Monday, July 11, 2011

#Water Treatment System Stopped at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Due to Another Leak at AREVA's System

It's so deja vu that I didn't even realize the news is for today. Another pipe with similar coupling as the one that leaked on Saturday leaked on Tuesday morning, July 12 in Japan, causing the contaminated water treatment system to stop.

So, when TEPCO did the repair on that joint on Sunday their time, and said there were at least 6 others like that, the company didn't bother to change the other 6 at the same time.

So I guess there may be at least 5 more leaks to go.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (12:17PM 7/12/2011):

東京電力は12日、福島第一原子力発電所の汚染水処理システムが午前8時51分に緊急停止したと発表した。

TEPCO announced on July 12 that the contaminated water treatment system stopped at 8:51AM at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

 システムのうち、仏アレバ社の沈殿・除去装置で薬液を注入する配管の接続部付近から水漏れが見つかったためで、原因を調査中。システム再開の見通しは立っていない。原子炉への注水は継続している。

A leak was found near the coupler that joins the hose that injects chemical to AREVA's coagulation/coprecipitation unit. The cause of the leak is being investigated, and it is not known when the system will be re-started. The cooling of the reactors using the treated water continues regardless.

 東電によると、同40分ごろ、作業員が水漏れに気づき、手動停止した。10日に薬液混じりの汚染水約50リットルが漏れ出すトラブルがあった場所の近くで、この時はポリ塩化ビニール製の継ぎ目を金属製のものと交換、13時間後に復旧させた。今回の水漏れとの関係は不明。

According to TEPCO, a worker noticed the leak at about 8:40AM, and manually stopped the system. The leak was near the spot where 50 liters of contaminated water with chemical had leaked on July 10. The PVC coupler had been replaced with a metal one, and the system was re-started after 13 hours. It is not known if today's leak has anything to do with the previous leak nearby.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Area was already making "king kong, we are the best to french press" ; ie http://bit.ly/q3PiyU


For my calculs, if all water is like the one on the TEPCO sample of July the 5th (japanese handout #3 of the 7th), there will be 10 E+15 Bq into the 5000 T of Areva's sludge.

Fall Out Man! said...

I can understand why they did not fix the others. The area is so radioactive that no one would want to spend more time there fixing anything than absolutely necessary. That is part of the problem with nuke plants. They need maintenance, but no one wants to maintain them due to the health hazzards. So maintenance becomes expensive, and is simply not done. Fukushima won't be the only plant in both Japan and the west with weak pipes about to fail. Fukushima just happened to be the first to explode so publicly that way.

Anonymous said...

>>10 E+15 Bq into the 5000 T of Areva's sludge.

that's as of today. But this corium is leaking out through concrete (said to be). it is mixing with the water. So the figure is not only increasing, it is simply impossible to manage to filter out all the corium from the water. It is an insane project if the corium's hole through the concrete gets worst. But it can only get worst.

Anonymous said...

i'd like to interview you when i am on the mainland. can give you more info privately. hopefully you can see my email @ddress. otherwise, contact via http://coconutgirlwireless.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/was-the-hawaii-tsunami-actually-a-drill/ CGW is a surfer grrl eco blog mag we're doing a complete revamp and Grand Reopening (or as I've seen in small-town Hawaii: Re-Grand Opening). anyway, u're one of our heros during this mess. Been using Facebook more than my site for Fukushima commentary - but alas, people, they no care. Main goal, save the children of Fukushima (and beyond). xoxo

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