News Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, & Nuclear Disaster

[Urwumpe]

Just found a very interesting video showing dismantling of reactor core after Three Mile Island meltdown. The cores of Fukushima reactors likely are in similar or worse state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY3qCKZOF30&feature=feedf

Worse - they already estimate now around 70% core damage, TMI was just 30%. Even if you give them some generous epsilons because of the lost instrumentation, it will be more than 50% core damage in the worst case, more likely 100%.

 

[Wishbone]

TEPCO will dump 11500 tonnes of "low-level" water into the Pacific

 

[Urwumpe]

TEPCO will dump 11500 tonnes of "low-level" water into the Pacific

According to Greenpeace the reprocessing plant of la Hague dumps "one million litres of liquid radioactive waste per day" or just 1000 tons per day into the ocean.

This is a serious release - and La Hague is already pretty suspicious.

 

[Zachstar]

Well thanks to this the industry is finished and coal plant designers are rubbing their hands in glee in anticipation once the grid demands more power that solar and wind cant provide.

 

[Urwumpe]

Well thanks to this the industry is finished and coal plant designers are rubbing their hands in glee in anticipation once the grid demands more power that solar and wind cant provide.

If that hypothesis would be the case, France would be the country with the lowest electricity imports and the lowest number of blackouts in the world.

But the opposite is the reality: France needs to import expensive electricity for cooling their reactors in summer and winter, and can only export cheap electricity.

And France is the country in the EU with the longest accumulated blackout times per year.


The market makes some strange phenomena there:

Germany imported 4500 GWh from countries last year, a lot of it from France, and exported at the same time 3000 GWh to other countries. And that despite having even the missing 1500 GWh capacity left by coal power plants alone.

Simply speaking: We bought cheap French nuclear electricity and sold to to other countries for a profit. And charged France about 30% more when they needed to import electricity. When France has its nuclear power plants operating at 100% and maximum effectivity, they need to export their electricity for cheap.

Sometimes you need to research some things a bit better to realize, that the there is no simply logic behind it. Everything is a very complicated mechanism with many forces and many factors.

Like nuclear power not being cheap - it costs in the best case as much as coal power. Coal and gas are the thermodynamically most effective forms of power plants - Because they operate at 600°C temperature and 300 atm pressure, which not even nuclear power plants can achieve. And the technology for raising temperature and pressure to 700°C and 350 atm is coming, which would then mean a coal power plant would turn 50% of the thermal energy generated by burning coal into electricity and district heating.

 

[Sky Captain]

And France is the country in the EU with the longest accumulated blackout times per year.

How is that related to nuclear reactors? Do they have so many unplanned shutdowns that sometimes grid gets destabilized because of sudden loss of large amount of generating capacity. Blackouts (at least in Latvia) always are caused because falling tree or something breaks a power line.

But the opposite is the reality: France needs to import expensive electricity for cooling their reactors in summer and winter, and can only export cheap electricity.

Why would additional cooling be needed in winter? Any heat engine that uses environment as heat sink should be more efficient in winter because of larger temperature difference between hot and cold side.

 

[Urwumpe]

How is that related to nuclear reactors?

Likely not at all, but the logic that nuclear power plants ensure supply with electricity is clearly shown wrong in this example

Why would additional cooling be needed in winter? Any heat engine that uses environment as heat sink should be more efficient in winter because of larger temperature difference between hot and cold side.

You need lots of cold water from a river or ocean for cooling the reactor. In summer and winter, the rivers have less flow and you have less water available for cooling.

 

[Wishbone]

Japan asked Rosatom to tow floating waste barge "Landysh" to Fukushima.

Source: RIA Novosti, http://rian.ru/jpquake_news/20110404/360943842.html

Overall outlook: fisheries in Pacific Rim countries will be hurt immensely. Fish scare will also spill over to other regions. I fear that the bulk of contaminated fish will be dumped onto the markets with the most lax food safety regulation and uneducated consumers; I'll let you guess what those markets are.

Does anyone know if caesium is bio-concentrated anywhere along the food chain, like it is with mercury?

 

[Urwumpe]

Does anyone know if caesium is bio-concentrated anywhere along the food chain, like it is with mercury?

Yes it is - all heavy metals are bio-concentrated.

