Vienna, Austria–(ENEWSPF)–14 March 2011.
0930 CET 14 March 2011 -IAEA Director General Briefed on Disaster Response and Nuclear Safety
At the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) and at its International Seismological Safety Centre (ISSC), IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano received a briefing at 0930 CET 14 March 2011.
The IAEA emergency management experts detailed the status of emergency communications with Japanese authorities, as well as with emergency management counterparts in other IAEA Member States and among international organizations.
Director General Amano was briefed as well on nuclear safety, seismological activity, and the on-going disaster recovery efforts in Japan. The video of the briefing is available here.
Japan Earthquake Update (14 March 2011, 07:00 CET)
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has provided the IAEA with further information about the hydrogen explosion that occurred today at the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. A hydrogen explosion occurred at unit 3 on 14 March at 11:01 am local Japan time.
All personnel at the site are accounted for. Six people have been injured.
The reactor building exploded but the primary containment vessel was not damaged. The control room of Unit 3 remains operational.
The IAEA continues to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.
Japan Earthquake Update (14 March 2011, 05:15 CET)
Based on information provided by Japanese authorities, the IAEA can confirm the following information about the status of Units 1, 2, 3 and 4 at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant.
All four units automatically shut down on 11 March. All units have off-site power and water levels in all units are stable. Though preparations have been made to do so, there has been no venting to control pressure at any of the plant´s units.
At Unit 1, plant operators were able to restore a residual heat remover system, which is now being used to cool the reactor. Work is in progress to achieve a cold shutdown of the reactor.
Workers at Units 2 and 4 are working to restore residual heat removal systems.
Unit 3 is in a safe, cold shutdown.
Radiation dose rate measurements observed at four locations around the plant´s perimeter over a 16-hour period on 13 March were all normal.
Japan Earthquake Update (14 March, 2011, 04:00 CET)
Japan´s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has informed the IAEA that there has been an explosion at the Unit 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The explosion occurred at 11:01 am local Japan time.
The IAEA is seeking further information on this development.
Japan Earthquake Update (14 March 2011, 01:30 CET) – Clarified
Based on information provided by Japanese authorities, the IAEA can confirm the following information about the status of Units 1, 2 and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Unit 1 is being powered by mobile power generators on site, and work continues to restore power to the plant. There is currently no power via off-site power supply or backup diesel generators being provided to the plant. Seawater and boron are being injected into the reactor vessel to cool the reactor. Due to the explosion on 12 March, the outer shell of the containment building has been lost.
Unit 2 is being powered by mobile power generators on site, and work continues to restore power to the plant. There is currently neither off-site power supply nor backup diesel generators providing power to the plant. The reactor core is being cooled through reactor core isolation cooling, a procedure used to remove heat from the core. The current reactor water level is lower than normal but remains steady. The outer shell of the containment building is intact at Unit 2.
Unit 3 does not have off-site power supply nor backup diesel generators providing power to the plant. As the high pressure injection system and other attempts to cool the reactor core have failed, injection of water and boron into the reactor vessel has commenced. Water levels inside the reactor vessel increased steadily for a certain amount of time but readings indicating the water level inside the pressure vessel are no longer showing an increase. The reason behind this is unknown at this point in time. To relieve pressure, venting of the containment started on 13 March at 9:20 am local Japan time. Planning is underway to reduce the concentration of hydrogen inside the containment building. The containment building is intact at Unit 3.
The IAEA is seeking information about the status of spent fuel at the Daiichi plant.
Source: iaea.org
