TEPCO's Report on Fukushima Daiichi
Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO) finally issued a report on the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
So far, four Japanese organizations have been studying the accident to compile and deliver their own reports.
The Japanese Government set up a special investigative committee that already issued an interim report on the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Their report denied the claim by former prime minister Mr. Kan that TEPCO tried to totally withdraw or run away from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant from fears in a coward manner on Maych 15, four days after the start of the nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. Its final report is expected to be delivered this summer.
A private committee, supported by journalists associated with The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, made public its report on the accident, though it is intended not to make true cause of the nuclear accident clear but mostly to save former prime minister Mr. Naoto Kan while the public doubts ability of Mr. Kan and suspects that he made a big failure in prevention of the accident and protection of Fukushima people and parties concerned. Mr. Kan was in charge of handling the Fukushima Daiichi accident as prime minister of Japan from March to August 2011.
This private committee has no legitimate and official authority. They could not even get cooperation from TEPCO. TEPCO staff all refused to be interviewed by members of this committee who from the beginning tried to save face of former PM Mr. Kan. In his 30-year career as a lawmaker, the liberal politician Mr. Kan has been helped or fostered by the liberal newspaper company The Asahi Shimbun newspaper. As 80% of the Japanese voters think that former PM Mr. Kan made the situation worse in Fukushima Daiichi, The Asahi Shimbun set up this committee to defend Mr. Kan so tactically and politically.
A more authentic report is expected to be issued by an official investigating committee set up by the Japanese parliament (called the Diet). The committee, with institutional power, has been interviewing many parties involved, including TEPCO executives. This committee is to make public its report in a month. As this committee is under supervision of all the parties of the Diet, it is expected that its report is not biased by any political groups, especially by the one linked to the ruling party DPJ where former prime minister Mr. Kan belongs.
Now back to the TEPCO's report, it is still unclear how the four nuclear reactors in the power plant were damaged and radioactive material was discharged after the great tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The No.1 Unit of Fukushima Daiichi released 14% of all the radioactive material discharged (which is about 900,000 tera Becquerels); No.2 accounted for 40%; No.3 for 36%; and No.4 for 10%.
(However, radioactive material discharged from the No.2 Unit seems to account for 90% of radioactive contamination in the land of Fukushima Daiichi and other prefectures.)
However, the No.2 reactor unit did not suffer a hydrogen explosion unlike all the other three Units. The building housing No.2 Unit is not so severely damaged. At 6 a.m. on March 15, a big exploding sound was heard from the Unit No.2, and the pressure in its pressure suppression pool decreased so sharply. And from 7 a.m. of the day, doses measured at the main entrance to Fukushima Daiichi increased from hundreds of micro Sieverts per hour to 10 milli Sieverts per hour, taking several hours. And around the same hour of the day, a surveillance video camera captured white smoke rising from Unit 2 and its periphery.
When an endoscope was inserted into the No.2 Unit reactor this March, it was found that a water level inside the reactor was just about 60 cm (2 feet). So, water is leaking from the reactor while cooling water is input at a rate of 8.8 tons per hour. But it is still unknown where the leakage has occurred.
The key to understanding the true cause of leakage from Unit N o.2 must be in the structure of the pressure suppression pool.
A possible sequence of radioactive leakage from the Unit No.2 facilities is as follows:
1. An M9.0 earthquake damaged the structure of Unit No.2.
2. A great tsunami hit the Unit No.2 building.
3. Electric power to circulate cooling water to/from the reactor vessel was lost.
4. A meltdown of nuclear fuel started.
5. Some radioactive atoms flew into the Pressure Suppression Pool with heated water.
6. Vapor increased pressure against the wall of the Pool already damaged by the quake.
7. Water vapor with radioactive material leaked out inside the Unit building.
8. Heat from melted nuclear fuel accelerated leakage of radioactive vapor to the outside.
However, TEPCO claims in its investigative report that the M9.0 earthquake of March 11, 2011, never damaged the structure of any reactor buildings of Fukushima Daiichi.
(to be continued...)
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Luk 6:21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.