 

[Wishbone]

Thanks, and here's the first linky I have found: http://post.queensu.ca/~campbelm/CampbellCJFAS2005.pdf

For example, a radiocesium food-web study showed that
while Cs will biomagnify through various food webs, there
were still variable patterns in Cs biomagnification within
fish species, which were attributed to consumption rates
(Rowan et al. 1998). Furthermore, the slope values for
log[Rb] and log[Cs] are lower than those seen for log[Hg]
versus δ15N regressions (0.2–0.3) for aquatic food webs
worldwide, as summarized in Campbell et al. (2003). In
other words, Rb and Cs do not biomagnify as rapidly as
ubiquitous methylmercury, which forms stable protein complexes.
However, the consistent biomagnification of Rb and
Cs in food webs indicates that these alkali metals should be
considered along with Hg and organic contaminants when
studying biomagnifying compounds in food webs.

 

[jinglesassy]

Aparrently one of the leaks are fixed http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-crisis-Fukushima-radiation-leak-stopped.html

 

[Urwumpe]

Aparrently one of the leaks are fixed http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-crisis-Fukushima-radiation-leak-stopped.html

One fixed, a few more to go.

 

[Wishbone]

From news on the TV: magnitude 7.4 quake near Miyagi prefecture (at the almost same spot as the 9+ one), two out of three Onagawa NPP units tripped.

 

[Scruce]

Second Japan Earthquake

Earthquake was a 7.1 off the coast of Honshu Island near the Aomori prefecture in the north to Ibaraki prefecture in central Japan, just north of Tokyo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13005110

The earthquake was strong enough to shake buildings in Tokyo 200KM away from the epicentre. However, there has been no detectable effect at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant damaged in last month's quake and tsunami, nor at two other nuclear plants in the area, officials say.

---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:02 ----------

A tsunami warning has been issued. According to NHK-TV the tsunami may be one-meter high. But the BBC says it may get to a maximum of two metres in height.

 

[Wishbone]

...might as well be considered an aftershock of the first, together with many others. The same emergency, you see.

 

[Scruce]

Interesting video on the aftershock:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFd8yKLBB-0&feature=feedu"]YouTube - New strong 7.4 earthquake rocks Japan, tsunami alert issued[/ame]

Cant work out what the flash at the beginning is though? The comments say it is a light from Onagawa Nuclear Plant.

 

[Urwumpe]

Cant work out what the flash at the beginning is though? The comments say it is a light from Onagawa Nuclear Plant.

I suspect it is a transformer fire, it looks at least a lot like one.

Still no reason to relate to to any nuclear power plant. There are many plants again with station power loss, but it is doubtful we will see again a failing of the emergency pumps. Even a two meter tsunami is lower than the tsunami walls.

 

[IronRain]

CNN reports that the emergency generators are working..

 

[Wishbone]

From the IAEA:

On 5th April, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare issued a press release indicating that a new provisional regulation value was set for I-131 at a limit of 2000 Bq/kg in fishery products.

Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant

All reactors have been in cold shutdown since the 11 March earthquake.

NISA has confirmed that two out of the three lines supplying off-site power to the site were lost following the 7 April earthquake. Off-site power continues to be supplied through the third line.

Cooling of the spent fuel pool was temporarily lost, but has subsequently been restored.

No change has been observed in the readings from the on-site radiation monitoring post. The status of the plant is currently being checked.

Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Plant
{no change}

Higashidori Nuclear Power Plant

NISA has confirmed that the Higashidori NPP was shutdown and in a maintenance outage at the time of the 7 April earthquake. Off-site power has been lost. Emergency power supply to the site is operating. All the fuel had been removed from the reactor core and stored in the spent fuel pool. Cooling of the spent fuel pool is operational.

Tomari Nuclear Power Plant (in Hokkaido)

At the time of the 7 April earthquake Tomari Unit 1 and Unit 2 were in operation. Following the 7 April earthquake, the Hokkaido Electric Power Company reduced the generating power to 90% of capacity.

Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant

NISA confirms that Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and uranium enrichment facility lost off-site power. Emergency power supply to the site is operating.

---------- Post added 04-08-11 at 05:16 AM ---------- Previous post was 04-07-11 at 10:08 PM ----------

Water leaked at Japan's Onagawa nuclear plant - source: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/08/us-japan-leak-idUSTRE7370R320110408)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Water leaked out of spent fuel pools at the Onagawa nuclear plant in northeast Japan after a strong aftershock rocked the region late on Thursday, but there was no change in the radiation levels outside the plant, operator Tohoku Electric Power said on Friday.

