It warns people to take necessary precautions against possible effects of radiation.
The BBC has issued no such flash but the hoax has caused particular panic in the Philippines.
Some media reports suggest that workers and school children there were sent home after the rumours began to spread, prompting the Philippines government to issue an official denial.
Disasters such as that currently unfolding in Japan often trigger a rise in scam texts and e-mails intended to fool users into downloading malware or simply to spread panic.
The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has told computer users to be wary of potential e-mail scams, as well as fake anti-virus and phishing attacks regarding the Japan earthquake and the tsunami disasters.
BBC Flash news : Japan Government confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. If rain comes, remain indoors first 24 hours. Close doors and windows. Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is, radiation hits thyroid first. Take extra precautions. Radiation may hit Philippine at around 4 pm today. If it rains today or in the next few days in Hong Kong. Do not go under the rain. If you get caught out, use an umbrella or raincoat, even if it is only a drizzle. Radioactive particles, which may cause burns, alopecia or even cancer, may be in the rain.
LOS ANGELES — California is closely watching the crisis at a Japanese nuclear plant, but officials downplayed the threat that a radioactive cloud blown across the Pacific could pose for the US West Coast.
While radioactivity could reach the United States from the quake-hit Fukushima plant, the levels would not be high enough to cause major health problems, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Some experts disagreed, notably pointing to the west-east jet stream, but NRC — which was asked by Japan on Monday to send nuclear experts to deal with the crisis — said even the Pacific island state of Hawaii faced little risk.
“Right now it’s quite possible that there could be some radiation floating over the United States. But we don’t think that it would be particularly harmful… even in a worst case scenario,” spokesman David McIntyre told AFP.
The radioactive cloud of steam and gases blown into the air by the explosions at the reactors in the Fukushima nuclear plant are unlikely to pose a major health risk, radiation experts said yesterday – although any future explosion could change the situation.
Relief agencies said the main threat for those who had survived near- drowning in the tsunami would be pneumonia, caused by fluid retained in the lung.
Thousands of corpses litter coastal towns but outbreaks of diseases such as cholera are considered a low risk in a developed country.
A meltdown occurs when a severe failure of a nuclear power plant system prevents proper cooling of the reactor core, to the extent that the nuclear fuel assembliesoverheat and melt, either partially or completely. A meltdown is considered very serious because of the potential that radioactive materials could be released into the environment. A core meltdown will also render the reactor unstable until it is repaired. The scrapping and disposal of the reactor core will incur substantial costs for the operator.
The fuel assemblies in a reactor core can melt if heat is not removed. A nuclear reactor does not have to remain critical for a core damage incident to occur, because decay heat continues to heat the reactor fuel assemblies after the reactor has shut down, though this heat decreases with time.
A core damage accident is caused by the loss of sufficient cooling for the nuclear fuel within the reactor core. The reason may be one of several factors, including a loss of pressure control accident, a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), an uncontrolled power excursion or, in some types, a fire within the reactor core. Failures in control systems may cause a series of events resulting in loss of cooling. Contemporary safety principles of defense in depth ensure that multiple layers of safety systems are always present to make such accidents unlikely.
The containment building is intended to prevent the release of radioactivity to the environment. This is due to the reactor being contained within a 1.2-to-2.4-metre (3.9 to 7.9 ft) thick pre-stressed, steel-reinforced, air-tight concrete dome.
