SARRY, a cesium absorption system in the contaminated water treatment complex at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was stopped when the extremely high radiation of 3 sieverts/hour was detected during the operation to exchange the cesium towers.
From Asahi Shinbun (9:37PM JST 8/22/2011):
東京電力は２２日、福島第一原発の高濃度の放射能汚染水を浄化する施設で、新たに導入した東芝製の装置「サリー」から毎時約３シーベルトという高い放射線量が観測されたため、部品交換できずに処理が停止していると発表した。
TEPCO announced on August 22 that a high radiation of about 3 sieverts/hour was detected at Toshiba's SARRY which was recently introduced as part of the contaminated water treatment system at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Due to the high radiation, TEPCO could not exchange parts [cesium towers], and the water processing [using SARRY?] had to be stopped.
東電によると、サリーは１８日に運転を始め、２２日朝からセシウムを吸着する部品を初めて取りかえる作業を行っていた際、配管の一部で高い放射線を観測した。線量を下げないと部品が交換できないため、東電は水で配管内の放射性物質を洗い流そうとしているという。
SARRY started the full operation on August 18. According to TEPCO, workers were exchanging the parts that absorb cesium for the first time in the morning of August 22, when they found a spot with high radiation on a pipe in the system. Unless the radiation level gets lower, the workers cannot exchange the parts. TEPCO is trying to flush out the radioactive materials in the pipe with water.
So, as with Kurion's system, Toshiba's SARRY also needs human intervention to exchange highly contaminated cesium absorption towers. Toshiba's towers supposedly have built-in lead sleeves inside the towers, but it is the pipe that's radiating 3 sieverts/hour radiation.
Oops. When it comes down to, it is the basic items like pipes, pipe fittings, hoses and pumps that give.
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15 comments:
That water is just absurdly hot. A 3 sievert dose from a pipe suggests the inside of the plant is hellish.
It seems that there are perhaps radioactive particles in the water, as well as dissolved radio nucleotides. Still, seen that the water undergoes a preliminary process for oil removal, it is surprising that there is no prefilter that might catch these.
In any event, this should remind everyone that the water in the plant is a disaster and that cleaning it up must be the top priority.
If the system works as designed to remove the radioactive isotopes, then the better it works, the more radioactive it will be. This is actually good news, because it shows that the system is removing the contamination. If the system didn't get hot, then it would mean that it wasn't working.
Their mistake is not making the whole thing remotely controllable.
Has anyone made the crass comment of "Sarry is the closest thing to an apology that we'll ever get from TEPCO"?
"Oops. When it comes down to, it is the basic items like pipes, pipe fittings, hoses and pumps that give."
They appear to have Concepts that are giving [way].
"If the system works as designed to remove the radioactive isotopes, then the better it works, the more radioactive it will be. This is actually good news .."
Well, yeah. Double-plus good, actually.
"In any event, this should remind everyone that the water in the plant is a disaster and that cleaning it up must be the top priority."
It is a disaster and it must be done.
"A 3 sievert dose from a pipe suggests the inside of the plant is hellish."
And some dare say based on Kazuma Obara's limited experience "I had been exposed to 60 microsieverts in the space of six hours". "You can do worse than that on a transatlantic flight."
"If the system works as designed to remove the radioactive isotopes, then the better it works, the more radioactive it will be. This is actually good news, because it shows that the system is removing the contamination. If the system didn't get hot, then it would mean that it wasn't working."
Wrong! If this was something good they wouldn't have to stop the system and deal with the ramifications. This sludge still has to be handled and stored and the hotter it is the harder it is to handle and the less that can be stored in one place.
"Their mistake is not making the whole thing remotely controllable."
They can't get the manual system to work and you want to introduce a whole other set of problems? It can take years to design and debug fully automated systems and TEPCO didn't even have weeks to come up with the current system they were treading water. You might as well say they should have put the first system together and made it work perfectly.
