Itās been one of the mysteries of Japanās ongoing nuclear disaster: How much of the damage did the March 11 earthquake inflict on Fukushima Daiichiās reactors in the 40 minutes before the devastating tsunami arrived? The stakes are high: If the quake alone structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan is at risk.
Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: āThe earthquake knocked out the plantās electric power, halting cooling to its reactors,ā as the government spokesman Yukio Edano said at a March 15 press conference in Tokyo. The story, which has been repeated again and again, boils down to this: āafter the earthquake, the tsunami ā a unique, unforeseeable [the Japanese word is soteigai] event - then washed out the plantās back-up generators, shutting down all cooling and starting the chain of events that would cause the worldās first triple meltdown to occur.ā
But what if recirculation pipes and cooling pipes, burst, snapped, leaked, and broke completely after the earthquake -- long before the tidal wave reached the facilities, long before the electricity went out? This would surprise few people familiar with the 40-year-old Unit 1, the grandfather of the nuclear reactors still operating in Japan.