Thursday, April 17, 2014

#Fukushima I NPP: Highly Contaminated Water from Turbine Buildings Routed to Wrong Buildings, and the Reason May Not Be What You Think


In fact, one of the long-time workers who tweet from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, "Sunny", seems to suspect a 'foul play'.

When I first read the document TEPCO submitted to Nuclear Regulation Authority regarding this incident two days ago, I simply could not comprehend. After reading equally incomprehensible accounts by the mainstream newspapers, NHK (link won't last), and TEPCO's press release (4/16/2014), I think I have finally figured it out.

Here's what seems to have happened between April 10 and April 13 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in transferring highly contaminated water from the basements of the turbine buildings which comes from the basements of the reactor buildings where core melt had happened in March 2011:

1. The water gets highly contaminated after it is injected into the reactor pressure vessels and comes in contact with the corium. The water accumulates in the basements of the reactor buildings, then it leaks into the adjacent turbine building basements.

2. From there, the water is normally routed to the Central Waste Building for storage. From the Central Waste Building, the water then goes to the cesium absorption system (either SARRY in the High-Temperature Incineration Building or Kurion in the Incineration Building) for treatment (removing cesium).

3. HOWEVER, on April 10, a temporary pump installed in the Central Waste Building was turned on by someone, and this highly contaminated water (Cs-134 at 10 million Bq/L, Cs-137 at 27 million Bq/L) was pumped from this building into the Site Bunker Building. There was yet another temporary pump in the Central Waste Building, and that pump was also turned on by someone. The contaminated water started to be pumped into the Incineration Building, which is not supposed to store this highly contaminated water.

4. There were two temporary pumps in the Incineration Building itself, which were also turned on by someone, and they started pumping the contaminated water back into the Central Waste Building.

To sum up, highly contaminated water went from:

Central Waste Building --> On-Site Bunker Building
Central Waste Building --> Incineration Building --> Central Waste Building

(From TEPCO's press release 4/16/2014, English labels are by me)


As all these were happening, TEPCO kept wondering why the water level in the Central Waste Building was lower than it should, and the water level in the Site Bunker Building was higher than it should. In the early morning of April 13, TEPCO finally figured out that the temporary pumps were running, but it took them nearly 12 hours to finally stopped the pumps (from TEPCO's press release 6/16/2014, timeline on page 3).

By then, 200 tonnes of highly contaminated water was diverted to locations that shouldn't have received any such water.

TEPCO says it didn't occur to them to check those temporary pumps sooner, because they were not supposed to be on.

There was nothing mechanically wrong with the temporary pumps, according to TEPCO.

"Sunny" at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant tweeted:

今回の焼却工作建屋の件、ヒューマンエラーではないだろう。つまり、故意に誰かがやった。

It is probably not a human error. In other words, someone did it on purpose.


Then,

間違いないな。「意図のある操作」だ。

I'm convinced. It was "intentional".


Just like in the incident in February this year when the "wrong" valve was opened to let the highly contaminated (beta nuclides) waste water overflow from the top of the tank, TEPCO says it is investigating. Just like then, it is likely that the investigation will fail to identify the cause (or the culprit), and TEPCO will simply stop the investigation.

I tweeted and wondered if this was an act of sabotage. With shortage of workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, there may be workers who go there for the express purpose of "making the point" - in this case, and in the case in February, to show how vulnerable and dangerous the plant is - by actually causing the problems like this.

But this is a country where a 30-year-old so-called researcher can appear in front of the cameras and shed tears carefully (not to smear her perfect makeup) and insist it was an innocent mistake, and male so-called journalists and even scientists fall for her and forgive her for her fraud of faking the data in the doctoral thesis and the paper in the so-called peer-review science magazine. This must also be an innocent mistake by an inexperienced worker who has been sent to Fukushima I NPP by a yakuza head-hunter and is being exploited by the subcontractor but who happens to know exactly what switches to flip to turn on the pumps that should not be on.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

In fact, one of the long-time workers who tweet from = who tweets (subject of sentence is ONE)

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering how many cultists from Aum (or one of the many other doomsday cults in Japan) have enlisted at Fukushima Daiichi to bring about Armageddon sooner rather than later. Could it be that whatever acts of sabotage they could dream up wouldn't be any more efficient than the stupidity of the current TEPCO management?

