#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Power Is Off, TEPCO Doesn't Yet Know Why

(UPDATE: OK It's back on again, but TEPCO still doesn't know what happened, according to their tweet at about 1:10PM their time on July 22. Looks like two power lines out of three that feed the plant went off. The contaminated water treatment system is still down.)

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The contaminated water treatment system, which stopped on July 21 (again) when a worker shut off the water gauge of the tank that stores the treated water (what a strange design, shutting off the water gauge shuts down the entire system..), continues to stop because power is off at the plant.

According to NHK Japanese (9:16AM JST 7/22/2011) and Yomiuri Shinbun (11:05AM JST 7/22/2011):

• Power to Reactor 3 and 4 was interrupted at about 7:10AM, due to the sudden power surge that tripped the circuit breaker at the temporary transformer. The cause for the sudden power surge is unknown.
  

• The cooling of the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 3 has stopped. No discernible change in the pool water temperature so far (30 degrees Celsius).

• Monitoring instruments for the reactor pressure are down.

• The headquarter building at Fukushima I Nuke Plant is operating on a backup generator.

• The cooling of the reactors and nitrogen gas injection continue uninterrupted, using the other power line.