The devastating earthquake in Japan seems to have damaged a nuclear facility in the Fukushima Prefecture, leading authorities to evacuate 6,000 nearby residents during the night. However, the good news is there doesn’t seem to be any radiation leakage. From NYT:
An analyst with the World Nuclear Association, a major international nuclear power group, told Reuters that he understood fresh cool water was now being pumped into the cooling system at Fukushima, reducing the threat of a meltdown.
“We understand this situation is under control,” the analysts said. The analyst said he understood that a back-up battery power system had been brought online after about an hour, and begun pumping water back into the cooling system, where the water level had been falling.
At this point, we’ll take any good news we can get.
Wow everything worked even though the plant was hit by a tsunami and large earthquake. This plant is 40 years old the same vintage as Three Mile Island. The systems, procedures, and people worked. The plant scrammed with the +6.5 earthquake. The emergency generator was flooded and one of the water pumps was shorted out and caught fire. At most they will have to decommission the plant.