The Japan Nukes

As some know, I work at a nuclear power plant.  Because of this, I am naturally interested in what is going on with the Japanese reactors following that horrible natural disaster.  I am also extremely annoyed with the way the media has been covering the situation.  First, let me just say that yes, the situation is bad.  But it is not "dire" and doesn't threaten the whole of Japan or anything like that.  Most of the reporting on levels of radiation in and around the plant are obviously not written by people who know anything about nuclear power.  I plan to work on a long post about the situation and make it somewhat educational to boot.  For now, I offer my prayers for the men who have stayed behind to get things under control.  I also offer a minor briefing we got on the first hours of the incident as a hold over.  As I said, it only covers the first few hours of the incident and thus is somewhat old news but here you go:

American Nuclear Society Backgrounder:
Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami; Problems with Nuclear Reactors
3/12/2011 5:22 PM EST
To begin, a sense of perspective is needed… right now, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami is clearly a
catastrophe; the situation at impacted nuclear reactors is, in the words of IAEA, an "Accident with
Local Consequences."
The Japanese earthquake and tsunami are natural catastrophes of historic proportions. The death toll is
likely to be in the thousands. While the information is still not complete at this time, the tragic loss of
life and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami will likely dwarf the damage caused by the
problems associated with the impacted Japanese nuclear plants.
What happened?
Recognizing that information is still not complete due to the destruction of the communication
infrastructure, producing reports that are conflicting, here is our best understanding of the sequence of
events at the Fukushima I‐1 power station.
 The plant was immediately shut down (scrammed) when the earthquake first hit. The automatic
power system worked.
 All external power to the station was lost when the sea water swept away the power lines.
 Diesel generators started to provide backup electrical power to the plant’s backup cooling
system. The backup worked.
 The diesel generators ceased functioning after approximately one hour due to tsunami induced
damage, reportedly to their fuel supply.
 An Isolation condenser was used to remove the decay heat from the shutdown reactor.
 Apparently the plant then experienced a small loss of coolant from the reactor.
 Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) pumps, which operate on steam from the reactor, were
used to replace reactor core water inventory, however, the battery‐supplied control valves lost
DC power after the prolonged use.
 DC power from batteries was consumed after approximately 8 hours.
 At that point, the plant experienced a complete blackout (no electric power at all).
 Hours passed as primary water inventory was lost and core degradation occurred (through some
combination of zirconium oxidation and clad failure).
 Portable diesel generators were delivered to the plant site.
 AC power was restored allowing for a different backup pumping system to replace inventory in
reactor pressure vessel (RPV).
 Pressure in the containment drywell rose as wetwell became hotter.
 The Drywell containment was vented to outside reactor building which surrounds the
containment.
 Hydrogen produced from zirconium oxidation was vented from the containment into the reactor
building.
 Hydrogen in reactor building exploded causing it to collapse around the containment.
 The containment around the reactor and RPV were reported to be intact.
 The decision was made to inject seawater into the RPV to continue to the cooling process,
another backup system that was designed into the plant from inception.
 Radioactivity releases from operator initiated venting appear to be decreasing.
Can it happen here in the US?
 While there are risks associated with operating nuclear plants and other industrial facilities, the
chances of an adverse event similar to what happened in Japan occurring in the US is small.
 Since September 11, 2001, additional safeguards and training have been put in place at US
nuclear reactors which allow plant operators to cool the reactor core during an extended power
outage and/or failure of backup generators – “blackout conditions.”
Is a nuclear reactor "meltdown" a catastrophic event?
 Not necessarily. Nuclear reactors are built with redundant safety systems. Even if the fuel in the
reactor melts, the reactor's containment systems are designed to prevent the spread of
radioactivity into the environment. Should an event like this occur, containing the radioactive
materials could actually be considered a "success" given the scale of this natural disaster that
had not been considered in the original design. The nuclear power industry will learn from this
event, and redesign our facilities as needed to make them safer in the future.
What is the ANS doing?
ANS has reached out to The Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) to offer technical assistance.
ANS has established an incident communications response team.
This team has compiling relevant news reports and other publicly available information on the ANS blog,
which can be found at ansnuclearcafe.org.
The team is also fielding media inquiries and providing reporters with background information and
technical perspective as the events unfold.
Finally, the ANS is collecting information from publicly available sources, our sources in government
agencies, and our sources on the ground in Japan, to better understand the extent and impact of the
incident.