OMG. Apology, yes. Anything new, no. (0+ / 4-)
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Joieau, Craziel, bincbom, KiB
We knew that the fuel rods in several of the reactors were exposed to some air. They overheated and there was some melt -- absolutely NOT worse than a "core meltdown."
1. All of these reactors were scrammed before the tsunami arrived. That means first, that control rods were inserted between the fuel rods to stop the power generation. Second, a scrammed reactor only needs water over the rods to maintain stable cooling. (No cooling tower required.)
2. Anything that approaches a "core meltdown" is happening on an unscrammed reactor. Power is being generated based on massive heating of the UO2 fuel rods. The fuel rods melt down with risk of a horrendous explosion such as Chernobyl.
3. Calculations show roughly 400 grams of radioactive material released -- that for the worst case where it's all cesium-137. Despite the odd claims, that is a tiny fraction of what got blown sky high at Chernobyl. Turns out they're including what went into water directly as though it went into the air. They are also including material that is "lost" inside the containment structures. (Radioisotopes are bad anywhere, but floating out into the Pacific away from land ain't gonna hurt anybody. 850 terabecquerels sounds lots scarier than 400 grams. )
We knew by late March that cracks had occurred in the cooling pipes going in to the containments. Same was assumed for the reactor vessels -- "reactor vessel" is different from "containment structure," but the distinction is not observed in this reporting. Material from air-exposed tops of some of the fuel rods surely got loose inside the containment vessels. Some material was released in steam and in the hydrogen explosions, mid-March.
I don't see anything new.
BTW: "inner containment vessels" from Guardian means the reactor vessels.
Plainly, the containment structures were flooded by design, by the tsunami, and then by drops from helicopters and fire engine pumpers and then restoration of pipes and power. For a scrammed reactor, passive cooling is what is needed -- that's the basic design.
Having a small amount of material fall from rods to the bottoms of the containment structures has no significant effect on passive cooling operation.
Angry White Males + Crooks + Personality Disorder psychos + KKKwannabes + "Unborn Child" church folk EQ The Republicans
by vets74 on Wed Jun 08, 2011 at 08:51:32 AM PDT
