FUKUSHIMA REACTOR 1: FULL MELTDOWN, REACTOR VESSEL BREACHED

May 13th, 2011

Via: Reuters:

One of the reactors at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has a hole in its main vessel following a meltdown of fuel rods, leading to a leakage of radioactive water, its operator said on Thursday.

The disclosure by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is the latest indication that the disaster was worse than previously disclosed, making it more difficult to stabilize the plant.

…

Based on the amount of water that is remaining around the partially melted and collapsed fuel, Matsumoto estimated that the pressure vessel had developed a hole of several centimeters in diameter.

The finding makes it likely that at one point in the immediate wake of the disaster the 4-meter-high stack of uranium-rich rods at the core of the reactor had been entirely exposed to the air, he said. Boiling water reactors like those at Fukushima rely on water as both a coolant and a barrier to radiation.

U.S. nuclear experts said that the company may have to build a concrete wall around the unit because of the breach, and that this could now take years.

“If it is assumed the fuel did melt through the reactor, then the most likely solution is to encapsulate the entire unit. This may include constructing a concrete wall around the unit and building a protective cover over it,” W. Gene Corley, senior vice president of CTL Group in Skokie, Illinois, said on Thursday.

“Because of the high radiation that would be present if this has happened, the construction will take many months and may stretch into years,” Corley said.

TEPCO should consider digging a trench around reactors 1-3 all the way down to the bedrock, which is about 50 feet below the surface, said Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates Inc of Burlington, Vermont, who once worked on reactors of similar design to the Fukushima plant.

He said this should be filled with zeolite, which can absorb radioactive cesium to stop more poisons from leaking into the groundwater around the plant.

“TEPCO seems to be going backwards in getting the situation under control and things may well be slowly eroding with all the units having problems,” said Tom Clements with Friends of the Earth, a U.S.-based environmental group.

“At this point, TEPCO still finds itself in unchartered waters and is not able to carry out any plan to get the situation under control,” he said.

Posted in Atrocities, Collapse, Energy, Environment | Top Of Page

6 Responses to “FUKUSHIMA REACTOR 1: FULL MELTDOWN, REACTOR VESSEL BREACHED”

  1. jburke6000 says:
    May 13, 2011 at 1:03 am

    …but school is open, the children have masks, and everything will be just fine…….
    I knew the week after this happened that it was way bigger than Chernobyl. Those SOBs just lie and lie. People are expendable cattle. I would like to know when the people will finally snap and tear those crooks apart.

  2. tochigi says:
    May 13, 2011 at 1:20 am

    http://economic-undertow.blogspot.com/2011/05/updates.html

    TEPCO has as much a clue about its own business @ Fukushima Daiichi as Bozo the Clown!.

    The reactor units 1- 3 appear to have melted down completely within the first few days after the tsunami; these meltdowns were the cause of the various explosions. TEPCO has only grudgingly admitted the meltdowns.

    The reactor containments were compromised along with essential plumbing by the earthquake and by subsequent explosions.

    TEPCO has not been forthcoming about the nature of the reactor explosions.

    TEPCO apparently ‘forgot’ about the spent fuel in reactor unit 4 allowing the water level in that spent fuel to drain out or boil away causing a large explosion that has compromised that building.

    TEPCO has failed to grasp the implications of the information it has been able to obtain, such as the likely cause and effects of the four explosions at the reactor units. Instead, it has wasted valuable time pretending to produce ‘solutions’ that cannot possibly work such as reconstructing emergency cooling … within leaking, heavily irradiated buildings for reactor cores that do not exist in forms that allow water cooling!

    TEPCO has never ‘prepared for the worst’, instead has relied on ad- hoc measures which are clearly inadequate.

    TEPCO’s lackadaisical approach to safety and plant operation has reaped the outcome of multiple core meltdowns on a single site where increasing levels of radiation makes occupying the site less likely over time.

    TEPCO evades the issue of ongoing criticality when comparative measurement of isotopes and rising temperatures — along with obvious increases in steam production — indicates criticality is taking place. The best outcome of increasing criticality is a large increase in radiation emissions. The worst outcome is a prompt- criticality event: an explosion and fire, with both outcomes requiring the abandonment of the Fukushima site for an extended period.

