Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The situation at Japan’s damaged nuclear plants in Fukushima remains volatile and dangerous, as workers struggle to control radiation leaking from the reactors and cool the nuclear cores.
As the crisis progresses at Japan's Daiichi nuclear reactors in Fukushima, authorities are struggling to determine the extent of radiation released and its health effects and to decide if and when the reactors should be entombed.
While the Fukushima reactor crisis, resulting from Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami, remains unresolved, some positive developments have been made. The possibility of spent fuel pools overheating is now the main source of concern.
As power is being restored to the Fukushima nuclear reactors, which were severely damaged by Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami, crucial questions remain about whether the cooling system will be functional and the likelihood of further radiation leaks.
Japan has evacuated its citizens from the area within nineteen miles of the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors, but there are concerns that the country might not be able to feed or shelter more evacuees if the region in danger grows.
Much remains unknown as Japan attempts to cool the nuclear reactors and spent fuel rods at its damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, including whether restoring electricity to the cooling systems will help prevent the crisis from growing.
Japanese engineers are hoping that by restoring power to the cooling system in one of the damaged nuclear reactors at Japan’s Fukushima power plant, they will be able to restart cooling the reactor core.
As Japanese authorities work to cool the nuclear reactors damaged by the earthquake and tsunami, it remains unclear how much radiation is being released into the environment.
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that caused substantial damage to Japan’s nuclear reactors should encourage nuclear regulators to reconsider the magnitude of natural disasters that they design plants to withstand.
In Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, six spent fuel pools and three reactor cores have the potential to release significant radiation into the atmosphere.