Japanese reactor crisis

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Yes, I've heard this and at present, I just don't know what to think. I'm prone to believe the NRC and the IAEA over the Japanese government for one simple reason; neither the NRC or the IAEA gain anything from making things look worse than they already are and *no one* wants a panic. The Japanese government and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) have *every* reason to lie. They shouldn't lie but they certainly have a motivation to do so. The NRC is an objective observer in this, even more than the IAEA perhaps.

Tomorrow there will be overflights to assess the radioactivity over and surrounding the site. We'll have a better picture after that happens.

Cheers
Aj

I see. Yes, waiting for over flights. What is just hard about this is conflicting reports, but, given all that is happening at one time, and how fluid this is- makes sense.

And I am thinking that those at the plant sites, are rather busy and trying to get water in any way possible. Getting power back in to some degree is VERY GOOD NEWS!!

The recent photos of damage (containment vessels) at the plants are disturbing. Yet, we don't have any real comparative images, plus viewing them as "lay" people, really.

I know there has been a lot of criticism about evacuations further from the plant- but, Japan is a mess right now. Roads are covered with debris, gas is scarce, mass transit is upended, evacuation centers are full, food and water supplies are stretched. This is a country with a dense population under phenomenal infrastructure stress. People can't just be moved immediately!

Yup.... getting some power to that plant sounds good to me!

[dreadgeek]

Japanese Earthquake Update (17 March 17:55 UTC)

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that engineers were able to lay an external grid power line cable to unit 2. The operation was completed at 08:30 UTC.

They plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed.

The spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at 11:09 UTC (20:09 local time) of 17 March.

The IAEA continues to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.

[AtLast]

I have been thinking a lot about Aj's statement earlier about robotics (started me thinking about how this could be so useful, if developed in ways to use with getting water in plants during a crisis like this). I found this article today-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110317/sc_nm/us_quake_japan_robots
Japan a robot power everywhere except at nuclear plant


By Jon Herskovitz Jon Herskovitz – Thu Mar 17, 7:23 am ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan may build robots to play the violin, run marathons and preside over weddings, but it has not deployed any of the machines to help repair its crippled reactors.

While robots are commonplace in the nuclear power industry, with EU engineers building one that can climb walls through radioactive fields, the electric power company running Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has not deployed any for the nuclear emergency.

Instead, its skeleton team has been given the unenviable and perhaps deadly task of cooling reactors and spent nuclear fuel on their own, only taking breaks to avoid over-exposure.

A science ministry official said a robot used to detect radiation levels is at the site of the accident in Fukushima, north of Tokyo, but nuclear safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said: "We have no reports of any robots being used."

That robot would have come in handy early on Thursday when workers monitoring radiation had to back away from the plant because it was becoming too hot.

While Japan is renowned for its cutting edge technology, it also maintains an anachronistic element in its society that relies on humans for tasks that have given way to automation in many other parts of the world, such as operating elevators and warning motorists of road construction.

In one of Japan's worst nuclear accidents, two workers were killed in September 1999, when workers at a nuclear facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, set off an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction by using buckets to mix nuclear fuel in a lab.

Japan is a world leader in robots, using them to automate the most complicated manufacturing processes and to sift through rubble to look for victims in earthquakes.
Robots were also used after two infamous nuclear disasters -- Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and will almost certainly be used at Fukushima for work in highly radioactive areas.

Kim Seungho, a nuclear official who engineered robots for South Korea's atomic power plants, said: "You have to design emergency robots for plants when they are being built so they can navigate corridors, steps and close valves."

[Related: What is acute radiation syndrome?]

The Fukushima plant was built in the 1970s, well before robots were able to work on sophisticated tasks.

Robots are in place in many nuclear plants for structured situations such as monitoring pipes and simple maintenance.

Kim, a deputy director in nuclear technology for the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, said budget constraints and denial have kept emergency robots out of many plants in his country and around the world.
"Nuclear plant operators don't liked to think about serious situations that are beyond human control," he said by telephone.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

---------------------------
I say get the dame $ out there for robotic R&D in this industry!!

