SimplyInfo » Entries tagged with "spent fuel"
US Nuclear; Failing Casks, Cracked Concrete And Foot Dragging On Safety
[Translate] 30 of the US’s 100+ nuclear plants have ordered spent fuel pool water level monitoring systems. The issue of this kind of equipment came up again during hurricane Sandy as both members of the public and experts questioned if the nuclear plants impacted by the storm had upgraded spent fuel pool equipment. The new equipment to monitor and provide water to the pool was suggested by the post Fukushima committee that looked at what failed and could fail at US reactors. It is not clear if the remaining units in the US have not ordered such equipment or have already ordered such equipment. The water level monitoring system is only part of the suggested upgrades and comes with a 7 day battery pack. Dry Casks Failing In The US The NRC found multiple … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
US Nuclear Waste Plan May Be Illegal
[Translate] The GAO has determined that aspects of the planned nuclear waste disposal program are likely illegal. The GAO says the Dept. of Energy lacks the authority to create new interim storage facilities. Any authority they did have was tied to milestones or timelines not achieved. There is some suspicion the entire idea of interim storage facilities is just a stalling tactic to fend off lawsuits and delay the entire issue in the hopes of better technology being developed. The Forbes article that outlines the problems also mentions the logistics with moving all of the spent fuel twice and that a transportation plan could take a decade to get that alone approved. They also note that much of the cask stored fuel at nuclear plants is currently “too hot” to transport. The GAO review also … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Unit 4 Cover Building Construction Progress
[Translate] TEPCO released a brief handout and photo showing the progress made so far in constructing the cover building at unit 4. Once completed the building will allow the spent fuel pool to be unloaded. U4coverconstruction_handouts_130115_01-e This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or promoting our work, please do so with respect to the large amount of effort and time that goes into our research and analysis. Referring to something or a quote is great, copying it all or in substantial parts is not so great. If you wish to reproduce … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reactor 4, The Latest
Atomic Rats, Fishing For Beams & Cleaning Up The Common Pool At Daiichi
[Translate] Workers at the plant are reporting seeing rats at Daiichi. Worker Happy11311 mentioned seeing them and was worried they would damage cables at the plant. They could cause obvious safety problems if they chewed on electrical or water lines. Small animals also pose the risk of getting into equipment and causing issues by tripping electrical systems. Then there is the problem of rats being in contact with high levels of radiation then making them highly contaminated. This can cause problems as they then spread the contamination up the food chain or take it with them if they leave the immediate area. TEPCO successfully pulled the steel beam that had fallen in the spent fuel pool of #3 back in October. They did a practice run and installed some safety bumpers … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
The Future Of Fukushima Daiichi Spent Fuel
[Translate] This little talked about set of challenges will play a considerable role in the decommissioning and safety of Fukushima Daiichi. We have collected up all of the bits of information about the spent fuel and the handling options to gain a better understanding of the challenge. Spent Fuel: Each fuel assembly weighs about .5 tons Each fuel assembly contains 50 to 70 fuel rods, an 8×8 BWR fuel assembly contains 64 fuel rods plus 2 hollow tie rods. Common pool inventory: 6375 1-4 sfp’s inventory: 3108 Total plant inventory (not including reactor cores):11417 Unit 1 SFP: 292 irradiated (used) fuel assemblies and 100 unirradiated new unused assemblies Unit 2 SFP: 587 irradiated (used) fuel assemblies and 28 unirradiated new unused assemblies Unit 3 SFP: 514 irradiated (used) fuel assemblies and 52 unirradiated new unused assemblies Unit 4 SFP: 1331 irradiated … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, The Latest
New Paper Explains Spent Fuel Element Power At Fukushima
[Translate] In the new paper “Lifting Fuel Elements Out Of The Fukushima Daiichi Spent Fuel Pools” Dean Wilkie and the SimplyInfo research team look at the condition of the spent fuel rods in the pools at Fukushima Daiichi. One of the critical factors of concern with the pools and specifically unit 4 has been the power level decay of the fuel assemblies. This new paper takes a technical look at the spent fuel and how the time since removal from the reactor plays a part in the need for removing fuel in a timely manner. Read the entire paper here. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Unit 4 Spent Fuel Pool Video: Enhanced Images
