Simulation shows core meltdown avoidable

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110918003406.htm

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A computer simulation has shown that the core meltdown of the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant could almost certainly have been prevented if the injection of seawater to cool the reactor had been started four hours earlier than it was.

The simulation was conducted by a research team led by Tadashi Watanabe, senior scientist at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. It is scheduled to be presented at a study meeting of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan to be held in Kitakyushu beginning on Monday.

The research team reproduced the conditions of the No. 2 reactor in its simulation, including the temperature and the height of the water in the reactor after it lost power on March 11.

The simulation included the time that the reactor's cooling system stopped--around noon on March 14--and the temperature inside the reactor. It showed that if the injection of seawater had begun by 4 p.m. that day, the temperature inside the reactor could have been kept at 1,200 C or lower, preventing the core meltdown.

The meltdown of the reactor caused the massive release of radioactive substances.

===

'Govt should affirm N-power'

FUKUI--A committee representing four municipalities with nuclear power plants in Fukui Prefecture decided at a meeting Saturday to call for the central government to clearly state that nuclear power generation will remain an important energy source in the future.

The committee comprises representatives of Tsuruga, Mihamacho, Ooicho and Takahamacho in Fukui Prefecture, where a total of 14 nuclear power plants--the largest number in any one prefecture--are located. They decided at the ad hoc meeting to submit the request to the central government.

Amid the ongoing argument about reviewing the government's energy policy, the committee expressed its support of nuclear power generation as municipalities with nuclear power plants, according to sources close to the committee.

(Sep. 19, 2011)