Northern Japan comes to a standstill: Over 5 million people without power, nuclear power plant offline

All fossil-fuel-fired power plants on the island of Hokkaido along with one geothermal and one nuclear power plant are all currently offline after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck on Thursday

By Intellihub.com -

September 8, 2018

Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido has come to a standstill following Thursday’s 6.6 magnitude earthquake which caused building collapses, landslides, and other devastation knocking out all power plants on the island killing at least 35 people.

All fossil-fuel-fired plants on the island were forced to be shut down, a geothermal plant has been rendered inoperable, and a nuclear power plant is currently offline due to the quake.

According to reports out of the region, the Tomari Nuclear Power Plant is currently operating on backup power in order to keep its nuclear fuel rods cool while the plant is in shutdown mode. The question is: How long will the backup power last?

All in all, a total of 5.3 million people are without power and 2.3 million households.

To boot, the island has been engulfed in chaos as pretty much everything in Japan is operated electronically.

Traffic signals, street signs, electric vehicles, transport rail, vending machines, and the door to supermarkets are all inoperational.

Officials and workers are diligently working to restore power.

https://www.intellihub.com/northern-japan-comes-to-a-standstill-over-5-million-people-without-power-nuclear-power-plant-offline/