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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Count me in on that hunt. I'll bring a good, red blooded conservative friend of mine along with me. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/video/cheneyshots2.jpg
Its ok to shoot birds trapped in cages like Dick Cheney, but no shooting your friends in the face, like Dick Cheney.
cool, I'll bring the booze
Temp. at reactor #3 is up "70%". That is NOT an accurate assessment. D-
Its TEPCOS numbers. IF you bother to follow the link. Unless you're there, or have a better source, I'm going with their numbers.
Are you a moron? What does "70pct higher" even mean? Higher compared to WHAT?
Bloomberg reports 70C, a notebook temperature (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-07/tepco-injects-boric-acid-into-f...).
Are you a moron? It means that the temperature is 70% higher than the last measurement.
Firstly; is Bloomberg there taking measurements? No. They get their info from the source, just like the post.
Secondly; IF you bother to read, the Bloomberg article doesnt even address spent reactor 6, which is the reactor in question that has had a 70% rise in temperature.
If you're not going to read sources, or even bother to read for accuracy, don't bother.
Here, I'll make it easy. Heres an English blog with links right to the TEPCO site. If you can do some basic math, you shouldnt have a problem.
http://enenews.com/temperature-doubles-at-spent-fuel-pool-no-3-up-75-at-...
Edit; Even easier, here it is from TEPCO
http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/f1/images/12020512_temp_data_56u-...
Yes, it IS 70% higher. The hottest is now at body temperature! The one that's 72% up is now at room temperature.
How catastrophic is that?
Are you insane? Here's the info, from your first link.
I can't believe I'm wasting my time on this crap.
You shouldn't. You should instead spend time working on your reading comprehension.
Original comment; "Temp. at reactor #3 is up "70%". That is NOT an accurate assessment."
Me (essentially) "It is an accurate assessment" Those are TEPCOS numbers
You;(essentially) "ARE you a Moron?!? I can't understand statistics or read for accuracy!!!!"
REALITY;
The 70% figure IS a FACTUAL AND ACCURATE assessment. At least, to the best of anybodies knowledge, unless youre going to split hairs and call it 72%
You seem unable to discern the difference between assessing a statement for its accuracy and your opinion of the consequences of the fact.
How big a catastropy it is was never the question or my point. My point was that the post was accurately reporting the facts. And I have seen NOTHING that refutes that.
I'll tell you though, TEPCO seems to think that its a big enough of a concern to take actions to change it, so obviously THE AUTHORITIES find it concerning.
Again, between TEPCO and Mr. Armchair Nuclear Expert, that doesn't seem to read too carefully or critically, I'll go with TEPCO until someone better informed comes along.
That I am having this conversation in a website that is devoted to interpreting the rise and fall of markets is DELICIOUS irony.
And I'm *SURE* TEPCO is promoting hysteria.....
Accuracy? You wan't accuracy from George Washington? Wow. You're on the wrong blog; they don't do accuracy here; they do hysteria.
And angry vegetable tossing from the peanut gallery.
Are you actually suggesting that the Shill Recruitment Agency is now only employing monkeys?
Hmm.
I heard they'd sacked the monkeys for budget reasons and replaced them with budgies and small parrots (cheaper to feed and quicker breeding).
Check the quality of recent propaganda and see if you agree with me.
Thanks for continuing to push the topic, GW. Not many people know to follow enenews, even fewer care. Tepco continues to assert that some temperature readings are off by 20C; video of steam escaping pressure vessels makes a 20 degree error meaningless- the water is boiling[period]
Helicopters have already been sent to take air samples above Fukushima, which tells you how concerned Tepco is, despite their reassurances that no re-criticality has taken place. One way or another, fuel in the pressure vessel has changed physical configuration in such a way as to maintain a critical equilibrium of sorts. Its not blowing itself apart, nor will it; but the water pumped in is moderating intermittent chain reactions which have increased the temperature as reported. I hope they start focusing on the cross-section as much as the temperature.
There is a silver lining, if you could call it that- this behavior suggests the pressure vessel in question is still containing the fuel, which is vastly better than having the fuel already melting down to the water table.