That report is now about two days old. Since then there have been “developments”. That is an euphemism around here for MSHTF. M = more. I’m sure you can take it from there.
Here is a good one: Reactor 3 containment feared breached.
A suspected breach in the core of a reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday, as the prime minister called the country’s ongoing fight to stabalize the plant “very grave and serious.”
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials announced what could be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the plant from leaking radiation, two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami disabled it.
“The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant,” Kan said. “We are not in a position where we can be optimistic.”
FWIW I haven’t been optimistic since day 3 or 4. Hydrogen explosions are a very bad sign. At least the Japanese government is starting to tell the truth: things will be getting worse for a while.
There is also some technical data available.
Workers were also trying to fix a pump using an outside power source that had been pumping seawater into the No. 5 reactor, but which stopped Wednesday night.
Figures obtained from instruments indicate that between half to one-third of the approximately 4-meter long fuel rods are exposed, but TEPCO officials do not know what the actual situation is like.
The temperature of the core of the No. 1 reactor at one time reached about 400 degrees, above the design limit of 302 degrees. To cool the core, the amount of seawater being pumped in was increased early Wednesday from 2 cubic meters an hour to 18 cubic meters an hour.
The temperature decreased to 243 degrees as of 1 a.m. Thursday, leading one TEPCO official to say the situation was improving.
However, pressure within the containment vessel that holds the pressure container in the core of the No. 1 reactor increased from about 1.7 atmospheres (atm) at 11 a.m. Tuesday to 3.6 atm at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The amount of seawater being pumped in was reduced to about 10 cubic meters per hour from 2:30 a.m. Thursday.
At a Wednesday night news conference, Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission, said: “Personally, I am concerned about the increase in pressure in the No. 1 reactor. We may have to open the vent (to release steam).”
So why are they so slow to vent reactor #1? My guess is that they can’t pump make-up water into the reactor and venting will cause the fuel rods to be uncovered. Another alternative is that they fear a hydrogen explosion. What ever it is they are holding off venting until the last possible moment. Of course if their judgment is wrong and they go beyond the last possible minute….
In any case, a sure sign that the core has been breached is radioactive iodine. About 99.9% of it is gone 90 days after a shutdown. There is a lot of it in a core that has just shut down. So spent fuel is not going to provide much radioactive iodine. I have been saying total containment breach – rods, reactor vessel, containment bldg. – since the radioactive iodine was reported. Nice to get confirmation.
More evidence of a meltdown. Radioactive zirconium found. Follow the link for the whole dismal story.
Cross Posted at Power and Control
Comments
7 responses to “Ill Wind”
Some old information about Arnold Gundersen:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2000/nn10410.htm
He was involved with the clean up of 3 Mile Island, apparently before he became a whistle blower in his own company. He has the credentials and his presentations are rational.
Frank,
Just from listening to him I can tell he knows nuke. Thanks for the confirmation.
I’m wondering why the cooling pump for #5 failed on restart? Was it old or is there crud in the system that is not a problem as long as it stays stirred up?
The stirring has stopped while they work on splicing in a new pump.
Arnold Gunderson is in the anti-nuclear activist camp:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-nuclear_movement_in_the_United_States
On March 16 he said Fukushima would be worse than Chernobyl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7JvuUwpq40
This brought him lots of publicity and made him an “international star”:
http://www.tmia.com/node/927
The link Frank provided said this:
***QUOTE***
At the same time he was making front-page news in the Czech Republic, Mr. Gundersen was again ruffling the feathers of the nuclear industry in United States. He and Paul Blanch joined Dave Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington in March in asserting that the radiation release from Three Mile Island 20 years ago was from 4 to 15 times larger than the federal estimate.
A judge in 1996 rejected all 2,100 claims that people had been hurt by the accident, but the trio and attorneys for the plaintiffs contend that the cases should be revived and tried before a jury, rather than a judge or the NRC.
***END QUOTE***
I’m sure there’s a lot of money at stake.
And of course, he may turn out to be right. Or he may not. If he’s right, he’ll be a bigger hero, and if he is wrong, he’ll keep doing what he does without consequences. Like Paul Ehrlich.
Eric,
From what I know about nuclear reactors and from what I can tell from the situation from reports I have read I think it will be worse than Chernobyl.
From what I can see there are a number of problems in the industry:
1. Really bad designs that have not been retired.
2. Bad designs that have not been retired.
3. Not enough new designs being built and tested.
4. Too many reactors poorly sited.
Of course there is money at stake. The nuke companies have privatized the gains and socialized the losses.
None of this gets noticed until there is a catastrophe.
Gundersen may be in the anti-nuke camp, but his presentations are straight forward and without sensationalism. He seems to be presenting just the facts, leaving us to draw conclusions.
But anything coming from that side should be viewed with a little skepticism. Their method of winning often has little to do with reasoned debate, instead relying on driving up the costs of targeted industries through law suits and regulation. For instance, they have been very successful in shutting down timber harvest in the west with law suits to save the spotted owl, or attacking hydro power with suits to protect native fish. In the case of nuclear power that type of action will gain strength after this accident because of the widespread contamination and threat to people. This will be a winning argument for them.
Gundersen doesn’t need to stoop to deception since the facts are so damning.
If you want lies and spin, then it is mostly coming from defenders of nuclear power industry. On The Factor last Friday the 18th, Juan Williams devoted a whole segment to it. He had a tool from U.C. Berkeley, physicist Richard Muller, who predicted “zero deaths from radiation exposure in Japan.”
And to counter him, a less than competent green energy consultant, one Howard Gould who flipped through the usual talking points he’d been provided but never called out Muller on his propaganda.
Williams ended the piece running through the blah-blah about how cheap and clean nuclear energy is, and how “this is the first accident in a long time.”
This kind of uninformed and deceptive crap will only make the Gundersens and other anti-nuke energy people appear reasonable and factual.
My advice? If you don’t have an argument backed by thruth, then STFU.