How Do I Become a Nuclear Power Engineer?

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world. It consists of Fukushima Station 1 and Fukushima Station 2 with a total of 10 units (6 stations at one station and 4 stations at 2 stations), all of which are boiling water reactors. . It is located at 37 degrees 25 minutes and 14 seconds north latitude and 141 degrees and 2 minutes east longitude. It is located in the Fukushima industrial area in Japan.

Fukushima nuclear power plant

A sharp increase in radioactive material

On the afternoon of March 29, 2011, seawater samples were collected 330 meters south of the drainage outlet of Units 1 to 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It was found that the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 reached 3355 times the legal limit. In addition, seawater samples collected 50 meters north of the drains of Units 5 and 6 on the same day showed that the concentration of radioactive iodine-131 also reached 1,262 times the legal limit.

On March 30, 2011, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Atomic Energy Security said that the radioactive iodine concentration in the sea area near the water outlet of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has reached 3355 times the legal limit, which has been detected in this area today The highest correlation value.

Permanently discarded

On March 30, 2011, Chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Katsuyuki Hiroshi, stated that regarding the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which had an accident after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Units 1 to 4 had to be abandoned. At the same time, he also stated that the "sarcophagus" method of closing the reactor with concrete and iron plates like the Chernobyl nuclear power plant "is also a solution" for the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

March 30, 2011, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan

In March 2011, Units 4, 5, and 6 had been shut down for regular maintenance before the earthquake.

March 17, 2011, 6 days after the earthquake, Japan

Emergency evacuation

A magnitude 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan caused the shutdown of five units at two nuclear power plants in the country. The Japanese government has announced a "nuclear emergency" and for the first time confirmed the leak at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on the 12th, and a large number of residents were evacuated.

American aircraft carrier stays away from the disaster area:

US military said on the 15th that US troops stationed in Japan

50 dead men in Fukushima

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant had severely leaked radiation. Most of the 800 workers had evacuated, but the "Fukushima 50 people", widely praised by the media, remained behind. Local TV stations reportedly received the home of one of the "Fukushima 50"

Netherlands

After the nuclear power plant accident caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, many governments said that although the lessons of the Japanese nuclear power plant accident are worth learning, the accident will not affect the country's plan to develop nuclear power.

The Dutch government said on the 15th that there is no reason to reopen the decision on building a nuclear power plant. Dutch parliamentarian Géné Lecht said that the Dutch energy situation requires that the country must get rid of the shackles of oil and natural gas in order not to be controlled by others. Another member of parliament, Gerdal Fulbohe, also said, "We must learn from Japan's lessons, but we don't need to react violently. Instead, we should approve the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Netherlands in light of its own conditions and problems.

Previously, the Dutch parliament finally reached a consensus on whether to build a nuclear power plant after a long discussion that nuclear power could help

Fukushima Prefecture announced on the 18th that during the period from January to March 2015, 16 people were diagnosed with cancer during the examination of the effects of nuclear radiation on young people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the accident. Now 103 of the 385,000 adolescents in Fukushima Prefecture have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer ^[25]

The entire world is watching nervously to see if there are any signs of progress in the repair of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. At this time, the focus of the restoration work has been shifted to the removal of accumulated radioactive water inside and outside the reactor building, because this toxic accumulated water prevents staff from performing other tasks. However, more than a week has passed since the first discovery of the problem, and very little water has been removed. There are three reasons for the delay: structural damage to pipelines and other reactor components that are critical to water flow; radiation risks prevent staff from taking key measures; and the lack of a safe place to store radioactive water.

In addition, at this stage, government officials and company executives seem to be working in an orderly manner, thinking that it is more important to compare things with speed. They still have time, as the reactor appears to have stabilized and the dose of radiation released into the atmosphere has fallen over the past two weeks.

But as the weekend shows, the accumulation of radioactive water can be troublesome. Officials confirmed over the weekend that the water is seeping into adjacent groundwater and the ocean.

Three staff members were burned from wading water, and the problem of radioactive water was first discovered. At that time, the solution given by the officials sounded quick and simple: they were going to extract the water from the water-containing building.

It's actually not that easy. They need a place to store the water, but a reasonable place is already full.

The work of the past week was mainly to build a three-chain water storage chain to drain the reactor. Success is not a matter of whether radioactive water has actually been removed, but whether it has made room for it.

The key link in the chain is to connect the electric cooling system to the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, so that the internal cooling can start to run. This is the most important task. Without activating internal cooling, operators rely on water injection to prevent the reactor from overheating. This approach stabilized the fuel rods, but it seemed unlikely that they would achieve the cold shutdown as expected. There is also a dangerous side effect of this, which is the accumulation of large amounts of radioactive water in nearby groundwater and seawater.

In order to remove debris scattered in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 building in order to remove nuclear fuel and advance the waste reactor work, the Tokyo Electric Power Company started related work from the morning of the 15th to remove the plant's sealing cover.

In order to prevent the scattering of radioactive materials, the plant building of Unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was sealed in a sealed enclosure. The upper part of the plant was scattered with rubble from the explosion, which became an obstacle to the removal of nuclear fuel. Tepco plans to remove nuclear fuel on the basis of removing the sealing cover and removing rubble. It will take more than a year to remove the seal. ^[36]

On June 6, 2018, Tokyo Electric Power Company of Japan revealed that a male staff member of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant suddenly fell unconscious after work and subsequently died. The man had symptoms of vomiting twice on the day of his death, but no specific cause of death and whether it was related to nuclear pollution have been known. ^[38]