From TEPCO's page dedicated to the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool fuel removal operation:
Breakdown of transferred assemblies:
Spent fuel: 132 assemblies/1,331 assemblies
Unirradiated (New) fuel: 22 assemblies/ 202 assemblies
So far, no news of major or minor hiccups whatsoever, and the world hasn't ended yet.
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10 comments:
Laprimavera, you are correct, the world hasn't ended yet, but the world that Japan once knew has ended forever.
10% of one spent fuel pool after 3 years? How long before all the spent fuel pools are emptied? 10 years? 20? 30?
Likelihood of a major earthquake in the region ove the next 30 years? Probably close to 100%
Risk of ruin? As close to 100% as to not be worth arguing about.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that pesky little problem about the missing tons of corium.
Yes, the world in Japan hasn't ended...yet
I can't see all the stuff in the blue box fitting into the orange box...
Am I missing something here?
Laprimavera: do not sell the fur, before you shot the bear!
@ Anonymous:
When did they start to remove the fuel elements from reactor 4 SFP to the common pool? 2 months ago?
10% in 2 months could mean 100% in 20 months, not 10, 20, 30 years.
Let us hope that the process will come to a lucky end!
@ Alfred K
Ok, let's just accept that it is possible that emptying SPF 4 goes smoothly without problems and the pool is emptied in 20 months as we'd like to hope.
What about SPF 3? Rad levels so high that it is impossible to enter the building let alone work. Why do you think that pool will be emptied? Before the next earthquake?
Meanwhile as the world sits and waits, rad levels at the plant continue to climb with each passing week making it ever harder to work there. Bremsstrahlung is turning out to be a major problem - Tepco has admitted that nothing can be done about reducing this gamma radiation.
Meanwhile the corii are on an endless rinse and repeat cycle whilst no one in the world knows quite where they are.
The large enka singer is warming up in the wings.
Reactor 3 SFP is next (TEPCO is prepping the site). They are the easier ones because top floors were blown off.
Paul Bancroft makes an interesting observation. The problem is known and dealt with by unloading the common fuel pool of older fuel bundles that can now be air cooled. They enter dry cask storage to be housed elsewhere above ground since they no longer require to be kept in water.
Of course the real problem is where do you store all the spent fuels, radioactive rubble, radioactive contaminated filters, clothes, mask, tools, equipment, heavy equipment and so on. Like Chernobyl you start a graveyard somewhere for the big stuff, bury the rubble and Japan likes to burn the combustibles saying the filters catches the fallout. Then you have more filters to dispose of, a vicious loop.
Not to mention the tanks holding condensed radioactive elements which along with the groundwater table rising due to the underground seaside dam placement, will turn the entire site and parts of Japan into more no go zones. Probably for hundred of years unless there is some simple solution that has been overlooked concerning radioactive material disposal.
Of course the world hasn't ended. There's been no major hiccups.
According to TEPCO.
That 10% rate sounds like the 10% truth that they're feeding the mass media.
10% of one pool?? Great but all reactors have pools and what about the coriums? It looks like a very long way to go.
Besides, fuel removal is like all other nuclear generation work: everything is fine, maybe for tens of years, but you only need one single bad day to spoil the party.
I believe the Russians suggested to stop washing the coriums but not sure what their alternative solution was...
Beppe
Beppe, one at a time is all we can hope for. Russians' suggestion is air-cooling, once the corium is cool enough, and that's what the experts in Japan are considering also.
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