Nuclear Expert: “Fukushima Has 24 Hours To Avoid A Core Meltdown Scenario”

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Saturday, March 12, 2011

In an interview with Mark Hibbs, a Berlin-based senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonprofit think tank, Newsmax magazine asks – what happens next at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The answer according to the nuclear expert, is that as Fukushima is now well on its way to a full core-melt nuclear accident, a worst case scenario could possibly lead to the same results last seen in 1986 Chernobyl.

Below we present a brief overview of the Fukushima plant from Wikipedia:
The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant (Fukushima I NPP, 1F), often referred to as Fukushima Dai-ichi, is a nuclear power plant located in the town of Okuma in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture. With six separate units located on site with a combined power of 4.7 GW, Fukushima I is one of the 25 largest nuclear power stations in the world. Fukushima I is the first nuclear plant to be constructed and run entirely by The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant, 11.5 kilometres (7.1 mi) to the south, is also run by TEPCO.

Unit	Type	First Criticality	Electric Power
Fukushima I – 1	BWR	March 26, 1971	460 MW
Fukushima I – 2	BWR	July 18, 1974	784 MW
Fukushima I – 3	BWR	March 27, 1976	784 MW
Fukushima I – 4	BWR	October 12, 1978	784 MW
Fukushima I – 5	BWR	April 18, 1978	784 MW
Fukushima I – 6	BWR	October 24, 1979	1,100 MW
Fukushima I – 7 (planned)	ABWR	October, 2013	1,380 MW
Fukushima I – 8 (planned)	ABWR	October, 2014	1,380 MW

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