[Martina]

OK this sorta alarmed me although life has taught me not to worry too much about worst case scenarios. Still.

From a New York Times article:

The 1,479 spent fuel rod assemblies there include 548 that were removed from the reactor only in November and December to prepare the reactor for maintenance, and these may be emitting more heat than the older assemblies in other storage pools.

Even without recirculating water, it should take many days for the water in a storage pool to evaporate, nuclear engineers said. So the rapid evaporation and even boiling of water in the storage pools now is a mystery, raising the question of whether the pools may also be leaking.

Michael Friedlander, a former senior nuclear power plant operator who worked 13 years at three American reactors, said that storage pools typically had a liner of stainless steel three-eighths of an inch thick, and that they rested on reinforced concrete bases. So even if the liner ruptured, “unless the concrete was torn apart, there’s no place for the water to go,” he said.

Mr. Lahey said that much of the water may have sloshed out during the earthquake. Much smaller earthquakes in California have produced heavy water losses from sloshing at storage pools there, partly because the pools are located high in reactor buildings.

“It’s like being at the top of a flagpole, and once you start ground motion, you can easily slosh it,” he said.

When the water in a storage pool disappears, the fuel rods’ uranium continues to heat the rods’ zirconium cladding. This causes the zirconium to oxidize, or rust, and even catch fire. The spent fuel rods have little radioactive iodine, which has a half-life of eight days and has mostly disappeared through radioactive decay once fission stopped when the rods left the reactor cores. But the spent fuel rods are still loaded with cesium and strontium that can start to escape if the fuel rods burn.

One factor that might determine how serious the situation becomes is whether the uranium oxide pellets in the rods stay vertical even if the cladding burns off. This is possible because pellets sometimes become fused together while in the reactor. If the pellets stay standing up, then even with the water and zirconium gone, nuclear fission will not take place, Mr. Albrecht said.

But Tokyo Electric said this week that there was a chance of “recriticality” in the storage pools — that is, the uranium in the fuel rods could resume the fission that previously took place inside the reactor, spewing out radioactive byproducts.

Mr. Albrecht said this was very unlikely, but could happen if the stacks of pellets slumped over and became jumbled together on the floor of the storage pool.

Plant workers would then need to add water with lots of boron because the boron absorbs neutrons and interrupts nuclear chain reactions.

If a lot of fission occurs, which may happen only in an extreme case, the uranium would melt through anything underneath it. If it encounters water as it descends, a steam explosion could then scatter the molten uranium.

At Daiichi, each assembly has either 64 large fuel rods or 81 slightly smaller fuel rods. A typical fuel rod assembly has roughly 380 pounds of uranium.

One big worry for Japanese officials is that Reactor No. 3, the main target of the helicopters and water cannons on Thursday, uses a new and different fuel. It uses mixed oxides, or mox, which contains a mixture of uranium and plutonium, and can produce a more dangerous radioactive plume if scattered by fire or explosions. According to Tokyo Electric, 32 of the 514 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pond at Reactor No. 3 contain mox.

[dreadgeek]

Japanese Earthquake Update (18 March 10:15 UTC)

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that new INES ratings have been issued for some of the events relating to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 2 and 3 reactor units caused by loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling and water supplying functions in the spent fuel pool of the unit 4 reactor has been rated as 3.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling functions in the reactor units 1, 2 and 4 of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant has also been rated as 3. All reactor units at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant are now in a cold shut down condition.


Cheers
Aj

[Linus]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Japanese Earthquake Update (18 March 10:15 UTC)

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that new INES ratings have been issued for some of the events relating to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 2 and 3 reactor units caused by loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling and water supplying functions in the spent fuel pool of the unit 4 reactor has been rated as 3.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling functions in the reactor units 1, 2 and 4 of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant has also been rated as 3. All reactor units at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant are now in a cold shut down condition.


Cheers
Aj

Is this a good thing?

[dreadgeek]

Japan Earthquake Update (18 March 2011, 06:10 UTC)

Temperature of Spent Fuel Pools at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - UPDATED

Spent fuel removed from a nuclear reactor is highly radioactive and generates intense heat. Nuclear plant operators typically store this material in pools of water that cool the fuel and shield the radioactivity. Water in a spent fuel pool is continuously cooled to remove heat produced by spent fuel assemblies. According to IAEA experts, a typical spent fuel pool temperature is kept below 25 °C (77 F) under normal operating conditions. The temperature of a spent fuel pool is maintained by constant cooling, which requires a constant power source.

Given the intense heat and radiation that spent fuel assemblies can generate, spent fuel pools must be constantly checked for water level and temperature. If fuel is no longer covered by water or temperatures reach a boiling point, fuel can become exposed and create a risk of radioactive release. The concern about the spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi is that sources of power to cool the pools have been compromised.

Concern about spent fuel storage conditions has led Japanese officials to drop and spray water from helicopters and trucks onto Unit 3 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (See earlier update).

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has reported increasing temperatures in the spent fuel ponds at Units 5 and 6 since 14 March. An emergency diesel generator at Unit 6 is now powering water injection into the ponds at those Units, according to NISA.

The IAEA can confirm the following new information regarding the temperatures of the spent nuclear fuel pools at Units 4, 5 and 6 at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant:

Unit 4
13 March, 19:08 UTC: 84 °C (183.2 F)
Unit 5
17 March, 03:00 UTC: 64.2 °C (147.56 F)
17 March, 18:00 UTC: 65.5 °C (149.9 F)
Unit 6
17 March, 03:00 UTC: 62.5 °C (144.5 F)
17 March, 18:00 UTC: 62.0 °C (143.6 F)

(All conversions performed by me. Not in original text)

Cheers
Aj

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Linus

Is this a good thing?

I was thinking about this on my drive in this morning. My honest answer is that I'm not sure. I think it is improvement while still not being out of the woods.

The reason I think it is improvement was that early in the week, we were looking at six on the scale. The scale that IAEA uses goes like this:

1. Anomaly
2. Incident
3. Serious incident
4. Accident with local consequences
5. Accident with wider consequences
6. Serious accident
7. Major accident

So, TMI was an accident with consequences for the region the plant was located in but not more widely. (And contra what you might have heard, most epidemiological studies have not demonstrated an increase in incidents of cancer.) Chernobyl was an accident with consequences far beyond the region the plant was located in. So since around Tuesday this event looked like a 6 and possibly a 7, if it's now been classified as a level 5 incident that means things are trending in the right direction. A level 5 is not good but it's a damn sight better than a level 7.

That said, there's all of that spent fuel which is now in a state we don't know about right now. I'm encouraged that there is now serious discussion on the ground of implementing the same solution used at Chernobyl--hit the place with a mixture of sand and boron and then encase the whole thing in concrete. Since the site is absolutely never coming back for power generation encasing all of the damaged reactors in concrete might be the best solution.

Cheers
Aj

[dreadgeek]

Japan Earthquake Update (18 March 2011, 12:25 UTC)

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that, prior to the earthquake of 12 March, the entire fuel core of reactor Unit 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had been unloaded from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pond located in the reactor's building.

Clarification

Contrary to several news reports, the IAEA to date has NOT received any notification from the Japanese authorities of people sickened by radiation contamination.

In the report of 17 March 01:15 UTC, the cases described were of people who were reported to have had radioactive contamination detected on them when they were monitored.

Cheers
Aj

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

I was thinking about this on my drive in this morning. My honest answer is that I'm not sure. I think it is improvement while still not being out of the woods.

The reason I think it is improvement was that early in the week, we were looking at six on the scale. The scale that IAEA uses goes like this:

1. Anomaly
2. Incident
3. Serious incident
4. Accident with local consequences
5. Accident with wider consequences
6. Serious accident
7. Major accident

So, TMI was an accident with consequences for the region the plant was located in but not more widely. (And contra what you might have heard, most epidemiological studies have not demonstrated an increase in incidents of cancer.) Chernobyl was an accident with consequences far beyond the region the plant was located in. So since around Tuesday this event looked like a 6 and possibly a 7, if it's now been classified as a level 5 incident that means things are trending in the right direction. A level 5 is not good but it's a damn sight better than a level 7.

