Posted on 04/02/2011 6:15:51 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese officials grappling on Sunday to end the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl were focusing on a crack in a concrete pit that was leaking radiation into the ocean from a crippled reactor.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in the pit at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, generating readings 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour in the air inside the pit.
"With radiation levels rising in the seawater near the plant, we have been trying to confirm the reason why, and in that context, this could be one source," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said on Saturday.
He cautioned, however: "We can't really say for certain until we've studied the results."
Leakage did not stop even after concrete was poured into the pit, and Tokyo Electric is now planning to use water-absorbent polymer to prevent contaminated water from leaking out into the sea.
Officials from the utility said checks of the other five reactors found no cracks.
Nishiyama said that to cool the damaged reactor, NISA was looking at alternatives to pumping in water, including an improvised air conditioning system, spraying the reactor fuel rods with vaporized water or using the plant's cleaning system.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This might add more detail:
IAEA: Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log [02-April-2011]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2698855/posts
Nuclear power?
Now more than ever
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/01/pass-the-plutonium
There’s beeen a lot of posts about this the past two days, and also about radiation detected at various sites.
There is a lot left to worry about, but I think it is a good sign that we aren’t talking about exposed spent fuel tanks are reactors in meltdown anymore. It could be that with the power restored, they are able to cool the reactors OK, and now they are focusing on secondary issues, like where the water is leaking out.
Eventually, they are going to have to build a huge coffer dam around the thing and take out all the water and material. Then they will have to fill the whole thing up with cement to stop it and enclose it.
One of the worst articles yet on Fukushima. Disjointed, pointless, and obviously written by people who don’t have a clue about what they are writing.
Pit? What pit? What kind of pit? What’s the pit used for? And why is that one crack in that one pit so damned important?
I especially love this sentence:
“But until the plant’s internal cooling system is reconnected radiation will flow from the plant.”
There’s probably dozens of cooling systems throughout the four reactors, and this sentence seems to indicate that if they can just tighten a few fittings on a few pipes here and there, all will be well. Let me tell you something, probably nothing will ever function again at reactors one through four.
Is this the kind of crap that the Japanese routinely swallow?
Names don't sound like they are native to Japan...
Probably someone said....Hey we need an article on something bad from the disaster area....and they mixed up something.
I hope the ground can withstand all the weight. I’d hate to one day see or hear about that ground breaking away and sliding into the ocean during another earthquake.
It would go to the ground. The whole thing would have to be dug clear to bedrock..just like they do when they build a skyscraper.
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