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JAPANESE AUTHORITIES ARE STRUGGLING to prevent further explosions at nuclear facilities after damage caused during Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.
However, officials in Japan have denied that their situation could escalate into a Chernobyl-like scale of nuclear devastation.
On 26 April, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a meltdown.
But what does that mean?
Electricity is produced in nuclear power stations through steam. The nuclear reactors heat up, raising the temperature of water around the reactor core to produce steam which fuels an electricity turbine. In turn, water pumped around the core helps to cool it down and prevent the reactor from overheating.
Plant workers also insert control rods to absorb excess neutrons by-produced in the nuclear reaction.
In the Chernobyl incident, plant operators were carrying out a safety test which triggered a power surge. That surge prevented the control rods from working properly, allowing the reactor to continue heating up until it exploded.
The core then melted down into the ground. The roof on the reactor was blown open in the explosion before meltdown, allowing toxic radioactive substances to leak out into the air.
In March 1979, the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown after reactor coolant escaped and the core overheated. The situation was brought under control before a full meltdown occurred.
The Fukushima power station
At the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan, coolant pumps and their back-up diesel generator were knocked out by the earthquake and tsunami on Friday, meaning the core’s heat was not being reduced.
Officials then began injecting seawater into the affected parts of the plant as an emergency effort to cool the reactors. Using seawater to cool a reactor means it can never be used to generate electricity again.
This morning the IAEA confirmed there had been a hydrogen explosion at one of the reactors at the Fukushima plant – the second at the plant in three days. Hydrogen gas can form when the hot metal-covered fuel rods chemically react with the water. Officials say that the explosions damaged the outer shell of the buildings and not the containment units inside.
Traces of radiation have been detected locally after plant operators released some of the hydrogen in an effort to ease pressure on the containment unit. That hydrogen contained small quantities of radioactive elements.
Plant operator TEPCO says it continues to monitor radiation levels in the “site’s immediate surroundings”.
Today, Japanese nuclear authorities said they believe three reactors at the Fukushima plant are now melting. The IAEA has created a Facebook page which will be regularly updated with information on the situation in Japan.
According to the IAEA’s International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), Chernobyl ranked as a seven out of seven, or a “major accident”.
On Saturday, Japanese authorities said that their nuclear situation was ranked as a four on the INES, which is considered an “accident with local consequences”.
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I fell for the Simon Harris is being madeTaoiseach one.
@087 bed: it’s called democracy
@Pat Hazzard: Actually, it is not some people’s definition of democracy since he wasn’t voted in by the electorate, akin to Sunak in the UK.
@Injustice Cop: no Taoiseach has ever been voted in by the electorate. We vote for TDs and a majority of them then vote in a Taoiseach.
@Injustice Cop: No Taoiseach is ever voted in by the electorate.
@Pat Hazzard: Just to remind you this is the third Taoiseach of this Goverment. Maybe it’s Time to change the rules .
@David Murray: You mean a referendum to alter the constitution.
@David Murray: so? It’s not unusual for parties to change leader, plus new leader has to go before Dail to be voted in as Taoiseach.
I thought I had beaten my record for lasting in the bedroom with the missus as I had been at her for an hour and two minutes. Unfortunately, I only realised afterwards that the clock went forward an hour in the course of breaking my record
@Lewis Armstrong: You could have kept that thought in your head!
@Lewis Armstrong: If you were any good,she would have asked for ‘seconds’
@Lewis Armstrong: ‘I had been at her’. Christ above. How some Irish men convince anyone to marry them is one of life’s great mysteries!
No. Although some prankster tried to tell me that from today, you could be investigated by the cops in Scotland for hurting someone’s feelings.
Needless to say, I told him in no uncertain terms that Scotland is one of the most progressive countries in the world, not an authoritarian kip like communist North Korea, and sent him off with his tail between his legs
@Finn Barr: you absolute mad man :)
@Finn Barr: You learned him!!!!!!!!!!
@Finn Barr: That’s great..heading there now, but not with the intention of hurting anyone lol
YES , YES AND YES
I actually took some of the comments on The Journal seriously. Silly me
@Thom Thumb: Look who crawled out of his corner
https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41364856.html
This one about water restrictions in West Cork…. What an absolute joke and it’s pissing rain for months.
@Malachy Cox: You’re right. The field behind us is so saturated that I’m afraid to chase the dog across it
I swear if we lived in a desert, our government would find a way to run out of sand!
Years ago, loads of people had rain barrels for gardens etc. Where’s their product range of domestic water conservation items, I ask?
@F Fitzgerald: You want the government to sell water butts?
@F Fitzgerald: Get a Seal instead of a dog.
Today is actually my birthday
Which I used to dread back in primary school but now it’s grand because at least it’s a date people remember
Fellow April Fools Dayers include Rachmaninov Bismarck Ali McGraw & Robbie Williams
Just bear in mind you can’t say “April Fools Day’s any more because it’s deeply traumatising.
Not least to April……
@Gerry Kelly: kid brother missed the April 1st my minute’s, he was born seconds into the 2nd. Years ago I got him up for school, he and many others turned up to closed school gates
House Prices = JOKE
HSE A&E = JOKE
Politicians unpaid Bar Bills = JOKE
Awarding Gov contracts to Gov€Donors =JOKE
TUSLA childcare =JOKE
OH YES Politicians Are Making A Right APRIL FOOL of Irish Citizens.
@robrot 64: And not only on the first of April but the whole year.
I’m disappointed that The Journal doesn’t appear to have anyone with the wit or courage to write an Apri Fool ‘s spoof of it’s own this year
Don’t tell me you’re worried that it might offend somebody….
My young lad (13) came running into the kitchen with a disgusted look on his face. He said that he read on the internet that Cadburys were changing the Curly Wurly and renaming it the Straighty Waighty. That g*bshite will not be picking my Nursing Home
There was a video on TicTok of a child building a wall of bolt nuts for the camera. He seemed to have servere ADHD / learning difficulties. It was child abuse with people putting a digital cap on him or a cowboy hat, this was making him go crazy trying to remove this digital cap, he was crying, going crazy, red eyelids and was disturbingly upset. It shocked me to see it, I did wonder if it was an April 1st thing but no way, as the tears and upset was real with about under 400 people watching it, it was vile and disturbing. I just reported it twice as child abuse, it made me feel ill and annoyed. It was too real to be an April 1st joke. Pure sick people out there now.
@Brendan O’Brien: I’m speaking solely of those within homeless accommodation
@Dale Voinz: Your comment was deleted anyway, presumably for being wildly off topic.
The thugs in Derry/Londonderry are at it again! What is the point. Let’s damage everyone and bring them/us all down to the level of the numbskulls.
I fell for the good news story from revenue justifying the v.a.t. increase. Apparently, consumers saved €1.5 billion in 2 years. That’s 3 million vehicles (insurance advert number of cars the gardai have details for) and comes to about €4.80 a week or the increased cost for the luxury of 2 or 3 coffees a week.
(1,500,000,000÷3,000,000÷2÷52)
My girlfriend convinced me to move into a fifth floor apartment today with no lift. She got me good
What comments. Laughing.
Nope Just like every other Irish Holiday it’s Dying out. Halloween there was feck all out in my estate. Christmas people had feck all decorations. It’s ridiculous that we don’t have any sort of spirit anymore. I blame the government and this generation tbh
@Kevin Daly: I had a great Hallowe’en and had loads of people in costumes at the door. You need to decorate and give out chocolate bars and stickers, not be grumpy! People aren’t lighting their whole estate up with Christmas lights, because of electricity prices. Switch to LEDs.
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