Published: September 3rd, 2012 at 12:09 pm ET
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Title: Decrease in the Reactor Injection Water Amounts at Unit 1-3 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
Source: Tepco Press Release
Date: September 3, 2012
Emphasis Added
[...]
At 3:00 PM on August 30, 2012, the amounts of reactor injection water into the reactors at Unit 1-3 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station were found to be lower than the required amounts (necessary to cool the reactors) at the regular data check. The condition was judged to be an unfulfillment of the operational requirement stipulated in the Technical Specification (at 3:07 PM for Unit 1, 3:00 PM for Unit 2 and 3:05 PM for Unit 3).
[...]
As a part of cause investigation on the flow rate decrease of the reactor injection system, the following measures have been implemented.
1. Flushing through the flow rate adjustment valves (August 31, 2012)
[...]
2. Mini flow lines in service (September 2, 2012)
As the flow rate decreased again after the flushing, the minimum flow rate circulation line (mini flow line) was put in service to increase the amount of opening of the flow rate adjustment valves operating with a small amount of opening and prevent substance from getting stuck in them.
[...]
The cause of the decrease in reactor injection water will continue to be investigated.
(Subscription Only) Title: TEPCO sees improvement in water injection into Fukushima reactors
Source: Kyodo News
Date: Sept. 3
[...]Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported late last week that the flow of cooling water into the reactors had declined for unknown reasons, sometimes even to a rate below the minimum needed to keep the melted fuel cool.
But TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said Monday that action taken the previous day to deal with the problem appears to be showing “a certain effect.”
[...]
Published: September 3rd, 2012 at 12:09 pm ET
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sending...
But TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said Monday that action taken the previous day to deal with the problem appears to be showing “a certain effect.”
I feel much better knowing they are having "a certain effect."
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Here is what is 'certain'
On 3/11; 15-28 Nuclear Reactors/SFP’s In Japan Were Damaged, Not 3 or 4; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/14-nuclear-reactors-at-4-japan-sites.html
TEPCO Loses ALL Insurance Coverage; Japanese Nuclear Plants; Via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/tepco-loses-insurance-coverage-for-all.html
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I think the cracks going bigger and bigger
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My guess is that the feed water spray nozzles are clogging up either by corrosion, debris or both determined by higher back pressure at the main pump with feed valves in the more open position but less water injection happening. Maybe it is strange that it happens in all (3) reactor cores at the same time but (dirty?) feed water comes from the one buffer tank for all (3) units.
I think the main plumbing, in the usually closed loop, is damaged/leaking/missing which leaves only the spray nozzles for cooling. If that is true, the situation should only get worse but I think TEPCO knows that already.
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Okay, now i think i'm starting to get it. I thought the cooling water levels were dropping, not the flow rate into the reactors. We know that the water levels are fine? But, TEPCO is suggesting that the rate of water flowing INTO the cooling system is slowing down regardless of what they do, such as flushing the lines. And, razzz, your idea about a shared water source is what makes the most sense of why all three are clogging at the same time. So, while the pipes might now be clogged, the water source will only continue to reclog them after each flushing of each pipe because TEPCO hasn't changed the water source, right? And, my guess is that they haven't done the obvious because it was simply easier to flush the pipes and hope than to figure out how to get a different water source apparatus in place. Ooorrr, something they use in the water consistently clogs or corrodes the pipes in about the same amount of time – like a chemical process that will uniformly react on schedule.
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We'll have to wait 'til Gundersen has something to report.
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"The compaction of the concrete using vibration is largely unaffected by the concrete consistency, temperature or timing of the processes. The compaction process can also be adjusted by controlling the vibration frequency, intensity and time."
Corrium probably from the "small Earthquakes "and behaves in a similar way as concrete …
Well, less water flows ..
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What i mean is thermoshock ..the heat from the melted cores and from the Top the cold Water and then the eathquakes no Material in the World can live with that.So i think that the cracks going bigger and tepco will tell us another Story ..
I dont believe that
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I suppose this is problem for unit 1 and 2.
It could depend on what sort of water they are using. If it is seawater, it contains lot of salt. And when the water boils off near the cores, there will be a lot of minerals left.
The same could also happen with boron-salted water.
This can happen because of watering the cores as they are free under the pressure vessels.
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I'm sure the last 5.7 didn't help. Leak problems started to be mentionned right after…
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Agreed
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There is a whole history of leaks you can read about here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_disaster_cleanup#Plugging_the_source_of_the_water
But what they are talking about is the water flow to the plant. If not earthquake damage could be radio active mineral build up from recycled water. An over all sad comment on the nuclear industry and mankind in general for letting this happen.
What is the source of the cooling water anyways? They are not using salt water now but whatever the source they must have to supplement it with recycled water. Haven't heard too much about Areva's water purification system. Is it working good? Doesn't filter out everything, does it.
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The history of the various water filter systems is also found among the pages of the above link if you scroll up. Areva is back up system and they are using a recycled filtered water cooling system. So yeah, the cooling system probably gets clogged up every now and then with radio active isotopes that can't be filtered out with whatever system they are using.
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All the arrows in the diagrams point to a complete RPV.
The corium is not in there..
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ROFL, true!
