Sunday, April 17, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO's Schedule for Winding Down the Crisis in 6 to 9 Months Even If Containment Vessels Are Cracked

as delivered by the TEPCO chairman Katsumata in the press conference on April 17:

  • Step 1: 3 months till the radiation level starts to decline steadily.

  • Step 2: 3 to 6 months till the [release of the] radioactive materials are well controlled and the radiation level declines significantly.

Total process to last 6 to 9 months.

I'm reading the 7-page handout (in Japanese) that TEPCO distributed for the press conference that details out the specific tasks to achieve the goals (that they call "Steps 1 and 2"). So far I haven't find anything that is different from what TEPCO has been doing for the past month.

From the handout:

TEPCO's three areas of work:

  • Cooling the reactors/spent fuel pools
  • Suppressing the radioactive materials
  • Radiation monitoring and removal of radioactive materials

Pages 3 and 4 have some interesting information about the current status of the reactors as TEPCO sees them:

In Reactors 1, 2 and 3, the fuel pellets are partially damaged but they are being cooled by water; continue injecting fresh water, and come up with other cooling systems.
Currently injecting fresh water into Reactor Pressure Vessels, but the risk is that the steam within the Containment Vessel will condense due to lower temperature [of the RPV], increasing the amount of hydrogen and the chance of a hydrogen explosion.

In Reactors 1, 2, and 3, there is a high possibility that the small amount of radioactive steam has been escaping from the Containment Vessels through cracks (or gaps, openings) that had been caused by the high temperature.

Cracks? So it's not just the matter of the Suppression Pool of the Reactor 2 broken.

Now, the altered New York Times article from March comes to mind. Before it was altered, the article quoted a Japanese nuclear industry expert saying there was a huge crack up and down the Reactor 3's Containment Vessel and there was no way they could seal that crack.

So what else will TEPCO and the national government be dribbling out, over the next 9 months? They will extend and pretend as long as necessary until the weary citizens and residents of Japan simply don't care any more, as they will let their children play in the contaminated school yards and eat contaminated vegetables and fish to support the farmers and fishermen, and tell themselves everything will be just fine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The monsoon season is coming. Somehow I doubt that, when the yellow rain drenches Tokyo, the pretense will still hold.

As sad as that may sound, TEPCO and the Japanese gov't are nowhere near as pro-active and decisive as the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Red Army were.

The Soviets shook off their paralysis in less than 48 hours. Japan is still running a spray, pray and lie operation nearly a month in.

M. Simon said...

Winds - coming attractions.

Anonymous said...

Here's a question for Ann Coulter, why did all the "radiation is good for you" craze of the 1920's and 1930's literally die away in the US? There used to be lots of radiation charged systems to deliver "healthful" doses of radium to drinking water, radium bread, and thorium to toothpaste.

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/quackcures.htm

The nuclear industry is always looking for innovative ways to dump radioactive waste on the public. In addition to shooting DU at enemy armor they sell a NAC (nicotine alkaloid control plate to mild down cigarettes. (No thanks, I think I'll just quit smoking)

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/nacplate.htm

It seems Japan has a love affair with everyday micro radiation. I guess these companies will be going out of business now that TEPCO is handling out healthful radiation for free.

Fukushima water will be especially pure

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/wellaquabar.htm

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/kometatsukun.htm

The local Onsens should market the the benefits

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/tamagawa.htm

Who's going to need a radioactive purification plate now? If you want one just open your windows nature will take care of the rest

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/wellaquaplate.htm

No more sore elbows

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/elbowsupporter.htm

Radium toothpaste

http://books.google.com/books?id=K7WvwZlc72MC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=Radiogen+toothpaste&source=bl&ots=5HSRB5ANvq&sig=l9L2apKMr35M4K1G4vve76tk6cY&hl=en&ei=FImqTbyNLens0gHlouD4CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Radiogen%20toothpaste&f=false

Anonymous said...

You can be sure a predetermined clean-up schedule is going to involve a lot of short cuts and safety standard revisions. I don't see how this is anything more than a fond wish all it will take is bit more bad luck to erase this plan. They are claiming the recent rise in ocean radiation might be due to offshore sediment being disturbed by a radiation "trapping" seawall they are building. If this is true then what is going to happen when storms stir up the sediment in the coming months? If it isn't true they may have more leaks from the recent earthquakes.

In addition they plan to use a hodgepodge of inappropriate containers for the millions upon millions of gallons of high level rad waste they are generating everyday. In the real world waste this dangerous would be stored in hardened casks not single hulled ships. This is the kind of stuff the USSR did and Russia still does. I find it laughable that the Russian's are all indignant about Japan dumping radioactive waste in the ocean when they have been doing the same for decades.

http://www.bellona.org/subjects/Dumping_of_radwaste_at_sea

http://www.bellona.org/subjects/Nuclear_Russia

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/russia111698.htm

Step one better happen before the wind changes and the monsoon season starts or they might be back to step zero.

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