Mars 2011: Kärnkraftverket i Fukushima - utbruten och sammanfogad tråd

Safety checks to begin at Fukushima Daiichi plant

Japan's nuclear safety agency will begin inspecting the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from Monday to see if it can safely remain in a state of cold shutdown.

Officials from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency plan to check equipment and contingency preparations by examining manuals and interviewing workers during their three-week inspections.

Among the seven types of equipment to be checked is a reactor cooling system that recycles decontaminated water from the facility.

Another is a nitrogen-injection system to prevent hydrogen explosions within the disabled reactors.

Agency officials say they will open the onsite inspections to the media. The checks will be the first safety tests required under law since the March 11th accident.

The government declared on December 16th that the Fukushima Daiichi reactors had achieved a state of cold shutdown.

This means reactor temperatures have stabilized below 100 degrees Celsius, and the release of radioactive substances has been contained.
Friday, February 03, 2012 18:02 +0900 (JST)

Crime syndicates and illegal businesses flock to nuclear plants where workers toil under harsh conditions.

One thermometer high at Fukushima No.2 reactor

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says one of the thermometers in the damaged No.2 reactor has been indicating a rise in temperature.

Tokyo Electric Power Company says one of the 3 thermometers at the bottom of the reactor read 71.7 degrees Celsius as of 4 PM on Sunday, as compared to about 45 on January 27th.

The temperature rose about 25 degrees in about 10 days.

TEPCO has rearranged water pipes in a bid to cool the reactor more efficiently.

The company says 2 other thermometers, also placed at the bottom of the reactors, have been reading about 45 degrees.

TEPCO notes the injection of cooling water was partially suspended when plumbing work was conducted on January 26th.

It says the procedure may have changed the way the water circulated inside the reactor, possibly preventing the system from sufficiently cooling down the nuclear fuel.

TEPCO adds it does not know exactly why only one thermometer is showing higher temperatures.

The company plans to monitor the situation, while examining the possibility of increasing the volume of cooling water if temperatures continue to rise.
Monday, February 06, 2012 05:59 +0900 (JST)

Tokyo Electric Power Co said the leak occurred in the No. 4 reactor after a pipe connected to the reactor dropped off, the news agency reported.

The leak was discovered Tuesday night and was stopped shortly afterwards.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the temperature of the No. 2 reactor at its damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has risen and it injected boric acid into the unit early this morning to prevent criticality.