Japan Nuclear Crisis: Will US Rethink Nuke Policy?

Will fears of a meltdown at a nuclear plant in Japan, following Friday’s earthquake and tsunami, lead the US to reconsider its renewed interest in nuclear energy?  

And the $38 billion subsidy the US government gives the nuclear industry each year? In a year of budget cuts, will Congress end these subsidies? 

Reports this morning show a second explosion at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where engineers are working to contain critical situations with up to six different nuclear reactors that lost power following the tsunami. Reports said 11 workers were killed in the second explosion in three days.

With the loss of power, the cooling systems for the reactors have been unable to function properly, and more than 180,000 people have been evacuated from surrounding areas, while 160 people reportedly have suffered from radiation exposure. 

Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the nuclear plant, has been using a back-up pump to fill the reactors with sea water, but Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edan said this morning that fuel rods in three separate reactors may have melted. 

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a long time watchdog organization on nuclear plants, explained the situation in an e-mail:

"This power failure resulted in one of the most serious conditions that can affect a nuclear plant — a “station blackout” — during which off-site power and on-site emergency alternating current (AC) power is lost. Nuclear plants generally need AC power to operate the motors, valves and instruments that control the systems that provide cooling water to the radioactive core. If all AC power is lost, the options to cool the core are limited.

"The boiling water reactors at Fukushima are protected by a Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) system, which can operate without AC power because it is steam-driven and therefore does not require electric pumps. However, it does require DC power from batteries for its valves and controls to function.

"If battery power is depleted before AC power is restored, however, the RCIC will stop supplying water to the core and the water level in the reactor core could drop. If it drops far enough, the core would overheat and the fuel would become damaged. Ultimately, a “meltdown” could occur: The core could become so hot that it forms a molten mass that melts through the steel reactor vessel. This would release a large amount of radioactivity from the vessel into the containment building that surrounds the vessel.

"The containment building’s main purpose is to keep radioactivity from being released into the environment. A meltdown would build up pressure in the containment building. At this point we do not know if the earthquake damaged the containment building enough to undermine its ability to contain the pressure and allow radioactivity to leak out."

The SUN DAY Campaign, one of many safe energy advocates that have been speaking out about the risks of nuclear power for more than three decades, stated that nuclear plants can never be designed to withstand all potential "acts of God."

The group said aside from major accidents like Chernobyl in 1986 and Three Mile Island in 1979, the nuclear industry also has been "plagued" both the U.S. and internationally with "hundreds of other radioactive releases, unplanned shut-downs, and other mishaps" over the years.

Meanwhile, in the US Congress, some lawmakers are calling for a review of U.S. Energy policy, in light of the situation in Japan.

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