Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Update [6 May 2011]: Get All the Data
ENERGY, 9 May 2011
Japan is racing to gain control of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Where does the most detailed data come from?
The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and following tsunami on March 11 has seen a rush by officials to gain control of power plants in the north-east of the country.
The scale of devastation in Japan is difficult to grasp, the latest figures we have from Reuters, as of the last week in April, go some way to helping describe the situation:
• A total of A total of 14,358 people were confirmed dead by Japan’s National Police Agency, 11,889 were missing
• A total of 130,904 people were in shelters around the country following the disaster, the National Police Agency said
• 136,000 people living within 30 km of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, but outside the 20-km radius, have been advised by the government to also consider leaving
• A total of 12,485 households in the north were without electricity Tohuku Electric Power Co said
• At least 79,000 households in five prefectures were without running water, the Health Ministry said
• At least 95,107 buildings have been fully destroyed, washed away or burnt down, the National Police Agency of Japan said
• The government estimates the material damage from the quake and tsunami alone could top $300 billion, making it by far the world’s costliest natural disaster
• According to the Foreign Ministry, 146 countries and 39 international organisations have offered assistance
Although it may be weeks after the radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant rose: the severity level changed from five to seven – the same level as Chernobyl in 1986, there are still acres of coverage concerning the nuclear disaster. The humanitarian cost has also been closely reported on in recent weeks.
Fukushima nuclear power plant has been closely scrutinised as reports flow in on the progress of the situation – Japan’s nuclear board previously raised the nuclear alert level from four to five in the weeks following the disaster and the JAIF warned of products such as dairy and spinach being restricted for shipping. Explosions and reports of nuclear fuel rods melting at the power plant have meant progress on the situation has been closely followed as has the environmental effects with concerns for marine life and spreading radiation through seawater.
Industry body the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum are currently publishing daily updates of the status of power plants in Fukushima which give great detail into the condition of each reactor. Ranked from a level of low to severe, the update records the conditions of core and fuel integrity, water level and containment amongst other key information. These are some of the most in-depth and recent records and show how the crisis is being handled.
The table below shows the status of the reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi (the largest of the Fukushima power plants) and is colour coded to show the severity. Green for low, yellow represents high and red shows those of severe significance as judged by the JAIF. We have used JAIF’s update 122 as of 12:00 local time as this is the most up to the minute data we can get.
A table of major incidents and accidents at the plants can be found in our spreadsheet as can the data for Daini, Onagawa and Tokai Daini Nuclear power stations. What can you do with this data?
PLEASE GO TO ORIGINAL TO SEE DATA – guardian.co.uk
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