Japan’s Nikkei.com is reporting that the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 reactor was due to a meltdown of nuclear fuel rods in its insufficiently cooled core. This was consistent with reports of radioactive cesium and iodine outside the plant, as well as the suggestion that it was a build up of hydrogen gas inside the reactor that led to the explosion earlier in the day.
Others think the declaration of meltdown is premature. Regardless, this is a very bad nuclear accident. Considering that at least one person, a worker in the reactor, has died so far, this incident appears to be worse than Three Mile Island. Because the Fukushima reactor has been flooded and is not on fire, there is currently no threat of it rising to the level of the Chernobyl disaster.
According to reports only three of the six Fukushima reactors were in operation when the earthquake hit. With the others in a safer, shut down condition they were not subject to damage while operating. That does not mean they were not damaged, only that they were safe at the time of the quake, and therefore in a condition that was fully controlled. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant operator, has vented gas from the contaminated structures to prevent overpressure within the damaged structure caused by steam pressures within the chambers.
The vented gas from the Fukushima reactor structures is predominantly steam, the source of which is cooling water pumped into the reactors to attempt to cool the radioactive rods that were damaged. The steam will hold some radioactive contaminant that will become airborne during the release...but will be rapidly dispersed into the atmosphere going from highly confined to broadly disseminated...parts per million to parts per billion...and therefore less hazardous to all life.
What we do know is that there is a real problem with the release of radiation to human and non-human alike. Our real question is "Should we turn off our Nuclear Reactors due to the problems that could come at any of these sites?"
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