The REAL ‘China Syndrome’
The REAL ‘China Syndrome’ is ‘melting its way to China’
Is it MAINLY because Corium has melted its way into the water table?
“This is PARTLY because groundwater is entering the reactor building through cracks in walls.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2pLyKbBFiw
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120828_05.html
Aug. 27, 2012 - Updated 21:06 UTC (06:06 JST)
Tokyo Electric Power Company says the plant is producing 400 tons of contaminated water per day. This is partly because groundwater is entering the reactor building through cracks in walls. Existing tanks have a capacity of 220,000 tons and are 85 percent full. They are likely to be full in around 3 months. The tanks will boost capacity by 170,000 tons.
What are the PRESENT corium elevations AMSL/BMSL at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station?
Unit-1
Unit-2
Unit-3
It has been assumed since TMI, that the corium alloy would incorporate stable metals and ‘cool off’. Perhaps this has not occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station …
Just asking
Excellent Post
Mapping the FDU-3 Corium
http://news.discovery.com/space/using-cosmic-rays-to-study-fukushima-rea...
In a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have confirmed that they can use cosmic rays to pinpoint the location of nuclear material.
Using a computer simulation of the Fukushima reactor building run over a six-week time frame, the Los Alamos researchers found that standard transmission methods for locating nuclear material that may have been damaged as a result of the Fukushima meltdown produced blurred images. In contrast, muon radiography produced much higher resolution images that clearly showed the location of the simulated missing core materials.
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218/using-cosmic-rays-locate-fukushima...
China Syndrome Continued
Melted fuel may have gone through cement floor and into ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBb1WtGLBAA
http://enenews.com/japan-nuclear-expert-melted-fuel-gone-cement-floor-le...
Hiroaki Koide, nuclear reactor specialist and Assistant Professor at Kyoto University’s Nuclear Research Institute:
Japan Nuclear Expert: Melted fuel may have gone through cement floor and into ground under Fukushima reactors — I don’t believe Tepco’s claim for one second — Where in the world is it?
(VIDEO)
I stumbled upon this public
I stumbled upon this public forum while doing some research work. After reading it, i felt the condition is pretty serious and needs rectification-Janice
Drinking Tea
Hopefully,
Hopefully, the Japanese government is through drinking tea with TEPCO and a multi-lateral shock team is making progress.
The circumstances appear to dictate that the FDU-3 CORIUM be cut and extracted. This would be, by my estimation, an unprecedented and highly DANGEROUS operation. I lean toward extreme pressure water-jet cutting, with a BORON abrasive additive. The water and boron will each serve multiple cutting/cooling purposes. The pressure cutters will probably require upwards of 30,000 PSI, due to the fuel density.
This is equivalent to rifle chamber pressures ... and ... H20 water/ice pressures at the freezing point.
Have worked with these pressures, but have not done much cutting. So called 'Hydro-static' Engineers routinely work with this process, though 'hydro-dynamic' would seem more accurate.
The extraction operation will require a STEEP learning curve.
Japan, the NW Pacific and perhaps a much wider area, appear to be 'behind the eight-ball on this FUBAR project.
In My Humble Opinion
Bill Duff
WHERE?
Well written news accounts include ‘WHERE’.
WHERE are the major ground water sources and sinks?
Preliminary Hypothesis: Let us posit that:
Most of the EBB and FLOW occur at Fukushima Daiichi Unit-3. The Unit-3 MOX fuel corium pile has melted through the concrete foundations. The atomic explosion in Fukushima Daiichi Unit-3, FAR exceeded the hydrogen deflagrations in Fukushima Unit-1 and Unit-2, as well as the hydrogen explosions at TMI.
The Japanese government is advised to focus on the actual problem, rather than the perceived problem.
Sincerely,
Bill Duff
2nd REQUEST
I REPEAT,
What are the PRESENT corium elevations above sea level (ASL) at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station?
Unit-1
Unit-2
Unit-3
The corium has melted through the bottom of the 'containment'.
A) The water volume is increasing
B) The water LEVEL is dropping
C) The back pressure on the injection pumps is decreasing
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218/lost-water-circulation.2012-09-01
Cooling water must be injected to the proper spot, where the corium actually is located. The corium, like Elvis Pressley, appears to have 'Left the Building'.
2nd Request
Bill Duff
Curious
What is the corium rate of descent into the earth.
We might refer, to that velocity (dr/dt), as the burn rate.
Fast, would be bad.
Is the burn rate (dv/dt) slowing, steady or increasing?
Acceleration toward the center of the earth, would be bad.
Good is way back there in the rear view mirror.
The human race has not created many volcanos before; to the best of my recollection.
Bill Duff
Fire & Brimstone
F&B:
Molten Sulfur (Fire and Brimstone) HAS been encountered during routine O&G drilling operations, on at least one occasion. The vignette was a circa 1975, Deep Atoka, well in Western Oklahoma, near Elk City. A Loffland Brother's drilling rig, hit the extreme pressure, molten sulfur ... vent. Molten sulfur raced up the open hole, casing and drill string. Conventional blowout prevention measures were taken, and effective. The liquid sulfur solidified, still deep within the earth, after rushing a few thousand feet upward.
Drilling operations were ceased, on the well, the Baden #2, if memory serves. The hole was immediately plugged and abandoned, on account of ‘Fire & Brimstone’, “F&B”. Multiple, redundant plugs and cement jobs were performed. There are doubtless other examples of drilling and/or mining encounters with “F&B”.
Some, conventional BOP seals, O-Rings and Gaskets might withstand molten sulfur temperatures (113C - 119C), but quickly fail chemically. Extreme duty equipment would likely withstand ‘F&B’, within the rated working pressure range.
Some variations of ‘The China Syndrome’, may encounter “F&B”, prior to entering a classical magma chamber. It is assumed that geophysicists have mapped, or soon will map, in high detail, the Fukushima area.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/hellscrust/html/sb3-ringfire.html
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/1048-japan-tectonics-explosive-geology-r...
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/deepest-undersea-volcano-pacific-ocean/...
http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/ringfire.htm
Bill Duff