Is Fukushima fixable?

Dig a humongous hole deep into the earth at the side of the facility. It would be a monumental hole. Once an opening has been made near the facility I would dig into the crust beneath the facility in a horizontal manner. With this massive opening below the facility there could be made the proper machinery and plumbing to redirect the leaks into a containment area. A project like this would be extremely expensive and lives would be lost in the process but if this sort of action had been done as soon as they found out the seriousness of the issue maybe the problem would be solved at this time. It wouldn't take 3 years to follow this plan through.

originally posted by: RickinVa

2. What can be done technology wise to mitigate the problem?

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: RickinVa

Build a concrete hemisphere in four pieces/wedges, north south east and west of the facility atop transports like the ones used to move the Saturn 5 rockets, then push them in to place. Then mine under the facility but above the water table and pour vast amounts of concrete to prevent any core material leakage into the groundwater and soil. If we can build the Hoover dam more than 1/2 a century ago we can achieve a project such as the above.

All that's required on Humanity's part is materials and effort not to mention rather a few lives lost due to radioactive exposure I imagine.

If they actually build the hemisphere like you say, there would actually be no need to tunnel under the facility. Just start dismantling the buildings and digging deeper until they locate the damn corium and contain it. MOst of this work could be done with robots these days.

The hemisphere idea is freakin brilliant because it will allow them to do so many things they can't currently due to the risk of releasing all kinds of bad stuff into the air.

a reply to: 8675309jenny

The robots can't get close enough to the coria (what's the proper plural?) either before their circuits fry.

What technology exists to deal with multiple mutli-ton semi-molten lumps of radioactive slag that used to be reactors?

Water, lots and lots of water for decades upon decades is what the roadmap lays out.

Great fun.

a reply to: RickinVa

I was pondering this thought when i made a new thread in skunk works called ungrounded rain. It is a kinda silly thought to some but it is worth a shot imo. at the least what i purpose there has never been tried thereby never debunked but the thought is that simple rain water that has not touched the ground could reverse damaged soil if the soil and water are combined without being grounded to earth.

originally posted by: deadeyedick
a reply to: RickinVa

I was pondering this thought when i made a new thread in skunk works called ungrounded rain. It is a kinda silly thought to some but it is worth a shot imo. at the least what i purpose there has never been tried thereby never debunked but the thought is that simple rain water that has not touched the ground could reverse damaged soil if the soil and water are combined without being grounded to earth.

"Kinda silly"?
Try 'absurd'.

But as a distraction from reality, it's ideal for the agenda here.

a reply to: RickinVa

EBASCO, the nuclear engineering company that designed Fukushima dai-ichi, has since been subsumed into GE, its parent company. GE has not helped Japan deal with this nuclear disaster because Japan has not yet consented to a "hold harmless" agreement with GE. Independent nuclear engineers like Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds originally recommended perimeter trenches that are then filled with zeolite, but TEPCO rejected that idea as too costly.

From the airborne releases of iodine 131 and the shorter-lived cesium 134 still being detected downwind in 2014, intermittent ongoing criticalities within the escaped coriums cannot be ruled out. There have also been some reports of neutron releases detected onsite and within a few kilometers of the site ... I question the safety of journalists and politicians (Caroline Kennedy) visiting the site even now.

Solutions for Fukushima dai-ichi will be begun when a nuclear engineering company is put in charge, not TEPCO, which is a nuclear operator, not a nuclear engineering company. Fundamentally, FD is a political problem first and a nuclear engineering problem second.

a reply to: RickinVa

gee that is really strange: the media in Australia has reported the issue is fixed.

?
the reactors that were damaged have been contained and some of the nuclear power stations are back up and running.

originally posted by: Thurisaz
a reply to: RickinVa

gee that is really strange: the media in Australia has reported the issue is fixed.

?

Fixed eh?

Ridiculous, but not surprising. Your PM has reported finding MH370 three separate times now.

He even refers to the search area as the "crash site".

It must be the isolation of Oz that lets them get away with these kind of deceptions.

Is there some deficiency in the antipodean internet that disallows Aussies from finding the truth on-line?

How about we let Japan continue to beat out the fire for the next few thousand years and meanwhile the rest of the world can take it upon itself to dismantle the 434 other nuclear timebombs left on the planet. I hope the Fukushima disaster will open peoples' eyes to the uncontrollable dangers of nuclear power.

