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Is Fukushima Dai-Ichi a money-pit?

By: yoyo (Diary)  |  March 28th, 2011 at 04:33 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Okay, what am I missing?

What I have been told (by most media outlets) is that the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station is suffering a meltdown because the 9.0 earthquake and resultant 15 meter tsunami knocked out the power and swamped the emergency generators to the reactors at the facility. Now, Tokyo Electric Power Co. is frantically attempting to “reconnect power” to the station in an attempt to get the coolant pumps running again.

….Umm, what?

This approach to the emergency was a probably a good idea on March 12, the day after the earthquake/tsunami. Since then however, a couple of events have occurred (in my opinion, at least) that has made that approach moot, to say the least. One such event was the hydrogen explosion on March 12 in the Reactor 1 building. The second was the follow on hydrogen explosions on March 13 – 15 to reactor buildings 2, 3, and 4.

Plant Hydrogen Explosion

The resultant damage (see below) to the reactor housing buildings make me conclude that simply hooking up power to the meter outside probably will not work. One, assuming that the power is hooked up, who is to say that any of the electrical infrastructure is in place to route the load to the coolant pumps? Secondly, assuming that they get a good path to the coolant pumps and plug them in, I am sure that they are stuffed full of mud/sand/sludge (radioactive or otherwise) and would require “much” maintenance to get operational. Lastly, assuming that they get them cleaned and operational (even marginally), the blasts most likely took out the piping. So, unless they have the pipefitting-crew-from-radioactive-hell on hand, the first two steps may be in vain. And you have to keep in mind, this is only for one reactor. Fukushima Dai-ichi has four in trouble.

Unit Four Destruction

Handout photo shows the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Fukushima Prefecture in the morning of March 27, 2011. [sic] The dome-shaped structure visible is the lid of the reactor containment vessel. Efforts have been under way to restore [power to] the crippled plant since the March 11 quake and tsunami disaster. (Photo taken and supplied by the Ground Self-Defense Force)(Kyodo)

Handout photo shows inside the partially destroyed building housing the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Fukushima Prefecture on the morning of March 27, 2011. [sic] Efforts have been under way to restore [power to] the crippled plant since the March 11 quake and tsunami disaster. (Photo taken and supplied by the Ground Self-Defense Force)(Kyodo)

So, what are they doing? Wouldn’t it be more prudent to try to get the fuel out, period, and place it somewhere deep, dark, and cold to spend the rest of its half-life harmlessly irradiating the local sea floor?

Fuel rods in a steam environment heat up at a rate between 0.3 °C/s (0.5 °F/s) and 1 °C/s (1.8 °F/s). Yes, that is per SECOND. Once a temp of around 5,000 °F is attained, there is no stopping a meltdown. How many seconds have occurred since the rods have been exposed in ALL FOUR REACTORS?

I know that I sound like I am attempting to armchair physicist (of which I am NOT) this from here in South Carolina, but without some better information, these are the conclusions that I, the layman, is forced to come to.

Since we are currently wasting our sailors, airmen, time, and money in Libya, I do not wish to continue to do the same in Japan attempting a hail-mary on a failed plant that was based on a naive and failed design by a government that is keeping the full information under wraps. It just makes no sense to me.

However, I would prefer to spend money on THIS, than Libya. At least Japan is a friend who deserves our assistance.

To me, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. should place a badger in a bag and swing it over their collective heads…it would accomplish the same thing: nothing.

(H/T BradBlog, Kyodo, and sofiaecho for the Images)

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COMMENTS

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  • acat

    You’re asserting a “China Syndrome” level meltdown where, as far as I’ve seen, there’s no indication that any of the core containment vessels have failed.

    The reactors were underwater (tsunami) and shaken up quite a bit (earthquake) but there’s no indication that either containment (core or secondary) failed – the roofs may have been blown off the shell buildings a failure to vent hydrogen, but while that’s more visible from the outside, it’d shake things up less than the quake did.

    From what I’ve been reading, the strategy of pumping sea water (it’s what’s available…) through the outer containment vessel to keep the temperature of the core vessel below “China Syndrome” level has succeeded.

    What reconnecting power means is that the diesel generators currently powering the pumps moving the sea water won’t be needed – at a cost and logistics savings – and the diesel can be redirected to hospitals and other facilities that have emergency generators.

    Recall that Fukushima had emergency generators, and they started after the quake, but the fuel tanks were breached by the tsunami. Clearly, that kind of secondary-failure is something that reactor designers should look at….although I don’t see where the Chicago area reactors are likely to be hit by a tsunami…

    Finally, if the core had been breached, then – especially in Japan where a very large percentage of the diet is from the ocean – entombing the failed core in concrete and steel ala Chernobyl – would likely be a better solution.

    Mew

  • http://www.twitter.com/AWG9_yoyo yoyo

    All I am expressing my frustration in what may be the futility in trying to give it a shower when the most expedient method could be to deep – DEEP – six the thing and drown it. That trench off their coast is REALLY deep.

    I am not sure – again, maybe I missed something – but my understanding is that there are no pumps moving coolant in the four reactors. What is moving the saltwater are fire trucks and fire fighting pumps. Nothing onsite is operational. Last I heard, they only have partial power in one of the control rooms. There is too much water onsite to allow power hookup. And the coolant pumps in what is left of the facility have not been utilized since the tsunami swamped them and the generators.

    And as to the Chicago area reactors – if there was a significant tremblor or meteor splash-down in the middle of Lake Michigan…. LOL All I am saying is that it isn’t as unlikely as we once thought. Or as the Japanese once thought….

  • acat

    and all the fire trucks – with their pumps, used to spray water – are doing is adding water to one of the outer layers… and, more importantly in the short term, to the cooling pond.

    Also, the onsite pumps were working after the quake and after the tsunami, but not whole containment system is, after all, designed to survive being on top of an 8.0 quake … and apparently held up pretty well for a 9.0.

    Like Katrina, the first failure (hurricaine, quake) wasn’t what really hurt, it was the undetected flaw in the levee, or the assumption that either grid power or standard diesel fuel storage would be good enough…

    Mew

  • juumanistra

    I am not sure – again, maybe I missed something – but my understanding is that there are no pumps moving coolant in the four reactors. What is moving the saltwater are fire trucks and fire fighting pumps. Nothing onsite is operational. Last I heard, they only have partial power in one of the control rooms. There is too much water onsite to allow power hookup. And the coolant pumps in what is left of the facility have not been utilized since the tsunami swamped them and the generators.

    No. There are pumps moving coolant seawater through an emergency cooling loop, improvised out of a fire suppression line. (I believe: Finding the precise source of the sea water pumping has been difficult.) Power has subsequently been restored to all control rooms as of 3/25, as well. TEPCO has been slow in rebooting the primary cooling loops because it doesn’t want anymore unpleasant surprises and is making sure there’s a thorough inspection of all systems before cycling them up: This, needless to say, has found a fair bit of damage in the process.

    “So, what are they doing? Wouldn