8.8 earthquake hits Japan

High level contamination in reactor building found

Quote:

High level contamination in reactor building found

Lets face it, they dont know where the fuel is, or what it is doing. All of this water is delaying dealing with the fuel for months. What I cant or the life of me understand is why we still dont know what is going on the the fuel pools, it seems to me that getting a robot onto there should be doable.

....Inspector General Hubert T. Bell said Jaczko manipulated the panel's four other commissioners by selectively withholding information on a crucial safety review of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Jaczko's actions allowed him to shut down the review last year without a vote of the full commission.

Bell told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that Jaczko's conduct was not criminal but added, "It's not an upfront way to do business."

Several agency scientists and a former NRC chairman also have questioned Jaczko's actions, and at least two GOP lawmakers have called for him to resign.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko wants his agency to decide within 90 days how to proceed with far-reaching safety changes recommended for the nuclear industry, including requiring plant owners to have greater levels of backup power and requiring possibly costly upgrades.

Up to now, a cost-protection rule has essentially barred the NRC from requiring major plant improvements without first having to prove that the human-health benefits justify the cost.

.... The panel also proposed essentially setting aside a 1988 rule that has protected the nuclear-power industry against costly upgrades. The industry has used the rule, which requires benefits to public safety to be balanced against industry costs, to beat back regulatory changes it didn't like.

Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer for the industry's Nuclear Energy Institute, said the proposal to set aside the cost-protection rule amounted to "sweeping change." The NRC "will have to think long and hard," he added, before embarking on such a "major policy shift.". . .

The cost-protection rule was created to shield the nuclear sector after its costs spiraled out of control because of the NRC's reaction to the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania. Billions of dollars of added costs were imposed on the nuclear-power sector, which the industry said stalled its growth for more than two decades.

The cost-protection rule adopted in 1988 has insulated the industry against major upgrades without proof that human health benefits exceeded those costs. In the calculation, a human life was valued at about $3 million. Critics say the rule undervalues human lives, noting that other federal agencies place a value on a human life of between $5 million and $9 million for the purpose of cost-benefit calculations in other areas.

Where the fuel is is unknown to you only - it has melted and sits at the bottom reactor vessel - and it's not "going" anywhere:

Robots have been inside all fuel pools since May;

IAEA Fukushima Daiichi Status Report
Update of 2 November 2011

What are the recent developments at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant?

On 1 November, TEPCO detected the possible presence of xenon-133 and xenon-135 gases sampled from inside the Primary Containment Vessel (PCV) of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2. The presence of these short-lived radionuclides indicates that some nuclear fission may have recently occurred. TEPCO reported that no increases in radiation levels have been observed. According to TEPCO "even if a fission reaction is assumed to be on-going, its scale is extremely small and the reactor is in a stable condition as a whole."

TEPCO responded to this development by injecting 10 tonnes of boric acid solution (water containing 480 kg of boric acid) into the reactor from 02:48 to 03:47 local time on 2 November. Boric acid solution is used as a countermeasure to nuclear fission for its ability to absorb neutrons.

On 31 October, 10 tons of fresh water was added to the Spent Fuel Pool at Unit 4.

On 27 October, a crack was discovered on the casing for the axle junction of the ceiling crane located in the Common Spent Fuel Pool Building. Under normal operating conditions, the ceiling crane is used to move nuclear fuel elements and other items.

On 28 October, TEPCO announced that the cover for Unit 1 is now considered fully operational and functional. (See photo: Roof Panel Installation, 14 October 2011). The cover has been placed over Unit 1 to reduce the dispersion of radionuclides to the environment.

TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant station reactors 1, 2 and 3 require circulating water to remove heat from their fuel.

Plant operators are working to bring the reactors into a "cold shutdown condition" defined by TEPCO and the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters as:

Lowering the coolant water temperature to below 100 degrees centigrade while reducing the pressure inside the reactor vessels to the same as the outside air pressure, or 1 atmosphere (atm); and
Bringing release of radioactive materials from the primary containment vessel under control and reducing public radiation exposure by additional release (not to exceed 1 mSv/year at the site boundary as a target).

