#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: More Details of the SDF Operation "Irrigation"

And your heart will sink after you read them. Mine did. It seems almost delusional to me to think their effort made any difference at all, but this is what is fed to the Japanese public as a piece of reassuring news, who remain hopeful that their government's effort will work. I do hope they are right, and I'm the one who's delusional.

Main points from Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese, emphasis added; 10:07PM JST 3/17/2011):

The Self Defense Force dropped water from their large transport helicopters earlier today (3/17) on the Reactor No.3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Plant, followed by the high-power fire engines spraying water from the ground.

Ministry of Defense announced that 5 high-power fire engines that SDS owns sprayed water aiming at the Spent Fuel Pool on the 5th floor of the Reactor No.3. Initially, the SDS had planned to use 11 fire engines connected with the hose that would extend to the sea, but the radiation level was too high to deploy all 11 engines.

The dousing started at 7:35PM. The operation ended at 8:00PM, total 30 tons of water sprayed from 5 engines. Ministry of Defense claimed all of the water reached the top floor where the Spent Fuel Pool was located, and it would conduct another round of dousing if requested.

In a separate operation, the Police used their high-powered water sprayer [used by the Riot Police to disperse crowds] on the Reactor No.3 around 7:00PM, spraying 5 tons of water in 4 minutes. The water hit the building, but it was not known whether it reached the Pool. The operation was halted as the radiation level was too high. The Police had no further plans to spray water.

The Spent Fuel Pool at the Reactor No.3 is designed to hold 1,500 tons of water. If they can fill 40% of the Pool with water (or 5 meters from the bottom of the pool), the spent fuel rods (length 4.5 meters) will be covered.

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