Nuclear power accident in Japan

Nuclear emergency in Japan
 
The world watches with rapt attention as disaster in Japan stretches into its second day. What began as a shock and concern for those impacted by Friday’s  8.9 magnitude earth quake and subsequent tsunami was quickly displaced by mounting fear that island nation could be on the brink of nuclear disaster. A  explosion rocked Daiichi nuclear power station in Fukushima early this morning raising concern of imminent melt down. Officials say the reactor was not affected by blast and radiation levels are now decreasing. However its still unclear how great the threat of nuclear emergency is. These nuclear  reactors at Fakushima are BWR (boiling water reactors) in six numbers set up in 1972.

What Japan is now trying to avoid is a complete loss of power to the cooling systems at its Fukushima nuclear power plant. This would lead to a loss of coolant or melt down accident a disaster which could have catastrophic impacts on Japan  and much of world.

Radioactive material is used in a nuclear power plant as a heat source -to boil water and produce  steam that  turn a turbine that generate electricity. Huge amounts of radio-active material are made to go through the chain reaction a process in which atomic particles bombard the nuclei of atoms, causing them to break up and generate heat.

But  to keep the nuclear reaction in check to prevent the material over -heating-vast amounts of coolant required-up to  a million gallons of water a minute in most common nuclear power plants  that have been built light water reactors. That is why nuclear power plants are sited along rivers and bays and near to sea to use water as a coolant.

If water which cools reactor “core” its 200000 to 300000 pounds of radio-active fuel load-stops flowing “the emergency core cooling systems” must send water in. If it fails a loss of coolant or melt down accident can occur.

Fukushima

Radiation leaked from an earth quake-crippled nuclear power plant here are on Saturday after blast blew the roof off and authorities prepared to distribute iodine to the people in the vincity  to protect them from explosion severely damaged the main building of the plant it had not effected the reactor core container.

Japan local media said three workers suffered radiation exposure at plant in the wake of Friday’s massive earth quake which sent a 10 meter tsunami ripping through town and cities across the northeastern coast.

The blast raised fear off melt down at power facility 240 kilometers north of Tokyo as officials scrambled  to contain what could be the work nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl explosion in i986 that shocked the world. Still we have to get complete detailed  affect of this nuclear emergency in Japan .It may not effect on going nuclear power plants and their construction schedules .

Indian  nuke plants and their safety

The radiation leak in Japan is raising safety concern in India , bringing the focus back on our crisis management plans.

“ The safety features of Indian nuclear power plants have to be checked to assess whether they can tackle in operable situations” says former Atomic Energy Commission chairman and its member M.R. Srinivasan who has visited the Fukushima plant . “ It was constructed to with stand natural calamities. But what happened on Friday  was some thing unusual. It was a deadly combination of  strong earth quake and tsunami which struck nuclear power plant and damaged it. “

Once details  emerge about the Japanese nuclear incident, Indian scientists are likely to high light the stress points are likely to high light the stress points and prepare a detailed safety audit for nuclear power plants in India.

Nuclear reactors are designed to with stand earth quakes, specific to seismic zones they are located in .in case of Fukushima it is clear that the intensity of earth quake was more than what plant was designed with stand.

How safe are our nuclear power plants in Kaiga (Karnataka ) and Kalpakkam ( Tamilnadu) scientists say there is no danger to Kaiga plant since it has been set up on a high point and is far away from coast. In fact  the Kalpakkam plant did not suffer any damage during 2004 tsunami. An additional wall was built to protect the plant after tsunami . Similarly when Gujarat was stuck by an earth quake in 2001, it had no impact on Kakrapar atomic power station near Surat.


“ There are two fast acting independent and diverse shut down systems at kaiga. We also have safety measuring committee which conducts mock exercise every two years to check the preparedness of different department in case of emergency. “ says G.P.Gupta site director kaiga nuclear power site.

“ The  Kalpakkam  plant was saved when tsunami unit Tamilnadu coast because a decision had been taken to install electrical systems about 50 feet above ground. Consequently nothing was submerged when the area was stuck by tsunami “ says former  chairman AEC P.K.Iyengar .

However Nuclear regularity commission (NRC) toughly check nuclear reactors designs and their location  specially concerned with safety factors before issuing   final approval for setting up nuclear power plants taking into consideration tsunami and earthquakes while these light water reactors required to set up in coastal areas for cooling purpose.  

Readers of this blog kindly for word your comments in coll um mentioned  for improving this blog.