© Energy from Thorium
Tragedy at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Tragedy at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
On March 11, 2011, the tsunami caused by the Tōhoku earthquake prompted a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima. Now, for the first time, a crew has been able to capture images of melted uranium fuel present in its ruined Unit 3 reactor.
The accident caused three of the facility's six nuclear reactors to melt down. When this occurred, their uranium fuel rods liquefied, melting through layers of steel and concrete. This made it difficult for those investigating the accident after the fact to determine where the uranium had ended up.
The rods were cooled when plant workers pumped water into the reactor buildings, but there was no way to know how far they had traveled. It took three days for four engineers to pilot a small drone known as the Mini-Manbo through the corridors of flooded buildings to find the uranium. Previous attempts to use robots for this purpose had not been successful, but the new model was built from materials that are resistant to radiation and equipped with a sensor that allowed it to avoid particularly perilous areas.
This breakthrough is being touted as a turning point for the Japanese government's efforts to respond to the disaster. As the clean-up process begins in earnest, many are taking it as a sign that the crisis has finally come to an end.
Comment: The likelihood that fracking causes an increase in earthquakes is not the only problem with this technique: But go back to sleep - the House of Representatives says it's all Russian sponsored propaganda. As for the earthquakes, we don't need to help Mother Nature in providing more - she is doing just fine on her own and will be doing even better next year:
Scientists predict upsurge in major earthquakes for 2018 due to slowdown in Earth's rotation