Tuesday, January 17, 2012

(Birds of a Feather...) Endoscope TEPCO Will Use for Reactor 2 CV Is Made by Olympuss

It was announced on January 17 that boring a hole in the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was successful.

According to NHK News, it took 10 teams of workers, 4 in each team, who had been trained on Reactor 5 as a "mock-up". They received maximum 3 millisieverts radiation for their effort. No information of how long the work lasted.

Some people in Japan watching the NHK News reporting the event wondered, "Whose endoscope is it?" It turns out, most likely, that it is made by Olympus, of "cooking the books" fame.

First, NHK News (1/17/2012). The video clip of the news is at the link for now. (NHK News links are one of the shortest-lived among the Japanese media, on par with Yahoo Japan News.)

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の廃炉作業に向けて、まだ分かっていない格納容器の内部の状況を内視鏡を使って初めて調べるため、17日、2号機で内視鏡を入れる穴を開ける作業が行われました。

On January 17, workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant bored a hole for the endoscope that would be inserted inside the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 to survey the condition inside the Containment Vessel for the first time since the accident.

福島第一原発では、メルトダウンが起きた1号機から3号機の溶けた核燃料の状態や、格納容器の内部の詳しい状況が分かっておらず、今後の廃炉に向けた作業や、安定した冷却を続けるうえで、大きな課題となっています。

At Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, the condition of melted fuels in Reactors 1, 2 and 3 and the condition inside the Containment Vessels are not yet known. The information is vital to the future decommissioning work and to the stable cooling of the reactors.

このため東京電力は、まず2号機の格納容器について、高い放射線量に耐えられる工業用の内視鏡を入れて、内部の状況や温度を詳しく調べることになりました。17日は、19日に予定している調査に向けて、原子炉建屋1階の北西側に作業員が入り、格納容器に配管などを差し込む予備用の貫通部に内視鏡を入れる穴を開ける作業を行いました。

TEPCO has decided to use an industrial-grade endoscope that can operate under the high radiation and survey the condition inside the Containment Vessel of Reactor 2 and measure the temperature. On January 17, as a preparation for the survey on January 19, workers entered the northwest corner of the 1st floor of the reactor building and bored a hole at a location on the Containment Vessel where pipes would be inserted [as necessary?].

作業は4人1組で、10組、合わせて40人の態勢で行い、東京電力によりますと、短時間に作業を終えるため、2号機と同じタイプの5号機などで訓練を繰り返してきたということで、17日の作業での被ばく線量は最大で3ミリシーベルトだったということです。東京電力では、17日の作業が順調に進んだことから、予定どおり19日、格納容器に内視鏡を入れるということで、格納容器の内部が観察できれば、2号機が初めてとなります。

The work was done by 40 workers in 10 teams, with each team consisting of 4 workers. According to TEPCO, they had been training on Reactor 5 as a mock-up exercise in order to complete the work in a short period of time. Reactor 5 is the same type as Reactor 2. The radiation exposure for the workers for the January 17 work was maximum 3 millisieverts. Now that the work has been successfully completed, TEPCO will proceed as scheduled, inserting the endoscope on January 19. If successful, Reactor 2's Containment Vessel interior will be viewed for the first time [since the accident].

(The following images are taken from this blog site.)

Here's the screen shot from the NHK News:


Here's at the Olympus site:


10 comments:

Nancy said...

TEPCO ordered a radiation proof scope camera from a Swedish firm late last year. So did they not use it and instead used one from Olympus or did someone at NHK get lazy and just grabbed a copy of any scope camera? Hitachi-GE ordered the ISEC camera in December. http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=4243

Anonymous said...

Are they going to post the names of the 40 people that they just sentenced to death?

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@Nancy, NHK's info is grabbed from TEPCO.

Chibaguy said...

まだ分かっていない格納容器の内部の状況を内視鏡を使って初めて調べるため、

Yup, we at Tepco have no idea what the conditions are inside the reactor and this is the first time we will actually get a clue. This being said, the cold shutdown state will stay in place no matter what we find. Have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ultraman can you post this ipetition up and maybe this video below. its Evacuate Fukushima petition.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/evacuate_fukushima/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3EiZI6CuHc&feature=colike

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Containment vessel is getting a colonoscopy--ouch

Atomfritz said...

We'll probably see only a part of the really interesting things, depending on where the borehole exactly is located.

Anyway, I am waiting for the pictures like a child is awaiting Christmas :0

When they drilled into the Chernobyl reactor, they were surprised to find that it was completely void of nuclear fuel, which had flowed into the basement,

So be prepared for the possibility that there will be only pictures of an disappointingly empty reactor vessel...

Anonymous said...

The jumpers at Chernobyl had Sony cameras strapped to the poles they were using trying to assess the damage.

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting to see, for sure, but I expect to not see anything much. It's probably rather foggy. Temperature and radiation measurements (especially neutron count) will sure come in handy, though.

Anonymous said...

Nancy,
thank you for that simplyinfo link, it contained the Atlantic bit about the on-site inspectors.
Pipefitter's nightmare.


Fritz,
I'll be surprised if they even get inside the RPV.

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