Japan: TEPCO repeatedly halts water treatment system due to alarm

Japan Today ^ | 06/30/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

TEPCO repeatedly halts water treatment system due to alarm

National Jun. 30, 2011 - 06:00AM JST

TOKYO —

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Wednesday that it was repeatedly forced to suspend operation of a newly installed radioactive water treatment system at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after an alarm, warning of malfunction, sounded.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Nitehawk0325]

No problem, we continually sound a malfunction alarm about our president and his regime. And he just refuses to hear it.

[sefarkas]

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the recycling system was halted about an hour and a half after it began operating. Workers spotted water leaking from a hose that was sending the processed water into the reactors, TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
The leak shut down the recycling segment of the system, while the cleaning segment is continuing to operate. Workers switched back to fresh water injection into the reactors, Matsumoto said.
No new leakage outside the plant has been reported. TEPCO plans to start repair work early Tuesday to restore the recycling segment as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of the day.
The multinational system has reprocessed 1,850 tons of contaminated water as coolant to be pumped back into the reactors. In full capacity, the system can treat up to 1,200 tons of contaminated water per day, more than twice as much as needed to cool the three reactors.
TEPCO has sealed cracks, set up oil fences around the coastal plant, and acquired more storage tanks in case of emergency. But as long as the cleaning segment of the recycling system is functioning, the volume of tainted water will not grow.
Announcing the launch of the recycling system earlier Monday, Goshi Hosono, newly appointed nuclear crisis minister, called the system “a major step forward” toward stable cooling of the reactors. But he said he was not fully confident about the system.
“It's a problem if the system continues to be unreliable,” he said. “We must turn it into something that can feed water stably.”
TEPCO and the government have said they hope to achieve a cold shutdown of the reactors by January by bringing the core temperatures to below 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit).
TEPCO has fixed leaks in the connections between its decontamination system and the feed systems of No. 1, 2 and 3 plants and is now operating reactor cooling injection in RECIRCULATING mode. The flow path of the water is as follows: Water is taken from the Centralized Radioactive Waste Treatment Facility (where it's been, and is being, pumped from turbine buildings and pipe trenches) and pumped to TEPCO’s decontamination system (Kurion/AREVA as contractors.) From this system the water is sent through a desalinization system, and is then pumped to a 5000 m³ treated water tank. From this tank water can be sent to any or all of three pumps that provide water, through long hoses and pipes, to the reactor feed systems for core cooling. There are also two 8000 m³ filtrate tanks that can supply water to the system if necessary. At the moment, TEPCO indicates that water is going to the rad waste building from No. 2 and No. 3 plant turbine building basements.
Injection rates to No. 1 and No. 2 plants are both about 3.5 m³/hr with No. 3 plant's injection rate at about 9.1 m³/hr.
TEPCO has, as was reported in some places, now used borated water into No. 3 plant's spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi. This is to correct the pH of the spent fuel pool, since borated water is on site and will accomplish this task to prevent rapid corrosion of the fuel elements in an alkaline environment. The pH of the pools is thought to have been disturbed by concrete debris in the pools.
A giant crane has been placed on site at Fukushima Daiichi to launch construction of the cover at No. 1 plant's reactor building. (See the APR YouTube Channel for videos about this covering.) Sections are now being assembled at Onahama Port for shipment to Fukushima Daiichi.

[bgill]

Workers spotted water leaking from a hose

Can't even get a hose that doesn't leak.

No new leakage outside the plant has been reported... as long as the cleaning segment of the recycling system is functioning, the volume of tainted water will not grow.

Oh, yeah, that's real comforting. There's no NEW leaks which means there's still old leaks. And as long as they can keep things functioning, which doesn't seem to be their forte, the "tainted" (now that's a nice PC term) won't grow.

borated water is on site and will accomplish this task to prevent rapid corrosion of the fuel elements

Well, we certainly don't want RAPID corrosion, but then we don't want slow corrosion either since that means (which we all know already) it will one day leak and we'll have another disaster on our hands.

The pH of the pools is thought to have been disturbed by concrete debris in the pools.

Thought? As in they don't freakin' know???? Hey, Earth, sorry, it was nice while it lasted.

[sefarkas]

Can't even

Clearly, you have not worked in a plant. Have you been reading what they are dealing with? They have to make do with what is at-hand.

[bgill]

Oh, but I have been keeping up pretty much on a daily basis with what they’ve been doing and it’s beyond the pale. It’s one disaster after another. Everything they do doesn’t work.

[AmericanInTokyo]

And yet the death toll, to-date, in Ted Kennedy’s Lincoln Continental still stands as more than in Fukushima NPP.

[justa-hairyape]

So how long until they just disconnect the alarm ?

[TigerLikesRooster]

They could set it to “mute.”

[justa-hairyape]

Apparently they turned the alarms off on the Deep Horizon Platform. They were kinda loud and interfering with the crew. That was just before, well, you know the story....

Gotta hand it to them though, this is by far one of the most difficult water purification tasks ever attempted.