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Fukushima Reactor Temperature Surpasses 752 Degrees … More Than 4 Times Maximum for “Cold Shutdown”
Pretending that the Fukushima reactors achieved a state of “cold shutdown” was a political – rather than scientific - decision.
Tepco itself said the state of cold shutdown could only continue so long as the temperature within the nuclear reactors stayed below 100 degrees Celsius. (Because the thermometers within the reactors have a 20 degree margin of error, Tepco says that any reading over 80 degrees violates the conditions for a cold shutdown.)
As Bloomberg notes today:
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the temperature in one of the damaged reactors at its Fukushima nuclear station rose to levels above safety limits even as it injected increased amounts of cooling water.
One of three thermometers indicated the temperature at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor pressure vessel rose to 93.7 degrees Celsius (200.7 Fahrenheit) today, higher than the 80 degrees limit, Ai Tanaka, a spokeswoman for the utility known as Tepco, said by phone today.
***
The thermometers have a margin of error of as much as 20 degrees.
But major Japanese news sources Yomiuri and Jiji note that the thermometer in reactor 2 has since climbed to 272.8 degrees Celsius, and then hit the upper limit of the thermometer at 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit).
In other words, the thermometer is showing temperatures more than 4 times higher than the 100 degree Celsius limit for cold shutdown.
Tepco claims that such a high reading means that the thermometer must be broken, and is maintaining its declaration of cold shutdown based upon the reading of other thermometers. Of course, the fuel is moving around, so there could be hot spots and cooler spots within each reactor.
Of course, Tepco could be right: the thermometer could be broken. But I am not yet convinced, given that – ever since the earthquake last year – Tepco has repeatedly claimed that an instrument is broken whenever there is a new reading of things gone haywire. (Indeed, one Japanese writer said that Tepco’s spokesman sounded “testy” when asked how Tepco knew that the thermometer was broken.)
In good news, a second, nearby 4-reactor nuclear complex which almost melted down last March – the Fukushima Daini complex (referred to as the Fukushima “2? complex), which is 7 miles away from the infamous, leaking 6-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex – apparently is in a true state of cold shutdown.
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fuckers breed like rabbits though ... their fee-fees are just too fricken hot
Awesome. You ever consider politics?
I propose we swap them for the Jooze. Lloyd and Jamie go first.
Jamie is Greek. Get your facts straight. You wouldn't want to be called an ignorant bigot. Perhaps an erudite one though?
oh, you poor trav. the japanese are very poor singers, dancers and can't shoot hoops. you got downers votes. why would we want them here? besides the housing - nobody in kansas city really want's to eat sushi, they want WHOPPERS - the bigger the better.
would the kardshaians do 'biz' and 'hook up' with japanese men? havent' yet. doubt they would. would snookie go asian? hasn't yet. probably won't. guess we are stuck with big bad bama.
oh well. i suspect the real plan is to bring in about 1 million chinese and indians each - a drop in the bucket of their population to shore up the housing downfal, and the most uneducated and cultured possible, as they will work for lessl. china has it's own plans to move the japanese into all those empty housing projects we've been reading about.
i hope somebody appreciates my sense of humor, because i'm still honestly trying to get over the 'death' of michael jackson - and now whitney comes along. i'm soooooo broken up. i'm starting to worry about oprah and whoopie.
And to sweeten the deal, we could throw in some racist troll assholes who constantly divert the subject here at ZH.
TRANSFORMER,
You have to admit, though, that the racists are sensitive.
LOOK HOW QUICKLY HIT THE RED BUTTON!
Or was that their "troll asshole"?
Good call om
He's not a troll dickweed, he's a realist.
Though I'd rather swap them for mexicans....
Yup, just like with any "beliefs"... to the one who believes, he isn't a believer... he's just a realist.
"It's not like *I'm* doing it.... i'm just following someone else's orders, so he's doing it."
Trav, that's not very nice.
Plus, asians genrally live less tha 300 per house. And don't need porches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th2o8lCZX5k
(Monica Deluxe - The Temperatures Rising)
Pretty crazy readings considering the cores arent even inside the reactors and havent been since, like, 03/12/11.
Astute.
Major insighfulness.
Significant intellect upon display.
Now that should really try the patience of any expert public relations monkey.
But betcha betcha betcha nobody else even picks up on this.
Son, you oughta be in the United States Senate. Just think of the damage you could cause. Pure havoc run amok.
Brilliant!
Mutant Senators!
Just think of all the bribes you could take with a few extra hands!!!
What else do they do again?
Maybe I'm the only one who finds this disturbing.
How can a thermometer in a nuclear power station have a margin of error of 20 degrees?
And how is this acceptable to any international watchdog of nuclear safety?
Degrees of temperature--C or F?? Big difference. C=20 F=36 degrees. Milestones
380 - 420 C...'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_points_of_the_elements_(data_page)#Boiling_point
so sodium at 883, magnesium at 1090, only phosphorus at 277-431 is borderline, so is sulphur at 441, potasium at 759...zinc at 907... iodine at 183, worrisome.
silver at 2162 and gold at 2856...We are safe.
