national

Fuel-rod cooling halted by rats at Fukushima plant

30 Comments
By Risa Maeda and Mari Saito

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

30 Comments
Login to comment

What else would you expect from a Mickey Mouse operation?

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Again? How are these rats able to survive those radiation levels?

5 ( +6 / -1 )

They breed quickly. It takes time to die of radiation sickness. Rats do not have to live very long to produce another generation. It will be interesting to see if the can produce a radiation resistant breed as proof of Darwin's theory of evolution.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

this kind of reminds me of the "leaves on tracks" that block whole train networks in the UK. only much more dangerous (but similarily demented).

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Idiots

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Strangely, after living here for ten years, I've never seen a rat but I do hear about them from time to time. Ive seen plenty of rats in new York on the other hand.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It's starting to feel like they are just blaming everything on rats...maybe they will claim that people weren't exposed to radiation from the plant but from rats.

Aren't there any exterminators in Japan? Or rat poison? Or rat traps? The betting doesn't seem to be working. Maybe they didn't look at the info that rats can climb...wouldnt be the first time they ignored good information just so they can save a few thousand yen.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

gogogo

I agree.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

this kind of reminds me of the "leaves on tracks" that block whole train networks in the UK.

The leaves mixed with rain over time form a dense sludge after being compressed under the train wheels. The Japanese solved that problem a long time ago by chopping down all the trees.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

They need some feral cats.... I'd like to send some from my neighborhood.

Darknuts, I have seen rats here. Not very often but, if you watch all the edges of the subway tunnels, down by the tracks, expecially in the older stations / older lines you can sometimes see one. Other places I've seen them are too random.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

*netting. The netting doesn't seem to be working. Really wish JT had an edit button!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

reviving public debate over whether TEPCO was up to the task of a decommissioning project expected to last decades.

Is there any doubt about this? What shining pieces of brilliance has TEPCO shown in their efforts to control this self- admitted 'man-made' disaster? A spade is a spade! The mistakes keep piling up. They are using untrained labor being ripped-off by the Yakuza. Their efforts to contain the radioactive waste water have resulted in over 2,000 tonnes of it 'disappearing' (most likely into the ocean). They have lost power four times in the past month and blame rats (instead of themselves). They are procrastinating in their compensation payouts, their estimates of expenses have tripled and they keep expecting handouts of tax payers' money. I could go on all night! They are in no way, shape or form up for the job at hand and should not be entrusted with such a dangerous and important task.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Seems like donating some cats could serve public safety for Japan

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It doesn't really clarify if the rats are actual animals or the operators of TEPCO. The latter definitely takes the majority of the blame, but if it's the former they are doing their jobs.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

They're not rats... they're Mousezillas! Soon they'll be as big as kangaroos and glow in the dark.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said it halted cooling of the No. 2 unit pool, which stores spent uranium fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site, for a few hours to remove the rats and install a net to stop further such intrusions.

It seems to me that this time the outage was planned, based on the article. They downed the cooling in order to prevent accidentally tripping the cooling offline while installing the nets (like what happened the last time they were installing nets). A controlled outage can be brought back up much quicker than an unexpected outage.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Jesus Christ, radioactive rats...it is blatantly obvious that TEPCO does not have the know-how or necessary materials and equipment to deal efficiently with all the very serious problems that remain at Fukushima. It's amazing that the government isn't in full control of this situation and drafting in outside companies and expertise from around the world with no expense spared. This is really not a time to be worrying about saving face.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

the comic show by tepco continues...only it's not very funny... it's a scary

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@billyshears

This is really not a time to be worrying about saving face.

Whilst I agree with most of what you mentioned. I don't think its face they're trying to save.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

They need some feral cats.

Too bad Doraemon is afraid of mice.....they could use a robotic cat.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I smell a rat, ...again. One wonders where else these dirty rats have infiltrated in Daiichi. Maybe the tepco whizz kids could put a head-cam on the rats and get them to have a look around where man fears to tread. Like under the water storage pools, or inside the spent fuel pools.??

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Thunderbird:

" Again? How are these rats able to survive those radiation levels? "

Well, obviously those radiation levels are not as infernal as the sensationalist crowd wants to make them out. Besides, rats have a pretty fast reproduction cycle.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Sabotage?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

They were doing their daily rounds, checking everything. They found two dead rats in the transformer box, as zichi showed us above. They switched off the system in order to install anti-rat netting. In this case Tepco seems to have been doing a good job, as Fadamor pointed out.

Giving praise where praise is due. Well done Tepco.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Coming next, mole rats and radroaches.....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I would think that since the evacuation of the no-go zone following the nuclear disaster, and the the large number of abandoned animals which were left to fend for themselves or die, the rat populations have greatly increased across the zone and not just inside the power plant.

After two years, animals who couldn't fend for themselves have died and the amount of edible garbage that the rats could feed on have all decomposed away. Any remaining animals are able to fend for themselves. An increasing population of rats indicates that they are getting food from somewhere other than human sources.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Coming next, mole rats and radroaches.....

If we're doing Fallout® references, then don't forget the giant fire ants.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites