Readying for Fukushima fuel move

Within the new structure built over the badly damaged reactor building of unit 4, Tepco has been installing equipment that will allow the transfer of used nuclear fuel for long-term storage elsewhere. Underwater inspections in the pond have shown most of the fuel to be undamaged, but the pond contains a lot of dust and debris which will complicate operations.

The cover is fitted with air filters that will prevent any release of radioactivity as the fuel is moved. Transport containers will be placed in the empty and undamaged reactor vessel and the fuel will be transferred to them underwater using the fuel handling machine. The used fuel will eventually be placed in the site's shared used fuel pool, which was undamaged by the natural disasters two years ago.

World-Nuclear- News:

reply to post by Human0815


Thank you Human,

BUT... Is that it... Just copy paste and no comment from yourself?

It would have been nice to have heard what you had to say?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by Human0815


just a few stupid considerations:
Given that this is potentially a WCE (World changing event), who comissioned the operation? Was it a call for tender? national? international? or is it some DIY Tepco solution? did some brains work on the procedure or is it just a few maintenance guys coming up with "a solution"? The creme de la creme of world ingeneers should have worked on this. Brains.

I don't understand how all this is so underestimated. How there was no international crisis meeting...
This is the result of the "dumbening program" instigated by the TPTB. Social networks and virtual reality totally disconected us from what is actually happening. It pisses me off so bad. And I feel I am living in a fictional World. How can this be happening?

Rodinus
reply to post by Human0815

 

Thank you Human,

BUT... Is that it... Just copy paste and no comment from yourself?

It would have been nice to have heard what you had to say?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

Sumimasen o kudasai, i was not ready and i am still search my HDDs for a specific File,
but grande Confusaõ here with my Files, Chotto Matte!

reply to post by Human0815


Merci beacoup Human,

Don't know what you meant, but thanks anyway.

Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by Rodinus

I have one File with the nearly exact Plan of every Group of the Rods
but the problem is that i do not know where.

This Hand-Outs come without a Title but just a Number, i need more Time!

But as i said this is the most important Step in 2013!

Edit: I am still searching but it look not so good,
until i have a Victory above my Chaos please look for more visual Information:
Tepco link:

A little bit of a Warming Up Party
This is from Fukushima Daini, last Year in October.

The Technique is the same.

reply to post by Human0815


That looks extremely dangerous, I was biting my nails in worry as I watched, thinking that if they were to drop one of those in the badly damaged No.4 SFP, Fukushima might become just a glowing hole in the ground, and all of Japan would have to be evacuated. Now I won't be able to sleep until they have moved all the fuel. Maybe if we all pray hard enough to our chosen God, we might survive.

reply to post by GaryN


I still think that the Sfp. Nr. 4 and the Rods are undamaged,
there is Debris but no damage to the Rods itself

The Fuel is already very slow/ cold and must go out of the Building,
sadly this need a lot of Time and my Tension will/ is tremendously bad.

But i do not fear a "Gundershill Scenario",
he just need to throw his Ideas
into the Pot to be asked as a Guest for Talk-shows,
as far as i know (which is not much!) his actual Income is coming
only from this Activity.

I doubt/ do not know if he is actually involved in a Dismantling Process!

Assuming the transfer is successfully completed, will the constant flow of cooling water no longer be necessary? It seems like that would be the case. It seems like this is a very positive development.

reply to post by Phage


They can turn off the Water-Circulation in Nr.4
but not in the other Buildings!

It will be the 3. biggest Mountain of the whole Recovery-Tour,
imo. we would reach already the middle of the Mountain Stage!

reply to post by Human0815

I think you mean "it's all downhill from here". Meaning the most difficult part of the journey is over.

Thanks for keeping us informed about the progress being made.

reply to post by Phage


Until they can get to the molten cores, the constant flow of cooling water will continue to be necessary.

I thought you, of all people, would recognize that fact.

They may be able to begin removing spent fuel rods (and the completely unused core) that are in the spent fuel pool once they remove the debris on top of the rods.



Tepco Document

Three Mile Island Veteran Optimistic on Fukushima Fuel Removal

The first removal of nuclear fuel rods next month from the stricken Fukushima atomic station should be successful based on findings that the rods -- each about twice the average weight of a sumo wrestler -- appear undamaged from an explosion at the site almost three years ago.

That’s the view of Lake Barrett, a former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official appointed last month as an adviser to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), the operator of the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

“There’s no indication based on sampling of the water that the fuel has been damaged in any significant way” according to radiation readings, said Barrett, who led Three Mile Island’s cleanup operations for four years after the 1979 accident at that plant in the U.S. “There’s a high confidence that the defueling of the pool can go in a normal way.”

Source

Fukushima nuclear plant operators prepare for dangerous procedure

The operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is making final preparations before starting the most delicate and dangerous procedure attempted at the plant since three reactors were wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

I do not think it is all downhill from here.

Engineers from Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) need to remove 1,533 rods of highly irradiated spent fuel from the damaged storage pool alongside the Number 4 reactor without exposing them to the air. The rods must then be carefully transported to a safer location for longer-term storage.

The 18-month project is due to start in early November.

I think this article deserves it's own thread but since you have already started a discussion I will place it here. There are a couple of quotes from experts I would like to relay about the November project that are of great importance to the entire planet IMHO.

Others have made even more strident warnings, including Charles Perrow, a professor emeritus at Yale University.

"Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable," said Perrow.

"The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo," he said. "Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years."

"I would prefer to have had some US companies that are experts on spent fuel decommissioning brought in to assist," said a nuclear energy expert who has been monitoring Tepco's handling of the crisis.

The problem of 400 tonnes of radioactive water leaking from the site every day could be fixed in a matter of days if the company would listen to external experts, he said.

"The issues are not primarily technological, they are political," he added.

This was published Sunday, 27 October, 2013, 6:07am

This also reflects my concern and what I have said all along that we need all governments on board.

Anyone thank god,, for the disappearence of those two Super Typhons??? u know in the old days,,Temples, would ring in thanks,, blossems, would move like butterflies, dancing on the winds of thanks,,like smoke from ,,opps sorry,,
ya there gone. whew,, geee good news.
yea.

reply to post by Pimpintology

Hi Pimpintology,what would practically happen,if a "nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable" were to occur? Sorry for the ignorance,but rather I ask,than stay ignorant

reply to post by Raxoxane


not too be a but in sky.

reply to post by Raxoxane

Basically and simply TEOTWAWKI it would change the face of life on this planet...
You would be talking 1000's of magnitudes of radiation in the air from what we have seen as a species...
All dead, a lot dead or a change in our species maybe super powers for all any one really knows...

reply to post by BobAthome


Great demo!!! I have tried to explain the start of the reaction and the look of AHA on my wife's face was classic...