Fukushima Summary - by Professor Magdi Ragheb, Ph.D. - University of Illinois

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A summary of the Fukushima nuclear powerplant accident by Professor Magdi Ragheb, Ph.D. – of the University of Illinois Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) Department – a nice balance for both the lay person and the techie:

Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami Station Blackout Accident

(Page 14, paragraph "Station Blackout")

The paragraph says ""The reactors shut down due to the loss of offsite power caused by the malfunction of one of two off-site power systems.""

What does this mean "one of two"?

There are three strings of towers coming into Daiichi (see Google maps, or wikipedia), and one string, the Northern Ookuma Line (大熊線), (with two circuits) services units 1&2. Does this say that one of the circuits into units 1&2 remained energized after the 9.0 quake and the other one was de-energized?

It was reported that after the 7.0 quake, the grid was down for 50 mintue, only.

Also it was reported that Daini was using the grid after the 9.0 quake, on the evening of the 11th.

I noticed the sentence:  "The Fukushima nuclear power plant's backup diesel generators could not be started because of reported damage to the plant electrical systems caused by the subsequent tsunami."  I have not seen this reported explicitly before.  Presumably the grid could not have been used, even if available, for the same reason.

Martin

howdy folks