Earthquake Caused Structural Damage at Fukushima Plant Before Tsunami Hit
July 3rd, 2011This piece includes interviews with workers who saw severe damage to reactor facilities that was caused by the quake itself, before the tsunami hit.
Via: Atlantic Wire:
It’s been one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear disaster: How much of the damage did the March 11 earthquake inflict on Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors in the 40 minutes before the devastating tsunami arrived? The stakes are high: If the quake alone structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan is at risk.
Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: “The earthquake knocked out the plant’s electric power, halting cooling to its reactors,” as the government spokesman Yukio Edano said at a March 15 press conference in Tokyo. The story, which has been repeated again and again, boils down to this: “after the earthquake, the tsunami – a unique, unforeseeable [the Japanese word is soteigai] event – then washed out the plant’s back-up generators, shutting down all cooling and starting the chain of events that would cause the world’s first triple meltdown to occur.”
But what if recirculation pipes and cooling pipes, burst, snapped, leaked, and broke completely after the earthquake — long before the tidal wave reached the facilities, long before the electricity went out? This would surprise few people familiar with the 40-year-old Unit 1, the grandfather of the nuclear reactors still operating in Japan.
Misses the point…
Official story = “Hydrogen explosions destroyed the upper cladding of the buildings housing Reactors 1, 3, and 4”
The big white towers next to the reactors were there to vent off hydrogen. They are a passive venting system so would continue to work without power.
Also doesn’t explain/mention how reactor 4 (defueled and in cold shutdown) could explode…