out in the dangerous areas, and water treatment systems from France. Even with the help it looks like it's going to be a long time before they figure out how to clean everything up.
In the meantime, local residents are getting very angry about being told to leave there own homes without any way of knowing when they can return. Farmers and dairy producers in the area have come to the Tokyo electric headquarters to protest because they can no longer sell their products. All of the above groups are demanding some kind of compensation. In addition to that, the recovery of earthquake and tsunami victims is being hampered because workers can not be in the radiation danger area for long periods of time. In nearby areas, just outside of the evacuation zone, new regulations are being made about how much exposure school children can receive. Therefore, many of the schools have to do physical education and recess indoors.
That's about all I have time for now. We'll just have to wait to see how things turn out. In the meantime, the radiation levels in our area are still extremely low and staying at a stable level. It will be a relief when this situation gets fixed just the same.
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