Venting of the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant may have failed due to a part inside the pipes failing to operate, it was learned from the results of an investigation by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on May 19, 2015.\n\nDuring the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima plant, the No. 2 reactor no longer had power for its cooling system and pressure inside it rose to abnormally high levels. Plant operator TEPCO attempted to vent the reactor to lower the pressure, but the venting did not go smoothly. The company has been investigating what went wrong with the venting in order to clear up the cause of the disaster.\n\nThe part that may have failed to operate was a rupture disk, located inside a pipe leading from the nuclear reactor containment vessel to an exhaust pipe. Meant to keep radiation from leaking outside, the disk is supposed to break after a certain level of pressure is applied to it. However, in its investigation TEPCO found no evidence of radioactive contamination inside the pipe around the rupture disk, suggesting that the disk did not rupture and the vented gas was trapped in front of it.\n\nRadioactive gas is thought to have leaked directly from the No. 2 reactor containment vessel, and it is estimated as having leaked the most radiation out of the No. 1 through 3 reactors.
Resource Portal for I2M Clients, Associates, and Geoscientists
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-