Published: July 28th, 2012 at 2:17 pm ET
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(Subscription Only) Title: NISA dismisses fears over failing Genkai reactor strength
Source: AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
Author: Ikko Ishida
Date: July 28, 2012
NISA dismisses fears over failing Genkai reactor strength
[...]
During a meeting in Tokyo that heard experts’ opinions, NISA dismissed all concerns raised over the safety of the No. 1 reactor pressure vessel [at the Genkai nuclear plant in Saga Prefecture] and virtually slammed the door shut to further discussions on the matter.
[...]
The pressure vessel is the heart of a nuclear reactor. Because it is constantly bombarded by neutron irradiation from nuclear fuel, it eventually loses strength.
[...]
a metal sample taken out in 1993 showed 56 degrees. But a sample tested in 2009 registered 98 degrees, or 14 degrees above the projected value. The finding triggered immediate concern among experts.
NISA has convened an expert panel on 18 occasions since November to determine if rapid cooling of the nuclear reactor in the event of an accident would destroy the pressure vessel.
[...]
neither Kyushu Electric nor NISA was able to offer a convincing explanation for the abnormal high transition temperature.
“You can’t call (the pressure vessel) safe when the cause (of the sharp rise in the transition temperature) remains unknown,” said one expert during the meeting.
[...]
Hiromitsu Ino, member of NISA’s expert panel and a professor emeritus of metal materials science at the University of Tokyo
- “I just don’t understand yet why the transition temperature is so high”
- “I have doubts about the (pressure vessel’s) safety”
- “The No. 1 reactor should not be put back in operation”
Check again in 2025 ‘or so’
- NISA has no plans to hold more expert meetings on the issue before it compiles a formal report
- NISA ended up endorsing Kyushu Electric’s argument that the pressure vessel would not likely crack even if the reactor remained in operation for 60 years
- The samples were inspected only by institutions with close ties to the power industry [...] A member of the expert panel proposed that test samples be provided to university-based researchers for more in-depth analysis. But Kyushu Electric and NISA dismissed the suggestion.
- Kyushu Electric took metal test samples out of the pressure vessel on
four previous occasions, it has since discarded the samples extracted on
the first and second tests- Another member called for additional tests of the samples that still lie in the nuclear reactor, but the proposal was rejected outright
- “We will extract the next sample in 2025 or so,” a Kyushu Electric representative said
Published: July 28th, 2012 at 2:17 pm ET
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sending...
What about Fukishima?! There is no issue with Genkai nuclear plant in Saga.Trying to distract the attention on the biggest disaster, not working.
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No one has forgotten Fukushima, true2U. There is something wrong with the Genkai pressure vessel, and this is just the beginning of learning the truth of all the rest of the Japanese NPPs that are broken.
There are over a dozen the Japanese government admits to. It's what they don't admit to that is even scarier.
We will learn the truth. It will be too late to do anything about it, but we will learn the truth.
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They will NEVER tell the truth.
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I don't think diverting attention to other power plants is a ruse. All nuclear power plants have issues. Genkai is possibly the least dangerous plant in Japan because it has the fewest earthquakes and is not known to be close to or on a fault. If Genkai can have issues, so can all nuclear plants.
Shut them all down!
By the way, the US DOE's National Renewable Energy Lab says the potential power we can get in the US from PVs is over 280,000 TWh per year. That is more than 100 times what we are currently getting from nuclear and coal combined. With the recent drop in prices for PVs, they can produce power for about 85% of what nuclear charges.
NUCLEAR IS GOING DOWN! And the ones that go into denial are the ones that will go down hardest!
I feel no pity for them. Not feeling pity makes me wonder about myself. I do pity their victims, so I am quite sure I am not a psychopath. They, however, seem to feel no pity; they do not have a full inventory of normal human emotions. To heck with them, I hope they down – hard!
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True2U – Unfortunately there is something 'wrong' with vitualy all of the reactors in Japan. They had the living shit shook out of them back in March 2011 and it is just a matter of time before the problems appear.