I'm a little confused. When I run that page at Asahi Shinbun through Google translate, it comes up at 3 mSv/hour. That's still pretty hot but not as alarming as 3 Sv/hour. I know machine translation is not super-reliable but that's a pretty big discrepancy. Could you please explain?
Ask Google. 3 "shiberuto" is 3 sieverts. There is no milli anywhere in Japanese. It is a huge discrepancy, as you say, and that's why people don't trust machine translation, particularly Google. "Not super-reliable" is an understatement.
TEPCO does not have 22 facilities either. It's just August 22. It's not Sally either, but SARRY, and it didn't start operation on May. Oh boy this is one of the worst Google translation I've seen so far..
SARRY Acronim, [Cesium] Slurry Removal Array
@ Anon 5:27 PM
To remove the contamination from a gazillion gallons of water, you have to concentrate the contamination and de-water it. That means the things that do the concentration (i.e. the filters) will get very hot. I was inartful when I said the "whole thing" needed to be automated. Actually, what I meant was that the changing of the cesium absorbtion towers needed to be done without human intervention due to the high radioactivity. That would mean either remote control or automation. My bad.
There are a ton of details that go into the design and build of something like the water treatment system that they have cobbled together. Having operated water treatment systems, I can guarantee that, due to the extreme urgency to get something, anything working, there are going to be a lot of things that are going to come back and bite them. In fact, this is exactly what has been happening, as our gracious host has carefully documented. But, yes, under ordinary circumstances, you want to put something together first and get all the bugs out before you start relying on it. There simply wasn't enough time to do that in this case. In a certain sense, they are still in "emergency mode" and will continue to be for some time until they can slowly get things under control.
First concentrate a huge amount of power into a little capsel, then drop it into a kettle. And the steam comes out and you have a fan, you know, with a dynamo, that makes electricity almost for free for forty or fivety years... This is Magic.
If the kettle becomes too hot, open the cap. There is steam filling the room, condensing on the walls and everything, but you don't care... this is Magic.
If the kettle is a bit broken, it leaks. So spray water consistently on the kettle, and collect the water that leaks, and separate it into cool water like we want to swim in it, and hot water that is too hot for us, that you lock up in bottles, and keep them in a safe place in the backyard. Is that Magic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcOol3KJscc&feature=player_embedded#!
Thanks for addressing the Google translation issues. In a way, I hate to believe that they are trying to deal with 3 Sv of radiation. I am very frightened for northern Japan and the employees at Tepco.
O/T Post
Rare 5.9 Earthquake strikes US east coast 2:00 pm EST centered in Mineral Virgina Va. felt from North Carolina to New York.
It seems Lake Anna nuclear power plant is running on backup generators.
"Four diesel generators automatically came on to power the plant and are working well, Stuckle said".
http://energy.aol.com/2011/08/23/north-anna-nuke-plant-trips-offline-in-earthquake/
It seems that all the commentators believe in voodoo or black magic when discussing Toshiba´s SARRY. But the truth is, all the radioactivity of the contaminated water must be absorbed by the absorber media (zeolite and/or silica). The SARRY system contains roughly 140 tons of absorber material (10 cylinders, 1.4m diameter, 3.6m heigth, estimated material density 2.5 tons/m³). The contaminated water has an activity of approx. 4 Sv/h and the processing capacity is claimed to be 1200 tons per day. This result an an accumulated activity of 1200/140*4= 34.3 Sv/h per day for the absorbants. Tepco said the SARRY was run 4 days (Aug 18. to 22.). This would result in an activity of the absorbant media of approx. 140 Sv/h. Even when they would exchange the absorbants each day this material would have approx. 35 Sv/h. And this is the theoretical lower limit, which cannot reached in a real system.
Did anybody hear how often the absormant will be exchanged, and where the extremely contaminated absorbant will be stored?
In my view, all these decontamination activities do not work at all and Tepco wants the people make believe, they undertake every effort to bring the "problem under control". Shame on them.
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