Published: February 22nd, 2013 at 10:29 am ET
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Follow-up to: Gundersen: Nuclear fuel has left containment as particles and settled out on the bottom outside the containment
EXSKF, Feb. 21, 2013: Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1 Torus Room Video Shows a Pile of Sediments on the Floor
Tepco, Feb. 22, 2013: Investigation Method (Sampling of Accumulated Water and Sediments) [...] Samples of accumulated water and sediments were obtained by inserting a hose for sampling accumulated water and a sampler for collecting sediments [...]
View the photos here
Published: February 22nd, 2013 at 10:29 am ET
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Yea, all of it is intensely radioactive with all of those 'sparkles' showing up in the video…
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Is there supposed to be water here outside of the torus, or is this some of that 'leaking basement water' that they cannot get a handle on?
Where is this water coming from?
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That is suppose to be part of the dry well with only water being inside the torus. TEPCO had a drawing a while back showing groundwater intrusion points that they knew of but couldn't stop.
When the meltdowns took place the idea was to flood and fill up everything, the reactor core, the dry well, the basements, everything to try and keep the melted cores covered with water (with added boron).
That didn't work, when they thought the reactor cores were flooded, they were empty except for a shower of water coming down from injection points. The containments leaked like sieves, first to the surrounding groundwater then into the ocean.
Now that they think they know where some of the melted fuel is like in the torus basement, it is better to keep it shielded underwater, leaking outside or not. I have no idea what fuel is still exposed to air or is underwater or is underground.
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Here's a TEPCO .pdf about groundwater intrusions plus a host of other ongoing problems and supposed fixes except how to stop a core meltdown.
Pages 1 & 5…
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/roadmap/images/t121022_01-e.pdf
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Here's a 12/3/12 20 page TEPCO status report a bit more detailed…
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/roadmap/images/m121203-e.pdf
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Looking at the torus diagram, I find myself wondering why TEPCO didn't try to get to the other side where the vent pipe is. Isn't that where TEPCO thinks some of the corium dropped? I think it would be more useful to check there first.
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"Pile of Sediments" look to me like chunks of steel blown out of the S/C itself.
AGreenRoad, the water is cooling water TEPCO pumped into the Reactor. No, it isn't supposed to be outside the "wet well". The S/Cs from Unit1,2,&3 are full of holes. The Torus Rooms flooded early on. There were photos of a flooded basement stairs taken shortly after 3/11. Remember how "surprised" TEPCO was to find so little water in the Containment itself, when they put an endoscope inside? This is the reason. Torus Basements1,2,&3 all look about the same. Water leaked from this basement into the Generator Buildings, then into the Pacific Ocean. More water drained out the bottom of Containments1,2,&3, mixed with ground water, and flowed right into the Pacific. Why do you think TEPCO won't allow Greenpeace, or anybody else, to get anywhere near the shore to conduct independent testing of the highly contaminated Ocean?
Folks, remember that the GE Mark I Reactor was one big design flaw. The Containment was too small to contain anything, so they added the Torus as a "wet well". As we can see, the S/C doesn't contain anything either. We have 3 GE Mark I Reactors fully breached. TEPCO makes a big show of its contaminated water tank farm. But if the truth were known, well over half the water they have pumped into Reactors1,2,&3 is right now contaminating the entire Pacific Ocean.
Please, NRC, close all GE Mark I Reactors in the US now. The GE Mark I has proven to be…
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Some of the Westinghouse plants aren't much better. Their containments are so small that they have "Wet" ice condenser containments, which are basically 4 foot thick, 45 foot high, walls of ice inside the contaiment. They won't do crap during an excursion or explosion. The only thing they can do is convert steam back to water if allowed to in a controlled manner, just like a Torus.
D.C. Cook, Units 1 and 2, in Michigan.
Catawba Unit 1 and McQuire Units 1 and 2 in North Carolina.
Sequoyah Unit 1 and 2 and Watts Bar Unit 1 in Tennessee.
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Look at that corrosion.
/wonder if the first segment is fibre optic. I don't see any radiation strikes on the camera ccd.
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Don't you see 'sparkles' when the camera is turned in just certain directions?
That indicates high amounts of radiation, just like inside the reactor cores, where the same thing happened when they stuck a camera probe inside.
Just going by the 'sparkles'… there is corium in this basement, the only question is how much and if it is solid and cold or liquid and hot and needing cooling.
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If they probe and find core melt that is not covered in water, the inspection hole is going to become death itself.
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Yes, razzz, but TEPCO could have tried to drop a probe under the vent pipe. TEPCO has indicated that corium may have melted through the pipe and dropped. If so, the corium would be underwater. They could surely probe that. Water shields radiation (depending on the amount, of course).
Instead, they exposed workers to radiation without much chance of finding corium. If lives are going to be risked, the maximum amount of information obtainable should be the goal. After all, the water sample could have been taken in any area of the torus room.
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http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/NO_to_Dangerous_Nuclear_Energy_YES_to_Renewables/?cGRBkeb
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