...in Japan. A first world country. I believe we are looking at years if not a decade before the area returns to any definition of itself. No one hopes I am wrong more than me.
The nuclear facilities have to be a high priority to evacuation. While the Japanese government can state there needs to be evacuations in the area, I question the reality of the ability of people to actually leave to protect themselves. I would think this should be one of the first places people would be removed if they cannot achieve escape due to flooding and infrastructure failure.
The plant itself was never prepared to protect from such a seismic event. I would hope the USA and Japan are looking at a potential of building a sarcophagus in a worst case scenario. Let's hope it doesn't deteriorate to that, but, I believe it is necessary to examine those options.
Unless Japanese standards exceed that of the USA, there is every possibility, with repeated high intensity aftershocks, the facilities' integrity is in danger.
Japanese authorities said pressure was rising inside the plant with the risk of a radiation leak, according to the Jiji news agency. One British atomic engineer said the evacuation suggested a radioactive leak remained a possibility.
"It looks very serious. Obviously we do not know exactly what is going on but evacuating people is normally only a matter of last resort when there is only one containment layer left to be breached," said John Large, a member of the British Nuclear Engineering Society and a fellow of the Royal Society.
If radioactivity has broken through into the final dome over the top of the plant this would put the incident on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in the US which cost $1bn in 1979 money.
Another nuclear expert said that if the water cooling system had broken down, the consequences could be dire....
The reason this problem exists at all, with at least one of the facilities the back up diesel power plant took on water. Get the picture?
The nuclear facilities have to be a high priority to evacuation. While the Japanese government can state there needs to be evacuations in the area, I question the reality of the ability of people to actually leave to protect themselves. I would think this should be one of the first places people would be removed if they cannot achieve escape due to flooding and infrastructure failure.
The plant itself was never prepared to protect from such a seismic event. I would hope the USA and Japan are looking at a potential of building a sarcophagus in a worst case scenario. Let's hope it doesn't deteriorate to that, but, I believe it is necessary to examine those options.
Unless Japanese standards exceed that of the USA, there is every possibility, with repeated high intensity aftershocks, the facilities' integrity is in danger.
Japan earthquake forces thousands to evacuate in nuclear plant emergency (click title to entry - thank you)
...Experts warn that order to flee homes signals a serious problem at Fukushima power station in tsunami zone
guardian.co.uk,
"It looks very serious. Obviously we do not know exactly what is going on but evacuating people is normally only a matter of last resort when there is only one containment layer left to be breached," said John Large, a member of the British Nuclear Engineering Society and a fellow of the Royal Society.
If radioactivity has broken through into the final dome over the top of the plant this would put the incident on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in the US which cost $1bn in 1979 money.
Another nuclear expert said that if the water cooling system had broken down, the consequences could be dire....
The reason this problem exists at all, with at least one of the facilities the back up diesel power plant took on water. Get the picture?
