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Fukushima Reactors Heating Up Again … Water Fails to Cool Them Down
Temperatures are soaring within the reactor 2 containment vessel. And see this.
Tepco says that no new nuclear chain reactions are occurring … but admits that the water may no longer be able to cool the reactor. As NHK reports:
Attempts to cool the temperature in the No. 2 reactor of the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have only partially succeeded despite the injection of more cooling water.
The temperature in the reactor has gradually risen from about 45 degrees Celsius registered on January 27th.
In the past 4 days, the temperature has climbed more than 20 degrees to above 70 degrees.
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company began pumping more water into the reactor at around 1:30 AM on Monday. But at 7 AM, the temperature stood at 73.3 degrees and at 5 PM, 69.2 degrees.
***
TEPCO says the rise in temperatures indicate that the flow of water in the reactor may have changed direction after plumbing work, and is no longer able to properly cool down the melted down nuclear fuel.
However, the utility says radioactive xenon has not been detected in gases around the reactor, and that nuclear criticality is not taking place.
***
TEPCO says it will increase the amount of water being injecting into the reactor to see if the temperature in the reactor drops.
The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says there is a need for a comprehensive study to determine whether the reactor is actually in a state of cold shutdown.
***
But he criticized TEPCO and the nuclear safety agency for their handling of the matter. He says they are failing to properly explain the state of the reactors to the people.
Gizmodo notes:
Just when you thought it was over, the temperature at reactor number 2 at Fukushima's nuclear plant has soared 26.7 degrees Celsius in the last few hours. Worse: they don't know why the temperature is increasing after being stabilized for so long.
***
Tepco has admitted that they don't have a clue about what is going on. They have increased the amount of water pumped into the reactor ten percent, but their technicians don't know what is going on.
The temperatures in reactors 3 and 5 are rising as well.
A journalist says that a member of the Japanese parliament put him in touch with a manager in Tepco’s engineering department who told him that reactor 4 is “very unstable and dangerous”.
Steam has been filmed rising from the Fukushima complex.
Helicopters are flying over the complex to check for increased releases.
The temperature in the spent fuel pool at reactor number 3 is also up 70%.
AP points out:
The structural integrity of the damaged Unit 4 reactor building has long been a major concern among experts because a collapse of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns.
Indeed, nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen, who used to build spent fuel pools, says that – if the fuel pool at reactor 4 collapses due to an earthquake – people should get out of Japan, and residents of the West Coast of America and Canada should shut all of their windows and stay inside.
The fuel pool number 4 is apparently not in great shape, and there have been countless earthquakes near the Fukushima region since the 9.0 earthquake last March.
Why is the spent fuel of such concern?
As I noted in March 2011, the amount of nuclear material in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima is greater than all of the nuclear fuel at Chernoybl:
Science Insider noted yesterday:
The Daiichi complex in Fukushima, Japan … had a total of 1760 metric tons of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site last year, according to a presentation by its owners, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). The most damaged Daiichi reactor, number 3, contains about 90 tons of fuel, and the storage pool above reactor 4, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) Gregory Jaczko reported yesterday had lost its cooling water, contains 135 tons of spent fuel. The amount of fuel lost in the core melt at Three Mile Island in 1979 was about 30 tons; the Chernobyl reactors had about 180 tons when the accident occurred in 1986.
And see this.
That means that Fukushima has nearly 10 times more nuclear fuel than Chernobyl.
It also means that a single spent fuel pool – at reactor 4, which has lost all of its water and thus faces a release of its radioactive material - has 75% as much nuclear fuel as at all of Chernobyl.
However, the real numbers are even worse.
Specifically, Tepco very recentlytransferred many more radioactive spent fuel rods into the storage pools. According to Associated Press, there were – at the time of the earthquake and tsunami – 3,400 tons of fuel in seven spent fuel pools plus 877 tons of active fuel in the cores of the reactors.
That totals 4,277 tons of nuclear fuel at Fukushima.
Which means that there is almost 24 times more nuclear fuel at Fukushima than Chernobyl.
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maybe the centripetal acceleration of the earth's rotation pushed it back out
That's nothing. For a good Italian espresso you need at least 100 degrees.
Of course, it's nothing; it's utterly meaningless, but that's george washingtons meat and drink; hysteria over numbers he doesn't understand.
"... if the fuel pool at reactor 4 collapses due to an earthquake – people should get out of Japan, and residents of the West Coast of America and Canada should shut all of their windows and stay inside."
Umm ... just how long are we supposed to stay inside for?
In round numbers, 25,000 years will probably work, at least for half of it.
Stock up on stuff!
NFP
More than half the contamination will disperse in 25,000 years.
Oh no! There goes Tokyo!
"It's just a small leak" the Japan Gubment said.
Who said there is a leak?
The article says temperature has increased.
Even the title is wrong - water is not failing to cool them down. They're heating up most likely because the new water cooling system is malfunctioning so they're adding other measures while they identify and fix the problem. Doh.
Bearing Tepco's track record in mind, your reassurance has to be naive or disingenuous.
Further comment: the quality of pro-nuclear propaganda is degenerating, has dropped significantly over the last 12 months. This is an example. I note a distinct poverty of ideas and especially a lack of intellectual tools capable of dealing with the variety of material posted, here and elsewhere, by concerned citizens.
I do worry that what we see of the propagandists represents the quality of management INSIDE the nuclear power industry.
Real problem: how to defend the indefensible ...
TEPCO, the Japanese Government, the U.S. Government, and several quasi-governmental agencies, along with the pit bull Main Stream Media investigators & journalists, said this shit was under control a long time ago.
No worries.
/s
Don't forget Trav told us at the time there was nothing to worry about. And that Gunderson wasn't credible.
Attention span of HFT machines: 0.0000000002 seconds.
Attention span of most Americans: 0.2 seconds.
Attention span of hedge fund managers 2 days.
Attention span of asset managers and CEOs: until the next quarter.
Attention span of politicians: until the next election.
Average 'news cycle': 3 months (max).
Amount of time USA has been a nation: 223 years as a republic.
Amount of time Switzerland has been an independent nation: 721 years as a confederation.
Longest continuous existence of any nation: China, 4082 years.
Reactor problems: 40,000+ years.
Does anyone see the problem?
WOW. Hey Tyler. Give Steve a gold star. We have a winner.
Dude, I can't believe you don't have any Stuper Bowl statistics in there! And your icon has no tits.
And I'm supposed to read that without skimming?
intel pentium rounding error.
Brilliant, sir ...
Thank you, both, for you continued thoughts and comments on this site.
Fair field, clear course, and for the love of God, please, may we some how find a way to build and use a legitimate storage facility for the spent fuel rods currently stored on site at all the the US reactors.
http://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/us-stores-spent-nuclear-fuel-rods-at-4-times-pool-capacity/
build a launch pad in antarctica, reconfigure every rocket/ missile we have that can achieve escape velocity, pack cargo of a few rods each, send to sun. sure a few will explode in the atmosphere but is that any worse than the long term situation we are facing now?
The deadly contamination from Fuckishima has been constant month in month out since this non-accident began. It spells doom for Japan and ultimately a lot of the Northern Hemisphere. Perception management… the E.P.A. turned the monitoring off (officially – but they know damn well the toxic levels and are recording them). This is part of the Great Culling, world population reduction. When I take my Inspector Plus to the food store and scan the produce people start getting twitchy. Better than getting cancer I suppose.
http://www.coneinstruments.com/inspector%2B-radiation-detector/p/N422005/
I'll get one if Medicare pays for it.
Might bring mine next time I go to a sushi bar . . . it's been months . . . for some reason.
mmmmm, sushi
Has the produce registered on your geiger counter?
ummm... yeah!!! what the heck does it read????
"Putting feathers up your ass doesn't make you a chicken"
Tickle your ass with a feather -- particularly nasty weather.
Don't think we're gonna see a recriticality...
We should get a pool going as to what the sievert readings will be on the anniversary date. :D
a new mutant shall arise from the sea that shall overshadow Godzilla
...and it'll look uncannily like Janet Napolitano!
non_anon
I give you GAMERA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JS1y991ngQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeZW2I6YMhA
Even has giant Evil Squids!
thank you, but alas, it appears youtube has foiled again
Fucking nuke that place into the ocean, it is a clear and present danger.
Thank you for your focus on this very dangerous situation.
Ghastly and disgusting to see how much crappy fuel is laying about the place.
Much like debt, you can't solve a radiation problem with more radiation.
Maybe, just like debt, we haven't added enough radiaiton.
/sarc.
Who cares ?
Those reactors are in cold shutdown, under control and decontamination will be finished in 30-40 years - no problem. Why the fuss ?
GW, Thank you for making this your personal mission to keep shining a light on this subject. The media has basically forgotten about it, and honestly if it weren't for you, all of us might also have forgotten by now. You're doing great work. Thank you.
Really? And what is the article - but with a logical explanation as to why - doing on home page of Bloomberg?
It looks to me GW is supplementing his income with some Greenpeace funds. GW, please disclose your interests in this and why you write on these things when you're clearly clueless about nuclear energy?
It looks to me as if NP is supplementing his income with some Tepco/Yakuza/CIA/GE funds. NP, please disclose your interests in this and why you write on these things when you're clearly clueless about the dangers of nuclear power?
[SEE how easy is this Creative Writing and how easy it is to overload our precious bandwidth with completely meaningless and fraudulent material]
B-b-b-b-but I thought it was in 'cold shutdown'! Yes, thanks GW for showing how completely corrupt and incompetent governments and corporations can be when their own asses aren't at stake(just their bank accounts). The world at large thinks this is done and over with, there are people however who see if for what it is, clusterfukushima.
We do need to try and separate Unit 731 from the innocent children today's sensitive Japanese leaders are experimenting on. I for one do not understand why all other Asians remain wary of the Jap's, I mean Japanese.
This helps explain the suspicion I've developed over the course of the last 12 months that the incident might be considered useful by amoral elements of the authorities in two - or more - nations as a rich source of medical data on the irradiation of the biosphere.
Of course, to do this requires that (a) the target population be returned to their homes and [therefore] (b) the wider population think that there is no danger to their health.
One wishes with heartfelt sincerity that a whole heap of the management and political layer had never gone to university or got any sort of education.
Just googled Unit 731. I might go throw up now.
wasnt dr. totenkopf the head of unit731....?
JFC.
and MacAruthur granted some of those fucks immunity. . .
Of course he did, in exchange for their results.
What else is new?
The same way CIA outsourced questioning in recent years.
I just saw that, right up there with Werner Van Braun, and the NASA scientists.
Lordy people are fucked up...
Doesn't even boil water. Wake me up when there is a real meltdown, Fonda.
-5? Is that all you tree-huggin fukers got? Who wants to go red-shouldered hawk hunting this weekend?