Lessons from Japanese nuclear disaster

'Uncertain graphics'. The saying that old people are moving into the Land of the Rising Sun. Japan has been a victim of nuclear technology - atomic bomb 65 years ago, and is now suffering from a new disaster also about nuclear technology - nuclear power plant.

The idea of ​​the super-earthquake on Friday, March 11, 2011, the destruction of this country only stops at normal losses of people and of like similar countries recently; Haiti, Indonesia, New Zealand . Earthquakes in Japan also cause other incalculable consequences.

All 5 reactors (2 at Fukushima plant No. 1 and 3 at Fukushima plant No. 2 in the region with the strongest earthquake) stopped working after the super-earthquake on the black Friday. The risk of damage, radioactive leakage, is causing millions of people to worry, not only in Japan but also in other countries.

Also because of the cooler!

The earthquake has left incalculable consequences for Japan.

Of course, successive incidents of Japanese nuclear power plants in recent days have been caused by natural disasters, a terrible super-earthquake over a hundred years has happened in the country. .

But directly leading to this 'deadly' leak is not big, cool systems!

Indeed, in the quake region there are 4 nuclear power plants, each with a number of reactors. Earthquakes occurred, these reactors immediately shut down on their own thanks to automatic control rods falling deep into the nuclear fuel and turning off nuclear fission.

With Japanese light water ovens, the risk of nuclear explosions is eliminated. But the risk of spreading and polluting the environment remains. For two reasons:

Firstly, after a period of operation of the plant, in the fuel bar has accumulated a huge amount of radioisotopes ; is a fission product of uranium and plutonium nuclear fuels.

Secondly, these radioactive isotopes emit a frightening amount of alpha, beta, gamma radiation . , in addition, these rays heat the fuel block, even though the furnace has stopped working. This heat increases very quickly, to a very high temperature. Air pressure and steam in the furnace also increased. Prevent this danger only by cooling systems. When the kiln stops, they are maintained by diesel backup generators.

In particular, if the cooling system is paralyzed, fire and explosion may occur in the reactor. And if the protective ' fences ', especially the metal dome in addition to covering the reactor, are broken, the radioactive material will leak and spread out, causing environmental hazards.

Unfortunately, that bad ability happened. The cooling system of two reactors in two neighboring nuclear power plants Fukushima 1 and Fukushima 2 were all paralyzed due to the 8.9 richter earthquake on Friday and aftershocks accompanied by diesel electric motors. Redundant operation of the spoiled cooling system.

To reduce the risk of damaging the kiln, those responsible have resorted to a reluctant method of deflating outside. However, this entails the possibility of radioactive substances leaking into the environment. At that risk, the Japanese government had to declare the National Alert on Nuclear for Fukushima 1 and Fukushima 2 factories.

And indeed in the Fukushima 1 plant, the radiation dose at the reactor has increased by 1,000 times normal. Outside, a location near the main gate of the factory, was 8 times higher than normal.

At the same Fukushima 2 plant, the failure of the standby system brought the coolant temperature to a peak of 100 degrees Celsius. The spokesperson for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said that the pressure in the furnaces remained stable, but increased in the outer covering.

Clearly, scourge is increasing for both reactors.

A great lesson

A reactor of Japan's No.1 Fukushima nuclear power plant exploded on March 12.

And an inevitable catastrophe happened on Saturday, March 12, 2011, 15:36 (local time). An explosion at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant with No.1 reactor is 250 km from Tokyo, about 8 km from Fukushima No. 2 factory. Fukushima nuclear power plant No. 1 is one of the most severely affected nuclear power plants from the earthquake that happened one day earlier.

After the explosion were large aftershocks and white smoke columns rising from the factory. The explosion occurred in the context of the Japan Nuclear Safety Agency has ordered this plant to discharge gas (containing radioactivity) to protect the reactor. The blast blew the roof and walls of the building with the No. 1 reactor.

But Japan's nuclear safety agency said there was no serious damage to the No. 1 reactor compartment, after checking the leaked radioactive data. TEPCO said that four workers who were repairing at the reactor were injured, but they were still awake and their injuries were not fatal. Chief of Japan's Cabinet Office Yukio Edano called on people to calm down and say that radiation levels are still being carefully controlled.

However, as the British Daily Mail said, Japan is facing the risk of radioactive dispersal . And a high-level government spokesman asked tens of thousands of people within a 20km radius around the factory to evacuate.

Latest news said, dozens of people, even hundreds of people working in factories were exposed to high doses of radiation. In place of the failed cooling system's backup machines, efforts to cool the reactor core are in progress, by continuously pumping and discharging seawater, to prevent the melting of the poles. reactor.

The explosion in Fukushima just happened reminds me of the heart of Chernobyl's largest historical nuclear explosion in the past. Japan is trying to prevent a Fukushima from becoming a Chernobyl. In the world, everyone hopes that the consequences now are not as serious as it happened a quarter of a century ago. In any scenario, Fukushima disaster is still a great lesson, remembering the life of Japan, of every country on the path of developing nuclear power.