Posted on 03/17/2011 11:01:03 AM PDT by socialism_stinX
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Japanese officials have installed cables to supply electricity from Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s (9506) power grid to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a step they hope will help inject water more efficiently into the facility's crippled reactors that are at the center of Japan's nuclear crisis, the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said at a news conference Thursday night.
Officials will try to connect the cable to the plant's No. 2 reactor on Friday, the agency said.
The No. 2 reactor's containment vessel was partly damaged in its pressure suppression chamber. The reactor building is emitting vapor deemed to have originated from spent nuclear fuel's storage pools into the air.
(Excerpt) Read more at e.nikkei.com ...
Except they aren’t going to connect it until tomorrow. A lot can happen between now and tomorrow.
O’Hare and DFW airports are already reporting that Japanese passengers and luggage have radiation levels. It’s also in the planes’ air systems.
Great, just how much copper was mined for these cables and how much of a carbon footprint was created by their formation? I hope this conforms to all international green-energy codes and such. I'm telling Al Gore right now.
Only if you wish really hard.
That merits a citation with some details. Otherwise means nothing.
“A positive development, but I’m not sure how much and how soon this will help Tepco.”
If they restore power to the reactors, the Chicken Littles will have to just sit down and shut up.
There has been no significant leak of radiation, no one has died, and no one will.
They should check it with a plum line just to be sure.
I think it’s already tomorrow over there.
Hopefully the pumps are functional after the explosions and there is water for them to pump.
And we can detect minuscule amounts of radiation that are completely negligible in the grand scheme of things. No one has said anything about that in those reports, from what I have seen.
Quick, someone go tell that maroon Shep Smith. He just said there isn’t any new power line to plants. How he would know, I don’t know since he is in Tokyo.
No it doesn’t, when the goal is media fear-mongering.
I think it’s already tomorrow over there.
Details, details. Look what is being hooked up, building for reactor #2. Number 2 building is LEAST damaged of #1, #2, or #3. #3 and #4 are the main concerns and the damage to those may be too severe to repair even if they have electricity. If pumps, wiring, controls, etc were damaged by explosion, the only way to fix would be for a technician to go in and repair. That is not possible with the high levels of radiation in #3 and #4
They think the electrical system at number 2 is in good enough shape to be able to get some equipement working there, but still some difficulties routing the electricity.
High voltage lines? Not exactly like twisting wires together with electrical tape.
yeah, the restart of electric power may be more useful in powering improvised solutions such as electric pumps outside the reactors and water cannons. It’s questionable whether pumps and valves inside some of the reactors will still work.
Just a few observations:
1. Japan has done a stunningly bad job communicating, both at the company level and at the governmental level. The result is that NO ONE in the general public really knows what the situation is, what has been done to contain it, or what realistic expectations of the future might be.
2. The Japanese government, and Tepco, are clearly trying to downplay the potential danger. Perhaps the poor communications have been an intentional part of this, or perhaps they are just REALLY bad at communicating. Regardless, the result is that their credibility has become suspect.
3. Many nations are now advising their nationals to leave the immediate area, and some are even advising leaving Japan altogether. They would not be doing this if they felt the risk is low.
4. Some high profile outsiders are claiming the situation is not what the Japanese have claimed. Some pretty incendiary claims have been made, including the claim by the head of the U.S. NRC that the fuel storage ponds at at least one (two?) of the reactors is dry. The U.S. has refused to back down on this claim, and the Japanese have flatly refuted it. They can’t both be right.
5. The Obama appointed head of the U.S. NRC has a carefully scrubbed Internet profile, but we know he is heavily anti-nuclear (for instance, he was a key player in blocking nuclear waste disposal in Nevada). It is entirely possible that his personal biases have influenced his public statements. If so, I hope someone in the Obama administration wakes up enough to realize the things he is saying will damage U.S./Japan relations in the future (assuming they even care).
6. Side Note: High profile disagreement at the national level should not be happening, especially between the U.S. and Japan. A competent administration would not let this happen. We should shut up if we disagree, at least for now. This is not the time for the U.S. government to cast public doubt on the actions of the Japanese government, even if we think they are screwing up.
7. I certainly hope the Japanese have been doing a lot of things they have simply failed to communicate to the public. In particular, I would like to think restoring access to outside power will help, but I must admit I am very skeptical that this will help on anything other than reactors 5 and 6.
8. I also have a general question related to outside power: If the problem all along has been lack of outside power, then why weren’t generators, fuel, and enough manpower to get them going airlifted in days ago?
8a. The cooling systems on reactors 5 and 6 are currently being run by an outside generator. Details are hard to come by, but apparently this generator was brought in after the Tsunami wiped out all the generators originally on site. If they could bring in one, why not more?
8b. If they failed to bring in enough generators days ago because no one asked for them, or the request was denied, then incompetence reins supreme at multiple levels. Unfortunately, given how poor communications have been, you have to wonder if this might actually be the reason...
8c. Perhaps generators were not brought in due to incompetence, but there really is enough intact equipment left to actually bring this thing under control if only power were available. If so, then there may be a shot at bringing this thing under control “soon”, once outside power is available.
8d. If it was not incompetence then perhaps they failed to bring in more generators because they did not think they would do any good. If so, then I fail to see how hooking up to outside power will do much good now either (other than stabilizing power to reactors 5 and 6).
Oh, great. I hope they are just co-incidental symptoms.
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