Sunday, April 14, 2013

IAEA Team in Japan to Discuss Progress on Decommissioning of #Fukushima I Nuke Plant


(Huh? That plant needs to stop leaking first.)

From Jiji Tsushin (4/15/2013):

IAEAが調査開始=福島第1原発の廃炉作業

IAEA has started examining the decommissioning work of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant

東京電力福島第1原発で停電による使用済み燃料プールの冷却停止や汚染水漏れなどのトラブルが相次ぐ中、廃炉に向けた取り組みを調べる国際原子力機関(IAEA)調査団が15日までに来日し、同日、調査を開始した。

Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant has been having problems recently such as disruption in cooling Spent Fuel Pools due to power outage and leaks of contaminated water. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has arrived in Japan, and started the examination [of the plant] on April 15.

記者会見した調査団長のファン・カルロス・レンティッホIAEA核燃料サイクル・廃棄物技術部長は「今回は、廃炉に向けた総合的な戦略や計画について評価することが目的だが、汚染水漏れや停電などの問題も調査対象に入っている」と言及。現状認識については、「予備的な情報は把握しているが、この場で意見を申し上げるのは時期尚早だ」と述べるにとどめた。

Juan Carlos Lentijo, Director of Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology at IAEA and the head of the team visiting Japan, said in the press conference, "The purpose of the visit this time is to evaluate the overall strategy and plan for decommissioning, but we will also examine the problems of contaminated water leaks and power outages." As to their understanding of the current situation, he only said that they had preliminary information but it was too early to state their opinion.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great diversion from the real problems. How can you decommission if you have no clue where the coriums are? How can you decommision if there is no equipment that can work inside the leftovers of the buildings? How can you even think of decommision with so many ongoing problems?

Cold Shut Down State = Hot Potato Kabuki of IAEA and Japanese Government

Anonymous said...

Using the term "decommissioning" is a blatant attempt at disinformation. Still calling the place a "nuclear power plant" is a second attempt.

That tells you all you need to know about the effectiveness of the IAEA evaluation of effectiveness of the cleanup..

How about we ask mr Lentijo:

What methods do you use to "evaluate the effectiveness" of the cleanup of a melted down nuclear power plant?

What are the standards by which a meltdown cleanup is gauged? What are the measures you expect to see? What are the measures you are seeing?

What methods are used to model the nuclear fuel and where all the products have gone? What is the likely location of those products today? How much fuel has been lost to what locations and what is the danger to various groups of those contaminations? How do you know?

Until someone starts putting these clowns' feet to the fire and asking them for hard data, and ignoring them if they do not provide it, then they will continue to spew their misinformation freely.



Anonymous said...

I feel WAY better knowing the IAEA is on the job.

Anonymous said...

@above:
Where is the corium? The exact distribution is not known, some of it will lie in the reactor vessel, and some on the concrete basemat below, partially mixed with it, so we have a pretty good idea of where it is, at least the actinides (U, Pu), which have a vey high boiling point and therefore did not evaporate.

Cold shutdown? Yes, definitely. By this time, the decay heat is pretty low. But note that doesn't imply it's not dangerous, as the radiation energy to kill people is low: a deadly dose of 8 Sv will increase your body temperature only ca. 0.002°C (this is why there's no way to feel it). So fetching the stuff now is out of the question.
What they have to do is continue running the closed-loop water and hook up the new ALPS system to it, until they have absorbed sufficiently of the dissolved radionucleides (I reckon this should take ca. 2 years) so they can start to plug the containment holes without getting irradiated by the water.

"Decommissioning a nuclear power plant": Mr. Lentijo, as well as everyone, certainly agrees that this is MUCH harder when the NPP is ruined by an accident. The standard is mainly 1) avoiding danger to surroundings and 2) removing the plant. (1) Will probably take 5-10 years, and (2) anywhere from 20 to 100 - it's better to just let the buildings stand till final decommissioning, so that the radiation is lower when you work.

Where did the products go? This is actually pretty well known, and has been investigated in many papers since the TMI incident. A free one to read, from 1988:
http://pac.iupac.org/publications/pac/pdf/1988/pdf/6003x0323.pdf
Noteworthy:
Table 2: fuel degradation sequence as temperature increases
Figure 7: Cs + I species in the steam + H2 mixture
Tables 3,4 & text: interaction with concrete & volatilization
(In table 4, U & Pu are mistakenly inverted)
(Volatile radioactive species contain mainly Cs, I, Te)
The paper says after 1h interaction with concrete, reactions slow down, because the corium gets diluted. So it's obviously useful to have a thick basemat.

Compared with what really happened, the paper was not far off the mark: the Cs + I + Te did volatilize, with far less Sr and very little U + Pu. Since I-131 and most Te is gone, as well as a good deal of Cs-134, the main long-term danger will be gamma from Cs-137.
Distribution of Cs, I, Te:
http://www.pnas.org/content/108/49/19526.full
Internal contamination of people:
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/89/4/89_PJA8904B-01/_pdf
In contrast to what many believe, the main burden is not from internal contamination, but from direct gamma exposure in contaminated spots.

Anonymous said...

It'd be nice if they spent more time on actually making progress instead of discussing it.

IntelAgent said...

Japan's fukkin DEAD. Watch the bone cancer NOW. ALA strontium, also lymphoma and leukemias. You were warned, Now blow up some more. Lesson NOT LEARNED YET.

Anonymous said...

/stupid assholes.

Anonymous said...

IntelAgent= brainiac Finnish troll

robert deniro said...

It's to big to fuck up, now you're all gobsmacked with a stupid look on your faces with the plan being "look like we have a plan"<true story. Allthewhile the hole gets deeper. Keep ohi running in such a place, start up some others, onward and upward, have some more of your country made unlivable, I mean your country's huge right? You can afford to lose some land say for a lowball figure of 1000 years, you can afford the financial cost your debt to declining national income is only something like 2500%. Your genetics are strong and can recover and repair themselves from nuclear scrambling/deletion and reproductive failure and your offspring can repair themselves when born abnormal mentally and physically/sarc. You kill the fetus if it's physically incorrect, correct. Ahh the superficiality of it, because it's well known the most complicated structure of a human is the brain, can you "see" abnormalities in a fetal brain should the fetus exhibit correct physicality? They will have to be born to "see" if they are mentally correct, what will you do then to a mentally challenged baby or toddler already begun their journey through life? Will you end it to keep up the fucking charade? I THINK YOU WILL! Your behavior thus far allows for some quite succinct clarity. You fucking animals.

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