TEPCO Did the Water Clarity Survey of Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool, Says Fuku-I Worker

(UPDATE: The worker was right. I posted the TEPCO's video of the Reactor 4 SFP in my new post.)

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For now, it's nothing but "hearsay" from the worker who tweets from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. But it looks TEPCO is going to let us see the what the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 is like under the water pretty soon.

The worker who tweets from Fuku I says TEPCO just did a survey of water clarity in the Reactor 4 SFP, and is getting ready to video the pool with the underwater camera.

今日は4号機で東電がSFPの透明感調査したみたい。ホントは先週やるはずだったんだけどね。

It seems TEPCO measured the clarity of water in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool today. They were supposed to do it last week.

今回の調査データを基に水中遊泳カメラで見れる日も近いでし。プール内は冷却注水を止めてしばらくすれば、うっすら燃料を目視で見れるんだけどね。ﾌﾛｰﾄ養生する前にプール内を見たときは、思ってたほど瓦礫はなかったよいな気がする。

Based on today's data, soon we'll be able to see the pool with the underwater camera. In fact, you can vaguely discern the fuel rods with naked eyes after the water injection to the pool is stopped. When I looked at the pool before we installed the floats to protect the pool, I don't think I saw as much debris as I had expected.

手摺とかは落ちてたけど…。燃料もﾗｯｸに納まってたし燃料ﾗｯｸも倒れてなかったよ。いずれにしても近い内にはっきりするでし。あとマスコミ視察もｵﾍﾟﾌﾛまではわかんないけど、4号機の間近まではいけるかもでし。

I did see some hand rails... The fuel rods were in the fuel rack, and the rack was standing. Anyway, we'll find out soon. When the media comes for another tour, they may be able to go near Reactor 4, if not on the operation floor.

So much has been speculated about Reactor 4, in particular outside Japan where some experts and some bloggers have been saying anything from "Reactor 4 is leaning like the Tower of Pisa" to "Reactor 4 building is falling apart"; some with what they say as "proof" (statements from an insider expert in Japan), some with nothing but fantasy from looking at the photographs showing controlled removal of debris. Some still insist that there is fuel core in the RPV, though I simply don't know how it is possible when you see the lid of the Containment Vessel having neatly set aside on the operation floor, with all the equipment that was to go inside the RPV is submerged in the DS Pool.

It will be nice to at least see the spent fuel (and fuel core removed from the RPV) actually in the rack, undisturbed, as the worker claims. Load-bearing walls falling down and taking the SFP down is another matter.

The last image of the Reactor 4 SFP is from May 2011, which you can view on my post here.

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