Anonymous said...

At anon @ 2:19:
"In fact, one of the long-time workers .... seems to suspect ..." - singular verb is correct. It's the long-time workers who tweet and one of them who seems to suspect.

Anonymous said...

Geez. Is that the same anon who declared he owns English language? Go back to elementary school.

Darth3.11 said...

I'm into correct grammar while posting as much as anyone. And appreciate the mini-debate. However, Anon@9:03 raises an incredibly pertinent point. One I haven't thought of. Yikes.

Anonymous said...


In fact, one of the long-time workers who tweet from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, "Sunny",
singular verb=tweets=one of the workers

Disasters such as Nagasaki and Hiroshima happened from lack of communication and/or correct communication.
which would have prevented the events through diplomacy.

Anonymous said...

In reporting facts it is crucial to use a standard so that everything is clear.

Anonymous said...

"who tweet from ..." is a dependent clause inserted into the main sentence. "who" representing "workers" is the subject of the dependent clause, hence the verb has to be plural. The subject of the main clause, "one of the workers" is singular (seems to ...).

Anonymous said...

One tactic used by astroturfers is to change the topic of debate or to derail it into mindless blather. This grammar idiot has obviously succeeded.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Anon at 2:38PM, THANK YOU.

Anonymous said...

It would be one thing if that grammar idiot were correct. He isn't. He would fail miserably in GRE or GMAT, but would probably be able to fake his way through public high school in the US.

Anonymous said...

"Disasters such as Nagasaki and Hiroshima happened from lack of communication and/or correct communication.
which would have prevented the events through diplomacy. "

We'll use "diplomacy" to describe the knuckledheadedness that allowed Japan to subject itself to this, and continue to "soldier on",

67 Japanese Cities Firebombed in World War II
http://www.ditext.com/japan/napalm.html

67 cities firebombed, everything floating scheduled for the bottom, and soon, due to codebreaking, and "soldiering on"?

And the Japanese economy does more soldiering on after the war .. as a tool of the warpigs.

/diplomacy

Anonymous said...

In fact, one of the long-time workers who tweet from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, "Sunny", seems to suspect a 'foul play'.

who tweet from Fukushima is a relative clause referring back to ONE which is the main subject.

Anonymous said...

The main subject is ONE=Sunny. This is emphasized twice.
Contrast: Sunny, one of the long-time workers who tweets...

Anonymous said...

Diplomacy, that I like, has some magic powers, but they are not unlimited as to tame a furious beast.
The use of A bombs were not pretty, for sure. Wouldn't Japan and Germany have used it, had they had some before the USA ?
The British, the French (and the USSR ?) were also quite close to build some at the time of WWII.
Take it as you want, it took to terribly bomb Tokyo as close a some one mile from the Imperial Palace, to give the Emperor a good reason to surrender. This happened long long days after H. and N. nuclear bombings - august 13 or 14 - surrender on the 15th.
*****
As for the 30 year old perfect make-up lady in tears, see the list of winners or the Ig Noble Prize. Japan is ahead of Micronesia, but not in pole position I think.
*****
Hello, cherry tree, and have fun, as tomorow you will be dead.

Anonymous said...

Japan has installed a lot of renewable power generation since the earthquake, maybe not as much as others would have liked, but it is the way forward.

Your solar panels are already some of the most reliable in the world, and will be even better with advances.

Unknown said...

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Health and Safety Risk Assessments said...

I agree. Communication plays a major role in providing the safety and peace to the world. You cannot expect better relationship with your neighbor country if you don't have communication with each other.

Regards,
Arnold Brame

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