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

Well this in new to me and probably a few other people... reactors 1,2,3 ...spf in 4...


Now the SPF in reactor #5 has lost its cooling capability due to a leaking water pipe and the temperature is already rising. Tepco estimates they have 9 nine days. (I mentally pictured that scene from Armageddon where the guy runs in and says..we have 17 days before it hits earth)

Don't forget the typhoon bearing down on them.

www.foxnews.com...

www3.nhk.or.jp...

looks like more pouring of seawater maybe in the future.... more water to store and more to decontaminate.

I still think Tepco will walk away someday...they just need the right excuse.

Only two kinds of news come out of Fukushima.... Bad news and worse news.

a reply to: RickinVa

I saw this story earlier today on a news website. I find it hard to believe that it would take that long to repair a hole measuring just millimeters that is allowing the stored cooling water to leak out. As for using sea water, have they not learned from the past that using sea water adds to the problem? With a leak already present, the use of salt water would be a bad idea except in extreme emergency.

originally posted by: ThisIsMyRifle
a reply to: RickinVa

I saw this story earlier today on a news website. I find it hard to believe that it would take that long to repair a hole measuring just millimeters that is allowing the stored cooling water to leak out. As for using sea water, have they not learned from the past that using sea water adds to the problem? With a leak already present, the use of salt water would be a bad idea except in extreme emergency.

Gosh! Where have you been for three and a half years?

Emergencies don't get ANY more extreme.

They've been flushing three reactors and their spent fuel pools with seawater since day one.

The boron used to retard the fission has been completely washed away!

Contaminated seawater is being stored in 100 ton capacity, steel tanks, which are being built at the rate of one or two a day.

There are hundreds of them on every piece of level ground at the Fukushima Daiichi property.

It can't go on much longer.

They're running out of space.

Another earthquake of the same size as the one that caused the Tsunami and they'll topple like dominoes.

Moe, Larry and Curly have been in charge of this operation from day 1 all because Tepco didn't want the real scope of the issue to be known...and the world turned away.

They've since been kicking the can down the road all while toxifying the ocean and air all around.

It was beyond their capabilities then and is even more so now, as it just keeps getting worse.

originally posted by: Maluhia
Moe, Larry and Curly have been in charge of this operation from day 1 all because Tepco didn't want the real scope of the issue to be known...and the world turned away.

They've since been kicking the can down the road all while toxifying the ocean and air all around.

It was beyond their capabilities then and is even more so now, as it just keeps getting worse.

Who supplied these stooges with this infernal machine?

Why aren't they helping to bring the situation under control?

You don't think the manufacturer has a vested interest in a holocaust that could reduce the world population by a few billion or so, do you?

Some pics in link provided. Gotta love the red cone (slippery when radioactive).

Sea water only complicates matters when it is present during uncontrolled chain reaction (fuel burning). That isn't happening yet.

The danger will only get worse if the water heats up and begins to evaporate because they have the cooling pumps turned off that circulate water. If the water levels drop too low then the tops of the fuel rods becme exposed and begin to rapid heat, catching fire…

They aren't going to intentionally let that happen. The leak looks "repaired" in the bottom photo in the link.

With wood blocks and Elmers glue, for now…

Link

ETA: Of course here comes Murphys lawyers to throw a curve ball at the whole thing. If the Typhoon knocks out power to the site and the back up systems run out of fuel and power for a couple days…

a reply to: intrptr

With wood blocks and Elmers glue, for now…

What, they don't have duct tape in Japan?

originally posted by: intrptr
Some pics in link provided. Gotta love the red cone (slippery when radioactive).
The leak looks "repaired" in the bottom photo in the link.

With wood blocks and Elmers glue, for now…

Link

You're not kidding. It is LITERALLY patched with ELMER's GLUE !

That stuff softens when heated and is guaranteed to fail.

a reply to: Maluhia

What, they don't have duct tape in Japan?

Or silly putty. whats with those guys?

a reply to: Psynic

That stuff softens when heated and is guaranteed to fail.

Thats okay. "Bucket brigade to isle five!"

The plant is being decommissioned and has been shut down since before the quake, if memory serves.

Shows us how long the fuel rods need to cool after being exposed in a reactor core.

Hotter than hell. Both thermally and radioactively.

Nuclear power itself is the main stream today, but sure leaves a lot to be desired. Even after they remove the rods they will still be radioactive for millennia, stored underground in casks somewhere, safe from earthquakes… in Japan(?).

BTW... this is not a doom porn thread.

There are active measures that can be taken to prevent the SPF from overheating,.... most likely would be pumping in cold sea water for cooling... that's not really a foregone conclusion.

Introducing saltwater into a nuclear reactor means it can never be used again, I would assume the same goes for a SFP, and since #5 & 6 are scheduled to be decommissioned anyways, I guess it really doesn't matter at this point.

But it very much points out the continuing problems at Fukushima and that only more problems will arise in the future.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Psynic

That stuff softens when heated and is guaranteed to fail.