In a loss of coolant accident, either the physical loss of coolant (which is typically deionized water, an inert gas, or liquid sodium) or the loss of a method to ensure a sufficient flow rate of the coolant occurs. A loss of coolant accident and a loss of pressure control accident are closely related in some reactors. In a pressurized water reactor, a loss of coolant accident can also cause a steam ‘bubble’ to form in the core due to excessive heating of stalled coolant or by the subsequent loss of pressure control accident caused by a rapid loss of coolant. In a loss of forced circulation accident, a gas cooled reactor’s circulators (generally motor or steam driven turbines) fail to circulate the gas coolant within the core, and heat transfer is impeded by this loss of forced circulation, though natural circulation through convection will keep the fuel cool as long as the reactor is not depressurized.[6]
In a loss of pressure control accident, the pressure of the confined coolant falls below specification without the means to restore it. In some cases this may reduce the heat transfer efficiency (when using an inert gas as a coolant) and in others may form an insulating ‘bubble’ of steam surrounding the fuel assemblies (for pressurized water reactors). In the latter case, due to localized heating of the steam ‘bubble’ due to decay heat, the pressure required to collapse the steam ‘bubble’ may exceed reactor design specifications until the reactor has had time to cool down. (This event is less likely to occur in boiling water reactors, where the core may be deliberately depressurized so that the Emergency Core Cooling System may be turned on). In a depressurization fault, a gas-cooled reactor loses gas pressure within the core, reducing heat transfer efficiency and posing a challenge to the cooling of fuel; however, as long as at least one gas circulator is available, the fuel will be kept cool.[6]
In an uncontrolled power excursion accident, a sudden power spike in the reactor exceeds reactor design specifications due to a sudden increase in reactor reactivity. An uncontrolled power excursion occurs due to significantly altering a parameter that affects the neutron multiplication rate of a chain reaction (examples include ejecting a control rod or significantly altering the nuclear characteristics of the moderator, such as by rapid cooling). In extreme cases the reactor may proceed to a condition known as prompt critical. This is especially a problem in reactors that have a positive void coefficient of reactivity, a positive temperature coefficient, are undermoderated, or can trap excess quantities of deleterious fission products within their fuel or moderators. Many of these characteristics are present in the RBMK design, and the Chernobyl disaster was caused by such deficiencies as well as by severe operator negligence. Western light water reactors are not subject to very large uncontrolled power excursions because loss of coolant decreases, rather than increases, core reactivity (a negative void coefficient of reactivity); “transients,” as the minor power fluctuations within Western light water reactors are called, are limited to momentary increases in reactivity that will rapidly decrease with time (approximately 200% – 250% of maximum neutronic power for a few seconds in the event of a complete rapid shutdown failure combined with a transient).
Core-based fires endanger the core and can cause the fuel assemblies to melt. A fire may be caused by air entering a graphite moderated reactor, or a liquid-sodium cooled reactor. Graphite is also subject to accumulation of Wigner energy, which can overheat the graphite, as happened at the Windscale fire). Light water reactors do not have flammable cores or moderators and are not subject to core fires. Gas-cooled civil reactors, such as the Magnox, UNGG, and AGCR type reactors, keep their cores blanketed with unreactive carbon dioxidegas, which cannot support a fire. Modern gas-cooled civil reactors use helium, which cannot burn, and have fuel that can withstand high temperatures without melting (such as the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor and the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor).
Byzantine faults and cascading failures within instrumentation and control systems may cause severe problems in reactor operation, potentially leading to core damage if not mitigated. For example, the Browns Ferry fire damaged control cables and required the plant operators to manually activate cooling systems. The Three Mile Island accident was caused by a stuck-open pilot-operated pressure relief valve combined with a deceptive water level gauge that misled reactor operators, which resulted in core damage.
Control rods are driven back down into the core upon emergency (if rods don’t make it all the way… trouble)
The coolant (water) could cease if backup systems fail (electricity, pumps, generators, batteries)
Reactor continues to produce heat
Numerous venting valve systems would release pressure above ~1,000 psi into containment vessel
Eventually the uranium fuel encasement metal will melt (2,200 deg F)
Radioactive contamination then released into the reactor vessel
Radiation escapes into an outer, concrete containment building
Radiation escapes into the environment as radioactive Fallout.
…
Things to know about Cesium-137, “IF” there is a complete meltdown and radioactive Fallout released into the environment
(also spelled, Caesium)
Where does cesium-137 come from?
Radioactive cesium-137 is produced when uranium and plutonium absorb neutrons and undergo fission. Examples of the uses of this process are nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
What is the half life of cesium-137 ?
The half-life of cesium-137 is 30 years. Because of the chemical nature of cesium, it moves easily through the environment. This makes the cleanup of cesium-137 difficult.
How do people come in contact with cesium-137?
Walking on contaminated soil could result in external exposure to gamma radiation. People may ingest cesium-137 with food and water, or may inhale it as dust. It is distributed fairly uniformly throughout the body’s soft tissues. Exposure may also be external (that is, exposure to its gamma radiation from outside the body).
How can cesium-137 affect people’s health?
Exposure to radiation from cesium-137 results in increased risk of cancer. If exposures are very high, serious burns, and even death, can result. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says everyone is exposed to minute amounts of cesium-137. The average annual dose in the Northern Hemisphere is less than 1 millirem annually. That falls below the 100 millirem exposure limit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends.
