Posted on 06/11/2011 4:14:43 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
TEPCO forced to review reactor 4 cooling plan
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been forced to reconsider its plan to cool the spent fuel storage pool of the No.4 reactor.
Water injection from a special vehicle has not been intense enough to cool the water in the pool, allowing the temperature to remain at more than 80 degrees Celsius.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, aims to install a circulatory cooling system that will pump water out of the pool and return it there as coolant. The utility originally hoped to put the system in place next month.
On Friday, workers entered the 4th floor of the No.4 reactor building where the pool is located for the first time since the nuclear disaster took place.
They found a large hole in a wall created by the March 15th explosion. They also discovered that a nearby pipe necessary for the cooling system had been mangled.
TEPCO says the repair team found it hard to work near the pool as equipment had been destroyed and debris was scattered on the floor.
Fixing the damaged pipe is expected to be extremely difficult. In addition, it remains unclear if there is another pipe that can be used for the cooling system.
Sunday, June 12, 2011 05:07 +0900 (JST)
P!
Sooo, their long term plan is to have an active cooling system for a dead reactor? Yuck.
Wait — wasn’t the world supposed to end from this?
It appears that it’s going to be a long time, maybe years, before they get that facility back under control.
Not for the reactor - for the fuel. Reactor #4 was empty on the day of earthquake, and it requires no cooling or any other care.
But the fuel is not dead at all; it will be producing some amount of heat for a while. The only other option is to remove fuel assemblies from the damaged pool one by one, transport them somewhere else (still in cold water) and then take them apart or reuse. But as long as they remain in that pool you need to keep the water cool. As it is, the water is pretty hot and is probably evaporating in tons per day. Some of the fuel assemblies there are already damaged.
But compared to reactors that melted down, this is a walk in the park.
No, the cooling is for the fuel storage pool. Without cooling the stored fuel could overheat, catch on fire, go critical, etc. Water is essential and whereas before the fuel storage pool was essentially a swimming pool with racks of fuel in it. Now it appears it has a hole in the wall.
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