Thats okay. "Bucket brigade to isle five!"

The plant is being decommissioned and has been shut down since before the quake, if memory serves.

Unfortunately, memory does not serve.

The plant was in full operation at the time of the earthquake, with one of it's six reactors temporarily shut down for maintenance.

Most of the original employees fled the plant at the time of the explosions, never to return, and work is being performed by homeless and destitute, unskilled labourers supplied by the Yakuza.

What you refer to as "rods", the fuel that was actually in the reactors, has melted down into a blob of corium which has escaped the reactor and is somewhere beneath the containment vessel boring ever downwards, despite being flooded by a constant stream of raw seawater, most of which flows directly back into the Pacific.

In that sense I suppose you're right, Nuclear power itself is the main "stream" today.

originally posted by: RickinVa
BTW... this is not a doom porn thread.

There are active measures that can be taken to prevent the SPF from overheating,.... most likely would be pumping in cold sea water for cooling... that's not really a foregone conclusion.

Introducing saltwater into a nuclear reactor means it can never be used again, I would assume the same goes for a SFP, and since #5 & 6 are scheduled to be decommissioned anyways, I guess it really doesn't matter at this point.

But it very much points out the continuing problems at Fukushima and that only more problems will arise in the future.

Did you think they were going to restart these reactors?

They've been inundated with seawater from the day the Tsunami struck.

Nothing was ever "scheduled to be decommissioned". The shutting down of all reactors at Fukushima Daiichi is a reaction to an overwhelming and out of control disaster that could yet bring about the end of Japan.

All it would take is another earthquake equal to the last.

a reply to: Psynic


I am aware as everyone else is who has followed this fiasco for the last 3+ years of what is going on.


None of the 6 reactors at the site will ever be restarted again. Common knowledge. That was meant for people who may be less informed than some of us,,that's all.

If you go to other forums, you will see many posts... I saw one today that claims Fukushima never happened and its all a giant hoax....or its completely under control, never melted down etc.

All I do is post what little bit of information that comes out of Fukushima.... that's all any of us can do, but unfortunately info is coming harder and harder to come by since the secrecy law was passed.

I could post some crap about OMG IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD..SPF 5 IS GOING TO BLOW.,..WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!

That wouldn't be true and that's not the way I try to operate.

a reply to: RickinVa

Like I have mentioned in other Japan/Fukushima threads...this has been a cluster F! I you get my meaning. All seafood and all stuff that I use to prepare Japanese cuisine has been contaminated. The only stuff I am bringing is from Okinawa for now. For now.Just seaweed, but I will halting that soon, and going for Atllantic kelp.
All those huge tanks full of radioactive water. What/how are they going to treat that mess? And the excess that they have to let into the Pacific.
What a mess for humanity. This is so sad. If you are young, and down the line when you are old and get a blood cancer....think back about Fukushima.

originally posted by: RickinVa
a reply to: Psynic


I am aware as everyone else is who has followed this fiasco for the last 3+ years of what is going on.


None of the 6 reactors at the site will ever be restarted again. Common knowledge. That was meant for people who may be less informed than some of us,,that's all.

If you go to other forums, you will see many posts... I saw one today that claims Fukushima never happened and its all a giant hoax....or its completely under control, never melted down etc.

All I do is post what little bit of information that comes out of Fukushima.... that's all any of us can do, but unfortunately info is coming harder and harder to come by since the secrecy law was passed.

I could post some crap about OMG IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD..SPF 5 IS GOING TO BLOW.,..WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!

That wouldn't be true and that's not the way I try to operate.

I don't have any idea what your motivation is for posting a watered down version of reality but if you're going to persist, would you please at least stop referring to the 'Spent Fuel Pools' as "SPF "s.

" SPF " stands for 'Sun Protection Factor' and is something used to protect us from the ultraviolet radiation that causes sunburn.

Spent Fuel Pools, or "SFP "protect us from ionizing radiation and a fission reaction that could lead to the extinction of all living things.

Notice the difference?

a reply to: Psynic


Had to re-read that several times... I did not realize that I has transposed the letters F & P... It something I do a lot, more as I get older.
I have asked a MOD to correct the title as I cannot, too much time has passed.

LOL this thread reminds me to ask my doc next time I go why I keep reversing letters...it only started a few years ago but it gets progressively worse...... must be old age.

No bueno.

The information relating to this has been more or less blackballed.

No doubt, protecting domestic tranquility is vital to keeping the peace and the situation is not something the masses truly need to know about, but we need solutions,m we need brainstorming ideas that might be of some benefit to the greater good.

I can not offer solutions to this problem based on the limited information available.

Yes I know I reversed the letters SFP and SPF in the title, I do that quite often as like in every other word, sometimes I fail to catch everything when I edit.

Trying to get a mod to edit that, I can't, been too long

My apologies, it wasn't intentional.

Step 1. Build a big rocket
Step 2. Fill Rocket with Fukushima waste
Step 3. Shoot rocket into Sun
Step 4. Prosecute everyone managing this Fukushima mess