Nuclear powerEight months later, Fukushima reactor could still be active

Published 8 November 2011

Troubles continue at the beleaguered Fukushima Daichii nuclear power plant in Japan with officials detecting radioactive xenon gas, a byproduct of nuclear fission, from reactor two nearly eight months after the dangerous meltdowns

Troubles continue at the beleaguered Fukushima Daichii nuclear power plant in Japan with officials detectingradioactive xenon gas, a byproduct of nuclear fission, from reactor two nearly eight months after the dangerous meltdowns. 

As a precautionary step, last week Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, flooded the reactor with boric acid to suppress any nuclear reactions. 
The half-life for the detected xenon is very short, meaning the gas must have been recently created, but levels were so low that officials are conducting further tests to confirm the readings were not an error. 
The utility said it had notsensed any rise in the reactor’s temperature or any changes in pressure and the discovery of xenon gas would have no substantial effect on the company’s efforts to keep the reactor cool and stable. 
“We have confirmed that the reactor is stable and we don’t believe this will have any impact on our future work,” said Osamu Yokokura, a spokesman for TEPCO.According to Yokokura, no “radiation leaks outside the plant were detected.”
The company is hopeful that if temperatures continue to remain low, it will be able to complete a cold shutdown by the end of the year. Although the reactors may be shut down, a recent Japanese government report found that it would take at least thirty years to safely decommission the facility. 
On 12 November, for the first time since the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, the government will allow journalists to visit the nuclear plant.