Another explosion at Fukushima nuclear reactor as Japan admits meltdown 'likely' - A fire is burning at the No.4 nuclear reactor at Japan's troubled Fukushima's No. 1 power plant, officials have confirmed. "Every possible method has been used to cool the reactor." The possibility of a nuclear meltdown is increasing. A MELTDOWN IS "HIGHLY LIKELY" AT THREE REACTORS – meaning a CATASTROPHIC FAILURE of the reactor core that could lead to dangerous radiation leaks.
The fire comes after an explosion at the troubled plant early this morning and damage to part of a reactor container. The radiation level shot up to 8217 micro sievert per hour temporarily this morning after the blast - more than eight times the 1000 micro sievert level to which people are usually exposed in one year.
Earlier, the suppression pool of the No.2 reactor at the Fukushima No.1 plant appeared to have been damaged. The pool forms the base of the container vessel which seals the fuel rods. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) "said it believes the container vessel has not sustained damage such as a hole, judging from the fact that the radiation level has not jumped". A huge explosion hit the building housing the number-2 reactor, the third blast at the plant since Saturday - hydrogen explosions at Unit 1 and Unit 3.
Japan is working desperately to avert a nuclear meltdown after Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami cut power to the ageing plant and knocked out cooling systems. Workers meanwhile have been evacuated from the number-2 reactor plant. Workers near the reactor No.2, excluding those who are pumping water to cool the reactor, have been evacuated. Part of one reactor's container appears to be damaged, according to the Japanese government. It did not specify which reactor was involved.
Prior to this morning's blast at the No.2 reactor, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said it was possible one of the earlier blasts had knocked out the cooling system in the previously stable reactor, leaving its fuel rods fully exposed at one point and vulnerable to serious damage. That emergency was compounded when a fire pump ran out of fuel as it was trying to pour seawater into the reactor to cool it down. The water level was eventually restored to 30cm to cover the lower parts of the rods.
Some 200,000 residents within 19km of the two Fukushima plants have been evacuated although some 746 people – mainly patients, elderly people and care workers at three hospitals and nursing homes - were still within the 19km zone yesterday. With new crises daily, it was difficult to gauge where the Fukushima disaster would rate on a scale of nuclear crises, but perhaps "worse than Three Mile Island but not as great as Chernobyl". Japan's nuclear safety agency had rated the damaged nuclear plant at four on an International Nuclear Event Scale of zero to seven. "We have the feeling that we are at least more than level five and probably at level six. I say this after speaking to my Japanese counterparts."
Meanwhile, CNN reported that tests detected low levels of radioactivity on 17 US Navy helicopter crew members from the USS Ronald Reagan after they returned from disaster relief missions to Japan. After washing with soap and water, no further contamination was detected. In addition, the Navy repositioned its ships and planes away from the power plant. The New York Times reported that the Pentagon was expected to announce that crew on deck received a month's worth of radiation in about an hour. However, there was no indication that any of the military personnel were experiencing side effects from the exposure. Three US helicopters flying missions about 60 miles north of the damaged reactors also became coated with particulate radiation that had to be washed off.
There were also concerns about the situation at other plants in the region. Earthquake-prone Japan uses nuclear power to generate a third of its electricity, though 11 of the country's roughly 50 reactors - those located in the worst-affected areas - were shut down after the earthquake.
As the search and rescue operation continued, officials announced the discovery of 2000 bodies in Miyagi prefecture. About 1000 bodies were found coming ashore on the Ojika Peninsula and another 1000 were spotted in the town of Minamisanriku, where up to 10,000 residents were unaccounted for. The UN estimated that nearly 600,000 people were evacuated nationwide.
Shredded nerves were further strained yesterday when another strong offshore tremor struck, shaking tall buildings in the capital Tokyo. The 5.8-magnitude quake struck off coastal Ibaraki Prefecture just after 10:00am local time, some 90 miles northeast of Tokyo. The quake and tsunami also damaged or forced the closure of key ports, although airports such as Tokyo's Narita reopened.
Soothsayer to Julius Caesar,
warning him of his death on March 15.
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.0 LAKE ALBERT REGION, UGANDA
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Yesterday -
3/14/11 -
5.0 KAMCHATKA PENINSULA, RUSSIA
5.3 TONGA
5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.3 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.6 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.5 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.4 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
5.3 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.4 NEAR WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
6.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.3 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.4 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.6 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.9 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
LATEST NEWS -
06:48 - The Bank of Japan is pumping billions of dollars into the financial system. The bank made two cash injections on Tuesday, totalling $98 billion (£61bn). This follows a record intervention yesterday, worth more than $180 billion.
04:37 - The eastern fishing town of Otsuchi "is possibly the worst-affected town along the coastline, it was very close to the epicentre of the quake. People had very little time to escape the tsunami and half of the population possibly out of 17,000 people are unaccounted for still. People here are being incredibly stoic. It's hard to say what's going through their minds, when you talk to people they're very reserved, it's four days into this disaster and they are still in a state of shock.
04:02 - Higher than normal radiation levels are detected in Tokyo, the city government is saying. However, a Tokyo government officials says the radiation levels in the city are not seen as harmful to human health.
03:55 - Japan's nuclear safety agency says it suspects an explosion may have damaged the vessel that holds the number two reactor. That would make it a more serious incident than the two previous explosions at Fukushima that were thought just to have damaged the buildings that housed the reactors.
