Posted on 01/19/2018 11:58:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
The operator of Fukushima's crippled nuclear power plant has released fresh images of the wreckage inside a damaged reactor, showing broken metal parts and debris that could be melted fuel.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) inserted a special camera into one of the plant's three melted-down reactors on Friday, a company spokesman said, as part of its efforts to dismantle the disaster-hit facility in northeastern Japan.
Images captured by the camera and released late Friday show rubble spread over the bottom of the unit, including part of a fuel container and rock-like fragments that could contain melted nuclear fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at gulf-times.com ...
Thank you for posting this. Since there’s no hope of cleanup or mitigation, the world has just “moved on” and I think it’s a matter of conscience that we still acknowledge this catastrophe. Regardless of pro/anti nuclear stance - it is happening now and shouldn’t be ignored.
Lol!
At the root of the universe is nuclear radiation so destructive that all metals soon break down and crumble. There is no solution with a melted core. That is like sending a probe to the sun.
Elements become rock. Radiated they become plasma.
The photos are similar to those I saw from TMI. The key takeaway is that just like TMI, the reactor was not breached.
IMHO the key is they were all caused by human error!!!!
FEMA knew in the 80’s this reactor was a time bomb waiting to happen because of the location it was built on.....earthquake/ tsunami zone on a beach. BTW there was at that time one in California with the exact same problem at that time.
Yes, poor location to start. There needs to be a fail safe method to cool the core if a problem arises.
I like the idea of only building reactors below in elevation of a large cooling water lake of source. Then cooling water could flow simply by gravity if power failed.
Diablo Canyon reactor.
Agreed. I’m still curious how the fuel system for the emergency generators failed. Once the supply in the day tank was depleted, the spent fuel pool cooling system couldn’t operate. The 5,000 gals of diesel in the main tank would have given the operators enough time to take other measures.
They’re all time bombs waiting to happen. Some sooner than others.
Next time do not build in an area with KNOWN tsunami’s and put the water tank above the reactor so gravity can be used to move the water instead of pumps. Also the electricity was different then the other half of the island which delayed new pumps. They had 50hz instead of 60hz.
These Japanese reactor backup diesel generators were built to withstand a tsunami (8 meters) but got hit with a 10 meter wave.
Diablo Canyon is a different design. Don’t know its height above the Pacific.
The backup generators were built to withstand a tsunami, but not the 10 meter wave that actually occurred.
With the entire region wiped out, the recovery just could not be supported with emergency supplies of “everything”.
As part of nuclear training a few years ago (I had a Senior Reactor Operators license on a US Westinghouse 3 loop plant), I remember seeing the electrical switchgear on at least one plant was flooded as it was below ground level.
The plant I worked at had the emergency diesels at ground level and the diesel fuel oil tanks were buried. At full load, I remember 5 gpm fuel usage or 300 gallons per hour (the day tanks were 330 gallons Tech Spec as I recall). We had a large storage tank above ground level that could make up to the buried fuel oil storage tanks.
Whenever we did testing that ran the DGs, fuel oil was soon ordered.
With no switchgear, it made no difference if the DGs ran, you couldn't get the power to the pumps.
When you have multiple failures like this, it means crappy design.
From a link: >At the four damaged nuclear power plants (Onagawa, Fukushima Daiichi, Fukushimi Daini and Toka Daini), 22 of the 33 total backup diesel generators were washed away, including 12 of 13 at Fukushima Daiichi. Of the 33 total backup power lines to off-site generators, all but two were obliterated by the tsunami.
Unable to cool itself, Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors melted down one by one.
“What doomed Fukushima Daiichi was the elevation of the EDGs (emergency diesel generators) inexplicably and fatally low, Synolakis said.
LINK: Fukushima was preventable
Last I saw about Diablo Canyon is that they plan on shutting them down in 2025.
Thanks for the info! IIRC Diablo Canyon’s replacement steam generators were crap.
Steam Generators:
We did a SG replacement outage in 1993. It was a LONG outage and I remember watching the SG’s go out/back in on their sides.
My last work there was in 2012 and there were no leakers. I sold all my stock when I left and I only occasionally look at the company news.
From what I know about California/Diablo Canyon, it appears to me they are heading for another electrical crises.
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