Posted on 03/15/2011 8:13:35 AM PDT by SE Mom
Latest news from Japan:
From the BBC-
1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.
1439: A 30km (18 mile) no-fly zone is in place around Fukushima, says the IAEA.
1436: The IAEA says Monday's blast at Fukushima may have affected the integrity of the containment vessel - there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks if happen.
1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0 within three minutes of each other.
Twitter-
-US Geological Survey counts 451 aftershocks since the initial earthquake struck Japan Friday. 238 of them registered magnitude 5.0 or more.
-Despite situations in Japan & Libya, spksmn Jay Carney says Pres Obama's 5-day trip to Brazil, Chile & El Salvador starting Fri night is on.
-FLASH: More U.S. military personnel in Japan testing positive for low-levels of radiation, relief missions to continue - Navy 18 minutes ago via web
I presume you knew but made a typo. It was Unit 4 that had completely offloaded its core into the reactor pool. Unit 3 was operating when the quake hit. Unit 3's unusual fact was it was using MOX fuel.
Looking at various things here I believe I've found one small silver lining for the US in these events! There are only 6 BWR-3 reactors in the US, comparable in design and vintage to Daiichi #1. Two of them are near me, just north of the Quad Cities in Cordova, IL. Twenty-two miles NNE of them is the Thomson Prison which Illinois was trying to sell to Obama as a Gitmo replacement. The new US House wasn't willing to spend that money, but the broke IL government was still pursuing the sale. I don't see much chance Obama would transfer precious jihadists from Gitmo that close to nuclear plants 'just like' Fukishima Daichi #1. I doubt any of Obama's buddies have thought of that angle yet, but once it is brought up I'm confident they'll SCRAM the proposal. The liberal reaction is predictable!
Living about the same distance in the opposite direction I fervently hope and believe the reactors are safe. We have trivial quake risks, nil tsunami risks, and record Mississippi floods have caused no problems there. I do hope they review their contingency plans for a possible T5 tornado after these events, but they've long claimed they can survive that too. Both are licensed through 2032, when they'll be 60 years old.
Heard a report that they were stored on US military bases. Wonder who will be operating them ?
Scary stuff
NHK: #4 reactor spent-fuel pool seems to have water (very good sign), but #3 is low or empty, further attempts will focus on #3
Gundersen: The chain reaction has stopped. That happened in two seconds. But the radioactive isotopes are still decaying away. They’ll decay for at least a year. So you have to release the pressure from that containment pretty much every day. With releasing the pressure will come releasing radioactive isotopes as well.
So yes, the Times is right that every plant — there are now three or four of them — will be opening up valves every day to make sure the pressure is down. And there will be releases from these plants for at least a year.
Gundersen: Within 90 days, the iodine health risks will disappear, because that will decay away. But the nasty isotopes — the cesium and strontium will remain for 30 years. And they’re volatile.
After Three Mile Island, strontium was detected 150 miles away from the reactor. That ends up in cow’s milk and doesn’t go away for 300 years. The releases from these plants will last for a year, and will contain elements that will remain in the environment for 300 years, even in the best case.
If we have a meltdown, it will be even worse than that.
Getting difficult to listen to them. The emotion in their voices is overwhelming.
I know what you mean. Same here ...
Evidently so. I do not know what kind of procedure they were doing that would require a complete core offload. Must have been a big job.
Yes. In addition to the individual pools at the six reactors there also is a larger shared pool somewhere, presumably with older, cooler spent fuel.
What’s your best guess as to what the total amount of fuel onsite is in tons or lbs?
5 and 6 have fuel storage in their pools. However, so far, they’re much cooler (though they are heating). They were around 64 degrees yesterday. If they get off-site power back today, they’ll be able to circulate the water on 5 and 6 and there will be no need to use saltwater on those two units.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110316005165.htm
[...]
A total of 514 spent nuclear fuel rods are kept in the No. 3 reactor's storage pool. The cooling water contains radioactive materials.
[...]
At the No. 4 reactor, circulation of cooling water in the pool, in which 783 spent nuclear fuel rods are stored, has stopped.
[...]
Good God ...
They had better start ensuring means of keeping these cool if they're forced away from the site.
That is my guess, too, as to the ramifications for plants of this design in this country away from coastlines. Particularly midwest locales where tornadoes are a design basis event. They'll have to show enhanced survivability of the diesel generators and diesel fuel storage tanks. If they can't, they'll have to beef those up.
Coastal locations will likely be asked to review their tsunami protection (they all have that) and also the protection for their diesels and contingencies for restoring offsite power.
I have been in this business a long time and done any number of safety analyses, and station blackout has always been a thorn in the side. There is just no simple way to deal with it. Even when you have the emergency diesels up and putting out juice, synching them to the station safety buses is a tricky proposition. When offsite power comes back, you have the inverse problem of synchonizing the operating diesels to the now-available offsite feed, then isolating them from the safety buses for coastdown. It isn't like rebooting a PC from a UPS.
I had to finally mute it or start crying too ...
Early on, I had thought that the entire plant had lost off-site power. If that were the case, then there would be no circulation on 5 and 6 so they would be heating up.
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