by Nelle Maxey
Update #6 – May 24, 2011
Unit 2 & 3 meltdowns officially confirmed by Tepco
These stories are a result of the report released yesterday which Tepco was ordered to issue by Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency. I have been unable to find the report on-line. There is a very brief summary at JAIF.
http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_index.php
(Look for 2011-05-23, Atoms In Japan—TEPCO Recognizes Fuel Melt at Unit 1 of Fukushima Daiichi NPS: Most Melting in Morning after Earthquake…)
Both Bloomberg and Reuters (and a 10-second CBC radio story this morning) carry stories that Unit 2 & 3 reactors are confirmed as having melted down:
1) Tepco Confirms Meltdown of Reactors, Bloomberg
Tokyo Electric Power Co. confirmed a meltdown of fuel rods in two more reactors at its Fukushima nuclear plant, which has been emitting radiation since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and cooling systems. […]
Tepco's analysis is catching up with U.S. assessments in early days of the crisis that indicated damage to the station was more severe than Japan officials suggested.
The meltdown of the cores is the "greatest at the No. 1 reactor, followed by the No. 3 unit and then No. 2," [Junichi Matsumoto, a spokesman at the company known as Tepco] said. […]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-japan-tepco-reactors-idUSTRE74N07S20110524
2) Tepco confirms meltdowns at 2 more Fukushima reactors, Reuters
Some clips from the story:
– Some analysts said the delay in confirming the meltdowns at Fukushima suggested the utility feared touching off a panic by disclosing the severity of the accident earlier.
Now people are used to the situation. Nothing is resolved, but normal business has resumed in places like Tokyo," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Tokyo's Sophia University. […] The word "meltdown" has such a strong connotation that when the situation was more uncertain more people would likely have fled Tokyo, he said. […]
And on the quake vs. Tsunami question at least Reuters carried this alternate point of view:
"It could very well be that Tepco is rushing to conclude that the tsunami is to blame to prevent further questions and give more momentum to the nuclear camp. It's not just Tepco, it's the whole nuclear industry, maybe business circles as a whole. It's highly political," said Sophia University's Nakano.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-japan-tepco-reactors-idUSTRE74N07S20110524
3) Meltdowns also at No.2 and No.3 reactors
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says fuel meltdowns are believed to have occurred at the No.2 and No.3 reactors within a few days after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
Tokyo Electric Power Company said earlier this month that fuel rods at the plant's No.1 reactor had melted.
The possibility of a meltdown would have been the same even if the rods were partially submerged in water. Nearly half the fuel rods at the 2 reactors would have melted down within a week of the March 11th disaster.
Tokyo Electric says it had assumed from the start that the fuel roads were damaged, but had focused on cooling the reactors rather than assessing the extent of damage.
Goshi Hosono, who serves as advisor to the prime minister, said the delay in publicizing the extent of damage may have been inevitable.
But he expressed remorse over the government's overly optimistic response to the crisis.
Masanori Naito of the Institute of Applied Energy says analysis of data on the reactors' conditions is easy, and could have been completed in a day.
He says the analysis should have been done much earlier, as it would have provided important clues to long-term cooling and other measures.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/24_37.html
Good news, if it works:
Heat exchangers to be installed at No. 2 reactor
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will install 2 heat exchangers at the Number 2 reactor building on Tuesday to lower the temperature of the spent fuel pool.
Last Wednesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company workers entered the reactor building to check radiation levels. But high humidity prevented them from staying longer than 14 minutes.
The humidity is thought to stem from the high temperature of the spent fuel pool and steam from the suppression pool which may have been damaged by explosions after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO plans to reduce the humidity by installing exchangers in the building next to the reactor.
The utility says it hopes to start using the exchangers this month to reduce the pool's temperature from around 80 degrees Celsius to about 40 degrees Celsius within a month.
TEPCO hopes to install exchangers at the No. 1 and 3 reactors next month and at the No. 4 reactor in July.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/24_03.html
The Watershed Sentinel is proud to share Nelle Maxey’s Fukushima Updates prepared for the BC environmental community.
Every day, Nelle pours over the media and other reports of the status of the reactors at Fukushima, comparing figures and trying to make sense out of the conflicting reports.