Japanese delayed use of seawater to cool reactor
August 15, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A Japanese nuclear power company hesitated before using corrosive seawater to cool the No. 2 reactor at the stricken Fukushima plant because it hoped it could be used again, video released by the company shows, contradicting official findings.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year, crippling cooling systems and triggering fuel rod meltdowns and radiation leaks that led to mass evacuations and widespread contamination.
The video, one of dozens of fraught vignettes of officials and plant workers grappling with the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, flies in the face of TEPCO assertions executives didn't delay in using seawater.
The grainy video clips, mostly without sound, provide a picture of the chaos that characterized the early phase of the disaster as workers used everything from car batteries to fire hoses to try to bring the reactors under control as radiation levels rose and explosions rocked the site.
"We think using seawater in a hasty way would be wasteful because materials will be corroded," an unidentified company official at TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo is heard telling then plant manager Masao Yoshida two days after the quake.
"We don't have the option to use fresh water. That will cause further delays," Yoshida replies, emphasizing there was no time to find enough fresh water to do the job. TEPCO relented to pressure from media and government and released 150 hours of footage.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year, crippling cooling systems and triggering fuel rod meltdowns and radiation leaks that led to mass evacuations and widespread contamination.
The video, one of dozens of fraught vignettes of officials and plant workers grappling with the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, flies in the face of TEPCO assertions executives didn't delay in using seawater.
The grainy video clips, mostly without sound, provide a picture of the chaos that characterized the early phase of the disaster as workers used everything from car batteries to fire hoses to try to bring the reactors under control as radiation levels rose and explosions rocked the site.
"We think using seawater in a hasty way would be wasteful because materials will be corroded," an unidentified company official at TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo is heard telling then plant manager Masao Yoshida two days after the quake.
"We don't have the option to use fresh water. That will cause further delays," Yoshida replies, emphasizing there was no time to find enough fresh water to do the job. TEPCO relented to pressure from media and government and released 150 hours of footage.
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