[ The explosion followed an early-morning acknowledgment from Tokyo Electric Power that, BECAUSE OF HUMAN ERROR, the fuel rods inside the Unit 2 reactor had been at least partly exposed to air for more than two hours during two separate incidents the previous evening, allowing them to heat up and causing a buildup of explosive hydrogen gas. Independent experts said it was a grave development that heightened the risk of an uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment. Engineers had begun using fire hoses to pump seawater into the Unit 2 reactor - the third at the plant to receive the last-ditch treatment - after the emergency cooling system failed. Company officials said workers were not paying sufficient attention to the process, however, and let the pump stall [ran out of gas!], allowing the fuel rods to become partially exposed to the air. Once the pump was restarted and water flow was restored, another worker inadvertently closed a valve that was designed to vent steam from the containment vessel. As pressure built up inside the vessel, the pumps could no longer force water into it and the fuel rods were once again exposed.
Another serious risk involves the more than 200 tons of spent nuclear fuel that is stored in pools adjacent to the reactors. Those cooling pools depend on continually circulating water to keep the fuel rods from catching fire. Without power to circulate the water, it heats up and potentially boils away, leaving the fuel rods exposed to air.
An aerial image of the Fukushima plant shows the loss of high-capacity cranes needed to move equipment to service the reactor. The photo also appears to show that the spent fuel pool is steaming hot, which may indicate the water is boiling off. U.S. nuclear experts said they were particularly concerned about the Unit 3 reactor because it is fueled in part with plutonium, an element used in hydrogen bombs that can be more difficult to control than the enriched uranium normally used to fuel nuclear power plants.
In the best-case scenario, the situation at the damaged reactors will take weeks, if not months, to stabilize, U.S. nuclear experts said. "They do not have the situation under control." The company's acknowledgement that a "suppression pool" at the bottom of Unit 2, designed to serve as a last line of defense against a meltdown, was believed to have been breached could represent a major escalation of the crisis. "If that is true, then there is a path to the control room, the workers and the outside environment."
03:37 - A low level RADIOACTIVE WIND COULD REACH TOKYO IN 10 HOURS, the French embassy in the Japanese capital as saying.
03:34 - "It is difficult to make rational decisions when we aren't getting honest and accurate information from the Japanese officials or news stations."
03:09 - Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary says: "Now we are talking about levels that can impact human health. I would like all of you to embrace this information calmly. These are readings taken near the area where we believe that the release of radioactive substances is occurring. The further away you get from the power plant or reactor the value should go down".
03:06 - Winds over the stricken nuclear plant are blowing slowly towards the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo.
03:03 - RADIATION IS 400 TIMES THE ANNUAL LEGAL LIMIT near Fukushima's reactor 3.
00:52 - Radiation levels after the blast at Fukushima's reactor 2 at 0610 local time (2110 GMT Monday) - Tokyo Electric officials say that one hour of exposure at the nuclear plant would be equivalent to eight times at what a person might experience naturally during the year.
Latest video coverage - from the BBC.
Gallery of photos sent in to the BBC.
Before and after aerial photos - Google Earth.
VOLCANOES -
Activity of mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan increased sharply - Azerbaijanhas observed serious activity at two more mud volcanoes, in addition to the one in Gobustan region which erupted on 13 March. The Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources of Azerbaijan reports of current grave activity of mud volcanoes in Dashgil and Ayrantoken located in Alat township of Garadagh district of Baku.
Gobustan-based mud volcano Shihzyayirli mud volcano that erupted yesterday continues erupting and the height of its fire has increased from yesterday’s level of 30 cm up to 2 m which caused natural anxiety of the population of the nearby village Shihzyayirli located at distance of 600-700 m from the volcano. At present, noisy release of gas is observed in different parts of the volcano. As a result of volcano explosion, the height of the fire reached up to 60-70 m, the heat from it was felt at a distance of 3 km, and cracks with width of 40-50 cm appeared on the ground. Shihzyayirli volcano erupts every 6-7 years, and the last time erupted in 2005, but this year's eruption was much more intense. According to experts, eruption of volcanoes is not a signal about a possible earthquake.
HAWAII - Authorities say lava from a volcano eruption in Hawaii has sparked a wildfire in Volcanoes National Park. The blaze has burned at least 75 acres since Sunday. The lava is from the Kamoamoa eruption. The fire is creeping through Ohia forest in an area that has been burned at least twice due to lava flows. Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has been in constant eruption since Jan. 3, 1983. Firefighters plan to fly over the area Tuesday to assess the situation.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical cyclones.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
BRAZIL - Floods in southern and southeastern Brazil have forced about 31,000 people to evacuate their homes. More than 14,000 people have been affected in Santa Catarina state, while about 10,000 have left flooded homes in neighbouring Parana state.
Three people died on landslides triggered by the rains. One person remains missing. Heavy rain has been hitting the southern region since Friday, and it has also caused problems in the southeast state of Espirito Santo, where more than 6000 people have been driven from their homes.
HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-Pierre Foods is voluntarily recalling one lot of PierreTM pb jamwich, crustless peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches, because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
-NE World Enterprises, LLC is recalling O.N.E. Coconut Water, due to the potential oxidation of the product that may permit the growth of mold.
-Vitalabs, Inc., Jonesboro, GA is voluntarily recalling four specific lot numbers of Whey-26 Protein Powder due to concerns over potential Salmonella contamination.
-The Oak Farms Dairy plant in Waco is voluntarily recalling half gallon plastic bottles of whole chocolate milk, half pint paper cartons of whole chocolate milk, and half pint paper cartons of 1% chocolate milk due to the presence of Alkaline Phosphatase found in samples during routine testing.