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"We will extract the next sample in 2025 or so,” a Kyushu Electric representative said"
there is a problem Huston?
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Arrogance of Big Nuke continues in Japan, unabated …
Where are the volunteer brigades of dose takers? … Here in America trying to get the US to pressure Tepco to let them go work at Fuku Daici …
What a world, what a world … (I think those are the dying words of the wicked witch of the west …)
peace …
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Had to share this one:
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba73b126-d7cb-11e1-9980-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz21x5SbVKz
July 27, 2012 2:00 pm
Fukushima ‘Veterans Corps’ to tour US
By Mure Dickie in Tokyo
****Yastel Yamada drew admiring headlines last year when his corps of Japanese gung-ho retirees offered to help end the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
After 14 months of resistance from the government and Tokyo Electric Power, the plant’s disgraced operator, the 700 frustrated former technicians and engineers of the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima group are still pushing.****
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ba73b126-d7cb-11e1-9980-00144feabdc0.html#axzz21wtqwOpe
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ooops without that first paragraph!
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Skilled Veterans Corp of Fukushima
http://svcf.jp/english
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They needed to integrate these 700 *skilled volunteers* into their workflow, like yesterday, to extend their human resources in this battle. Yesterday… these people shouldn't have to be asking a second time to help. Simultaneously they are grumbling about potentially having no overdosed workers left….
You need to get it together Tepco.
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i've done some rough maths to guestimate the number of people required versus exposure rates..
http://enenews.com/ap-growing-concern-govt-tepco-about-keep-getting-people-work-fukushima-daiichi/comment-page-1#comment-274089
it equates to "there should be bus loads of workers arriving at this site every day"
until you see such activity you can guess any resolution is still at the very minimum one year away. for one reactor, for one area.
and tepco executives should be at the front of the line, along with japanese ministers and GE execs.
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I doubt the 'veterans' will be able to do much. I would find it very interesting to read the part of the Nuclear Reactors Operators Guide titled, "Operating Proceedures employed after the reactors explode.". I bet there ain't one
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Operating Procedures employed after the reactors explode
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Candidates for nuclear regulatory commission paid by power utilities
Radiation doses 4 times larger for 'outside workers' at nuclear plants
July 27, 2012
By SATOSHI OTANI/ Staff Writer
Two of the five prospective commissioners of a new nuclear regulatory commission received payments from operators of nuclear power plants but likely did not violate guidelines intended to ensure neutrality, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
The new commission will soon replace the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), which has come under fire for its cozy ties with the nuclear power industry. Critics say this relationship, part of the “nuclear village,” led to lax rules and oversight, and contributed to the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant last year.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201207270093
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Out with the old, in with the same.
Different faces, same corruption.
And we die for it.
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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss……
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“You can’t call (the pressure vessel) safe when the cause (of the sharp rise in the transition temperature) remains unknown,” said one expert during the meeting. "OH YES WE CAN!" said NISA. And they will…..
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….And they did….
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for those who wonder what the heck is going on, this is very dangerous.
Carbon steels, have what's called a transition temperature, this is the temperature at which the
steel moves from brittle to ductile fracture.
think about a piece of plasticene playdough. it's plastic, it flows but pull it enough it tears.
when you warm up the clay it flows even better. (That's increasing the ductile fracture temperature).
When it's very cold, it doesn't flow it jst becomes stiff and tears.
Same thing with steels. When it's colder it becomes harder (Stronger) but, it loses ductility (Toughness).
now with a nuclear reactor, it's vey important we watch what's going on.
see, the boiling point of water is 100C, if the DBTT is above 100C, what it means is the spray cooling system is now dangerous, and can cause the outside to shrink and crack when sprayed.
just like a hot glass put in cold water. this means you can't spray or inject liquid coolant if the DBT is above 100C.
They are at 98 C, this reactor is done for, the first time, you activate the ECCS it will crack like an egg. [ADMIN: REMOVED. FINAL WARNING] japanese. They know better, they just think it's different in Osaka.