(information sourced from the U.S. EPA)
Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant (Daini), has 4 nuclear reactors.
Reports point towards 3 reactors in trouble (or were in trouble) there with cooling systems. Details sketchy on Fukushima II.
Update, 13-Mar-2011, 1130 UTC
(TOKYO) JapanToday.com, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano warned that a hydrogen explosion similar to one that blew away part of a building housing of another reactor (No. 1 at Daiichi) at the same facility on Saturday could occur at the reactor (No. 3 at Daiichi).
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), began injecting fresh water into the No. 3 reactor’s core vessel on Sunday to deal with the problem that the tops of MOX fuel rods were 3 meters above the water inside.
Why did the Fukushima nuclear power plant reactor fail in Japan?
Following the magnitude 8.9 earthquake, the ensuing tsunami washed over the area and knocked out the backup power diesel generators. All that was left was battery power, which was not sufficient to keep the nuclear rods cool enough.
What is the local health danger from the nuclear accident?
People who are outside the immediate area could inhale radioactive particles. A nuclear reactor accident could release radioactive iodine and radioactive cesium. Breathing in or eating food contaminated with radioactive iodine can cause thyroid cancer. Potassium Iodide (or Iodate) tablets can help prevent this.
Contamination of food and water can result from radioactive dust that settles on water supplies, crops or grass. Cows or other animals eat, and it works up the food chain. Any suspected foods should be washed.
Radioactive cesium with its long half-life, can cause more long-term damage, including cancer.
How far might the radioactivity spread?
This depends of course upon how much radioactivity is released into the environment. Weather conditions, wind and rain, will mostly affect the spread.
Is there any danger to those outside of Japan at this time?
Currently there is no known danger, no. There is no evidence of a reactor core breach of containment vessel.
A man holds his baby as they are scanned for levels of radiation in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on Sunday.
Radiation Levels within limits?
Evacuation is on; people have developed symptoms.
Read my blog on this of Date.
No limit audacity in lying under the guise of PR.
There is No fail safe system that can with stand Nature’s fury.
“will learn from mistakes”
Will you be around if Japan is repeated , more disastrously?
No Carbon Emissions?
People are not dunce.
Shut down Reactors if you want to live.
If you were to save your life as well as others’ do away with Nuclear Power;reduce dependence on power.
People have been living before us with out these paraphernalia.
The most striking claim made by NEI spokesman Mitchell Singer: Americans should be “reassured” by the crisis unfolding in Japan.
“There hasn’t been any significant release of radiation. So obviously they must be doing something right at this point,” said Singer. While acknowledging that the crisis is still in early stages, Singer argued in our interview, and earlier to the Wall Street Journal, that Americans should be reassured because the industry will learn from the accidents in Japan, where fail-safe systems have themselves failed.
“We share what’s known as ‘lessons learned’ from incidents such as this,” he said.
…..
As of midday Sunday, the New York Times reported that partial meltdowns had likely occurred at two reactors after backup cooling systems failed. Concern focused in particular on the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan, where an outer containment wall was destroyed in an explosion Saturday. Roughly 150 people have reportedly been exposed to radiation near or inside the plant, though the severity of the exposure is unclear.
On Sunday, every major newspaper in the United States highlighted the nuclear crisis — a PR nightmare for the industry.
The New York Times’ front page led with a banner headline, “Japanese Scramble to Avert Nuclear Meltdowns,” while the Washington Post featured stories variously labeled “Radiation Danger,” “Reactor Emergency,” and “Nuclear Crisis.” Many press reports conclude that the current crisis is the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what is now Ukraine, where an explosion spread a cloud of nuclear fallout over large sections of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe…..
In the United States, the political backdrop for the Japanese crisis is a recent bipartisan embrace of nuclear power. President Obama last year announced $8 billion in loan guarantees for a pair of new reactors in Georgia. After more than 30 years of no new reactor construction in America, Singer said that four new reactors — in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina — are expected to be online by 2020. Part of the reason for the three-decade lull was public fear generated by the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.
