Thursday, January 19, 2012

Reactor 2 Containment Vessel Endoscopy Photos

(UPDATE 1/19/2012: For the video digest, go to my latest post on the subject, here.)
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Just released during the press conference, which you can view at this link.

At 9:13AM on January 19, the temperature inside as measured by the endoscope was 44.7 degrees Celsius.

6 TEPCO employees and 28 affiliate workers, with maximum 3.07 millisieverts radiation exposure.

The video will be uploaded tomorrow.

In the photos, white dots are gamma rays.

From TEPCO's handout for the press, January 19, 2011:

Inside the pipe (before the Containment Vessel):




Inside surface of the Containment Vessel. Paint looks peeling:

At the grating (OP. 9500): no water was seen. OP 9500 is the level of the floor. OP 5480 is the bottom of the CV. TEPCO was expecting to see water at OP 9500.


Looking up inside the CV:

14 comments:

Ben Camp said...

China Syndrome!!!!

Anonymous said...

just one thought, endoscopes have a lens at the end of the probe, then a long length of fiberoptics and then the camera is in the control box that the operator has in his hands, so the image should not be effected by the radiation. Take a look at the pictures from inside the Simi valley reactor melt down or the corium pictures from chernobyl accident. TEPCO has added the radiation fogging. Typical TEPCO BS.

no6ody said...

If there's no water, it must be leaking out, probably following the melted fuel, but what do I know.

I wanted to 'Babelfish' the labels on the drawings (I can't do it from the photos thoughtfully provided here), but it seems that T3Pco's handout for the press has been replaced by a blank white page. It is possible that my ancient laptop lacks the software to properly view the PDF, or it is possible that T3Pco has made an 'error.' What to think?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." Mark Twain

Anonymous said...

TEPCO is expert at hiding bad news in photos and videos. Just look at the TBS/JNN webcam feeds..they have "FOG"..so no vision of the facility, on purpose. Would not even trust the photos --no GPS locator markings..thoy could be from the Reactor 5 test in November. Whose to say when credibilty is zero...

Anonymous said...

for me it looks like the water surface at op 9500 if you look closely at the pictures...
But if even Tepco says it is not there maybe I m wrong...
And radiation interference is upwards higher than downwards...

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous JANUARY 19, 2012 5:37 AM

I don't think the Chernobyl or Simi valley pictures were taken with digital cameras. Digital sensors manifest radiation effects different from tube based TV video cameras or film.

No doubt TEPCO is full of BS, but you're theory is not realistic.

Anonymous said...

What is that, gamma water drizzle causing the fogging in the Self Abuse Picture For the Public called "Looking up inside the CV" ?

Anonymous said...

Focus people. If there is no water then the fuel, (if there is actually any fuel left) is in danger of exploding without the water to cool it.

If neither water nor fuel is present, Fukushima is in China Syndrome.

This is not a joke. The entire planet is in trouble. No one can "move" to get away from it.

Anonymous said...

The joke appears once again to be TEPCO.

Comments elsewhere have indicated the camera could withstand 1000 Sieverts.

Yet this camera could not be held in one place too long.
Are we to believe the level exceeded 1000 Sieverts ?

Atomfritz said...

"Are we to believe the level exceeded 1000 Sieverts ?"

The definition of "camera radiation hardness" is the question.
Usually it's defined by how many sieverts can the camera chip survive before becoming permanently destroyed.
The question of the maximal radiation level the camera can withstand without distortions is a completely different thing.

The old Sony cameras used at Chernobyl had way bigger sensor chip structures than these endoscope microcameras I suppose being used at Fukushima. The smaller electronic chip structures are, the more sensitive against radiation they become.

And regarding the possible doses: A spent fuel assembly that has cooled down for one year gives a dose of about 500 Sieverts in a distance of one meter from the side, and still a minimum of 50 Sieverts when measured in a distance of 1 meter from the tip (minimal exposure).

And there were about 200 fuel assemblies in the reactor.
So we actually cannot exclude the possibility that there are points of more than a thousand sieverts of radiation in the containment vessel, depending on how much of the strong short-halflife gamma emitters like cesium still are in the reactor and didn't escape to the air or to the basement.

Anonymous said...

And your reply, excellent as it is, obligates TEPCO to stop referring to 'cold shutdown' in #2.


I retract my comment of 7:54 AM.

Anonymous said...

In other words, what you are seeing in the "Looking up inside the CV" is not self-abuse, it is evidence of A True Mess.

robertb said...

Ahhhhh cold shutdown. Doesn't look like cold shutdown to me. Looks like a horrible fucked up mess.

Anonymous said...

Well, well. I hate being right. This stuff is far from informative, although the temp is good news (in that the other thermocouples in there seem to be working all right).

That grating fascinates me. I think it should be imaged again.

There would be a hole in it, I think, if the fuel had flowed that way. Maybe it is still in the RPV?

Anyway, the real bad news is TEPCO's predicted water level not matching the actual water level. Where did the water go? 1 meter of difference makes for a lot of volume!

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