Steam was reported today to be rising from a destroyed building
that houses a reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,
the operator of the plant. The levels of radioactivity around the plant had
remained unchanged and the cause that triggered the emission is investigated.
It is speculated that rain made its way through the reactor building and having
fallen on the primary containment vessel, which is hot, evaporated creating
steam.
Each reactor is surrounded by a primary containment vessel. This
is made of strengthened steel four to eight inches thick. It provides the most
critical line of defense against leaking radiation from the reactor.
This latest incident underscores the challenges facing the operator of the plant, Tokyo
Electric Power Company, in trying
to keep the ravaged plant under control. About a week ago a significant spike
in radioactive cesium was detected in groundwater 25 meters from the sea. The
operator has been flushing water over the damaged reactors to keep them cool
for more than two years, but contaminated water has been building up at the
rate of an Olympic-size swimming pool per week.
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The # 3 crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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