A strong magnitude 5.5 earthquake has just struck in the Pacific Ocean directly off the coast of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Site. The quake is reported to have done additional damage to the spent fuel pools in the damaged reactor buildings.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake struck at 18:57 Eastern US Time about 60 miles east of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster site. Adding to the trouble is the Depth of the quake, only about 11 miles deep. Thus, the shallow shaking shockwaves from the quake traveled quickly and very clearly struck the damaged nuclear plant with its three melted-down reactors.
Here is the USGS map showing how far inland the shockwaves from the quake registered:
Spent Fuel Pools Damaged
The spent fuel pools in two of the melted-down reactors still hold tons of nuclear fuel rods. In Reactor building #2, crews cannot even go inside the building to attempt to begin removing fuel rods because radiation levels inside that building are so high, a human would receive a FATAL dose within 20 minutes.
If the spent fuel pools collapse, crack or otherwise leak out, then there would be no water in them to keep the 100 tons+ of fuel rods cool. The rods would overheat, begin to melt and go on fire. This would be an open-air nuclear fire, hurling tons and tons of radioactive material into the open atmosphere. Within three days, prevailing winds would bring that radiation to the west coast of the United States.
This is a developing story with very serious potential harm.
Thanks GrayRider for the post.. all I can say is fk… these nuke plants are bs..they will be the end to humanity….
I’ve been saying that for the longest time. I don’t care what anyone says about how it can give energy to cities and more people at a faster rate. Some even say it’s more cost/efficient.
I say, SCREW THAT!! It ain’t worth our lives!