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TEPCO: reactor damage includes holes

The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says data analyses suggest damage to its reactors may have caused cracks and openings in the reactor containment vessels equivalent to a 10-centimeter hole.

Reactors 1 through 3 at the plant suffered nuclear fuel meltdowns after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. This is likely to have created holes and cracks at the bottom of the pressure vessels protecting the reactor cores and damaged the containment vessels.

Massive amounts of highly radioactive water also leaked from the structures.

Tokyo Electric Power Company analyzed the changes in pressure levels inside the pressure and containment vessels to gauge the scope of the damage.

TEPCO said the analyses show that holes in the Number 1 reactor containment vessel amounting to 3 centimeters in total may have formed 18 hours after the quake. It said that may have expanded to 7 centimeters at least 50 hours after the quake.

The utility said holes and cracks equivalent to 10 centimeters in diameter may have formed in the Number 2 reactor's containment vessel about 21 hours after the quake. It said a similar amount of holes could have been created in the suppression pool chamber by an explosion heard coming from there on March 15th.

TEPCO said these results were obtained through data calculations, and that it has yet to confirm whether such holes actually exist.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:56 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp

Hi @edano, didn't realise you were lurking so to speak

With all the info now coming out you might like to look at the data here, www.houseoffoust.com especially the 'level pr data' ones. You can clearly tell when the water left the reactors and hence the meltdowns occurred.

@hudebnik : hi, look how they want to fool us with 3 cm, 7 cm, 10 cm holes. it's the same game as before. they admit holes, the truth is there is no bottom anymore.

@Edano - yes, no bottom at all.

If you page down the tables in those docs there is data about water levels ever few minutes during the crises.

Tho I suspect that when proper monitoring and soil analysis is done (or revealed) the contamination outside Fuku will be much worse than has been admetted to date.

It seems to me that the unspoken secret of NPPs, that you get 40-60 years of production and 10,000 years of containment, and that you can only delude yourself that it is "economical" or "intelligent" for the period of those first 40-60 years. Which is where we are right now.

@hudebnik : alone the sea water contamination equals chernobyl's output. i do not understand how they still insist on "10%" of chernobyl, it' a lie.

@bo - and it is debatable whether the 40-60 years has a sound economic case, it only does if the storage/reprocessing costs are ignored. Factor those in and NPPs are uneconomic from the start if you don't need Pu any more/

@hudebnik : if you read carefully, they do not say they measured the holes. it is a "calculation". and if you read morre carefully, they do not describe the current status, they speak about x hours after the explosion. which means today, 2 months after, it is much worse.

@edano - yes, noted. Something is driving this new 'openness'. What do they know/expect is going to happen next? The rads in #1 drywell are now astronomical...

Sorry I meant 'faulty sensor'

I'm convinced that the information disclosures (mustn't keep saying releases) are to soften up public opinion in advance of the next big thing, whatever that turns out to be.

@hudebnik : i agree. they are preparing the next "revelation".

@elainekirk After one week with only DSK and IMF, Fukushima is coming back in Le Monde with "Fukushima: In the poisoned valleys
Northwest of the nuclear plant damaged sites outside the evacuation zones and containment have been contaminated. Uninformed, their inhabitants are exposed to dangerous radiation. What our reporter was able to verify, Geiger counter in hand". I'll send the link when it will be a free access.

@olivier - Merci. That would fit exactly with what Greenpeace measured in the early days, before they became persona non grata

OK taking a break now chaps, may see you later.

if they have pu in groundwater, there will be many deaths.

i really wonder what else is to come to light.