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Information about the incident at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants in Japan hosted by http://web.mit.edu/nse/ :: Maintained by the students of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT

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Explanation of Hydrogen Explosions at Units 1 and 3

Posted on March 15, 2011 by mitnse

Explosions at units 1 and 3 occurred due to similar causes. When an incident occurs in a nuclear power plant such as a loss of coolant accident or when power is lost, usually the first response is to depressurize the reactor. This is done by opening pressure relief valves on the reactor vessel. The water/steam mixture will then flow down into the suppression pool, which for this design of a reactor is in the shape of a torus (technical term for the shape of a donut). By blowing the hot steam into the suppression pool some of the steam is condensed to liquid phase, which helps keep the pressure low in the containment.

The pressure in the reactor vessel is reduced  by  venting the water/steam mixture. It is much easier to pump water into the vessel when it is at a reduced pressure, thus making it easier to keep the fuel cooled. This procedure was well underway after the earthquake. Unfortunately, because of the enormous magnitude of the earthquake, an equally large tsunami was created. This tsunami disabled the onsite diesel generators as well as the electrical switchyard. Without power to run pumps and remove heat, the temperature of the water in the reactor vessel began to rise. Click here to continue reading…