Back to ideas... if you were to completely surround one of the molten cores with borax, would that be enough to contain it? There would be the release of gasses as the heavy elements broke down, but would it at least be enough to keep the mass from going critical without the need of a constant flow of water?

Use lasers to destroy the nuclear material.. Heres a link to a laser that has done this.

laser

originally posted by: hololeap
How about we let Japan continue to beat out the fire for the next few thousand years and meanwhile the rest of the world can take it upon itself to dismantle the 434 other nuclear timebombs left on the planet. I hope the Fukushima disaster will open peoples' eyes to the uncontrollable dangers of nuclear power.


Back to ideas... if you were to completely surround one of the molten cores with borax, would that be enough to contain it? There would be the release of gasses as the heavy elements broke down, but would it at least be enough to keep the mass from going critical without the need of a constant flow of water?

Because the damage being done is world wide.

Just how would you go about surrounding these THREE molten cores?

Russia ordered thousands of soldiers to dig a tunnel under Chernobyl to allow for the placement of a boron pad to catch the corium as it descended into the earth.

How would TEPCO do something like that, through tritium soaked quicksand, even IF they had an army at their command?

a reply to: Psynic

Let me clarify that I wasn't trying to say "let Japan clean up their own mess." I know this is a worldwide problem. I was just trying to bring to light that there ARE things that other countries could be doing to prevent something similar happening elsewhere, namely decommissioning the hundreds of nuclear power plants that are operating all over the world (although almost entirely in the northern hemisphere for some reason).

Well, I'm not sure how they would do that. I was simply wondering if you were to completely surround the core if this would be enough. The details would obviously need to be worked out, but if this were to work, it would be a lot more obtainable than some of the other ideas posted here.

a reply to: hololeap

Bro, the world governments won't even spend $X million dollars to fortify their electrical grids & transformers, you think they're gonna start spending to decommission NPPs? Hell, the NPPs probably power our electrical grids lol

The 1800s will come back with a snap crackle bang & definitely not by will of the people or governments.

Has anyone been checking the flora and fauna right off the coast? The phytoplankton?

Maybe drop a few H bombs on it and stop the reaction

originally posted by: hololeap
a reply to: Psynic



The details would obviously need to be worked out, but if this were to work, it would be a lot more obtainable than some of the other ideas posted here.

Obviously.

The devils in the details, as they say.

If you look at the situation a little more closely you'll see that the boron 'fix' as performed in Chernobyl couldn't be pulled off here.

That's why were going into year FOUR of the TRIPLE meltdowns.

Not even robots can get close to Fukushima Daiichi's three reactor cores.

The opportunity for this kind of fix, if it existed in the first place, is long gone. TEPCO doesn't know where these molten reactor cores even are!

originally posted by: douglas5
Maybe drop a few H bombs on it and stop the reaction

Might as well drop F-Bombs.

This is what I would have done, beginning once the situation was "stabilised".
(Keep in mind I am not a nuclear scientist or structural engineer)

Windbreaks, such as shadecloth and good old walls, all over the place. Keep everything as still as possible.
Prefab concrete walkways for the staff, for shielding. As much shielding between the buildings as possible.
Sensors, sensors everywhere. Temperature, radioactivity, seismic, audio..
Drop a prefab concrete wall in to bolster the seawall.
Cover the ground with a sealant which won't be picked up by the wind.

As high level radiation destroys electronics I would build a pumping and conveyor system, basically a small tunneling machine which can work its way beneath the buildings. Think corkscrew in a pipe with cutting ability, the materials are ejected part way up the pipe or are diverted so the radioactive materials never reach the controller or hardware. This ideally would remove the waste, dirt, rocks, concrete and such, and allow for bedding materials to be pumped in. Varying designs would work at different depths. Of course, the buildings would have to be stabilised, the SFP's would have to be cleared and the deconstruction of the buildings should be underway.

Remove as much material as possible and bury in a concrete and steel lined quarry or on site. The fill removed from the storage hole could be pumped under the facility if needs be. It could also be mixed with sealants.

After the site is as decontaminated as possible, entomb it in concrete. Place sensors and fill the chamber with an inert gas.

Charge Tepco for negligence and crimes against nature and humankind.