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WTH!!?? "measures taken appears to have a "CERTAIN EFFECT"(?!?)~ and what might that "certain effect" be?? Crap grammar,translations & vague explanations have a "certain effect" on my ability to understand wtf they're trying to say?!! Maybe it's intentional on their part since they can claim that this lame excuse for a press release/status update disclosed information about an important issue even though nobody who reads it can understand what they say or mean 90% of the time and the 10% that can be reliably deciphered is 100% blatant lies! Obviously the water injection system is either deteriorating due to corrosion & debris,etc. as the addition of extra cooling water via the mini-feed hoses seems to provide some measure of success and I hope that "certain effect" means the damned sfp's aren't cracked(more)and leaking beyond the point that all hope is lost?!! ENE participants "guesswork" holds more credibility and useful assessments than ANYTHING the crap (pro) nuclear industry & their minions put out in official statements & press releases anywayz!!! Happy Labor Day (even though the "falling sky"will have a "certain effect" on your holiday plans,LOL):)
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Dear JohnnyBlade,
'Maybe it's intentional on their part since they can claim that this lame excuse for a press release/status update disclosed information about an important issue even though nobody who reads it can understand what they say or mean 90% of the time and the 10% that can be reliably deciphered is 100% blatant lies!'
I hear you and many others do too! Just accept their detached arrogance and get on with your day. This is so frustrating. But, from what I'm learning, according to the IAEA, the folks at TEPCO are in charge and have liberty to not disclose anything which might undermine the public's trust or pose a security risk. One would have to be a Japanese lawyer with an MBA and nuclear experience to try and decipher this.
I can't imagine what life must be like for the concerned folks in Japan!
In the meantime, think I'll have 1 scoop vanilla icecesium covered in hot fuku deception with extra whipped squid ink
Take good care.
Aloha.
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As a US citizen, i remember when the rationales of withholding information from the public based upon the need to maintain the public trust or for national security reasons were examples of power-gone-awry by so-called evil empire communists blatantly trying to control free speech and public dissent. Now it's common practice in many parts of the world, especially the US, Britain and Japan right now. Hmmm…
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Dear VicFromOregon,
Yes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-kaSWBtBAs
'Nite all
Aloha.
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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the possibility of something like algae in the system. It's cool enough temp-wise to support life, and it's generally simple enough to survive radioactivity levels in the injection ports, among the lowest in the circulation system.
The thing is that this is happening on all three reactors at once. And each reactor has a separate circulation system. I'm much more inclined to think of something like an algae bloom than simultaneous cracking pipes in all three injector systems.
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Now, that would explain a lot, dosdos. And, all thee engineers will be nuclear physicists ad engineers and probably not a single biologist among them. It could be months before they think to open the tank and take a look inside.
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A brown substance (would) have come back from the pipes, pointing at river plankton from the coolant water which's used.
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com.ar/2012/09/fukushima-i-nuke-plant-plankton-and.html
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I think dosdos is referring to algae rather than plankton. Algae growing on the outlet ports perhaps.
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Fixing the blockage will probably require a hammer, an few hoses, and some well placed curse words:
http://www.videobash.com/video_show/scum-pot-valve-explosion-248461
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I am not an engineer and might be reading the diagram wrong, but this look like a closed loop system that flows out of the buffer tank and back into it. I see no filtering system in the diagram. So if that is true all the solids in the water-corrosion, fuel and zirconium fragments and any impurities from the water source stay in the system. You can not operate pumps and valves for very long if the water is full of non dissolved solids.
Will someone tell me if I am misreading the diagram, thanks.
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If you aren't, then IQ's continue to fall in the TEPCO engineering pool.
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The SARRY filter system developed last year by Toshiba and American companies Shaw Global and Avantech is quite an expensive system. Over two miles of piping and a remote controlled module filter changer.
Not all the details have been released about this system, but last year Tepco released some of the schematics:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/images/handouts_110714_06-e.pdf
I'd like to know more about what is going on in the secret incineration buildings we discussed so much last year.
I am not surprised it has clogged considering how much ground water has been leaking into the buildings, how much cooling water has been injected over the reactor. It's a madhouse of leaks and contaminated water.
The logistics of this cooling operation has proven the difficult alien enemy they are trying to control. The toxic fuel splattered in the buildings and probably ex- building requires circulating water, but there is not a decent closed system since the fuel is scattered and the buildings are too hot to allow workers to repair foundation leaks. The ground water (500 tons per day by some estimates) is rushing into the buildings faster than ground wells can slow the flooding. So more water rushes over the fuel and must go through the filters.
The highly toxic sludge in the SARRY filters is getting stacked on the island with no end in sight. They surely know how much radiation is entering the ocean and how much is outgassing. That info is top secret.
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So, then, Sickputer, these engineers and technicians wouldn't be all that familiar with this new system shipped over and installed last year. And, my guess, modified up the wahoozie to boot. Is there any chance that the technical and experiential skill levels at TEPCO could be on the par of a bunch of lab techs performing open skulled brain surgery without a how-to manual? I know there must be some seasoned and gifted engineers still working there, but, wasn't there a bit of an exodus right after 3/11?
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I think the engineering staff and workers are highly intelligent.
The problems are just too monumental for quick solutions and since they are on a budget then we will certainly see more tragedies to unfold in the coming months and years. This disaster needs unlimited funding and manpower, but so far it lacks both.
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Oh, certainly ! The refluxing water have ever been 'ground water', aka a muddy mess.
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The 'buffer tank' must be refilled with partially filtered water and fresh water and pumped to the 3 reactors which then flows around the melted fuel and debris then gets sucked up for a return trip through the makeshift filter system.
How much water (coolant) is lost from runoff and how much contaminated water is cleaned in a cycle and how fast it is filtered would be really interesting to know, because the amount of filtered water that can't keep the buffer tank full must be made up with fresh water.
I can't see how water is pumped in and have all that water picked up and returned, as in a closed system, at the flow rate that a makeshift filter system could keep up with especially when the filtered doesn't comeback distilled but still partially hot.
It's okay, they told us the 3 melted reactors are in cold shut down (cough) so less and less water should be needed for cooling. Keeping the melted fuel underwater to trap contamination, is a different story as the entire site slowly becomes irradiated with leaking water, plus tank farms for contaminated water and contaminated water being piped around during filtering stages.
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