Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 2954

@Ian it doesn't even take massive solar flares to cause a region or nationwide outage that can last for days. The east coast had one years ago caused by something in the grid up in Canada that ended up trashing equipment somewhere in the US that was critical to the grid. The US govt put out warnings about 2 years later that a computer virus could be used to damage power plants. A really good natural disaster could cause a widespread outage lasting for days covering multiple plants. I don't think many think about what would happen if something like a solar flare managed to damage the power grid.
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 12:22:27 AM

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the temperature of the No. 2 reactor at its damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has risen and it injected boric acid into the unit early this morning to prevent criticality.

It took the step between 12:19 a.m. and 3:20 a.m. today, according to an e-mailed statement. www.businessweek.com

I have noticed TEPCO will send out bad news to the press via email and not post it on their website, or delay doing so.
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 12:27:49 AM

The Prometheus Trap / Order to Suspend Radiation Monitoring ajw.asahi.com
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 12:34:44 AM

@Ian interesting timing with your video, this months IEEE spectrum has an article about "A Perfect Storm of Planetary Proportions" and the impact it could have on the power grid spectrum.ieee.org There is a sidebar article on "Hundreds of Fukushimas?" spectrum.ieee.org In a massive geomagnetic storm that could trigger a long-term power outage across large portions of the globe, the world's 400-some nuclear plants would be particularly vulnerable to catastrophic failure, for two reasons. 
by RonD 2/7/2012 12:56:42 AM

The incident at unit 2 last november was classified as "spontaneous fission" . During that one they found xenon and dumped boron www.news24.jp
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 12:58:51 AM

@RonD, Fukushima's gotta be a wakeup call for this, given it was ultimately station blackout that caused it. There should be guaranteed automated cooling capability that could last for months on every reactor and waste pool. I doubt that can happen, but on-site solar power might help.
by Ian 2/7/2012 1:51:50 AM

@lillymunster, from and ABC blog: "There is speculation that a nuclear fission may be occurring." abcnews.go.com
by Ian 2/7/2012 1:52:38 AM

am I reading this right ? have they let non compliance with fire regs drift for years at India Point docs.google.com
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 1:53:47 AM

@Ian TEPCO claims there is no xenon etc detected but we all know how valid tepco's comments can be :-)
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 1:53:55 AM

@elainekirk Oh yes. Same load of crap from operators how they are dedicated to safety. Then some pablum out of the NRC about how they have it under control and are committed to public safety. :-(
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 1:54:54 AM

last mention of xenon 4 days ago says
- On February 1 2012, we conducted sampling of the gas of the PCV gas
management system of Unit 2. As a result of the analysis, we confirmed
that at the entrance of the system Xenon 135 was below detection limit
(9.5x10-2Bq/cm3), and below the re-criticality criterion which is
1Bq/ cm3.
but what is the detection/re-criticality and why no more recent results ?
www.tepco.co.jp
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 1:58:36 AM

TEPCO is worried. They are dodging information again. 3pm daiichi report only cites this:
At this moment, temperature
indicates approx. 71.0 °C (as of 11:00 am on February 6)
www.tepco.co.jp

No results of the nuclide analysis after an entire day. They just keep repeating the same reports. Yet multiple major news orgs are citing "emails" to the media with new data. TEPCO is only feeding data to the news orgs they approve of. IIRC the last time they did this was in Nov. when they had problems with 2 the last time.
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 1:59:56 AM

and what is "at the entrance to the system!
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:00:45 AM

Hang on a mo!!

- On January 11, 2012, we conducted sampling survey of the gas in the Unit 2
primary containment vessel gas management system. As a result of the analysis,
we confirmed that at the gate of the system the density of xenon 135 was below the
measurable limit (1.1 x 10
-1
Bq/cm
3
) and thus it was lower than the judgment criteria
for the recriticality, 1Bq/cm
3
www.tepco.co.jp
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:03:51 AM

@elainekirk in the tepco doc or the NRC one?
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:03:53 AM

@lillymunster the tepco and I don't understand the figures but the feb figure is higher than the jan figure is it not?
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:04:51 AM

@elainekirk where is the Feb figure? I haven't seen it yet
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:05:34 AM

last mention of xenon 4 days ago says
- On February 1 2012, we conducted sampling of the gas of the PCV gas
management system of Unit 2. As a result of the analysis, we confirmed
that at the entrance of the system Xenon 135 was below detection limit
(9.5x10-2Bq/cm3), and below the re-criticality criterion which is
1Bq/ cm3.
but what is the detection/re-criticality and why no more recent results ?
www.tepco.co.jp
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:06:06 AM