It said water sloshed out of spent fuel pools in the plant's No.1, No.2 and No.3 reactors which had been shut down after the 9.0 magnitude quake on March 11, and had also leaked in three other locations in the No.3 reactor complex.

The Onagawa plant, in Miyagi prefecture, was shut down safely after it was hit by a tsunami 13 meters (43 ft) higher than its base level triggered by the March 11 quake.

Tohoku Electric said two out of three lines supplying off-site power to the Onagawa site -- in so-called cold shutdown since the March 11 earthquake -- had been lost in Thursday's quake.

Cooling operations of its spent pool fuels resumed after they stopped due to the aftershock, it said, and there was still an emergency backup generator to fall back on.

"We detected a small rise in radiation levels inside the reactor buildings, and are trying to find the locations of the leaks," a Tohoku Electric official said. "We see no change in radiation levels outside the reactor buildings."

{...}

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi and Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Michael Watson)

Which means the pipes are ruptured...

 

[Belisarius]

Report in New York Times about the lack of hard data on radiation at Fukushima

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09nuclear.html

Pertinent quotes

...remarkably little is known for sure about what is really happening inside the reactors because some areas remain far too radioactive for workers to approach, and some instruments have malfunctioned.

The paucity of data and the conflicting estimates of what the available information really means have prompted a series of confusing analyses and a rift between officials in Japan and those overseas — and even between one member of Congress and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The commission speculated this week that the nuclear fuel in the core of one of the stricken reactors had probably leaked from its thick steel pressure vessel, its most important protective barrier. If that proved to be accurate, it would raise the prospect of continuing fuel leaks and high levels of radioactive releases that would vastly complicate containment and the cleanup.

But Japanese officials said there was no evidence of a compromised pressure vessel, and they wondered why they were reading about it in the newspapers.

“If they have a concern, they should inform us,” said Kentaro Morita of Japan’s nuclear regulatory body, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, after its American counterpart sounded the alarm over a possible nuclear fuel leak at the plant’s Reactor No. 2, clearly contradicting Japanese accounts. “They didn’t say such concerns to us directly,” Mr. Morita said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited high levels of radiation at one spot inside the containment structure at Reactor No. 2 as evidence for its analysis. In addition, extremely high levels of radiation were detected in the water from a recently stanched leak that ran from the reactor building into a drainage ditch and into the ocean.

The Japanese flatly deny that possibility. “At this moment we do not have any data that shows there has been leakage to the containment vessels,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general at the Japanese regulatory agency. He also said that the Japanese and American regulators, who talk every day, were no longer so far apart on this question.

Japanese officials believe that water pumped into the reactor to cool it — as opposed to the nuclear fuel itself — might have somehow leaked out. In addition, there is evidence that an explosion may have breached the primary containment structure, which may have allowed highly radioactive water into other parts of the plant and into the ocean.

Industry experts are split.

Yoichi Kikuchi, a Japanese nuclear engineer who helped design the containment vessel at one of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, agreed with the Americans that a fuel leak was possible. He said that the pressure vessel at Reactor No. 2 was especially vulnerable because of openings at the bottom where control rods are inserted. If the fuel were melting, the metal welding around those openings would easily give way, allowing the fuel to travel into the drywell, he said. The fuel could then react with the water in the suppression chamber, setting off a vapor explosion and a huge release of radiation into the air, he said.

Shuichi Iwata, a nuclear fuel expert at Tokyo University, said that he thought a leak of fuel was probably occurring, but that the consequences might not be great. “The worst case is not happening, I think,” he said.

But Toshihiro Yamamoto, an associate professor in nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said the nuclear agency’s explanation was more likely. He said that it was water, not fuel, escaping from the same openings, or perhaps from a damaged circulation pump higher in the vessel.

Masashi Goto, a former Toshiba nuclear power plant designer, said that Japanese officials appeared to have decided that they gained nothing but panic from predicting outcomes. “They will never speak about the worst-case scenario,” he said. “They will never predict.”

Who to believe? By now the Japanese authorities have zero credibility in my opinion, leaving the US NRC by default to be the authoritative source of information.