[Translate] TEPCO took video of the interior of unit 4′s spent fuel pool. Video can be found here and here. Some things our research team noted: There is significant particulate matter or some sort of algae or organism in the water. A substance seems to be coating the tops of the fuel assemblies that was not there on the previous videos of the pool. The substance has grown between the tops of fuel rods and appears to have a brown-green tinge. There have been incidents of algae growing in extreme conditions. Algae and bacteria are a known problem for spent fuel pools and storage. The reactor well at Three Mile Island was found to be so inundated with algae, mold and bacteria even with the lethal radiation levels, that it hindered clean up by 1986. Enhanced images from 4′s spent fuel … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Fukushima Exposes The US Faustian Deal On Spent Nuclear Fuel
[Translate] The US currently has about 63000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, most of it still stored in unprotected cooling pools in reactors. After the Fukushima Daiichi disaster showed how dangerous spent fuel pools that are frequently outside of any hardened containment are, the issue of spent fuel in the US became a major concern. It was not only obvious that these spent fuel pools pose a major radiation risk in an accident, fuel pools in the US were even more crowded than the ones in Japan due to a process of double racking. Early on in the US nuclear power program the spent fuel issue was hoped to some day be solved by fast breeder reactors or reprocessing but even those technologies leave considerable high level nuclear waste that still must … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Unit 2 Scope Inspection Soon, Unit 4 Spent Fuel Removal Sept 2013
[Translate] Worker tweets (below) confirm that the endoscope inspection of unit 2 will be happening soon. The work will be done through an access pipe, he brings up the concern that steam will make seeing anything difficult. Also mentioned is the removal of spent fuel at unit 4 that is expected to begin in September of 2013 and take 6 months. Worker tweets from https://twitter.com/#!/Happy20790 via Google Translate: Banwa (* ^ o ^ *) I take disciples worried stiff like everybody spokesman in (-.-;) oiler oiler is something energetic disciples struggle this year with work beginning tomorrow (* ^ o ^ *) I was in at night zzZ But wait if (^ O ^) topic in today's day out come back soon. It was also full of the first group from work today. The field who … Read entire article »
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Spent Fuel Worldwide Unsolved Problem
[Translate] The New York Times recently ran a piece proclaiming the issue of spent nuclear fuel as a major problem. The US has 104 operating nuclear power reactors. There are 439 power reactors operating worldwide, they provide only 6% of the world’s power. The US reactors alone produce 2000 metric tons of fuel each year. As of 2009 the US alone had produced about 64,000 metric tons of spent fuel. A 2009 estimated said the planned (and now scrapped) Yucca mountain storage facility would have hit it’s 70,000 metric ton capacity by 2010. Currently no country has a permanent storage facility for nuclear fuel waste. A few are exploring the idea at various underground locations. In Germany the Castor waste transports have been generating weeks of massive and sometimes violent clashes with … Read entire article »
Filed under: The Latest
Removal Of Spent Fuel In Units 3 & 4 Made A Priority
[Translate] No additional details are given such as how the fuel will be removed or how quickly. TEPCO has announced that the removal has become a priority on the next phase of work. Having TEPCO recognize the urgency of doing this is a small step forward. This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org All content is copyright SimplyInfo.org. Content may also be copyright of other specific original authors or creators and was reproduced here with limited permission. While we welcome the sharing of information or promoting our work, please do so with respect to the large amount of effort and time that goes into our research and analysis. Referring to something or a quote is great, copying it all or in substantial parts … Read entire article »
Filed under: Plant Status, Reactor 3, Reactor 4, The Latest
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