TEPCO pouring boron to prevent recriticality in No.3 as temp rises quickly in RPV

[flamingdem]

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/05/fukushima-i-reactor-3-tepco-pouring.html

Link to see photos of the nuke plant hourly, looking a little smokey now, or is that fog?
http://pointscope01.jp/cgi-local/f1np/f1np1/imageview.cgi?mode=past_frame

Yomiuri Shinbun (10:02PM JST 5/15/2011):

　東京電力は１５日、福島第一原子力発電所３号機の原子炉で再臨界が起きないよう、原子炉の冷却水に、中性子線を吸収するホウ酸を溶かした上で、同日から原子炉への注水を始めたと発表した。

TEPCO announced on May 15 that it started to use boric acid in the reactor cooling water for the Reactor 3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant to prevent recriticality from happening. Boric acid absorbs neutrons.

　１、２号機も今後、同じ措置を取る。

TEPCO plans to do the same for the Reactors 1 and 2.

　再臨界は連続的な核分裂が再び起こる現象。１～３号機の原子炉圧力容器には当初、冷却のために海水を注入した経緯があり、東電はその塩分が中性子 線を吸収すると見ていた。ホウ酸を冷却水に溶かすのは、冷却水を海水から淡水に替えて以降、塩分濃度が下がっていると見られるためだ。

Recriticality is when the nuclear chain reaction is restarted. There is salt in the Reactor Pressure Vessels of the Reactors 1, 2 and 3, as TEPCO initially poured seawater to cool the RPVs. TEPCO thought the salt would absorb neutrons. TEPCO has decided to use boric acid in the cooling water because the level of salt in the cooling water may have decreased since TEPCO switched the cooling water from seawater to regular water.

　一方、３号機の圧力容器は、上端部の温度が急上昇している。東電は「注水用配管から水が漏れている可能性がある」として、１２日からは別の配管を 追加し、二つの配管で毎時計１２トンを注水した。１４日からは注水量を毎時計１５トンに増やしたが、上端部の温度は１５日午前５時までの２４時間で４６・ ５度上昇し、２９７度になった。東電は、「注水がまだうまくいっていない」と見ている。

In the meantime, the temperature at the top of the Reactor 3 RPV has risen rapidly. TEPCO increased the amount of cooling water to 12 tons per hour on May 12 using two water feeding systems, then to 15 tons per hour on May 14. However, the temperature at the top of the RPV increased by 46.5 degrees Celsius in 24 hours to 297 degrees Celsius as of 5:00AM on May 15. TEPCO thinks there's a problem with the pipes that feed water into the RPV.

In the latest measurement data (11:00AM 5/15) released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) , that temperature (the 4th column) appears to have dropped slightly to 291.7 degrees Celsius, although the data table is put up sideways and it is a bad scan and hard to see. The second digit could be 9, 8, or 3. An age-old trick by bureaucrats to discourage people from seeing the data... (My neck is hurting from trying to read the number.)

[sasha031]

1. they are making it up as they go along...still

[flamingdem]

2. I hope they have made a truly LOUD call for help from experts outside of Japan

but I sense they cannot get over their own corporate culture enough to act effectively.

They certainly need to know what is really going on, it's ridiculous two months have passed and they seem to be "surprised" at every turn..

[izquierdista]

4. Kind of hard to find workers with experience

Most of the hands-on Chernobyl responders are dead.

They are going to have to keep making it up, since this scenario is worse than any they ever planned for. They need to corner the market on gadolinium and boron, mix it into some super-duper immobilizing snot and cover it over several feet deep. That only solves the immediate problem though, they have to invent some new anti-fracking technology and grout the dirt under the site to immobilize it and keep it leaking out the bottom.

If only Mt. Fuji would erupt and cover the exclusion zone with a few meters of lava. Either that or subduct the whole thing under the nearest tectonic plate. I think for these last two suggestions, a geo-engineering team from Star Fleet would be required.

[flamingdem]

5. Where is Spock when you need him, really nt

[jpak]

12. or McGiver

:D

[madokie]

6. The scary part is they are flying by the seat of their pants on this

it was obvious from the start they didn't know what to do next. How it can be something that carries with it so much danger can be allowed to be without a solid plan as to how to control it. As is said, Shit Happens.

[izquierdista]

8. The plan to control it?

That was hatched 40 years ago, just build the nuke plants several hundred feet underground: http://books.google.com/books?id=LQsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=underground+nuclear+reactor+bulletin&source=bl&ots=Xx_emAI6Db&sig=UMn6vbFxpaRQYff7GFZRB49mGPs&hl=en&ei=3oHQTdmxJojYgQe_tIDGDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=underground%20nuclear%20reactor%20bulletin&f=false

See, they never expected all that spent fuel to pile up and sit in swimming pools next to the reactor. But pile up it did, until it is more of a problem than the actual reactor itself. If they had actually adopted the underground plan, they could have made it so the reactor was abandoned in place when it was no longer economical to run.

Just another in a long list of better alternatives not taken. I sometimes think that you would have to run the clock back to 1944 to correct all the screw-ups that have put the world in the situation it is in.

[catabryna]

3. Again?

Go figure.

:eyes:

[Fledermaus]

7. Where's Mr. Baggins?

Don't they all get together drink and smoke happy pipe weed or something.

[Someguyinjapan]

9. Yes, because salt is renowed for it's neutron-absorbing capability

Idiots.

[SpoonFed]

10. Yes yes

The salt accumulation was part of the plan and so is the prompt vertical aeration of the upper and side sections of the units as well as the rapid temperature increase in rpv temps recently, everything is going exactly according to plan. Anyone who thinks they are just standing around with their fingers up their...

[jpak]

11. Psuedo-physicists have told us that injecting borate into these reactors is unnecessary

to prevent recriticality because the control rods have been fully inserted and there is NO WAY that fission can reoccur under those conditions.

looks like they are wrong again

yup

[SpoonFed]

13. But but

I write software!!!

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