BASIC QUESTION: What SHOULD be done now?
I haven't seen anything that lays out a plan to even TRY to end this thing (no, I will not count TEPCO's plan now that we know most of their data is junk, even the stuff they hide from us, I believe). I want to see what "people who know about this stuff" think should be the proper course of action. Don't see that anywhere. Just bits and pieces - like Arnie saying to dig a pit around it and Friedlander saying "feed and bleed" - that sort of thing. That's good but what else?? Is there truly NO WAY to manage this situatation? I am starting to believe that. But I also still seem to have a faint shred of hope in humanity's ability to solve "unsolveable" problems. Has anyone seen any type of possible plan, even if it's very hypothetical, that's not just "bury it" or "bomb it"? I would actually entertain either of those "end games" if there was an actual step by step plan to get there. There does need to be some sort of preperation for any plan, right? That's sorta what makes it a plan.
2 months on and still no end
2 months on and still no end in sight. How long did the catastrophic phase at Chernobyl last?
Chernobyl went on from 4/26/1986 to 12/1986 (8 months)
Fires throughout the plant were extinguished in about 5
hours. However, the reactor fire continued until May 10th,
which was 2 full weeks later. The fires were responsible
for most of the world wide distribution of radioactive material. That's just the fires. The reactor building and
surrounding area where debris was scattered sat there like
an infected open sore with no containment at all until the
sarcophagus was finished in Dec of the same year.
While a lot of folks have said that Fukushima is as bad or
worse than Chernobyl, the two are not very similiar. Sure,
there are more reactors involved at Fukushima. But, the
reactor at Chernobyl blew the top off and dumped its guts
into the air. And then sat there open. The damage to the
Fukushima reator buildins, while bad, is NOTHING like the
damage done to the reactor building in Chernobyl. One look
at the pictures of Chernobyl makes that VERY obvious.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Chernobyl_Disaster.j...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
That Chernobyl picture looks
That Chernobyl picture looks very similar.
http://multimedia.dn.no/archive/00209/LB_Fukushima_atomkr_209293a.jpg
http://www.peoplestar.co.uk/bin/galleries/news/525-Japan%20Fukushima.jpg
http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp/pict6.jpg
http://fringescientistdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/fukushima.jpg%253Fw%253D594%2526h%253D360
http://daniellesabai1.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/reunion-de-crise-qutour-de-la-catastrophe-de-fukushima-sur-la-cote-est-du-japon-17530.jpg
http://gestaltist.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Air-Photo-Service-Co.-Ltd.-Fukushima.jpg
I guess everyone will see what they want in the pics
But, when I look at the Chernobyl pic, all I see is a gaping hole
where the reactor *used* to be. As I said, the damage to the Fukushima
reactor buildings is bad. But, the Chernobyl reactor building popped
like a big pimple. The damage to the Fukushima reactor buildings
appear to be just the top floors which were mostly hollow. Which is
where the hydrogen accumulated. So, the top floors blow off, which
leaves the lower floors *relateively* intact. And from what we've
heard ***so far***, the reactor containment structure is still intact.
Notice I did NOT say "leak free". It's just that we've see no evidence
of an actual reactor explosion....yet. However, given the explosions
that did occur in the reactor buildings, it should be of no surprise
that the plumbing got damaged. And it shouldalso be of no surprise that,
when TEPCO pumps water into the reactor containment, it comes right
back out of the containment via that broken plumbing and fills the
basements. Aside from any holes in the bottom of the containment from
the fuel melting down and dropping to the bottom.
The only thing that can be
The only thing that can be done, or ever has been possible, is to cool the cores, either with water or let them cool down by themselves, and then bury the reactor under borates, sand and cement.
Any other option is fantasy.
what should be done with the
what should be done with the 90 million of liters (30 olympic swiming pools) of higly radioactive water which are flooding Fukushima´s facilities?
Nowaday there are 90 million of liters and each week this amount is increasing in 10 million of liters more.
If they stop pumping, the
If they stop pumping, the water can be treated over time. As long as they keep pumping in water they will just make the situation worse.
They should be pumping in sand and borates now.
Can they pump sand in the
Can they pump sand in the present condition? I don't know if it's doable, they are having troubles injecting nitrogen in Reactor 3, so it may be impossible to get the sand into the pressure vessel or the containment.
Fukushima Reactor Bldg.'s Basement Half Filled with Water. May 1
Fukushima Reactor Bldg.'s Basement Half Filled with Water.
Tokyo, May 14 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. found Saturday that the basement of a reactor building at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station is half filled with radioactive water.
The radioactive water at the plant's No. 1 reactor is likely to have leaked from the containment vessel to the basement of the building that houses the vessel, the plant operator said.
The situation can explain why the water level in the containment vessel has been relatively low despite a large amount of water pumped into the reactor pressure vessel, which is in the containment vessel, to cool nuclear fuel rods.
The large amount of contaminated water in the basement is a factor to delay work to fill the containment vessel with water, a senior company official, Junichi Matsumoto, said at a press conference.
Tokyo Electric Power will reflect the situation, as well as the melt of fuel rods in the pressure vessel confirmed earlier this week, in its revised work schedule set to be released on Tuesday, according to Matsumoto.
(2011/05/14-22:07)
2,000-Millisievert Radiation
2,000-Millisievert Radiation Detected in No. 1 Reactor Bldg. May 14th.
Tokyo, May 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese nuclear safety agency said Saturday that the maximum radiation level of about 2,000 millisieverts per hour was detected in the No. 1 reactor's building of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.
The industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency confirmed the level in its measurement conducted Friday afternoon by using a robot.
The health ministry exceptionally sets a limit on cumulative radiation doses for workers at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501> plant at 250 millisieverts, against 100 millisieverts for workers at nuclear plants in usual operations.
On May 5, workers entered the No. 1 reactor building for the first time since a hydrogen explosion occurred there following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the plant.
(2011/05/14-18:43)
Sunday, May 15,
Sunday, May 15, 2011
#Fukushima I Reactor 3: TEPCO Pouring Boric Acid to Prevent Recriticality
Yomiuri Shinbun (10:02PM JST 5/15/2011):
TEPCO announced on May 15 that it started to use boric acid in the reactor cooling water for the Reactor 3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to prevent recriticality from happening. Boric acid absorbs neutrons.
Recriticality is when the nuclear chain reaction is restarted.
There is salt in the Reactor Pressure Vessels of the Reactors 1, 2 and 3, as TEPCO initially poured seawater to cool the RPVs. TEPCO thought the salt would absorb neutrons.
TEPCO has decided to use boric acid in the cooling water because the level of salt in the cooling water may have decreased since TEPCO switched the cooling water from seawater to regular water.
In the meantime, the temperature at the top of the Reactor 3 RPV has risen rapidly.
TEPCO increased the amount of cooling water to 12 tons per hour on May 12 using two water feeding systems, then to 15 tons per hour on May 14. However, the temperature at the top of the RPV increased by 46.5 degrees Celsius in 24 hours to 297 degrees Celsius as of 5:00AM on May 15.
TEPCO thinks there's a problem with the pipes that feed water into the RPV.
In the latest measurement data (11:00AM 5/15) released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) , that temperature (the 4th column) appears to have dropped slightly to 291.7 degrees Celsius, although the data table is put up sideways and it is a bad scan and hard to see. The second digit could be 9, 8, or 3. An age-old trick by bureaucrats to discourage people from seeing the data... (My neck is hurting from trying to read the number.)