Fukushima: Fuel Rods Dropped to the Bottom of Reactor 3, More Highly Radioactive Water Going Into Ocean
May 12th, 2011*shaking head*
Via: AFP:
THE operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant reported new problems yesterday, including a water leak from a reactor vessel and another spill of contaminated water into the ocean.
The update by Tokyo Electric Power Company came as the government announced a cull of thousands of cattle and other livestock now roaming the 20km evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.
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TEPCO said yesterday that new measurements taken this week, after workers fixed gauges in the badly-hit reactor one building, indicated that water pumped into the pressure vessel had quickly leaked out.
The water level inside had fallen below the bottom of the 4m-long fuel rods, suggesting they had been exposed to the air, increasing the risk of a dangerous full meltdown.
However, the vessel’s relatively low outside temperature of 100C-120C indicated the rods had dropped to the bottom of the vessel and were under water there.
“The temperature of the pressure vessel was 100-120C, which is considered to be the level where the fuel rods are being cooled down in a relatively stable manner,” TEPCO said.
TEPCO has been injecting seven tonnes of water per hour into the reactor one pressure vessel and also plans to flood the wider containment vessel around it to cool down the entire system. The operations have created massive amounts of highly contaminated run-off water.
TEPCO has struggled to stop spills into the Pacific but reported another yesterday, saying water had leaked into the sea from a concrete pit near reactor three.
Samples of seawater taken near the plant contained caesium-134 at a concentration 18,000 times the permitted level, the utility said, adding that the spill had been stopped by filling the pit with concrete.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano called the leak “deplorable” and apologised to the fishing industry and to neighbouring countries.
Uhm. Stop apologizing Tepco officials. Just fix it.
Does anyone know if the use of pebble-bed reactors would’ve prevented all this nastiness?