That should make the nin-hon-jin feel better.
Thanks for sharing, GW.
No, that's not unusual-it all depends on the temperature range and type of measuring device-if it is an analog thermometer the graduations may be 20 degrees or more-they also said there are other thermometers showing what they think the temp is.
"How can a thermometer in a nuclear power station have a margin of error of 20 degrees?"
Well, of course these things have to have regulatory/governmental approval first.
Seeing as how their budget forcasts, unemployment figures, fiscal policy etc. are usually off by 20-30%...it's all well within their margin of error.
You are right, it is appalling.
They should immediately dispatch a thermometer repair crew to the inside of the reactor vessel to check out and replace the damaged module.
/sarc
No way. That might be the secondary confirmation that we're all trying to avoid.
Eyes closed, hears plugged, Nahnahnahnah...
Let's build a new one in Georgia: http://www.dailycamera.com/nation-world-news/ci_19933882
Any time the variance of a critical system falls eggregiously ouside parameters that even Satan would find appalling, so endangering the very life, limb, mental and spriutal well being of the entire planet, the parametrics of the faulty equipment's margin of error to the point of utter uselessness, is simply nonsensically reestablished to appear to be within what is guessed to be normal bounds.
What could go wrong?
Sure. Doesn't everybody know Japanese components are typically unreliable? (Sarc.) Damn junk Japanese thermometers!
You think we're the only ones buying Chinese crap?
(flips thermometer over).... says "Made in China" LOL
that's funny... have you checked the pipes in San Diego? And Gates signed a deal to produce alternate nuclear generator...hummmmm!
It's all coming together for Godzilla's return. It's only a short rampage from Fukushima to get to Tokyo. Fortunately, the Gundams have been activated and Hello Kitty is on high alert.
http://www.animemb.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/life-size-gundam-statu...
We know that the Japanese Agriculture Ministry is NOT in charge of Gundam, but have we found out who IS?
http://www.gearfuse.com/the-japanese-agriculture-ministry-is-not-in-charge-of-gundam/
Seems pretty innocent. There are worse ways to waste time at work...for example:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sec-pornography-employees-spent-hours-surfing-...
Give us some perspective. How large is each "reactor core"? 20^3 feet? I'm talking the core where the main reaction is going on as opposed to the whole building.
the reactor pressure vessel is 22.05 meters tall and the inside diameter is 6.78 meters.
http://www.ati.ac.at/fileadmin/files/research_areas/ssnm/nmkt/06_BWR.pdf
Takes the guess work out of cooking pork chops....
I like my marshmellows burnt crispy.
as all of the leaking radiation makes itself felt in the western usa, i think we will see moderating real estate values...as though that has not been happening since 2008....
2005
That confirmation may come naturally of how unreliable the Japanese Media has been.
Now that makes the whole thing entirely clear.
Ah....Fukushima. Remember Fukushima?
The story of complete government ineptitude that that MSM has been trying to bury since day one. All you can really do is pray for the Japanese people.
What's a fukushima?
you have to have secondary confirmation before you doubt your instrumentation
I'm confused.
How do you tell which thermometer is the bad one?
"How do you tell which thermometer is the bad one?"
That's easy. It's the one the government says is the good one.
It's easy - the one that tells you what you want to hear is the good one, the other one needs a seasonal adjustment or has been affected by weather.
That's what I was afraid of...
"Pretending that the Fukushima reactors achieved a state of “cold shutdown” was a political – rather than scientific - decision."
The scales have fallen from my eyes.
What's everyone going on about? Everything is fine. Move along....
Even if a temp-error, they just flooded the reactor with a barge-load of water, that's now highly radioactive. Not to mention that there may be considerably more of it soon.
IF this temp rise is real, then how deep is the core's metalic layer in the foundation?. And more importantly, how hot is the very-well insulated concrete and steel 2 meters below it, after almost a year of heat transmission and next to no cooling?
400o C measured above it? ... and it's highly-insulated ... remember ... and that implies the foundation and containment is still being seriously structurally degraded 11 months on; --> IF <-- it's NOT a dodgy reading.
Given the tonnage of fuel in there there's a very good chance the temp reading is indicating something real, with active internal dynamics.
So if this is a real reading they have just filled a seriously degraded and weakened internally super-hot structure, with thousands of tonnes of still heating but already ultra-radioactive water. So I would expect serious and pressurised leaking from this, due to the static weight of this water on the foundation. Given how hot it would be it will deforem the steel and crack the concrete.
The temperature gradient differential alone wiill cause cracking and spalling.
Given the time of year there should be vapour, and lots of it, soon-ish.
If there's little to no vapour visible within the chilled external air, it's most likely not a real temperature rise.
{IF NIL;
<go back to sleep>
{End IF}
... vaporised