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word, patb2009
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"China is currently the world’s biggest energy consuming nation and operates 14 reactors with an additional 26 under construction and 171 planned or proposed."
http://uraniuminvestingnews.com/12073/canada-export-uranium-china-price-nuclear-arms-iran.html
But hey, the chinese are just as arrogant and accident prone.
"The government's handling of the Wenzhou crash, which killed 40 people, had caused widespread anger"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14494534
"The only reason that people have such angry feelings is that we want our government to remain unblemished, but the Chinese government still doesn't know how to use the internet properly, so some people try to do their best to slander our party and government"
ha hah ha hah ahh hahah hahahah hah.
these guberments are an insulting joke and will kill us all.
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@patb2009:
"backward japanese"
please try to refrain from racist comments…perhaps something more like:
backward TEPCO/NISA/government assholes or backward money-grubbing jerks!!
but to continue to label Japanese as backwards only detracts from our cause…
and honestly, it leads one to believe that you actually believe this to be a "Japanese" problem rather than a human problem which has been led in great part by the United Sates who pioneered, weaponized and marketed nuclear (weapons and power plants) wherever they could…
and Japan in the wake of WWII (and the detonation of two nuclear weapons by the US which killed well over two hundred thousand innocent Japanese civilians,) was ripe for plunder by the American nuke industrialists…
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hanaloa, i agree with you, thx. I agree racism has no place in the solution. And, i agree, that in many ways, Fukushima has become a distraction for many around the world from how the very same practices go on within their own countries, America leading the way. As an example, the recent head of the NRC wanted safety inspections at American NPP's, so now he's out. I live a little more than 100 miles from a slow creeping nuclear poison making its way to the Columbia River – Hanford. Nothing has been done to stop this flow. Nothing can be done at this point given our technology. Within a few years tons of radioactive waste will enter the groundwater feeding into the largest river in the Pacific Northwest. ALL nuclear has to end.
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@VicFromOregon..Gregory Jaczko, the NRC head of the NRC tried his best to enforce safety inspections at the US nuke plants. He did his job to well for the likes of the NRC. Allison Macfarlane, the new NRC head actually admitted that she is against nuclear energy. Let's see how long she lasts..
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No Solutions For Nuclear Disasters Or Nuclear Waste; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/no-solutions-for-nuclear-disasters.html
What Happens To Nuclear Waste In Your Country? via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-happens-to-nuclear-waste-in-your.html
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i say rattle their cage in whatever way creates action.
they are the ones with the nuclear meltdown, they are ones smitten by inaction and gullibilty.
political correctness matters little when an apocalypse is breathing down your neck.
or you could be right, let's all bow down and die for the sake of not upsetting someone.
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@richard..The US offered to help with this mess early on. The government of Japan and Tepko refused all offers. I guarantee they will have their hand out for US aid (money) in the near future and of course the US will give it to them. Remember my words…
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What a BS, Japan will never ask help from the US in any way..
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4.6 magnitude earthquake off the east coast of Japan 07/29/2012..
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Reactor probably running on MOX fuel and can't handle it to well:
MOX fuel tends to run hotter because of lower thermal conductivity, which may be an issue in some reactor designs.
Mixed oxide fuel, commonly referred to as MOX fuel, is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material. MOX fuel contains plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an alternative to the low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors that predominate nuclear power generation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOX_fuel
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Stated above: The samples were inspected only by institutions with close ties to the power industry [...] A member of the expert panel proposed that test samples be provided to university-based researchers for more in-depth analysis. But Kyushu Electric and NISA dismissed the suggestion.
There is only one reason why they would not want this test, because they do no think it will pass, why else? Can they public demand it through the governments public safety boards.
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The US stopped all safety tests so that old US reactors can be re-certified.
It is only a matter of time before a FUKU happens in the US, because safety standards keep going down, evacuation zones keep shrinking, enforcement is practically nill, and reactors keep getting older…
They do break eventually. The only problem is that people die when they explode, or melt down.
That does not happen with wind, solar or geothermal, just to name a few renewable energy sources.
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It is impossible for flawed, conflicted (bought) people to design a safe nuclear system. It can not be done.
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