Posted on 03/19/2011 10:46:04 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Japan Nuclear Agency: Pressure Inside No. 3 Reactor Containment Vessel Rising
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan's nuclear safety agency said Sunday that pressure levels are rising inside the containment vessel at reactor No. 3 at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said at a press conference that plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) will open valves at the reactor in a bid to reduce pressure levels, an operation that it said could result in the release of radioactive steam.
If a mechanism at the reactor know as the suppression chamber---which is designed to help curb pressure within the containment vessel by cooling down steam inside it---doesn't work well, Tepco may let steam out directly from the vessel in an operation officials call "dry ventilation." The amount of radioactive material in any released steam would increase in that case, the agency said.
(Excerpt) Read more at e.nikkei.com ...
P!
They have been doing very dangerous work and I wish them the best of luck and a safe ending to this.
If the pressure is rising that means the containment vessel has not been breached ..a good sign
Perhaps. It could also mean it is producing more steam than the size of a breach can released, if there is a breach.
I think the only partial conclusion that can be drawn is it is getting hotter.
when is it time to call it a day and build a concrete mountain?
I think they still have more high pressure water truck to expend. With U.S. actively joining the efforts,I hope they can get a better handle on this.
You would hope they can cool the whole operation before they decide what to do next. Every time they release pressure another explosion is possible besides more contamination going airborne.
It seems to me that the first thing to have done would have been to helicopter in a few caterpiler semi trailer sized power plants and fuel with some wire. Cut and tap into the power system at the nuke plants to get the pumps running and any other equipment that needed power. Next would be to have helicoptered in a bunch of pipe and big water pumps to get water from the sea up to the coolant pools and then pumped water into the plant from there or to pumps that could shoot the now near endless supply of seawater onto the exposed cores to cool them down. Course I’m just armchairing and wasn’t there to see the on site challenges. I hope there will be a thick how to manuel for the next time this happens as a result of this.
This is cheesy but I went to a Japanese sushi place today. Part of the reason was to give moral support. after I ate my octopus and salmon roe, I drank some sake, not salmon - the wine. Anyway, I drank three sake and then I took my check. When I was ready to leave I said, “I would like to say, I hope your family is doing okay.” She said that no one working there has family in Japan. I felt a little cheesy, but that is okay.
Get a hold on yourself. The reactors have been shut down since the earthquake. The only issue in the reactors is residual heat, which is dissipating. The problem at the sites is stored spent fuel rods, not the reactors. They need water, not mountains.
The timeline is this:
Earthquake hits
Reactors shut down
Emergency generators start up to pump water
Tsunami destroys generators
Water stops, things get hotter
sea water is introduced to stabilize cooling
Power line installed
Water pumps are now being restarted
Please don't feel bad. Very, very few "Japanese" restaurants in the U.S. are anything of the sort. Almost all "Japanese restaurants" in the U.S. are owned by Chinese or Koreans who have never been to Japan and have never eaten real Japanese food.
The Japanese government has actually tried to encourage these folks to at least get some training in Japanese cuisine and actually use Japanese ingredients in their "Japanese food", but virtually none have responded.
The MAFF set up a webpage here, and issued an advisory report.
From the report:
[ ... ]
- Among these Japanese restaurants, although the menu and other aspects vary from restaurant to restaurant, there are some that operate under the guise of a Japanese restaurant just because of the up-market image that is associated with Japanese food.
- There are restaurants that are using ingredients that are not suited to Japanese cuisine, or there is simply not enough range or quantity of ingredients suited to Japanese food being provided to cope with the rapidly increasing number of restaurants.
- Fish and shellfish are often eaten raw in Japanese restaurants, but in places where it is not customary to eat raw fish, the knowledge or skills required for handling, processing and consuming fresh fish are often lacking. The possibility of an incident as a result of such shortcomings has the potential to damage the image of Japanese food.
- The rapid increase of Japanese restaurants has lead to a shortage of professionals who are skilled in and have a detailed knowledge of Japanese food, particularly in overseas countries. It has also been strongly suggested that it is necessary to spread these skills and knowledge.
- In addition to the above points, there is a lack of information concerning Japanese cuisine being transmitted overseas. For this reason, it is necessary to provide such information through Japanese restaurants and provide Japanese restaurants outside Japan with information in order to make this possible.
If you do manage to find a restaurant owned by a Japanese chef, treasure it! It's very rare.
well, my FRiend, the teensy tiny problem with water is, once it’s carrying radioactivity, how the hell do you get rid of it? how much more water do you want to pour on this mess, which will never be an operational site again because of radioactive contamination?
and btw, where are you going to put that water? what containment is in place? besides seeping into the existing water table where it shows up in municipal water (bingo), or seeping into existing water treatment facilities from people showering themselves and their vegetables (double bingo), or discharging the runoff into the ocean in the hopeie/changie dream that it will ‘degrade’ (announced on CNN today= grand prize, com’n down!) WHAT are you going tyo do with that water on an island? More water is insane.
Concrete the blasted thing, blast and dig up half the California desert boron to do it if you have to, but get it done, and be done with it.
The reactors themselves have been shut down since the earthquake. The only issue with them is residual activity. The recent problems have been with the spent fuel ponds, and they don't create abnormal radioactivity as long as they are kept cool. This is NOT the end of the world.
The use of seawater in and of itself, contrary to what has been put out in the popular media, is not necessarily a deal-breaker. Saltwater corrosion takes place over a long time period in materials that are susceptible to it. Materials used in reactor systems are engineered to survive a harsh environment. There will have to be some cleanout operations to remove the residual minerals and sodium chloride from the seawater, but those are things chemical engineers know how to do.
You need to relax. These are smart people dealing with the situation. They aren't going to be pumping things like sand and clam shells through the cooling systems. A little filtering goes a long way.
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