What is the latest status regarding workers at Fukushima Daiichi?

TEPCO regularly releases summaries of the radiation exposure (both internal and external) results of its workers. (The following Table contains the latest results of combined external and internal radiation exposures to workers at Fukushima Daiichi released by TEPCO on 31 October). The figures demonstrate a decrease in the level of exposure to onsite workers over time from March through September.

As of March 15, the effective radiation dose limit for radiation workers at Fukushima Daiichi was raised from 100 mSv to 250 mSv, provided that they are under emergency situations.

On 17 October, a TEPCO employee was working with water injection equipment on the second floor of the reactor building for Unit 1. When his work was completed, contamination was discovered around his mouth. However, a whole body counter measurement identified no internal contamination.

TEPCO had previously reported that 65 personnel (all sub-contractors) who worked at the Fukushima Plant during the initial response had not undergone whole body counting. Several have been identified since that time and an investigation to identify remaining personnel is on-going. At present there are 20 persons outstanding from this identification process. Nine of them have been identified as not being applicable for whole body counting, seven are still under investigation to obtain their contact details and four have been unable to be found through their provided contact information.

High Seas wrote:

Where the fuel is is unknown to you only - it has melted and sits at the bottom reactor vessel - and it's not "going" anywhere:

that is the theory, the hope, in reality they dont know if they have fuel in the containment vessel.

A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm, meanwhile, said that sustained re-criticality remained highly unlikely. But his main concern was that officials could not pinpoint the exact location of the nuclear fuel — which would greatly complicate the cleanup.

The engineer, who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric, spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified by his former employers. He said that tiny fuel pellets could have been carried to different parts of the plant, like the spaces under the reactor during attempts to vent them in the early days. That would explain several cases of lethally high radiation readings found outside the reactor cores.

“If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing,” he said. But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.

The only reason I bother to address your apparently incurable ignorance is that this thread is read by many more people than those posting:

1. Where the fuel is is unknown to you only - it has melted and sits at the bottom reactor vessel - and it's not "going" anywhere

TOKYO -- The stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant came a lot closer to a full "China Syndrome" meltdown than previous company analyses had indicated, though there is no danger of further damage now, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Wednesday.
The nuclear fuel rods in reactor No. 1 likely melted completely, TEPCO and the Japanese government said for the first time -- burning a hole through one surrounding vessel and eating through up to three-quarters of the concrete base at the bottom of a second containment vessel meant as a last barrier between the radioactive core and the outside world.
That brought the fuel closer than previously believed to breaching the containment vessel and continuing to burn through the ground below -- a catastrophic scenario sometimes described as the "China Syndrome," from the fanciful notion, popularized in a US film by the same name, that in a catastrophic meltdown, molten reactor fuel could sink through the earth until it reached China.
Earlier, TEPCO had said only that it thought unit No. 1's fuel was more than half melted, and that some had fallen into the containment vessel.
The findings are the latest reminder of how dangerous the mid-March accident at Fukushima Daiichi was and how much remains unknown. They result from separate TEPCO and government analyses of the latest data on radiation and temperature readings around the reactors, which has helped TEPCO get a better idea of where the fuel is at the three units whose cores partially melted down.
TEPCO said the damage in units No. 2 and No. 3 was less severe than in No. 1, although some fuel did burn through their surrounding vessels to the concrete base of their containment vessels. In all three units, the fuel has now cooled to below the critical temperature of 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), and thus poses no further threat, officials said.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/fukushima_plant_was_close_to_full_jNzN61vNhkrtK6LLdnX12M#ixzz1fEquZsok

That brought the fuel closer than previously believed to breaching the containment vessel and continuing to burn through the ground below -- a catastrophic scenario sometimes described as the "China Syndrome," from the fanciful notion, popularized in a US film by the same name, that in a catastrophic meltdown, molten reactor fuel could sink through the earth until it reached China.

Obviously things don't "burn" through the the Earth and come out the other side...