The quake and tsunami also caused extensive damage to homes and property while radiation spread over a wide area, with more than 450,000 people evacuating in the immediate aftermath. The Fukushima disaster workers 16 photosĪn investigative report released last Thursday by three company-appointed lawyers said TEPCO's then-President Masataka Shimizu instructed officials not to use the specific description under alleged pressure from the Prime Minister's Office, though the investigators found no proof of such pressure. It has yet to start removing any fuel from the reactor cores of the three meltdown-hit units, as the complicated decommissioning process is expected to last for decades. TEPCO instead described the reactors' condition as less serious 'core damage' for two months after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, wrecked the plant, even though utility officials knew and computer simulations suggested meltdowns had occurred.

Japanese woman breaks silence on Fukushima-related cancer.

'I would say it was a cover-up,' Hirose told a news conference. President Naomi Hirose's apology followed the revelation last week that an investigation had found Hirose's predecessor instructed officials during the 2011 disaster to avoid using the word 'meltdown.' Three of the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi overheated, causing meltdowns which released large amounts of radioactive material into the air. 4 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi powe. Reactor Unit 3 (right) and Unit 4 (left) on 16 March. Reactors 1-3 came into commercial operation 1971-75. TEPCO will conduct a test for nuclear fuel removal at the No. The Fukushima Daiichi reactors are GE boiling water reactors (BWR) of an early (1960s) design supplied by GE, Toshiba and Hitachi, with what is known as a Mark I containment. Nuclear experts have said that TEPCO may now have to build a concrete wall around the reactor, and this could take years.TOKYO - The utility that ran the Fukushima nuclear plant acknowledged Tuesday its delayed disclosure of the meltdowns at three reactorswas tantamount to a cover-up and apologized for it. Fuel meltdown experiment taken place in March in Fukushima. The company said it’s likely that shortly after the nuclear crisis started, the nuclear fuel rods had been entirely exposed to the air. TEPCO has said that based on the water level left around the melted fuel rods, the pressure vessel must have a hole of several centimeters in diameter. The conclusion was that there must have been a large leak of radioactive water. Tons of water has been pumped into reactors at the nuclear plant, in an attempt to cool down the fuel rods sufficiently to allow a cold shutdown in 6 to 9 months.Įarlier this week, TEPCO found that the water level in the vessel that contains the fuel rods had dropped 5 meters (16 feet) below the minimum level needed to cover the rods. Radioactive water has been leaking from the reactor, causing concern about it flowing into the Pacific Ocean and groundwater in the area. 1., after is was hit by a massive tsunami in March that moment was captured here on video.

The revelation of the leak also gives new insights into the chain of events that led to a partial meltdown of the fuel rods in the Fukushima reactor No.

This has led to the leaking of more radioactive water than expected. Russia’s Ministry of Defense warned Thursday that if an accident occurs at the nuclear power plant it is occupying in southern Ukraine, radioactive material would cover Germany, Poland and Slovakia.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has revealed that its reactor number 1, at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant, has a hole in its main containment vessel following the meltdown of nuclear fuel rods.

Fukushima 3rd reactor meltdown