Sunday, April 3, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Special Polymer + Newspaper + Sawdust Failed

(More sad info on my later post, here.)

(Hello Murphy....)

Just listened to the opening of TEPCO's press conference that started around 5:30PM JST on April 3, live on the net:

We tried to stop the water in the electrical trench closer to the junction [where the electrical trench meets the pipe trench], using special polymer (the same one that is used in disposable diapers, that one), newspaper, and sawdust.

However, so far there has been no discernible decrease in the amount of water gushing from the pit.

However, we don't see sawdust coming out, either. So the sawdust stays somewhere in between. [Talking about stating the obvious...]

We're moistening the sawdust with water so that it would be more effective in plugging the water.

We will continue the operation tomorrow and see what happens.

We are considering using a tracer (colored water) to figure out where the water is going. We will start preparation tonight.

Good night, sweet dreams. With newspaper and sawdust. That's charming. I hope they will work tomorrow, for a change.

But as for the colored water..... shouldn't they have done that before they pour concrete in the pit?

Sort of like laying the power cables all over before asking the SDF to push the debris aside with their tanks... The tanks sit nearby, unused.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing about not trying flourescein dye tracing first. Though, dumping a tin of it into a reactor basement full of highly radioactive water, making it bright fluorescent green as well... maybe it's just too much of a cartoon cliche to contemplate?

As for the tank(s), they did use them a little. The area where the red Putzmeister truck is now, next to #4, was bulldozed clear of rubble to get the truck in. Check out the high-res images, compared to previous ones.

Where are the power cables? Can you spot them in the images? I can only see lots of white and yellow fire hoses laying all over the place.

Anonymous said...

The other thing I find disturbing is they said this may not be the only leak it is just one that they found. The picture they showed above ground at the pit had a nice hefty crack that was about 12' long leading right to the pit I bet that crack is a lot longer than what you can see in the picture's field of view. So much for the plant integrity surviving the quake. BTW does anyone know what the Richter scale was at the NPP the 9 magnitude was pretty far away.

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