That said, there's all of that spent fuel which is now in a state we don't know about right now. I'm encouraged that there is now serious discussion on the ground of implementing the same solution used at Chernobyl--hit the place with a mixture of sand and boron and then encase the whole thing in concrete. Since the site is absolutely never coming back for power generation encasing all of the damaged reactors in concrete might be the best solution.

Cheers
Aj

I have been thinking about why something like what was used at Chernobyl hasn't been considered- glad it is. Also, I have to realize just how impacted these folks are in terms of this entire disaster. Things might have been very different if they were dealing with only the power plant situation due to some other problem causing it- without a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami.

Last night via CNN, emails were read from power plant workers (that are not at the plants now) and their families (of those that are still working)- gut wrenching. These people are risking their lives to try and save the rest of the population.

[AtLast]

About 4 pm , PST- CNN reporting that back-up generators now working. Possibly the result of new power lines finally completed? But, no real run down on which reactor (s), etc. Still, this seems like a positive thing. Hope to see more info.

[dreadgeek]

IAEA Briefing on Fukushima Nuclear Emergency (18 March 2011, 14:00 UTC)

On 18 March 2011, Graham Andrew, Special Adviser to the IAEA Director General on Scientific and Technical Affairs, briefed both Member States and the media on the current status of nuclear safety in Japan. His opening remarks, which he delivered at 14:00 UTC at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, are provided below:

1. Current Situation

As I reported yesterday, the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants remains very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since our last briefing.

The situation at the reactors at Units 1, 2 and 3 appears to remain fairly stable.

Seawater was injected yesterday into Unit 2 and white smoke was again observed through the blown-out panels.

At Unit 3, which was the subject of helicopter water drops yesterday, water cannons have been spraying water on the spent fuel pond and seawater was injected into the reactor pressure vessel.

An important safety concern remains the spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4. Information is lacking on water levels and temperatures at the spent fuel pools.

Efforts are being made to restore electrical power to the whole site. Another positive development is that diesel generators are providing power for cooling for both Units 5 and 6.

No problems have been reported at the common spent fuel pool. The spent fuel in the pool is fully covered by water.

The Japanese authorities today issued new ratings for the incidents on the IAEA International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale - INES.

They assess core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1, 2 and 3 reactor Units, caused by the loss of all cooling function, as 5 on the INES scale.

The situation at Unit 4, where cooling and water supply in the spent fuel pool have been lost, is rated 3 by the Japanese authorities.

At the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, the loss of cooling functions in Units 1, 2 and 4 has also been rated as 3. All reactor Units at Fukushima Daini are now in a cold shut down condition.

2. Radiation Monitoring

As mentioned yesterday, regular dose rate information is now being received from 47 Japanese cities.

Dose rates in Tokyo and other cities remain far from levels which would require action - in other words they are not dangerous to human health.

First measurements in Tokyo by the Agency's newly arrived radiation monitoring team today showed no indication of Iodine-131 or Caesium-137. A second sampling will be carried out overnight.

3. Agency Activities

As you know, the Director General is in Tokyo, where he met the Prime Minister and other senior government ministers as well as the Vice-President of Tepco. The Director General stressed the importance of providing faster and more detailed information about the situation at the nuclear power plants, including to the international community. He also emphasized the importance of Japan working closely with the international community to resolve the crisis.

There was agreement between the Agency and our Japanese counterparts that the Agency mission would focus on radiation measurements and the identification of Japanese needs for a future environmental monitoring programme.

The Agency has started radiation measurements in Tokyo, as I mentioned, and we will move towards the Fukushima region as soon as possible. The Japanese counterparts confirmed their willingness to further strengthen their cooperation with the Agency and make available measurements made by TEPCO and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The Director General plans to brief the Agency's Board of Governors on his return from Japan.

