Loss of cooling in Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) #5... temperature is slowly rising.

originally posted by: BGTM90
www.tepco.co.jp...
The fuel pool is now being coolled by the system that regularly cools the reactors.

FALSE.

Raw seawater cooling is a last ditch, emergency measure, NOT "the system that regularly cools the reactors".

originally posted by: roth1
It is not only the reactors that are the problem there. All the spent rods were stored on top of the reactors. which makes it much worse. The clean up is misleading too. They have meters all over showing lower levels. Where clean up was only done around the meters, levels have been tested much higher just a few feet away where cleanup was not done. Even in school zones with children present. Not to mention that they are pumping the cooling waste directly into the oceans there now. Much worse of a disaster than many think.

They are attempting to prevent the direct flow of cooling water into the ocean. That's what the hundreds of storage tanks, filtration system and 'Ice Wall' is about.

The fact is they are failing miserably, but one can't honestly say "they are pumping the cooling waste directly into the ocean(s)"

Your last sentence, though entirely correct, is an understatement in the extreme.

a reply to: Psynic

You might want to read the whole thing before you go falsely accusing people of false statements.

Meanwhile, the cooling of 994 fuel assemblies inside the spent fuel pool will be continued through another system which is normally used to cool the reactor, called the "Residual Heat Removal (RHR) System", the company explained.

But I forgive you
www.tepco.co.jp...

originally posted by: BGTM90
a reply to: Psynic

You might want to read the whole thing before you go falsely accusing people of false statements.

Meanwhile, the cooling of 994 fuel assemblies inside the spent fuel pool will be continued through another system which is normally used to cool the reactor, called the "Residual Heat Removal (RHR) System", the company explained.

But I forgive you

www.tepco.co.jp...

Very kind of you.

My apologies.

I am still confused as to why they have been using raw sea water cooling if the regular system was functional, unless this latest change is a jury rig utilizing the freshwater pumps and valves to circulate seawater?

They where using sea water to cool the cooling water. Its standard practice at most nuclear or reactor but it might be lake water or river water depending on location. The sea water never comes into contact with the nuclear fuel. The fuel cooling water is on a closed loop system which passes through a heat exchanger in which sea water cools the cooling water. Think of it like the radiator in your car. The cooling water is the fluid in the radiator and the sea water is the air that passes over the tubes that hold the fluid.

a reply to: BGTM90

Nuclear reactors require massive amounts of water to operate..... that's why most of them are usually located very close to a large supply of water for a reason.... I read somewhere, I believe it was 50,000 gallons a day are run through the cooling systems...... not 100% sure on the exact figure,

a reply to: RickinVa
Yup, the amount of water used during operation depends on a lot of different factors mainly the power at which the reactor is being run. But that's all secondary cooling water to cool the primary coolant. It all gets returned to the body of water from which it came or is evaporated. The primary cooling water which comes into contact with the fuel itself his highly purified water and sometimes heavy water. It become contaminate d over time with tritium.

originally posted by: Freenrgy2
a reply to: intrptr

I just like to see stuff get blown up.

Sorry about the delay. I do too. In fact that was my solution early on to the problem of the cores ever molten down there somewhere. Hit em with bunker busters and scatter the crap around the site. That way at least you stop the ongoing fission and can clean them up with earth scrapers and vacuum robots or something. As it is these cores are somewhere down there still fissioning, emitting, leaking to the sea and air…