#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Highly Contaminated Water From Reactor 3 Leaked in Reactor 4 Turbine Building

It's been about 14 months since the hastily rigged system of transporting and treating the contaminated water and circulating the treated water back into the Reactor Pressure Vessels (1, 2 and 3) to cool the melted fuel somehow. The pipes used were Kanaflex pipes, which TEPCO just started to replace with rigid pipes.

But the company didn't replace the Kanaflex pipe that goes from the Reactor 3 turbine building basement through the Reactor 4 turbine building first floor in front of the room with electrical power panels on the way to the building that stores the highly contaminated water before the water gets treated by SARRY. That's what leaked, and the water got inside the electrical power panel room.

The water, coming out of the basement of Reactor 3's turbine building, has 85,000 becquerels/cubic centimeter of radioactive cesium, as of August 9, 2012 at 3:20PM, according to the company's handout for the press on August 13, 2012. One order of magnitude more cesium than in the water in the Reactor 4 turbine building basement.

There is no information of air radiation levels inside the electrical power panel room. How are they going to clean this up, I have no idea. It is not like the past leaks where at least "treated" water leaked.

If they cannot clean up the room, and if anything happens to the power panel, they may have some serious problem.

From Jiji Tsushin (8/14/2012):

タービン建屋で汚染水漏れ＝４号機、電源盤室内に－移送配管破損か・東電福島第１

Fukushima I Nuke Plant: contaminated water leak in the turbine building of Reactor 4, water inside the electrical power panel room - damage to the water transfer pipe suspected

　１４日午前１１時１５分ごろ、東京電力福島第１原発４号機タービン建屋１階の電源盤室の床に水がたまっているのをパトロール中の同社社員が見つけた。同室前の廊下には、３号機タービン建屋地下から高濃度の放射性汚染水を移送する配管が走っており、東電は配管から漏れた可能性があるとみて調べている。

At 11:15AM on August 14, a TEPCO employee patrolling the site found a puddle of water on the floor of the electrical power panel room on the 1st floor of Reactor 4 turbine building at FUkushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The pipe that transfers the highly contaminated water from the basement of Reactor 3 turbine building runs along the corridor in front ot the room. TEPCO suspects the leak may be from the pipe, and is investigating.

　同室には各機器に電源を供給する電源盤が置かれているが、漏えいによる影響はなかった。

The electric power panel is in the room to provide power to various equipment, but there was no effect on the panel from the leak.

　東電によると、水は廊下から電源盤室内に流入しており、同日午後０時２０分すぎに汚染水の移送を止めたところ、同１時ごろに流入が止まった。同室は広さ約３５０平方メートルで、床に深さ１センチほど水がたまっている。室外への流出はないという。水に含まれる放射性セシウムの濃度は、１立方センチ当たり数万ベクレルとみられる。

According to TEPCO, the water was seeping in to the room from the corridor. When the company stopped the transfer of the contaminated water at 12:20PM, the seepage stopped at about 1PM. The room is about 350 square meters, and the water is about 1 centimeter deep. TEPCO says there is no leak from the room. The density of radioactive cesium in the water is estimated to be several tens of thousands of becquerels per cubic centimeter.

　福島第１原発では、汚染水配管の破損が相次いだため、東電は信頼性の高いポリエチレン管に順次交換しているが、電源盤室前の配管は交換が済んでいなかった。同社は配管の破損部位や漏えい経路の特定を進めている。

As the damage to the pipes used to transfer the contaminated water [Kanaflex] has been occurring frequently, TEPCO is replacing these pipes with polyethylene pipes which are more reliable. However, the pipe in front of the electrical power panel room hasn't been replaced yet. The company is trying to identify the location of the damage, and figure out how the water got inside the room.

It is "obon" in Japan, and TEPCO (Headquarters at least) is taking August 14 and 15 off. No press conference is scheduled, as far as I checked, until August 16.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: SARRY's Kanaflex Hose Finally Replaced with Steel Pipe

Toshiba's SARRY is a system with tall metal towers filled with different types of zeolites to absorb radioactive cesium in the water contaminated after being injected into the Reactor Pressure Vessels of Reactors 1, 2 and 3. It has pretty much replaced the trouble-prone Kurion system that operates on basically the same principle. As AREVA's decontamination system has also been stopped since September last year (when AREVA's system was found to increase the radioactivity; too radioactive even to enter the building, according to workers who tweet from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant), SARRY has been doing all the decontamination of radioactive materials from the water before the desalination process.

TEPCO released the photographs of the improvement it did to the system that is housed in the Miscellaneous Solid Waste Volume Reduction Treatment Building. There have been several leaks in the different parts of the system since the beginning of this year. Here's one from this March, from a bad weld. Here's another in February, when they found 3 Sieverts/hour radiation from the sludge from the pipe.

