Things are getting better and better all the time when it comes to the Japanese Nuclear Reactors in Fukushima. Take this report from 19 March, 2011.
— Reactor No. 4 – Under maintenance when quake struck, no fuel rods in reactor core, temperature in spent-fuel storage pool reached 84 C on Monday, fire Tuesday possibly caused by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, fire observed Wednesday at building housing reactor, pool water level feared receding, renewed nuclear chain reaction feared, only frame remains of reactor building roof.
The Monday and Tuesday in question would be the 14th and 15th.
OK. Now we get this wonderful bit of news from 23 March that ties in with the old news.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.
TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant’s No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this is not a dangerous level.
Well isn’t that interesting? Not at all. Look at the attribution of the beam in the latest report.
…the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant’s nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuels have discharged a small amount of neutron beams through nuclear fission.
The neutron beams are evidence of criticality. Random bits of U235, U238, and Plutonium scattered about the universe do not generate neutron beams. I’m sorry. But unless you have neutron multiplications of above 1.0000 you are not going to see a lot of neutrons coming out of a “shut down” reactor. And it might not have been a reactor even. Spent Fuel Rod Pool #4 is a prime candidate. The “pile” need not be very orderly if the pile is big enough. Such disorder in fact might very well generate beams rather than the more even flux you get from a reactor operating as designed.
Of course criticality accidents are very bad news. Because there is no guarantee that the “pile” will not restart at some later date. Very inconvenient.
Oh. Yeah. Just for the record. It never happened, sort of.
In the latest case at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, such a criticality accident has yet to happen.
Of course it hasn’t happened. If it had actually happened the news would be very inconvenient. Proof positive it never happened. And the Emperor willing it is not going to happen under any circumstances.
Han Solo: [sounding official] Uh, everything’s under control. Situation normal.
Yeah. Right.
Cross Posted at Power and Control
Comments
10 responses to “Criticality Accident?”
This is sounding worse by the day. Everyone involved is in denial, except our military which has been moving OUR people out of harms way.
When you look at the operation in Libya, no matter which side you are on, and the lack of a plan there, and realize that this same governmental bureaucratic mentality is guiding events at Fukushima, it’s enough to scare the shit out of you.
If someone with a brain and a conscience doesn’t get hold of this soon….
Look at all 73 of these pictures:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v393/youricarma/Fukushima%20-%20Daiichi%20Reactor%20Design/#!cpZZ3QQtppZZ16
Why are they pretending that they can hook up the cooling system? The damage from explosions is so severe that plumbing, electrical, and controls have been destroyed.
Look at picture 39.
Sorry, here’s the link to 39:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v393/youricarma/Fukushima%20-%20Daiichi%20Reactor%20Design/?action=view¤t=FUKUSHIMAUNIT-3Focus024.jpg
Everyone involved is in denial, except our military which has been moving OUR people out of harms way.
Frank,
Too true. Everybody is saying where are the bodies? They are yet to come.
Radiation is a slow poison.
$5 says this is all overwrought hysteria…
Sorry if that sounds flippant, but I’ve been hearing all sorts of “Worst parts of the Bible” predictions about the nuke plants in Japan since H-hour+1.
And, to be frank -excuse the pun- Frank’s link just shows damage to the outer shells of certain buildings, and has nothing to do with any (alleged) damage to the containment vessel.
Casey:
…just shows damage to the outer shells of certain buildings…
JUST? The explosions occurred from within the buildings. It’s not the integrity of the nuclear vessels that is in question (although as M.Simon has stated elsewhere there could be leaks from several of them) it’s the damage to the cooling system support, all the water pipes, electrical, and the very complicated system of controls for same.
Looking at that jumbled mess, how could this cooling support system not be devastated?
In one of the recent reports from Kyodo, they said when the external power supply was hooked up, the intact pumps for reactors 5 & 6 started and shut down immediately, like a circuit breaker tripping. They never indicated that power was restored to any of the other reactors, except stating that the lights came on in several of the control rooms.
So, they can’t even get the pumps to work in the undamaged reactors. Wish I could share your optimism, Casey.
Casey,
Here is an answer to your point and corroboration of more troubles as Frank has pointed out:
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2011/03/deeper.html
I remember some spent fuel going critical somewhere in Japan a few years ago when workers decided to work two buckets at a time instead of one, and getting an interesting glow from the material as a result.
From Kyodo March 24:
A high-level radiation leak detected Thursday at one of six troubled reactors at the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant indicates possible damage to the reactor’s vessel, pipes or valves, the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Friday.
Three workers at the No. 3 reactor’s turbine building, connected to the reactor building, were exposed Thursday to water containing radioactive materials 10,000 times the normal level, with two of them taken to hospital due to possible radiation burns to their feet, the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the governmental nuclear regulatory body, told a press conference, ”At present, our monitoring data suggest the (No. 3) reactor retains certain containment functions, but there is a good chance that the reactor has been damaged.”
Nishiyama said the high-level radiation is suspected to have originated from the reactor, where overheating fuel rods are believed to have been partially melted, or a boiling pool that stores spent nuclear fuel, both of which are located in the reactor’s building.