What Exactly Happened at Fukushima Daiichi? An Explainer [Video]

What Happened to Reactors at Fukushima Daiichi? Finally, a Quality Explainer

11 by Timothy Hurst on March 16, 2011

In addition to not being forthcoming at the outset of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which operates the facility, has continued to fumble their crisis and PR communications by not supplying accurate information throughout the ordeal, according to several reports. Even government officials have shown their frustration with Tepco over the company's poor communication, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan demanding to know “what the hell is going on?” when he learned that it took over an hour to report the first explosion at the facility on Saturday morning.

“The public relations of Tepco is very poor,” said Shijuro Ogata in the Financial Times. “It is very clumsy and they don’t seem to be so knowledgeable.”

Editorials in the Japanese media have also called for more accurate information and greater levels of transparency from the power company.

In the absence of solid information coming from Tepco, the media has had to scramble to put the pieces together, some doing a better job than others. NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, which has also made public calls for more accurate information, produced the following explainer with an excellent animation of the mechanics behind the reactor problems at Fukushima Daiichi:

Photo: (top) Oldmaison via flickr

fELKER

The only people who really know what’s happening are those that are trying to fix it. It is a completely arrogant and stupid idea of the media to insist that they should stop what they are doing to explain what is happening.
GoneToPlaid

The NHK video is a fairly good basic explanation of the workings of a boiling water reactor (BWR) and the failures of the cooling systems. Not mentioned are the fuel rod storage pools (currently of greater concern) or the inherent design flaws of these General Electric BWR designs. These BWRs were comparatively cheap to manufacture, but they rely on all components being manufactured to exceedingly high standards, that all safety systems are periodically and vigorously tested, and that coolant pipes would never break. They also rely on hydraulic pistons to push the control rods upwards and against gravity into the core, rather than using electromagnets to hold the control rods above the core such that in the event of a power failure the control rods would simply drop back down into the core due to gravity.

I disagree with fELKER’s remarks. TEPCO’s upper management knows exactly what is going on with each of the reactors, but they refuse to be forthcoming to the media and even to Japan’s president. This is typical corporate behavior when upper management knows that their jobs are on the line. Their response is to lie by not telling the entire truth and to simply hope for the best.
http://choosing-santa-fe.blogspot.com Santa Fe Kate

Nice film and easy to understand–good use of graphics and old footage to show what happened/is supposed to happen. And fELKER–I thought that was the media’s job–to explain what is happening…..
http://www.clickhost.in siva babu

It is Very Good Video and Good Film.Every one Understand .i like it
Paul Lindsey

For much more reasoned, level-headed info regarding the Fukushima reactors, I suggest visiting http://www.bravenewclimate.com . Also, http://www.atomicinsights.blogspot.com has good info on radiation safety and why zirconium cladding around nuclear fule rods in spent fuel pools doesn’t just burst into flame when/if a pool goes dry.

Bill

Paul-

I guess I’m missing the unreasoned, un-level-headed information you allude to. Perhaps you could elaborate.
GoneToPlaid

Hi Paul. Zirconium cladding, in air, won’t catch fire. Get zirconium cladding immersed in water hot enough, and it will catch fire due to very rapid oxidation with water, creating more heat and releasing large amounts of hydrogen in the process. Simply heating zirconium in open air to red hot with a blow torch is a misleading experiment.

A zirconium – water fire is what experts and TEPCO’s engineers were most concerned about once they started pumping water back into the fuel rod storage pools. If the zirconium cladding had already gotten too hot such that it would react with the cooling water, then a zirconium – water reaction could result. That would further heat the fuel rods and release large amounts of hydrogen. Pump cooling water in too quickly, then the water can explosively turn into steam due to the high temperatures of the fuel rods. The pressure from the steam could either blow fuel rods out of the containment pools or bend the fuel rods, bringing parts of the fuel rods very close together. Reactor 4′s storage pool contains not only spent fuel rods but also fresh fuel rods. If those fresh fuel rods either melt or get pushed together, then they could achieve criticality. “The possibility of re-criticality is not zero,” a TEPCO spokesman said. He was referring to the reactor 4 storage pool which contains fresh fuel rods for the reactor.

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