Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Fukushima Daiichi Looks Terrible


Fukushima Daiichi's atmospheric emissions visible on the TEPCO webcams wax and wane. When the emissions become too thick, TEPCO lowers a crane-held device into Unit 1 and sprays some substance, which may be water or perhaps something else entirely.

I saw TEPCO spray about a week ago. Since that time, the emissions have risen quite notedly, as you can see in the screenshots below taken this morning (weather conditions are free of precipitation but cool at 32F):





In the image below, taken from Webcam 4, there are splotchy purple and red patches that appear behind the crane in the vicinity of reactor 3:


If you search for news on Fukushima Daiichi you will find many accounts that suggest the disaster is in the lessons learned stage with few articles describing the ongoing challenges of keeping hot melted fuel cool and of preventing ocean contamination.

Instead, what you will find are articles claiming the reactor fuel from unit 3 was found, although there was never any evidence presented that the majority of fuel was located, and you will see statements such as the one below from various pro-nuclear authorities ready to resume and even escalate nuclear power in Japan, although the island nation has experienced unusual earthquake clusters recently.

For example,

HIROTAKA YAMAGUCHI December 8, 2017) Japan needs more nuclear plants, says Keidanren chair. The Asahi Shimbun, http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201712080051.html

Japan may need to expand existing nuclear power plants or build new ones as it will rely on nuclear power generation in the future, according to Sadayuki Sakakibara, chair of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation).

The US has also played an important role in pushing Japan back towards nuclear, including encouraging Japan to resume completion of the Rokkasho fuel processing center that has a significant fault running under it (see my post here).

Nuclearity, as defined by Gabrielle Hecht, is a homicidal and suicidal psychosis.





 

7 comments:

  1. "The US has also played an important role in pushing Japan back towards nuclear, including encouraging Japan to resume completion of the Rokkasho fuel processing center that has a significant fault running under it (see my post here).

    Nuclearity, as defined by Gabrielle Hecht, is a homicidal and suicidal psychosis"

    Dr. Nadesan. Thank you for your thoughtful commentary.

    The South Koreans are closing nuclear reactors. The French, seem to be committed to backing off on nuclear power. These countries have acknowledged the psychosis of nuclear power, after Chernobyl and Fukushima.
    Why is the new administration in America encouraging more uranium extraction, and commitment to Nuclear power, in the United States, and world in general?
    Thanks Teddy

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    Replies
    1. Good question Teddy. I don't know. I think it must be a sort of collective psychosis left over from the Cold War with plenty of defense contractors seeing profits and happy to promote "modernization" of the nuclear arsenal.

      Delete
  2. Hi Majia - maybe you have heard of them. https://blog.safecast.org/about/ is an international, volunteer-centered organization devoted to open citizen science for the environment. After the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck eastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and the subsequent meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, accurate and trustworthy radiation information was publicly unavailable...

    They completed in August "The Safecast Report" part 2.1 with excellent historical and current decommissioning information and links.

    https://blog.safecast.org/the-safecast-report/

    Part 2.1 Page 18 - Unit 2: This spent fuel pool contains 615 fuel assemblies,
    and the start of removal was
    recently pushed back to 2023. Because
    this reactor did not suffer a devastating
    explosion like the others, the erection of
    a large independent secure structure like
    those at units 3 and 4 will probably not
    be necessary.

    califnative

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    Replies
    1. thank you for your comment Califnative.
      I am familiar with Safecast but had not seen their report about unit 2.

      I must say I'm totally perplexed because all of the sources I have at hand and find on the web say there was an explosion in unit 2 (e.g., https://mitnse.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/unit-2-explosion-and-unit-4-spent-fuel-pool-fire/ )

      I also think I remember seeing video of the explosion at unit 2, which I recall was nowhere as large as unit 3's explosion.

      Perhaps the explosion at unit 2 was much smaller and did not rupture the top of the reactor pressure vessel, thus requiring no structure such as the one now on unit 3.

      TEPCO reported in 2011 that unit 2 was the primary source of radiation leaked at the plant but I always thought that was a cover for unit 3.

      Its hard to know what is true.

      Delete
    2. Look at the full sequence of images available at Cryptome here:
      https://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp/daiichi-photos.htm

      Unit 2 wasn't damaged on the outside of the building but you can see steam streaming in a thick plume out of it.

      The explosion there must not have damaged the roof but it sure did something to the reactor pressure vessel.

      Delete
  3. http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=14318
    SimplyInfo.org Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 Extended Report 2015
    Last paragraph under conclusion...

    Newer information such as the failure of seawater injections to reach the RPV further ads to the growing body of information that indicates unit 2’s meltdown was far worse than initially assumed. Many early estimates of the extent of unit 2’s meltdowns were dependent on the assumption that water reached the melting fuel in quantities large enough to cool or cover the melted fuel. This newer understanding of the water injection shows those early estimates to be incorrect and that unit 2’s meltdown was much more severe than initially assumed. The timing of major events at the plant that tie to events at unit 2 and TEPCO’s increasing alarm over the degrading conditions of the plant indicates that unit 2 may have posed an even larger threat than the other two units at the plant. The chance event of the blow out panel dislodging early in the series of events may have helped unit 2 avoid a hydrogen explosion as seen at the other units. The actual meltdown and the extent of the damage at unit 2 may have been worse in many ways.

    Califnative

    ReplyDelete

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