(Click to enlarge.)Nuclear Touchstone
An old man older than 90 years told that this is the worst situation since he came back from the military service to the Empire of Japan after WWII, since his village is situated within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The rise and fall of the nation Japan might be now at stake due to crippled four reactor units in Fukushima Daiichi.
But, how was it started in the peaceful evening of March 11, 2011?
PART I: A Professor
In the wake of the outbreak of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in northeast Japan, many experts and professors were invited to TV programs and news shows. They mostly explained to the Japanese audience how safe the situation was.
A professor of the University of Tokyo said on TV that the current radiation level was not dangerous while intensity of radiation in Fukushima City was 200 times stronger than in Tokyo.
But, when he returned his office in the University from a TV station, he issued a circular letter requesting his staff and students to halt an air ventilation system and stop use of a draft in his laboratory. The professor tried to prevent radioactive material from coming into his office in Tokyo from Fukushima Daiichi.
Yet, he said on TV that Fukushima City was perfectly safe from the nuclear accident in Fukushima Daiichi, since the city received only 20 micro-sieverts (at the time) while one chest x-ray check uses 600 micro-sievert radiation.
The professor of the University of Tokyo suggested that Tokyo was safer than Fukushima City, since the radiation level in Tokyo was 200 times smaller than that of Fukushima City.
Yet, he ordered his staff and students to halt an air ventilation system and stop use of a draft in his laboratory of the University. The professor tried to prevent radioactive material from coming into his office in Tokyo from Fukushima Daiichi.
And, it is widely known that the Japanese nuclear expert community is governed by industrial experts and leaders, academic bosses, and conservative politicians who mostly graduated from the University of Tokyo.
Though Fukushima City of Fukushima Prefecture is exposed to a higher radioactivity of 4 micro-sieverts per hour or 1.5 milli-sievert per month, Tokyo is under a 1/60 radiation. Leaving Tokyo for fear of radiation now might be tantamount to having left Paris due to the Chernobyl accident in 1986, in my feeling.
PART II: At 27:20 of March 11
There is an argument that PM Mr. Naoto Kan is responsible for the hydrogen explosion that happened around 3:30 p.m. on March 12, 2011.
March 11, 2011
13:00 - PM Kan attended a session of the Upper-House budget committee in the National Diet, Tokyo.
14:45 - An M9.0 earthquake was set off under the Pacific Ocean 150 km northeast of the Fukushima Daiichi (No.1) Nuclear Plant on the shore; emergency power sources and external electricity supply to Fukushima Daiichi was lost, but one second after the tremor all the working reactors automatically stopped their operation.
14:50 - The budget committee recessed amid a big quake; PM Kan immediately returned to PM Office.
15:10 - A 7.3-meter-high tsunami arrived at Fukushima Daiichi; seven times more in subsequent 6 hours. One tsunami was 14-meters high.
15:30 - A vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Corporation started to fly to Fukushima Daini (No.2) by helicopter from the Tokyo main office of TEPCO.
16:36 - It became impossible to pour water into the 1st and 2nd reactors of Fukushima Daiichi.
19:03 - Gov. issued the Declaration of a Nuclear Emergency Situation for Fukushima Daiichi.
19:05 - Japan Meteorological Agency sent a radioactive-material diffusion forecast map to IAEA.
19:09 - A cabinet meeting was held to discuss nuclear safety.
19:23 to 19:41 - A cabinet meeting was held to discuss the ongoing disaster.
20:50 - Gov. issued an evacuation order to residents living within 2 km of Fukushima Daiichi.
22:30 - TEPCO sent a vehicle equipped with a power generator to Fukushima Daiichi.
March 12, 2011
00:00 - Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry arrived at Fukushima Daiichi.
00:15 - PM Kan talked with US President Obama by phone.
01:20 - TEPCO reported to Gov. an abnormal pressure rise inside the 1st reactor's pressure vessel (requesting authorization of opening the valve for releasing radioactive vapor).
01:30 - Gov. agreed or ordered to open valves of a ventilation system to release vapor out of the vessel.
01:40 - PM Office delivered a memo to the media stating the "vent" starts at 27:20.
02:00 - PM Kan decided to go and inspect Fukushima Daiichi.
03:00 - Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano ordered TEPCO to delay the "vent" till Gov. announcement.
03:12 - Secretary Edano started to hold a midnight news conference, announcing the "vent" to be done soon.
04:00 - TEPCO was trying to connect the power generator through cables to the reactor units in Fukushima Daiichi.
05:44 - PM Kan ordered evacuation from a 10-km zone of Fukushima Daiichi
06:00 - TEPCO held a press conference, admitting having a trouble in connecting the provisional power source in Fukushima Daiichi.
06:08 - PM Kan accepted a standing interview by reporters at the entrance of PM Office.
06:14 - PM Kan left for Fukushima Daiichi 220 km northeast of Tokyo by helicopter from PM Office. Chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission Madarame accompanied PM Kan.
06:50 - Gov. officially ordered TEPCO to perform the "vent"
07:11 - PM Kan arrived at Fukushima Daiichi to meet the TEPCO's vice president.
07:45 - Gov. issued the Declaration of a Nuclear Emergency Situation for Fukushima Daini (No.2) Plant.
08:04 - PM Kan left Fukushima Daiichi for inspection of tsunami-hit areas.
09:04 - TEPCO started to open one of two valves needed to be opened for the "vent."
09:11 - The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency ordered TEPCO to conduct the "vent."
10:17 - TEPCO started to open the second valve for the "vent."
10:47 - PM Kan flew back to PM Office from the aerial inspection of Miyagi Prefecture, etc; PM Kan reportedly said to his aids that the nuclear reactors in Fukushima Daiichi would not explode.
11:13 - Pressure in the 1st reactor's pressure vessel dropped.
13:00 - TEPCO started to pour water into the 1st reactor.
14:30 - The troubled second valve of the 1st reactor was finally opened.
15:29 - A radiation level monitored at the border to the Daiichi Plant indicated 1015 micro-sieverts or almost 1 milli-sieverts per hour.
15:36 - Hydrogen explosion occurred in the 1st reactor unit.
Then, mayhem started as the world came to know it very soon.
In addition, Chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission Mr. Haruki Madarame said, later in a Diet session, that he followed PM Mr. Kan to Fukushima Daiichi as the prime minister wanted to go there to study a nuclear power plant.
*** *** ***
Nuclear energy is not a conventional type of power sources mankind has been familiar with for these 2000 years.
But, technology to handle this energy is based on the conventional paradigm of engineering. There is a big mismatching.
People of the Stone Age cannot handle well crude oil as an energy source. People of today cannot handle well the nuclear energy.
It is because a natural disaster that can happen only once in thousand years in the Japanese Archipelago can easily disable the nuclear power plant. If mankind does not have an engineering paradigm that can cope with a natural disaster that can happen once in thousand years, he should not try to use nuclear energy.
Indeed, it is more difficult for mankind today to refrain from using nuclear energy than mankind of the Stone Age tries to use crude-oil power.
And what energy can you use so exclusively?
(Local hometown is the place where Japanese city workers always long for. A seaside village of Fukushima must be a good place to reminisce about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeg2j7x4kM&feature=related)
Mat 4:22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.