Japan鈥檚 nuclear safety agency today rejected a that the earthquake itself, not the subsequent tsunami, destroyed cooling systems leading to meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
鈥淚t is not correct,鈥� a spokesman for Japan鈥檚 nuclear safety watchdog, the (NISA), told 快猫短视频.
The claim made in The Independent contradicts public reassurances from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) , the company that owns the plant, that its facility stood up to the quake as it should, but was overwhelmed by the tsunami. If the quake did cause the damage, it could call into question the resilience of TEPCO鈥檚 other nuclear installations in Japan. TEPCO and Japan鈥檚 nuclear industry as a whole have been criticised for attempting to cover up accidents in the past.
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The paper reported that workers said they had seen cooling-water pipes bursting as they were evacuating from the nuclear plant following the quake at 2.52聽pm on 11聽March 鈥� before the tsunami struck about 45 minutes later.
It also quoted nuclear engineers who concluded from data released by TEPCO that coolant systems must have failed shortly after the quake.
Meltdown inevitable
鈥淭here was already so much damage to the cooling system that a meltdown was inevitable,鈥� Mitsuhiko Tanaka, a former nuclear plant designer, is quoted as saying.
Tanaka said that according to TEPCO鈥檚 own data, emergency water-circulation equipment started up automatically shortly after the quake. 鈥淭his only happens when there is a loss of coolant,鈥� he told The Independent. Likewise, between 3.04聽pm and 3.11聽pm, water sprayers in the containment vessel of reactor unit聽1 were activated; Tanaka says this is a failsafe for when all other cooling systems have failed.
So by the time the tsunami struck at 3.37聽pm, 鈥渢he plant was already on its way to melting down鈥�, says the newspaper.
The Independent also quotes the results of a NISA visit to Fukushima nine days before the quake. It says that NISA warned TEPCO about its failure to inspect critical machinery at the plant, including recirculation pumps.
No damage
NISA鈥檚 spokesman said that the agency鈥檚 press release about its visit on 2聽March may have been misunderstood. 鈥淭here was no damaged piping in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, as claimed in the article,鈥� he said.
What the press release actually said was that some of TEPCO鈥檚 periodic equipment checks were behind schedule, said the spokesman.
NISA also rejected the central claim of the article: that the quake, not the tsunami, caused the critical damage leading to meltdown. 鈥淚t is not correct,鈥� said the spokesman. 鈥淏efore the tsunami hit, the cooling system was operated by diesel generators in the plant [to compensate for] a loss of external power sources after the earthquake.鈥�
So not until the tsunami swept away the diesel generators did the cooling system fail, ultimately causing meltdowns.
Viennese backup
NISA鈥檚 version of events was backed up yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, which sent a fact-finding mission to Fukushima in May.
An IAEA spokesman said that a 鈥� led by Mike Weightman the UK鈥檚 chief inspector of nuclear installations 鈥� contains detailed accounts of the failure of cooling systems in the early hours of the disaster which challenge the idea that the quake caused the damage, as claimed in The Independent.
Meanwhile, TEPCO said on Wednesday that overall radiation released from the three damaged Fukushima reactors recorded on 15 March, just after the accident.
Wednesday also saw reactor聽3 of the Tomari nuclear plant in Hokkaido become the first of Japan鈥檚 nuclear installations since the disaster .