Following our request yesterday, the CTBTO informed us today that data from its radionuclide monitoring stations will be made available to the Agency with immediate effect. On behalf of the Director General, I express my thanks to CTBTO Executive Secretary, Mr. Tibor Toth.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, in consultation with the Agency and a number of other international organizations, said today that international flight and maritime operations can continue normally into and out of Japan's major airports and sea ports and there is no medical basis for imposing additional measures to protect passengers. This will be kept under review.

Agency staff continue to work around the clock. We intend to hold another Technical Briefing and press conference at the same time tomorrow, Saturday.

[AtLast]

http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011...rnobyl-option/

Famous Physicist Michio Kaku says it's time to call out the Japanese air force to entomb quake-damaged nuclear reactors.

----

I do not know much about this physicist's reputation or credentials- he has been on a couple of shows the last few days talking about this.

Something that does come to mind is the state of Japan'e infrastructure at this time being in chaos- if they can't even get enough food, water and blankets to most of the hardest hit areas of the quake and tsunami- how can this type of "option" be organized and realized?

[MsTinkerbelly]

According to news reports we have begun to receive radiation in California from japan.

[Glenn]

Faux News-According to the USDA, the readings at a Sacramento monitoring station were far below levels that could pose any health risks.

[Martina]

Questions for our science geek:

So are 5 and 6 getting water circulation by way of generator power? i just read that the generators are configured to do that. i am confused.

i also read that TEPCO said not to be optimistic about the pumps working in 2. Then there is 4, which is leaking. And there is no more likelihood that the pumps will be working in1, 3 and 4.

If they are indeep pumping, does the fact that the pumps are working in 5 and 6 mean anything re the other units? i feel like i am doing a close reading of all this and am still not getting it. Some of it is the science, some of it is the fact that there is so much confusion, and some of it is obviously the rotten communication coming from TEPCO and the Japanese government. Even the journalism is weak. i can't see why there isn't some story laying out the possible scenarios. Is it that people just don't know?

So i finally found mention of what would happen if the cooling systems are not functional. People would have to go in and fix or replace them. Is that doable without it being a suicide mission?

i don't understand why unit 4 has a 4 rating while 1, 2, and 3 have a 5. Is it because 4 was shut down before the earthquake hit so there is no fuel in the reactor? It seems like the fact that the unit 4's pool is leaking poses a more immediate danger. i read that if those fuel pellets fall in a heap, fission could resume and that pure water can accelerate fission. i read that the reason they are concentrating on 2 is the radioactive steam that keeps coming out, but at least that means there is water in there. Clearly the pool at 4 may have next to no water inside it. How long can that go on without stuff happening?

So again this is something i have pieced together -- and i am so annoyed that i keep having to do this -- but the mox in some of the spent fuel rods in unit 3 is not a problem because plutonium is so heavy that it is unlikely to disperse in the air and because it won't aggregate enough to explode?

[Martina]

i just read that a residual-heat removal pump at unit 5 has been started. That is good news.

[AtLast]

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/18/134658...clear-Reactors

There is a podcast as well as the transcript.

Guests-

David Lochbaum, director, Nuclear Safety Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, Mass.

David J. Brenner, director, Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.

Charles D. Ferguson, president, Federation of American Scientists, Washington, D.C.

Joe Palca, science correspondent, NPR, Washington, D.C.

[Gayla]

Listening to ABC News on the radio on the way home yesterday and the lead story at the top of the hour was, "Radiation to hit the West Coast within 48 hours!"

They had a reporter talking to a radiation expert something or other here in Seattle who said - yes, there is a small possibility that some type of radiation may arrive on the west coast within the next two days but it's highly unlikely that the amount will be any larger than what we are exposed to every day.

Then they went back to the anchor guy who said - that was so and so at the Univ. of Washington, confirming that radiation from Japan will arrive on the West Coast in 48 hours!

While listening to that, I realized that even if large amounts of radiation come flying across the water, there really isn't anything I can do anyway. I refuse to live, the way I did for a few days, as if the sky is falling. I will pay attention to the people who know things and if they say to panic, I'll panic. In the mean time, I'm much more interested in the other news coming out of Japan right now.

[AtLast]

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar...e-nrc-20110318

Japan nuclear crisis could last for weeks, U.S. nuclear official says