[NukeNet] Japan Times: 1999 uncontrolled reaction suspected

[Roger Herried]

      Japan Times: 1999 uncontrolled reaction suspected
      <http://www.energy-net.org/blog/?p=106>

1999 uncontrolled reaction suspected | The Japan Times Online 
<http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070412a4.html>

    Thursday, April 12, 2007

    1999 uncontrolled reaction suspected
    Kyodo News

    An uncontrolled nuclear reaction may have occurred during a 1999
    accident at Hokuriku Electric Power Co.’s Shika power plant, the
    Japan Nuclear Technology Institute said Wednesday.

    Michio Ishikawa, president of the institute comprising companies
    related to the electricity business, dismissed concerns that the
    “prompt critical” reaction could have resulted in a serious
    accident, like the deadly Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, saying what
    happened at the Shika plant was “a phenomenon of a very small scale.”

    According to Ishikawa, the reaction might have occurred in parts of
    the reactor where three control rods were accidentally dislodged.
    The plant is located in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, on the Sea of
    Japan coast.

    The institute analyzed various conditions that could have resulted
    from the development. The worst possible case it came up with
    suggested that the temperature of the troubled spot could have gone
    up to about 150 degrees. He said 3,300 degrees is the point that can
    melt nuclear fuel and release radioactivity into cooling water,
    according to Ishikawa.