ScribbleLive

Japan quake moved sea floor half of a football field, 16 meters higher www.scientificamerican.com

@MaryW the area really is beautiful, is a shame they ruined it for generations.

TEPCO injects nitrogen into pressure vessels

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has started injecting nitrogen, an inert gas, into the pressure vessels of the crippled reactors to prevent another hydrogen explosion.

In late October, Tokyo Electric Power Company began extracting gases from the containment vessel of the No.2 reactor to remove radioactive substances. During the work, TEPCO found hydrogen accumulating in parts of the reactor at a density of up to 2.9 percent.

TEPCO started pumping nitrogen into the pressure vessels of the No.1, 2, 3 reactors on Thursday to lessen the concentration of hydrogen.

The density of hydrogen accumulating in the containment and pressure vessels is thought to be below 4 percent, the level where an explosion could occur.

TEPCO says the nitrogen injection will push out hydrogen and reduce its concentration.

Keeping hydrogen density low is an indispensible condition in the second step of the process decided upon by the government and TEPCO to resolve the nuclear accident. They are aiming to achieve a state of cold shutdown for the reactors by the end of the year.

www3.nhk.or.jp


The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency plans to assess how well TEPCO can manage hydrogen levels.
Friday, December 02, 2011 05:02 +0900 (JST)

Researcher thinks pollen masks can block cesium ajw.asahi.com

At 11:13 on November 30, the alarm went off at the alternative cooling
system in the Fuel Pool Cooling and Filtering System indicating that the
difference of the flow rate between at the inlet and at the outlet is
large and the system automatically stopped its operation. At 11:34 pm on
the same day, no leakage was confirmed by the site inspection. At 11:00
pm on the same day, the temperature of spent fuel pool was 22.7 °C and the
anticipated temperature increase was 0.3 °C/h. As there is sufficient
buffer, the inspection is scheduled during the morning of December 1.
However, the inspection, the repair work and the cause analysis is
rescheduled to December 2 as it turned out that the material preparation
for such work needs time. We expect no major issue for the continued
system outage as the temperature of spent fuel pool was 23.8 °C the at
1:00 pm on December 1 (1.1°C increase from 11:00 pm on November 30) and
the increase is not material. www.tepco.co.jp

@elainekirk that doesn't sound fun.

@elainekirk how cold is it there?

@lillymunster they said it wouldnt freeze tonight but I think they were wrong....as usual

I have the gas fire on full blast to try to keep house above freezing but dont think I am winning

yup drier going too lol

@lillymunster I saw a bit when I logged on but had to empty van etc so havent been watching, what happened?

@lillymunster ah could be

Elevated radiation in LA via office HEPA filter www.enviroreporter.com

what does that mean? tons in the reactor?

@lillymunster blimey

1.6 billion bq/kg soil near intake ex-skf.blogspot.com

Japan may announce on December 16 that tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima are in a cold shutdown, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday,
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may declare a cold shutdown because a November 30 analysis by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co showed that temperatures for the nuclear fuel lying at the bottom of the containment vessel have stabilized,

www.reuters.com

@elainekirk Oh sure. Like Edano said this morning. They just ran computer scenarios until they came up with one that looked good. They dont have enough data to really know where the fuel is.