Government OK's IAEA check of quake-hit nuclear plant; Yomiuri Shimbun/AP 7-23-07.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the largest nuclear power facility in the world, boasting a total of 7 boiling water reactors and built smack dab atop seismic faults involved in an earthquake last Monday [7-16] measuring 6.8 and killing 10 people in Niiagata Prefecture in Northwest Japan.
Despite early reports indicating everything was hunky-dory at the K-K facility, as the days went forward more and more about the damage was released. Two days after the quake Tokyo Electric Power - operator of the plant - apologized for "delays and errors in announcing the extent of damage" from the quake. This included a transformer fire let burn due to broken water pipes disruption to "several hundred" barrels of radioactive waste stored at the facility (opening several dozen of those and releasing contents) as well as a leak from the spent fuel pool that was released into the Sea of Japan and continued releases of radioactive iodine from unit 7's vent stack.
FoxNews reported on Friday that TEPCO has listed a list of 50 malfunctions, damages and mistakes as a result of the quake. And Kiyohiko Yoneyama of the Yomiuri Shimbun gives us a first-hand look from a Saturday press open house...
An oily smell filled the air near the transformer for the No. 3 reactor. Oil that is supposed to be sealed inside the transformer has been draining out of it since its insulation came off with the quake. Walls were charred from the fire. Fire hoses that employees at the plant apparently used to put out the fire were left scattered near a fire hydrant dozens of meters from the walls. Roads and gravel paths were rippled, undulating like the sea. Unlike the buildings housing the reactors, which stand on firm ground, the transformer is on relatively soft ground, which sank in the temblor. The depression, which a TEPCO employee measured in front of reporters, was 50 centimeters long.
Other places in the complex also showed damage. Soil beside a diesel tank near the plant's No. 1 reactor sank as much as 1.6 meters, damaging pipes that distribute water for firefighting. Work to replace the pipes was under way.
But that's not all...
Water containing a small amount of a radioactive substance was discovered at the plant's No. 6 reactor building.
The building's third floor and the deck floor between the third and fourth floors, which houses equipment to control the reactor and other devices, was designated as a noncontrolled area, meaning radioactive substances are not supposed to be handled there.
After the quake, however, about 1.5 liters of the tainted water was sprinkled on the floors of the noncontrolled area. The plant official said the water probably dripped from ducts and electric cables hanging from the ceiling, after first spilling over from a spent fuel pool to the fourth floor.
[...] A bucket and paper towels were placed on a pink sheet spread on the floor in case radioactive water drips from the ceiling again--an oddly low-tech image compared with such a state-of-the-art facility.
There are a handful of pro-nuclear members of DKos who would very much like to stifle any discussion of nuclear power's expense, safety and waste disposal drawbacks per the policies we should support for the future of our nation and independence from foreign oil. To the point of telling commenters to NNadir's diary today to "STFU" ["shut the fuck up"]. While I'm certainly willing to entertain discussion of the nuclear option when discussing long-term energy investments (nuclear is way weak on that leveled playing field), I am not willing to abide such tactics from posers who don't know shit and haven't a politic bone in their bodies.
For the record, I cannot be convinced that commercial nuclear power is a reasonable option for power generation in this country into the unforeseeable future. It does have its uses, but that's not one of 'em due to drawbacks associated more with corporate amorality and the dark side of human nature than with any in theory ability to control the technology. I'll even admit this comes from seeing way too much of it in action, including what happened at Three Mile Island in 1979.
So perhaps it's unfair for me to comment in the self-serving diaries of single-issue pro-nukes among us, since they're just trying to sell their answer to the energy crisis to Kossacks who don't know any better. But since I already know that nukes won't be a significant answer to our future energy issues, I do feel a responsibility to counter the propaganda so that we don't end up wasting more trillions on subsidies and direct pay-outs to die-hard nukes that are never going to pay us back. It's a black hole - there are much better developing technologies we could be investing in.
Perhaps, after all is said and done, Japan might even decide to invest in less dangerous technologies for its own future. Given amount of shoreline, I'd suggest tidal...