After a couple of days from the publishing of MIT research study citing the importance to keep Nuclear Energy in the electricity generation-mix, a 6.7 earthquake hit the island of Hokkaido in Japan. This has led to the Tomari nuclear plant on the island to suffer power outage and the Emergency diesel generators were fired to supply electricity to maintain cooling of nuclear fuel rods in the pool. Luckily the plant is undergoing a safety review, no nuclear fuel was present inside the station’s three reactors at the time of the incident. All announcements were issued to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
According to Reuters: “The station’s fuel rods are being cooled with emergency power supplied by diesel generators, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Thursday. There were no radiation irregularities at the plant, Suga said, citing the operator. The atomic regulator said the diesel generators have enough fuel to last seven days.”
This could not have happened at a worse time. It just came few days after an
MIT research study urged to keep the Nuclear Energy in the electricity generation-mix, instead of Natural Gas, to fight against Global Warming:
“The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World study is the eighth in the MIT Energy Initiative’s Future of series, which aims to shed light on a range of complex and important issues involving energy and the environment.”
While Japan and the rest of the world to trying to forget about the The Fukushima incident that occurred after an earthquake off the coast of Tōhoku prefecture on Honshu, Japan’s largest island, caused a tsunami, another Earthquake with 6.7 magnitude hit the Island Hokkaido with 2,900,000 inhabitants nocking all power generators including the Tomari nuclear plant.
The 2011 undersea earthquake with a magnitude 9.0–9.1 hits off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku led to a big tsunami that initiated the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that resulted in dumping massive amounts of contaminated material into the oceans. Japanese scientists tried to calm the situation by saying that most of that radiation will faded or get diluted. They also said there is a low risk to public health outside of the vicinity of the plant. This was not the least comforting.
This incident has the whole world reconsider their reliance on Nuclear Energy and according to Reuters: “Japan idled all of its 54 nuclear power facilities after the incident, but seven have since been reactivated after a protracted relicensing process,” The cost of this nuclear mess was around $188 billion and according to polls, “the Japanese public had lost faith in the safety of nuclear power.”
While the conclusion of the Scientists at MIT was to salvage Nuclear Power: “Nuclear energy is an essential component in reducing the world’s carbon emissions.” The 6.7 earthquake of the island of Hokkaido in Japan with the Tomari nuclear shutting down, reminded the whole world that Nuclear energy blend is not yet ready again to replace Natural Gas, another alternative must be kept on the table.