Japan Struggles to Contain Radiation as New Fire Rages at Damaged Nuclear Plant

         

There is a struggle to contain radiation in Japan. There was a raging fire at a nuclear plant in Fukushima Daiichi, which is located in Northeastern Japan. The cause of the fire was unknown. Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were considering alternatives to uranium fuel rods that are in what The Times described as “a boiling rooftop storage pool.” The article stated that the first idea is to use helicopters to spray cold water on the rods from above; the second is to inject cold water from below. The rooftop pools are still radioactive and if they allowed to overheat it could be dangerous. It is critical that the rods remain submerged in cool water.

            None of the reactors were in commission when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck. It damaged the cooling and containment systems throughout the nuclear complex. As if that were not enough a tsunami hit right after that. The Tuesday morning after an explosion damaged the inner containment building at the reactor at least 750 workers were evacuated. According to the article, it released a rush of radiation 800 times more powerful than the “safe” hourly exposure limit set by the Japanese government. Scientists have detected cesium-137 and iodine-131, two highly radioactive isotopes outside the plant, a clear signal that two or more of the reactor cores are seriously damaged and at least partially melted down, according to U.S. nuclear experts.

            If the engineers fail, and the cores overheat and melt through the structure that is meant to contain them, the consequences may include an untold number of cancer deaths, billions of dollars in cleanup costs, and an environmental disaster that leaves the region around the nuclear plant uninhabitable for decades (300).