    Rising temperatures in reactor unit 3 indicate the core material cannot be cooled despite the flood of water into the unit. As is the case with unit 1, the water may be flowing out of the containment as fast as it can be pumped in.

    Observing the various meter-readings and revelations from TEPCO and the Japanese news media there is a lot more going on in these reactors than meets the Western eye.

    TEPCO has proven completely incompetent. The situation at Fukushima is out of control. The reactors are not healing themselves. TEPCO is mired in a management culture that cannot give direction or adequately scale its response. TEPCO has acted on wishful thinking and self- deception. The reactor emergency management role must be given to the Self- Defense Forces while the Japanese government seeks resources from overseas. Someone who understands the physics must be put in control and an all- out effort launched to entomb the cores and stifle the outflow of radioactive material.

  3. tochigi says:
    May 13, 2011 at 1:22 am

    @jburke6000:
    i would like to know too.

  4. Eileen says:
    May 13, 2011 at 2:42 am

    @tochigi
    I remember writing a rant a few weeks ago that started with “this is so much bullshit” re TEPCo.
    I can’t believe that this situation hasn’t been taken out of TEPCO’s hands and nationalized.
    But then again this is a redux of the Gulf Oil Spill. Leave fixing the problem to the people who caused it. Those who caused the problem only want to save their own asses and the corporate profitability. And screw you people who just have had your lives – monetarily and healthwise screwed by shameless, corporate profit driven self interest.
    I was hoping that TEPCO, being a Japanese company, would behave with honor. Bulldoze and seal the flucking reactors and all corporate members bow and scrape before the throne of the Japanese emperor.
    But I suppose that’s too much to ask for. No one seems to be accountable to “an authority” when it comes to raping and pillaging the planet.
    It doesn’t seem to matter.
    In my life the climate is fighting back. Storms tonight were intense. Driving with flashers on. Water, water, everywhere. But I don’t want that rain to touch me because I know it is full of shit.
    Take clothes off wettened by rain. Wash your skin when raindrops touch it.
    Wonder how long it will be til we can enjoy the rain again?

  5. tochigi says:
    May 13, 2011 at 4:56 am

    “I can’t believe that this situation hasn’t been taken out of TEPCO’s hands and nationalized.”

    surreal. i went to an exhibition at the National Art Museum in Nogizaka about the Surrealism Movement of the early 20th century.

    but what is really surreal is this.
    all the pretending that it’s under control.
    surreal.

  6. steve holmes says:
    May 13, 2011 at 9:25 am

    The logistics of a proper cleanup and containment are mind numbing, and so far TEPCO has really done a great job of absolutely nothing of value. This mess will take YEARS to completely contain- if that is even possible with respect to ground water contamination- I’m assuming the bedrock is fractured. If it is, it’s going to be a real bitch to seal it with 4 failed nuke plants draining their radioactive bowels into the soil while workers dump thousands of gallons of cooling water per day into reactors and pools that leak like a sieve.Oh yeah, lets make sloppy mud for the foundations for the cooling pools while we’re at it.

    And just in case that doesn’t piss everyone right straight off, sit yourselves down and read exactly how the ONLY US permanent nuke garbage dump construction project (Yucca Mountain Repository) was canceled by Obama to meet his so-called “budget” for reprehensible shit like more wars and social welfare programs that do nothing but buy votes and disable people. Seriously- read this and think about the $15 billion spent so far that taxpayers and rate payers have shelled out for permanent nuke waste storage, only to have that dick head cancel it after DECADES of research and MILLIONS of files and reports to ensure it is safe for a MILLION years (instead of the original 10,000 years). Try engineering something to withstand everything man, beast and nature can throw at thousands of tons of the most toxic substances on earth and make certain it holds of for a million years. Oh, but the “blue ribbon panel” will figure all that out, right? Good luck- you’ll need it just to deal with the idiot archeologists that will try to break into it 100 years from now when the warning signs are weather beaten or stolen by souvenir hunters. No I’m not kidding.

    I’d like to launch every ass-hat lobbyist for the nuke industry and the DOE straight into the sun along with ALL of their waste/leftovers including DU. However, working in aerospace for 34 years, I know that some moron will cut corners and the waste and morons will fail to reach orbit. Can you imagine high level radioactive waste AND ass hat lobbyists falling from the sky? Maybe we can use them for clay pigeons and fire DU at them.
    http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11229.pdf

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