. I saw this quote yesterday in different article:
The agency is keeping watch on increasing temperatures in reactor No. 3, which have hit 240 degrees Celsius, said NISA Deputy Director General Hidehiko Nishiyama.
"We do not need to be suddenly worried, but we need to be careful if it continues to rise," he said, noting that Tokyo Electric Power has also boosted its rate of water insertion into that reactor.
This is only reinforcing NIMBY attitudes world wide, I'm sure. All of those people displaced out of their homes. A bit different than a natural disaster displacing you... when it was our own technology that did this, in a sense.
#557506 - 05/09/1112:13 PMRe: Possible meltdown in Japan
[Re: NucleusG4]
lanovami This space for rent
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Thanks for that new link Clark, that was the first I had seen of it in the English press. If it had gotten up to 240, it is down to 219 now. Still a far cry from numbers like 109 etc., which it was showing just a week ago.
_________________________ We are what we repeatedly do - Aristotle
#557516 - 05/09/1107:30 PMRe: Possible meltdown in Japan
[Re: lanovami]
lanovami This space for rent
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Here is an article with the most detail I have found in Japanese. I used Chrome's kindly offer to translate it so I could post it here:
"Pressure vessel is damaged," the voice of Irrigation pipes for damage and, you suspect that some of the heating fuel burn-up, some predict that an out. It also continues to raise the temperature of water injection can increase the amount of fear of water leaking from the pipeline is likely. In the pressure vessel itself is damaged, is heard the sound of this. TEPCO in the afternoon on May 8, began draining of contaminated water trapped in the condenser, it began to release to the turbine building basement. By switching to reroute the irrigation pipes, overflowing because there is a risk of water trapped in the condenser. This measure is also, however, may leak contaminated water into a trench in the basement if you keep increasing. As of late April, is No. 3 in the trench to a serious rise in water level was only concerned about contamination of soil or even just water, contaminated water will be urgently transferred more and more. State of mind is more pressure vessels. If the temperature rise can not seem to stop changing the injection route, but it must be discussed in earnest by the damage of pressure vessel leaks. If the failure of a mechanism to cool the nuclear fuel emergency occurs, and continues to overheat and melt the core of nuclear fuel, which could lead to disaster.
_________________________ We are what we repeatedly do - Aristotle
#557653 - 05/12/1109:11 PMRe: Possible meltdown in Japan
[Re: lanovami]
lanovami This space for rent
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The news hasn't really improved out of Fukushima Daiichi. I was just afraid I was jinxing myself by posting too much doom and/or gloom. Anyway, reactor no 3 has continued to rise in temperature to around 220. During this time TEPCO was moving the water injection around trying to find a route that didn't leak or leaked less water to get to the core. In the last two days or so (according to PDF reports put out by TEPCO), it had seemed to "stablize" at 220, neither going up or down. The first report yesterday was again 220 (6 am). Then when I checked the 1pm report it had dropped to a dramatic 180. Seems a relief at first, but this kind of drop makes me worry the gauge has simply broken, which has happened a few times before already. Again little news about No. 3, though I have recently found online forums with ordinary people concerned about it. No. 3 would be the hardest to "repair" in any sense too, as it's outer building is the most damaged and it has by far the highest radioactive levels around it.
The news that is mostly printed in Eng and Jap is about no. 1. This is probably because it is the one of the 3 with the highest probability of being brought to cold shutdown the earliest. The latest news about no. 1 is that now that they have more accurate numbers, it is clear that the rods were not submerged in water, but rather above the water, for the vast majority of the time this crisis has been going on. The only thing cooling them is the water that is sprayed from above it. Most likely, the core has already started to sink to the bottom (which is the beginning of a full meltdown) but is unlikely to progress to more explosions.
Still wonder why suddenly the most optimistic news about the reactors is the stuff making the headlines.
_________________________ We are what we repeatedly do - Aristotle
#557654 - 05/12/1109:18 PMRe: Possible meltdown in Japan
[Re: lanovami]
lanovami This space for rent
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Meanwhile, cesium and iodine levels, even in trace amounts, have not been detectable in the drinking water for about 7 days now. Only for a day or two did a while back did it go above the level "safe" for infants.
The air radiation is down to .0632 microsieverts per hour in Tokyo. The highest it got was .4 for just one hour several days after the crisis. The numbers continue to go down and have not gone above the highest "average" non-crisis levels in weeks. However those numbers still sit near the top of "average" levels when in normal situations they would be moving more between the range of average.
Sorry if it seems like boring number crunching. Again, makes me feel somehow empowered to post this stuff.
_________________________ We are what we repeatedly do - Aristotle
#557788 - 05/14/1112:25 PMRe: Possible meltdown in Japan
[Re: lanovami]
lanovami This space for rent
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Yeah, so, it turns out they had the water level all wrong in reactor No. 1 now that they have more accurate measurements. The water level was probably well below the level of the rods for most of the time. Considering how much the core has cooled down, this means it has probably melted down to the pool at the bottom for some time now (hence the term, ermm, meltdown, one would think). This is where the reactions with the bottom of the reactor that create hydrogen explosions is supposed to occur. But I guess the core is cool enough that there is not a high risk of this? I think if they had known weeks ago that the actual water level was so low, they wouldn't have been so optimistic about further dangers. But things have gone this long without any explosions or exponential radiation releases so....
And don't forget this is the one they were the most optimistic about. It is my understanding that with the core at the bottom, it can continue making holes in the containment, further complicating cooling and leakage of radioactive water.
Meanwhile, reactor no. 3 still "appears" to be dropping in temperature, at least according to twice daily TEPCO status reports. Down to 150 degrees last I saw. Still wonder about the accuracy of that.
TEPCO will have to revise it's containment and cooling strategy and timetable. To what, who knows? Anyway, numbers in Tokyo still look good. Food appears to be safe as well.
_________________________ We are what we repeatedly do - Aristotle
Wow.. strange world we live in.. having to keep an eye on radiation levels near where you live. Freakish. Thanks for the updates... it's too easy for us to forget what is going on over there.
#557790 - 05/14/1112:32 PMRe: Possible meltdown in Japan
[Re: lanovami]
lanovami This space for rent
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I should add that they say "it cannot be ruled out" that the other two reactor's cores have settled at the bottom of the containers, in the pools of water there.
Only plus here is that over the last 2 months I have learned how to understand and express a number of phrases more exactingly in Japanese like "can't be ruled out" etc. ( :
_________________________ We are what we repeatedly do - Aristotle