Part of the contaminated water treatment system being readied at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is the cesium absorption tower using the technology of Kurion, a US start-up with very little information on their corporate website.
TEPCO discovered that not enough water was flowing through one of the 4 subsystems, and suspects it's clogged up somewhere.
And a bit of new information that the Kurion's system removes not just cesium but technetium and iodine, according to the press conference handout from TEPCO which is found below.
By the way, the number of pipe leaks in the Areva's system was not "over 10". Well, it was "over ten" for sure, but it was actually 48.
From Yomiuri Shinbun (11:45AM JST 6/12/2011; diagram of Kurion's system added):
東京電力は１２日、福島第一原子力発電所にたまった高濃度汚染水を処理する装置の試運転が、１３日以降にずれ込む可能性があると発表した。
TEPCO announced on June 12 that the test run of the system to treat highly contaminated water at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant would be delayed after June 13.装置の一部で水が十分に流れないトラブルが発生したためで、原因究明を急いでいる。
The delay was due to the problem in one of the systems where less amount of water was processed than planned. TEPCO is investigating.
米キュリオン社製のセシウムを吸着して除去する装置で、４系統ある処理過程のうち１系統でポンプを動かしても十分な量の水が流れず、どこかで詰まっている可能性がある。残り３系統だけで動かすこともできるが、その場合、処理速度は７５％に落ちるという。
The system in question is the Cesium Absorption Tower by the US company Kurion. There are 4 subsystems, and the water that flowed through one of them was much less than planned. It is possible that the subsystem is clogged somewhere. TEPCO could run the remaining 3 subsystems, but the water processing speed would decrease to 75% of the full capacity.
[Diagram of Kurion's system, English labels added; from TEPCO's press conference handout on June 12]
水漏れの可能性がある配管接続部４８か所の補修と、１１日に不具合が見つかったポンプの制御プログラムの修正は完了した。
TEPCO finished the repair of the 48 leaks in the pipes. The company also finished correcting the mistakes in the software program that controls the pumps, which were discovered on June 11.
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12 comments:
Fukushima on the Hudson: The Indian Point nuclear power plant is 25 miles from New York City and leaking radiation from a decrepit 40 year old plant. Cancer rates are 66% higher around the area. The plant contains the equivalent radiation of 1000 Hiroshima bombs. We have no workable evacuation plan for the 20 million people living in a 50 mile radius. Please help us get our voice heard by liking us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/ShutDownIndianPointNow
Thank you!
Smoke coming from reactor 4 ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIa6yble2gk&feature=player_embedded
Thanks for your informations every day
Hélios
Yes! We cannot thank you enough! Without your site the world would be almost completely in the dark about what is happening! The American msm is complicit in the cover-up. Since they are controlled by the government they are complicit also. This situation dropped off the American msm radar long ago.
I just hope they pressure tested the piping before rushing into production with this treatment plant. Sounds like this system was rushed into production. Someone needs to sound a voice of reason and put this thing through its paces on regular water, and perform a proper commissioning/startup.
Robbie001 sez:
Maybe they tried to fix the leaks with baby diaper gel? With TEPCO's luck I wouldn't be surprised if the water bursts into flames when they finally get this thing working.
Kurion talks a lot about how great their stuff works but why were they kept such a secret after their claim of great success cleaning up TMI? You'd think the nuclear industry would be using the Kurion process in all their nuclear renaissance public relations as an end to all their waste storage problems. Instead Areva was trying to use a contractual agreement to keep everything hush, hush. I've got the feeling Kurion doesn't want to much scrutiny because they don't know how well their ISM filtration material will work. It might work great on the equivalent of nuclear mineral water but they are filtering nuclear soup. From all Kurion's PR their ISM material may be the best stuff for the job but the best might not be good enough.
I predict the system will have problems at some point in the future because it has to run for months 24/7 to reach TEPCO's 1200 tons "treated" per day target. Remember this thing was tossed together in an exclusion zone by people working under extreme conditions and time constraints. The chance is high that some corners were cut to meet deadlines and then there is always the possibility of aftershocks that could put them back to square one. If they can manage at least 1000 tons a day and keep it running for two months straight I'll be impressed. That would give them 60,000 tons of breathing room but if the system can only process 600 tons a day or less they may not be able to keep up with cooling needs of the facility. Remember they intend to recirculate the treated water for recontamination how many tons do they need for the facility each day? If the efficiency is too low they may need a whole other treatment plant if they actually want to make headway against the tide.
Wonderful blog. My prime source of verified information. Thanks for you dedication; I am sure it's appreciated by many people.
Why the secrecy of Kurion units?
Perhaps smaller units have been placed around one or more US nuke plants to "tidy up the joint."
Anybody notice any recent, semi-major construction around nuke plants that are long established? If so, that may be Kurion slipping into the situation and keeping its secrets. Certainly, no one is going to want to reveal such info in gov't or industry. And if the tainted water was kept on site, whose to know?
Jesus H. Christ! Will the nuclear industry ever stop lying to us?? When I was a kid in the 1950's iremember that nuclear power was going to be so cheap they weren't even going to meter your usage, just a small flat fee for everyone. HA-HA, HA-HA, HA-HA! Crap, they never mentioned nuke waste or accidents or
Fuck-u-shima. What a crappy industry!!
Agree that this blog is a real resource.
So am asking the readers to chip in.
As the site gathers reputation, costs go up.
That donate button on this site was presumably there for a reason.
Did you see who is in Kurion?
"The advisory board includes Patrick Moore, the Greenpeace founding member turned nuclear advocate. Moore is the co-chair, along with former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, a lobbying group for the nuclear industry."
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/start-up-to-turn-nuclear-waste-to-glass/
Dominique Guillet
Robbie001 sez:
The greentechmedia article is full of inaccuracies they act like fuel reprocessing was never tried in the US. They fully ignore the huge commercial failure the West Valley New York reprocessing facility was. That's normal though most nuclear apologist do their best to ignore West Valley or they wrongly claim it was an experimental project.
http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/decommissioning/decommissioninghome.htm
http://concernedcitizens.homestead.com/maplink_westvalley.html
http://www.digitup.org/
They also act like reprocessing makes less waste when it actually increases the volume of waste up 6 to 20 times.
www.ucsusa.org/assets/.../nuclear.../nuclear-reprocessing-factsheet.pdf
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/loser-recycling-a-bad-idea
http://www.cleanwateraction.org/blog/reprocessing-nuclear-waste-%E2%80%93-how-make-bad-situation-worse
They also act like vitrification is something new. The first pilot vitrification plant was built in Marcoule, France in 1967. The West Valley facility operates a vitrification plant so does the Defense Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River.
They also confuse the role of the NRC and the DOE. They claim the NRC is responsible for the nuclear waste and they would be a good future customer. It is the DOE that is responsible for nuclear waste the NRC just regulates the "safe" use of civilian nuclear materials.
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