Tuesday, June 14, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Kurion's System Test Run Result

TEPCO did the test run of Kurion's cesium absorption system on June 14, using the "low" contamination water.

The samples after the test was taken at the end of the cesium absorption process, bypassing the decontamination system by Areva (which will be tested on June 15, also using the low contamination water).

According to the number, the amount of cesium in the water was reduced to about 1/3000.

Kurion's system consists of series of towers filled with zeolite. (Tell me again, what's the expertise of Kurion other than putting zeolite in towers?)

TEPCO's press conference handout on June 14 (English labels added by me):

8 comments:

kliguy38 said...

keep up the amazing coverage

Fiat's Fire said...

I check in here daily, as nobody finds the inside scoop on Fukushima as you. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

Kurion's covert claim to fame is their special ISM ion exchange resin. They say its ionic discrimination will allow isotope separation without desalination of the contaminated water. Like I said it probably works great on nuclear "mineral water" let's see what happens when they start filtering nuclear soup.

It'll take forever if they have to water down the waste to treat it. Do they say how many tons were treated or how fast? I wonder how much it saturated the exchange resin? According to this article they expect the sludge to be pretty damn hoochie mama hot and this is a TEPCO estimate expect it to double in a few months.

"Sludge that will be generated in the process of treating radioactive water at the tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant is estimated to contain 100 million becquerels of radioactive substances per cubic centimeter, the plant operator said".

"TEPCO estimates that about 2,000 cubic meters of sludge will be generated through the treatment of radioactive water at the plant by the end of this year, and intends to keep the toxic substance in the plant's intensive radioactive waste disposal facility".

"However, because it is so highly radioactive, the sludge is extremely difficult to manage. Areva acknowledges that it has never handled sludge generated through the treatment of water emitting more than 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour".

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110610p2a00m0na010000c.html

I can understand running low level contaminated water during the tests if there's a problem it will be easier to fix but once this thing is running "hot" they won't have that luxury. Is there any word about on-site vitrification using the Kurion MVS?

Something to keep in mind is control and mitigation of the waste water problem is only one of many challenges TEPCO will face over the next few years.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Thanks, Kli, good to see you.

@Robbie, no I don't find any info on how they're going to handle the sludge. From what I can tell from the reports and TEPCO's presser, Kurion's system they use is just zeolite towers. After the zeolite towers the water goes to Areva's system which uses a special chemical, then it goes to desalination. I don't think Kurion's MVS has been tested, as the company says it will conduct series of tests in December.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/startup-kurion-enlisted-for-fukushima-cleanup/

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

@ Areva

Well isn't that nice from what I've read they haven't come up with any form of temporary storage cask for the filter sludge yet either. It seems like the solution to one problem may spawn other issues. Now of course all of this is all based on TEPCO's estimates so it could be way worse. They are probably going to need some sort of robotic sludge handling system in order to keep the workers exposure rates down. I'm sure something like that's cheap and a company like Toshiba would be willing to donate one for a small phenomenal fee. (just as soon as they design it)

I'd also like to know how the claimed price of purification per ton was figured? Is it a flat rate or a cost plus contract? OK one ton of water is about 240 gallons so that works out to about $10.77 a gallon. Is the $2585 per ton for an up and running plant and all the ion exchange media they need to treat 250,000 tons (and the personnel to service and operate it)? Or does the price only reflect some fantasy target where the plant runs flawlessly and the filter operates at optimum efficiency and a lot of the actual cost is absorbed with creative accounting?

If TEPCO bottled the "treated" water and sold it as high end "Fijishima" mineral water they could make a mint at $5 a liter. Their slogan could be "Made from the best stuff not found on Earth". They could sell it to radiation hormesis advocates (and terrorists) all over the world.

Well check this out radiation was spiking a little in Hawaii. Maybe it is due to volcanic activity but I can't help but wonder if they were getting a small hot particle shower?

http://falloutphilippines.blogspot.com/2011/06/hawaii-detected-spike-in-radioactivity.html

Anonymous said...

@ Robbie001,

I like the graphic layout on that site.


Just to be sure people see this,

Criticalities are the norm for reactor 3,

".. in 2007, the utility said it hadn’t come entirely clean five years earlier. It had concealed at least six emergency stoppages at its Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station and a “critical” reaction at the plant’s No. 3 unit that lasted for seven hours. "

Anonymous said...

The Ph.D. that invented this process is my husband. He and his company have been working 24/7 to help resolve this situation. He is on his way home today after being in Japan for the past two weeks. Let's not try to "simplify" what they are doing. Unless, of course, your patents are pending or you have a better resolution.

Anonymous said...

Anon at 11:24AM June18's last parting shot reminds me of certain economists at the Federal Reserve who scolded "lay" people without PhD in economics to even comment on anything related to economics and finance. One Canadian economist working for the Fed even taunted a person who criticized his position and said he'd like to see the commenter's PhD thesis and research papers in reputable journals.

I don't think it is a patent pending that qualifies anyone to comment or speculate. As to better solutions, you or your husband would be surprised there are a plenty of suggestions out there in the whole wide world, and a whole lot cheaper ones at that.

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