@elainekirk (9.5x10-2Bq/cm3) is the detection limit so I think it is saying they didn't detect any or if there is any it is below the detection limit? I think they say the same thing both Jan and Feb 1. But we know they tested again in the last 24 hours but they are not providing results in reports. There have been 2 reports today that they tested without results.
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:09:07 AM

@lillymunster I see
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:19:49 AM

TEPCO said they would publish the results today (7th) - suspect it'll be this pm
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:21:44 AM

'On February 6, the sampling was conducted on charcoal filter of Unit 2
gas control system' www.tepco.co.jp
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:23:10 AM

Is that the normal sampling method?
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:23:26 AM

@UKVal before they don't say. So is it oversight or did they change something in the testing process?
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:25:13 AM

reading this as it is set out then the february figure is higher??
* On January 4 2012, we conducted sampling of the gas of the PCV gas
management system of the primary containment vessel of units 1 and 2.
As a result of the analysis, we confirmed that at the entrance of the
system Xenon 135 was below detection limit (Unit 1 : 1.1 x 10-1Bq/cm3,
Unit 2 : 1.0 x 10-1Bq/cm3), and below the re-criticality criterion
which is 1Bq/cc. www.tepco.co.jp
- On February 1 2012, we conducted sampling of the gas of the PCV gas
management system of Unit 2. As a result of the analysis, we confirmed
that at the entrance of the system Xenon 135 was below detection limit
(9.5x10-2Bq/cm3), and below the re-criticality criterion which is
1Bq/ cm3.

www.tepco.co.jp
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:25:34 AM

@lillymunster that's what I'm wondering - might explain why the results are taking longer...
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:26:51 AM

@elainekirk odd they cite those numbers as the detection limits and that results were below detection limits but they are differing sets of detection limits???
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:28:02 AM

@lillymunster I think they are giving the actual readings and not the detection limit
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:29:06 AM

@elainekirk so maybe a language mistake? If it was really below detection limit they wouldn't have any number to give.
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:29:51 AM

I suspect there's a lot of head scratching going on, given what they saw using the endoscope the anomalies between the high temperature reading & the other 2 readings at the same level
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:31:25 AM

they say in the feb
"As a result of the analysis, we confirmed
that at the entrance of the system Xenon 135 was below detection limit
(9.5x10-2Bq/cm3), and below the re-criticality criterion which is
1Bq/ cm3."
the "which is" is the qualifier methinks
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:32:15 AM

@UKVal the workers were not telling much more abt unit 2. Maybe nobody there knows WTH is going on?
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:33:34 AM

@lillymunster that's my impression & it worries me
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:34:07 AM

New temp reading from TEPCO, not in the normal report. Shows now at 72 degrees! www.tepco.co.jp
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:36:56 AM

This claims it hit 73 degrees but that doesn't match any TEPCO docs we have www.jcp.or.jp
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:38:43 AM

@lillymunster in other words either none of their counter measures are working or the thermometer is defective. If the former -it's hard to see what more they can do
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:38:52 AM

@lillymunster let's hope that's not the 11am reading...
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:40:24 AM

They also sampled at the knock out panel of 2

At 8:44 am on February 6, the dust sampling was started in the opening of
Unit 2 reactor building (blowout panel). At 1:03 pm, the sampling was
finished.
3pm report, other mentions of 2 are the old ones from yesterday morning www.tepco.co.jp
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:40:42 AM

have we looked at the japanese press releases
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:43:30 AM

@elainekirk I can't find the link do you still have?
by lillymunster 2/7/2012 2:45:13 AM

found the 3pm www.tepco.co.jp
by elainekirk 2/7/2012 2:54:31 AM

'Temperature at No.2 reactor remains high
Attempts to cool the temperature in the No. 2 reactor of the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have only partially succeeded despite the injection of more cooling water.
The temperature in the reactor has gradually risen from about 45 degrees Celsius registered on January 27th. In the past 4 days, the temperature has climbed more than 20 degrees to above 70 degrees.
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company began pumping more water into the reactor at around 1:30 AM on Monday. But at 7 AM, the temperature stood at 73.3 degrees and at 5 PM, 69.2 degrees.
The utility firm says 2 other thermometers elsewhere in the reactor gave readings of about 44 degrees.
TEPCO says the rise in temperatures indicate that the flow of water in the reactor may have changed direction after plumbing work, and is no longer able to properly cool down the melted down nuclear fuel' www.houseofjapan.com
by UKVal 2/7/2012 2:54:42 AM