Fukushima worker accidentally switches off cooling pumps; backup kicks in

Pukey2 ... probably there are 2 of those buttons... backups you know.... :-)

Is there ONE button which switches EVERYTHING off?

Let's see how this would sound if we changed the context.

Imagine the headlines if: " Worker accidentally shuts off hospital power supply, but luckily emergency generator kicks in."

Only it's much worse than a hospital, since the life of the whole ecosystem is at stake here.

By telling us this did they think we would feel better since the emergency systems started IMMEDIATELY(like they should do at any properly MAINTAINED nuclear facility)?? Instead it just continues to highlight TEPCOs incompetency further...

I'm sure we could all do better than this guy. Jury-rigged panels, wearing Tyvek Radiation Protection suits, working too much overtime for too little pay, getting dissed by all...

Doh!

That's crazy, I have to agree with Gogogo and others'. You'd think that would be the one button EVERYONE would know not to push. I do feel a little bad for the company though, they can't catch a break from the bad publicity.

The 'back-up kicked in', is one of the more remarkable aspects of this article, and ignored by most readers...it would seem to be the first time that a backup has worked as planned!

Without wishing to blame anyone, the whole dang plant, with its melted reactors and wobbly used fuel pools is just hanging together with string, tape and bandages.

"自転車操業"Jitensha Sogyo is the perfect Japanese term for how they are forced to run it day by day. I wonder if they say a collective prayer for another day 'safely' over?

Sorry, Thunderbird - I hadn't read your post and didn't mean to steal your, uh... Thunder. Let's hope Fukushima ends as sot-so-disasterously as Airplane. (By the way, that was a Boeing 707, one of my favorite planes.)

Thats right,i nearly forgot. Everything you read in the media is accurate and entirely true Silly me

one mistake after another. its a good thing that back up kicked in.

Laguna: Thanks for the link. You guys are right, TEPCO is pretty much exactly like that character, although I think that's giving them too much credit.

Japanese quality.

I seriously doubt this is a typical control panel, well mapped out and labeled. Its most likely a make-shift job and as such, mistakes like that are expected...thus the back-ups.

I am letting this one go. Still plenty of better reasons to condemn TEPCO concerning this whole debacle though. Plenty.

Welcome to Clowntown

@gokai_wo_maneku

Let's hope you're right !

pushed a button

WTF? Thought I'd been asleep for 6 months and woken up on April 1st.

@Laguna

Rapunzuel!

Usually off buttons are red which means stop and this should also mean don't push if you don't know what it is going to start or stop.

Please someone get some suited worker footage, speed it up and add the benny hill music..

I hope TEPCO's end of year party is in a brewery.

wildwest... dont worry you are still very very much in the dark regarding the real issues at the plant

At least by explaining and examining the issues in public some good may come of it.

The only thing I get out of this is uneasiness.

I'm glad we get the news good or bad, being in the dark before was worse. Knowing is better than not. At least by explaining and examining the issues in public some good may come of it.

"We are wide open to receive the most advanced knowledge from overseas to contain the problem," Mr Abe said in his speech to open the conference on energy and environment in Kyoto yesterday. "My country needs your knowledge and expertise."

Two-and-a-half years too late!

Always pride (and "face" saving) before the fall. Sadly, the world is now forced to fall with Japan for its navel gazing and dithering.

I'ts Ground Hog Day.

Look on the bright: shutting off the cooling system reduces the amount of radioactive water being produced.

That's Taro Simpson, sir. One of your drones from sector 7-G.

Hey TEPCO, when will you proceed from the status quo? I'm sick and tired of hearing the Fukushima plant is under control.

That's what I was thinking when I made my reference to the cast of "Airplane"... you couldn't make this stuff up.

I finally understand what's been bothering me about this whole thing: TEPCO and their response is just like that Stephen Stucker character, Johnny, in "Airplane." Watch this and tell me I'm wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7YU9rZS4w

In response, tepco said it will set up a third-party panel shortly that consists of experts to monitor the situation and provide guidance.

What a pack of shiny excrement.

You know this is a complete farce. It's like they have a bunch of clowns working at Fukushima... or the cast of "Airplane".

The UN need to declare that the plant is a danger to the planet, take it off the government's hands and get properly trained people in there to get it sorted. TEPCO certainly aren't capable of handling it.

After months of (criminal?) neglect by the company and the government, even the hopeless Abe has turned to the world with a plea for help on this water contamination problem. Of course this desperate appeal shows what a huge lie he told to the Olympic Committee and the world just a few weeks ago.

“We are wide open to receive the most advanced knowledge from overseas to contain the problem,” Mr Abe said in his speech to open the conference on energy and environment in Kyoto yesterday. “My country needs your knowledge and expertise,” he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-appeals-for-foreign-help-to-stop-leaks-at-crippled-nuclear-plant-8862659.html

In Japanese:

安倍総理大臣は、「わが国は皆さんの専門の知識を必要としている。課題に対処するためには、世界中から最も先進的な知見を吸収しなくてはならない」と述べ、汚染水問題などの解決に向けて、世界から先進的な知見を取り入れていきたいという考えを強調しました。

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20131006/k10015067481000.html

It is good to know that this delicate situation is handled by well trained proffesionals (in a parallel Universe probably)

how very expected... I really hope that US advisor they hired will be prudent enough to plan and supervise the removal procedures properly... I honestly think though they should go about the whole storage removal differently... how long would it take to build a complete supporting structure around it , as in permanent hill surrounding the storage with autonomic support systems and seal it off as a semi permanent site ...?

His vision was probably impaired by a flying custard pie.

Fukushima worker accidentally switches off cooling pumps; backup kicks

I am stunned. This is not allowed and can be avoided.

They need to follow every step of procedures in written manual or with someone else regardless how many times they have done that In the past. That's what airline pilots are doing when they are taking off and before landing. They verify every step with a co-pilot to make sure both of them are reading everything correctly. This is a fail safe technique #101.

Accidentally fire him!

And the daily Fukushima lunacy is in. My guess is if backup had not kicked in, we wouldn't be getting an admittance for at least a year. Heaven forbid TEPCO hire some people with actual skills.... but then, they wouldn't be TEPCO, would they?

I am starting to think that this company likes to be in a news!

Baka

You couldn't make this up

Right out of an episode of The Simpsons. "Doh!"

No fear here...Abe said it's all under control! (Face palm)

Even if the button was labeled "DANGER DO NOT PUSH" guess what? someone WILL push it. Just as a Wet Paint sign invites people to test to see if the paint is wet.

And these are the same clowns that are going to painstakingly remove thousands of fuel rods, where one small mistake can lead to nuclear catastrophe?

Oh brother....

It's under control! If you pay peanuts you get monkeys!

You would think out of all the buttons to press that would be the button you would never want to press and everyone would know not to press that button or at least have it labeled not to press!?

Idiots hire further idiots.

WHAT FRIGGIN NEXT for petes sake!