…The industry — along with President Obama — has in recent years trumpeted the fact that nuclear power does not produce carbon emissions that cause climate change. But safety is clearly still a touchy subject for nuclear operators. A special section on NEI’s website assures that “stringent federal regulation, automated, redundant safety systems and the industry’s commitment to comprehensive safety procedures keep nuclear power plants and their communities safe.” The Wall Street Journal today has a tough story concluding that the Japanese experience has cast doubt on the very premise “that engineers can build enough redundancy into plant safety systems to overcome dangers.”
…
actually performed well so far.
“The Japanese plants have been run very safely and reliably for a very long time. They have operated quite safely,” he said, adding: “Actually, they withstood the earthquake quite well. It’s the tsunami that caused the problems with the backup generators.”
A state of emergency has been declared for three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, the same place where an explosion late Saturday injured four people. A meltdown is a catastrophic failure of the reactor core, with a potential for widespread radiation release. Toshihiro Bannai, an official with Japan’s nuclear and industrial safety agency, expressed confidence that efforts to contain the crisis would be successful.
Meanwhile, a second reactor at the same facility failed shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said, according to TV Asahi. The power company said that it was having difficulty cooling the reactor and may need to release radioactive steam in order to relieve pressure.
treasurepeace RT @RinOkinawa: “Japan govt confirmsradiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. … tmi.me/7FrUI
ClaireLimm RT @_leebe: BBC FLASHNEWS: Japan govt confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions.
A HUGE explosion blew off the roof and walls of Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and people nearby were warned to stay indoors amid reports of a radiation leak and possible meltdown.
The explosion highlighted the scale of the disaster facing Japan following Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake and 33-feet (10-meter) tsunami that devastated the country’s northeastern coast.
Dramatic TV footage showed the blast ripping through the aging coastal facility, sending plumes of smoke billowing high into the air.
“We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion,” said government spokesman Yukio Edano, warning that people nearby should quickly evacuate. “We ask everyone to take action to secure safety,” he said.
Edano confirmed that there had been a radiation leak at the plant, and broadcaster NHK said the evacuation radius around the plant was doubled to 12 miles (20 kilometers).
UPDATE 11.45pm: A NUCLEAR power plant exploded, a day after the huge Japanese earthquake damaged the facility’s cooling system.
Nuclear authorities had earlier warned that the Fukushima No.1 plant, about 250km northeast of Tokyo, an urban area of 30 million people, “may be experiencing a nuclear meltdown“.
The plant’s cooling system was damaged in the quake that hit on Friday, leaving the government scrambling to fix the problem and evacuate more than 45,000 residents within a 10km radius.
The operator of a stricken nuclear plant, TEPCO, believed a reactor container was not damaged despite a large explosion at the plant, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said.
Japan’s government says the metal container sheltering a nuclear reactor was not affected by an explosion that destroyed the building it’s in.
Pressure and heat have been building at the nuclear reactor since an earthquake and tsunami on Friday caused its cooling system to fail.
An explosion on Saturday blew out the walls of the building housing the reactor. The government has ordered people within a 20km radius of the plant in Fukushima to evacuate the area.
Mr Edano added that radiation levels near the Fukushima plant had fallen after the blast, amid fears of a possible nuclear meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami on Friday.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that a blast had been heard at about 5.30pm (Melbourne time) and showed delayed footage of the explosion and smoke billowing from the site, also reporting that the reactor building had been destroyed.
TV channels warned nearby residents to stay indoors, turn off airconditioners and not to drink tap water. People going outside were also told to avoid exposing their skin and to cover their faces with masks and wet towels.
Meanwhile thousands are feared dead as Japan continues to reel from Friday’s horror earthquake and tsunami.
There are concerns for the safety of at least 160 Australians in the worst-hit areas of Japan.
The powerful quake that unleashed a devastating tsunami appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 2.4m and shifted the Earth on its axis, earthquake experts say.
Emergency crews began searching for survivors of the 8.9 magnitude “megaquake” and subsequent tsunami that washed away entire villages, cars and bridges, set oil refineries on fire and had several nuclear power plants on alert on the Pacific coast.
Rescuers continued to dig through rubble and pluck survivors of the quake – 8000 times stronger than the one that crippled Christchurch last month – from the roofs of submerged houses.
There were fears for the safety of Australians living near the epicentre of the quake at Sendai, 405km north of Tokyo, a popular area for Aussies working as English-language teachers and translators.
The regions of Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima, Ibraki and Aomori were worst affected. Police in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, said 300 bodies had been found on the shore.
(or Iodate) tablets can help prevent this.
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