skip to main |
skip to sidebar
25-foot-long metal beam drops into Reactor No. 3 pool at Fukushima — Not clear if any fuel rods have broken — Could further complicate removal efforts. Just in case you might be thinking TEPCO had this still ongoing, potential nuclear cataclysm under control.. Fuck, man.. Enenews:
From EXSKF:
TEPCO announced on September 22 that a steel frame weighing about 470 kilograms dropped into the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 3 during the debris removal operation of the Reactor 3 building [...] So far, there is no major increase in radiation levels nearby, TEPCO says.
According to TEPCO, the accident happened at 11:05AM on September 22 when [EXSKF: the crane operator] tried to grab a piece of debris, an H steel lying next to the Spent Fuel Pool on the 5th floor of Reactor 3 building and failed. The H steel slid into the Spent Fuel Pool.
From Russia Today News Line:
A huge metal beam was dropped into a spent fuel pond at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Workers were trying to extract cement wreckage [...] The crane boom accidentally pushed a metal beam into the pool from its casing, reports ITAR-TASS news agency. [Tepco] says the metal construction, 7.3 meters [~25 feet] in length and weighing 470kg, did not cause any breach in the cooling system, but could complicate further retrieve of spent nuclear rods.
From The Voice of Russia:
Reports say it was accidentally dislodged from its place by a crane.
Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident. It is not yet clear whether any of the spent rods has been broken.
Barring any significant damage other than a massive explosion or an event they can't hide, TEPCO won't tell us for at least another six months. That seems to be Standard Operating Procedure for these knuckleheads, even before the earthquake..
Two from Fukushima Diary.. The Good News? Ok, the kind-of Good News?
[Reactor4] Debris removal was finished, fuel will be taken out soon.
Following up this article..[LIVE] Tepco is removing the upper part of reactor4
Tepco finished the debris removal of SFP4. Now the PCV and SFP4 are completely exposed outside.
They are going to take out 2 of the new fuel assemblies soon.[Link]
So.. Only 1551 fuel assemblies to go? This comment is also.. Troubling..
look, I have photos of SFP4 in the top part of reactor 4 building from last year – IT IS GONE.. Spent Fuel Pool Four is no longer part of the building. We can clearly see the top of the reactor (big yellow dome)but where is the fuel pool which should be ABOVE the reactor ???Where is SFP 4 ??
Huh.
Not so good news: Survey robot died in reactor 3
Related to this article..Robot destroyed within 2 hours in reactor 2
Survey runner robot stopped on the radiation measurement of torus room in reactor3.
From 11:00 to 15:00 of 7/11/2012, Tepco was taking radiation, visual and “sound” data in torus room of reactor3 by using a robot. The atmospheric dose was 360 mSv/h.
Human worker opened the door of the torus room to let the robot enter, it went around clockwise, but the communication was interrupted at the manhole located at the South-East of torus room.
The robot is cabled, Tepco hasn’t verify the cause yet. They only assume the cable might have been damaged on the way. Tepco can’t take the robot back either because the radiation level is too high.
The robot sent radiation and visual data until it stopped but because the sound data is recorded in it, it can’t be obtained until they get the robot back. They were planning to detect the water leaking point by recording the sound data.
They recorded the sound data when they conducted robot survey in torus room of reactor2 as well, but because the alarm of survey meter was too noisy, they couldn’t hear the sound of water flow.
I'd still like to know the circumstances around TEPCO busting ass to clean up Reactor4 much faster than scheduled. As with all things Fukushima, the bad news still outweighs the good.
Posts