I was dismayed and sad, looking at the photographs. What's all the clutter? It looks like a half-abandoned building, not tended by workers for a long time. Look at the crude brace with lumber around the replaced Kanaflex...

Then I remembered a tweet by the worker at Fuku-I; no one envisioned a system (not just SARRY) to last for more than one year. SARRY came online in August last year.

From TEPCO's Photos and Video Library (8/9/2012), "Reliability Improvement of the Second Cesium Absorption Apparatus" (click to enlarge):

Many of the readers say TEPCO is so incompetent, rightfully. But what could you do when you have no money (for the plant, plenty for the top management and HQ personnel) and a dwindling number of workers with enough radiation exposure "credit" left?

There were people in the past who said they would like to come and work at the plant. Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan is one. And those retired engineers who formed an organization to press the government and TEPCO to accept them at the plant as volunteers.

Well, they could sign up with one of the subcontractors of the subcontractors of the subcontractors of TEPCO for 8,000 yen per day. Age and experience are not asked in the job interviews, I hear.

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Another Leak at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant, Saved by (Probably) Duct Tape

Now that the accident is officially "over", Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant takes on an atmosphere of a deserted, abandoned place where occasional maintenance is done with all-mighty duct tape. (Nothing against duct tape.)

A TEPCO worker found a leak from a Kanaflex hose near the Reverse Osmosis facility (part of desalination process) during a routine inspection round. The water was not radioactive, as it was the filtered water from the nearby river that TEPCO has been using to mix with the treated water before the water is injected back into the reactors for cooling. The leak was plugged by a tape, but the leak hasn't completely stopped (one drip per 2 minutes, according to TEPCO's handout for the press, 12/29/2011). TEPCO plans to replace the hose. (I hope so.)

From TEPCO's press release on December 29, 2011:

It looks like a puncture. By the way, there are apparently a number of similar punctures throughout the length of the hoses that make up the water injection system. Some of them due to quality problem, but many of them are caused by a weed (Imperata cylindrica L.). The weed pierced through the Kanaflex pipes all over the plant as it grew during the summer; now it is winter and the plants shrivel and die off, unplugging the holes they had made and causing small leaks all over the place. One tough weed.

I suppose this is not what NISA and TEPCO had expected. Totally "so-tei-gai" (想定外）.

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#Fukushima Contaminated Water Treatment System: Hitachi's Desalination Unit Leak was from PVC Hose

Probably the same ubiquitous orange PVC hose at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The PVC hose is used to transport highly-concentrated saltwater from the desalination unit to the temporary storage tank, and the leak is considered to be due to the deterioration of the hose, after 1 month of use.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (7/31/2011):

東京電力は３１日、福島第一原子力発電所の汚染水処理システムから、放射性物質を除去処理した後の塩水が、推定で約５０リットル漏出したと発表した。

TEPCO announced on July 31 that about 50 liters of saltwater leaked from the contaminated water treatment system. Radioactive materials had already been removed from the water.

　塩化ビニール製の配管の劣化が原因とみられ、未明の地震による影響は考えにくいという。

According to TEPCO, the leak was probably due to the deterioration of the PVC hose used, and not the earthquake that hit the area in early morning.

　水漏れが起きたのは、処理後の水から塩分を取り除く「淡水化装置」から、副産物としてできる高濃度の塩水をタンクへ送る配管。同日午前１０時５０分ごろ作業員が発見し、３０分後に装置を停止。配管を交換後、午後３時すぎに復旧した。原子炉への注水には支障はなかったという。

The leak was found at the hose that transports the highly-concentrated saltwater from the desalination unit to the storage tank. A worker found the leak at 10:50AM on July 31, and stopped the unit 30 minutes later. The PVC hose was exchanged, and the unit was back online at 3PM. The company said there was no interruption to water injection in the reactors.

　また午前８時１３分ごろには、４号機の使用済み燃料一時貯蔵プールに水を送るホースから真水が霧状に漏れているのが見つかり、ホースを交換した。

Also, at 8:13AM, [a worker found] the hose that sends water to the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 was leaking, spraying water in fine mist. The hose was replaced.

These hoses are probably Kanaflex, which the manufacturer rushes to make and deliver to TEPCO as fast as possible.

So how salty is this water coming out of the desalination unit by Hitachi that made the hose deteriorate badly in slightly over a month?

From TEPCO's information on July 15, before the desalination (by reverse osmosis) the chlorine concentration is 8,000 ppm. After the desalination, this number drops to 19 ppm.

So, the saltwater that goes through the PVC pipe has 7,981 ppm chlorine.

Another one to file under the "things don't add up" category. Initially, TEPCO had blamed just about every leak to the sloppy job by the workers. Now the company hints at the poor quality of the PVC hose. Is it really the case, or is there still some information to be forthcoming later?

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