After the Japanese earthquake, the River Countercurrent Meteorological Agency responded to
On November 22, it was reported that at nearly 6 am local time on the 22nd, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake was observed off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan. The cooling pump for the fuel pool used to store nuclear waste at Unit 3 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was shut down for a while, but later restarted.
According to Taiwan's "Central News Agency" website on November 22, a strong earthquake was observed around 5:59 am local time (4:49 Taiwan time). The epicenter was off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, with a scale of 7.4 and a depth of 25 kilometers. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures.
At around 6:10 a.m., an alarm sounded for a drop in the water level of the pool used to cool spent nuclear waste at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and the operation of sending water to the pool stopped.
The Japan Atomic Energy Regulatory Agency said it did not know why the alarm sounded, but Tokyo Electric Power Company confirmed that there was no leakage of cooling water around the tank. About an hour and 40 minutes later, at about 7:50 a.m., the cooling pump was restarted and the function of cooling nuclear waste was restored.
The water temperature of the fuel pool that restarted the cooling function was 29.5 degrees Celsius, which was nearly 1 degree higher than the 28.7 degrees before the pump stopped. There was still a gap between 65 degrees from the upper limit of the shutdown. No abnormal state of the fuel pool was seen.
As of 8 a.m., no abnormal conditions caused by earthquakes or tsunamis had been seen at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. There were no abnormal changes in radiation observations around the nuclear power plant.
Taiwan's Central News Agency quoted Tokyo Electric Power Company as saying that a 1-meter tsunami was observed along the coast of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after the 311 earthquake; the water cooling system of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was temporarily suspended.
The spokesperson said there were no reports of casualties or damage at the factory.
