Posted on 04/16/2011 3:13:57 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Fukushima seawater radioactivity rises inside containment fence
TOKYO, April 16, Kyodo
The level of radioactive substances in seawater increased sharply overnight inside a containment fence installed near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday.
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Meanwhile, the utility is considering installing circulating water cooling systems for reactors and spent fuel storage pools outside the reactor buildings at the plant in a bid to bring it under control, sources familiar with the matter said.
The new systems would cool nuclear fuel inside the reactors and spent fuel pools in a stable manner. They would involve heat exchangers and circulation pumps to drain reactor coolant water from the containment buildings, cooling it with seawater and then sending it back to the reactors, the sources said.
TEPCO appears to have already placed orders for dozens of gasketed plate heat exchangers -- each measuring 3 meters high, 1 meter wide and 2 meters long -- for such systems, the sources said.
The existing circulating water cooling systems at the plant were crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
/snip
(Excerpt) Read more at english.kyodonews.jp ...
P!
Pretty cool, building an entire cooling system on-the-fly in an irradiated environment.
It’s OK. The system could be built on some trailers, and then assembled outside the turbine buildings and connected to the hoses that actually supply the cooling water. It is a good option since the worst issue right now is the dumping of contaminated water into the sea.
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