14 DAY TRIAL // Following the March 11 earthquake that struck Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been severely damaged. Emergency workers have been managing the situation ever since. At this point, experts are starting to identify the high-priority actions that need to be undertaken to avoid disaster.
Four nuclear reactors have been damaged by the magnitude 9.0 tremor and the tsunami it produced. The two natural disasters struck the seaside nuclear facility just one hour apart, experts say.
There are currently two potentially-catastrophic outcomes that authorities are trying to prevent - a total meltdown of the cores in any of the four reactors, and the release of massive amounts of radiation from spent fuel rods located in cooling pools outside the structures themselves.
The emergency response has currently reached a turning point, analysts say. Over the next few days, the actions of the workers on the site and the influence of weather patterns will determine the final outcome of the nuclear crisis, Technology Review reports.
Preventing fuel rods (both in the reactor and in the external pools) from overheating is now the first priority. To that end, Japanese authorities mobilized numerous vehicles and helicopters to keep pumping seawater on the most delicate objectives.
In the mean time, other workers are trying to connect Fukushima to an electricity grid, in order to provide power to special pumps that could cool the pools and the reactor cores. Also en route to Fukushima are several high-power pumps sent by the United States.
Efforts to restore power to the nuclear facility began on Sunday, but there are currently no indications as to whether they were successful or not. One thing hampering this endeavor is the fact that emergency responders still don't know whether water level sensors in the reactors work properly.
High radiation levels near the pools and the reactor buildings are preventing scientists and technicians from assessing the true extent of the damages the earthquake and tsunami caused. Figuring this out is critically important.
The material encasing the nuclear fuel is made of zirconium, which can react with hot water to from chemicals including hydrogen. The latter entails a large explosion risk, which could further damage the pools or the containment vessels inside the reactor buildings.
At this point, analysts are confident that the crisis will be resolved. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor of nuclear science and engineering Michael Podowski explains:
“There is no comparison between the instantaneous reactive material release from the fuel of the Chernobyl reactor, which was never shutdown but became supercritical and exploded, and the spent fuel in the Japanese plant,” he says.
“Providing sufficient cooling to stop any further releases is only a matter of time,” he concludes.
Keep an eye on this space for more details as the crisis unfolds.