Fission in Japan's Nuclear Reactors

We had not heard from the unfortunate disaster in Japan for a while. Today comes a report that there is near certainty that nuclear fission is occurring in one of the reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Co anounced that it detected signs of it. They state that so far no increase in radiation have been found.

Fissioning involves the splitting of atoms which may lead to an uncontrolled reaction and emittance of radiation.


According to Bloomberg, Tepco began spraying boric acid on the No. 2 reactor at 2:48 a.m. Japan time to prevent accidental chain reactions. Tepco said it may have found xenon, which is associated with nuclear fission, while examining gases taken from the reactor, according to an e-mailed statement today.

Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tepco: “Given the signs, it’s certain that fission is occurring,” He added that it is possible there are similar reactions occurring in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors.
"Eight months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, causing a loss of cooling and the meltdowns of three reactors, Tepco is trying to prevent further leakage of radiation that has spread across the world".
“We are evaluating whether there are many reactions or not or whether its stopped, Matsumoto said. The incident won’t affect its schedule of bringing the plant under control by the end of this year, Matsumoto said.