A little update on Tepco's Experiment from last Sunday. To recap-at unit 1 they got the debris cleared, robots checked for leaks, air filters installed and running-- so good to go for workers to get in to install water measuring instruments, a new feed for the nitrogen and hook up the heat exchangers.
Hold on--not so fast.
They seemed to have encountered a few glitches. About 700 or so--millisieverts per hour that is.
Xinhua put it this way-
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Monday detected radiation levels in the building housing the faltering No. 1 reactor that far exceeded expected levels reaching as high as 700 millisieverts per hour, the utility firm said.
TEPCO said that as 10 to 70 millisieverts per hour were detected in areas where workers would be expected to spend prolonged periods of time inside of the No. 1 reactor, restoration work is possible.
Ooopps--
But the utility firm opened the main access points to the reactor and in doing do freely released 500 million becquerels of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, where it had gathered in the upper part of the reactor following a massive hydrogen explosion on March 12.
A little Draino--Liquid Plumber may be?
The installation of such cooling equipment is likely to be hampered by high radiation, as the group found several radiation " hot spots," especially around pipes suspected to be clogged with highly radioactive material.
IBT reports lead blankets are being considered as is a metal tunnel to protect workers.
TEPCO says it is planning to increase safety levels for its workers by building a metal tunnel or providing lead sheets for boosted protection against radiation.
At a press conference, TEPCO failed to confirm if the latest procedures would be enough to lessen the radiation levels and was unsure if the situation can be stabilized by October.
New video
Spent Fuel Pool 3 is a mess
Hard to tell if there's any damage to the fuel assemblies when you can't see them for all the rebarb, concrete, cables and other crap.
Makes 4 look damn good
TEPCO has begun adding Hydrazine to the water being injected into the spent fuel pools to halt corrosion.
Speaking of Unit 3
The temperature is up and rising 192c at 6 AM on the 11thand 214c at 11 AM on the 10th. It's been slowly rising for the past month. Tepco is will try reverting back to the first water injection path.
Radioactive water has been found in a trench--number 2 deja vu.
Hopefully they'll skip the shredded newspaper and diapers and go straight to what works.
NHK World
Tokyo Electric Power Company says water containing radioactive material has been found flowing into a pit outside of the No.3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The flow was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon at a pit linked to a utility tunnel near the reactor's water intake.
Workers could not confirm whether the water was leaking out into the sea, but they reported seeing froth near the water intake.
TEPCO says the concentration of radioactive Cesium in water sampled from the pit was 620,000 times higher than the safety limit set by the government. The utility also says it detected 1.5 milli-sieverts per hour of radiation on the surface of water in the pit, which indicates contaminated water may be leaking into the sea.
Upupdate--they plugged that sucker quick--
Big Bosses
Prime Minister Kan is foregoing his salary as are Tepco Execs. Kan convinced another plant to shut down for 2-3 years while it builds a wall.
KYODO
Chubu Electric Power Co. agreed Monday to suspend operation of the Hamaoka nuclear power station in Shizuoka Prefecture, as requested by Prime Minister Naoto Kan for safety reasons, a move that will likely cause power demand and supply to be tight in its service area, which is home to a number of major Japanese manufacturers.
Ceco has been taking up some of the Tepco slack which it won't be able to do anymore if it want's to keep it's own customers lit up.
PM Kan's getin itchy and plans to start from scratch on a new energy policy.
NYT
Tuesday’s decision will mean the abandonment of a plan that the Kan government released last year to build 14 nuclear reactors by 2030 and increase the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity supply to 50 percent. Japan currently has 54 reactors that before the earthquake produced 30 percent of its electricity.
Voters aren't too happy either.
WSJ
An opinion poll by Kyodo News on Saturday showed that 76% of respondents said Mr. Kan isn't exercising sufficient leadership in dealing with the situation, a rise from 63.7% in a previous poll in late March. The telephone survey, conducted Friday and Saturday, also showed 23.6% of the respondents think Mr. Kan should resign immediately, up from 13.8% in the previous survey.
peons
JT
An Osaka day laborer who responded to an ad for a truck driver in Miyagi Prefecture found himself working beside the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, it was learned Monday.
The job promised ¥12,000 a day and the contract was for one month.
But about a week later, the man called the Airin center saying he was actually in Fukushima, not Miyagi Prefecture, and that he was wearing protective clothing and cleaning up debris around the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
The man completed his work and returned to Osaka in late April. But he filed a complaint with the Airin center, saying that while he was paid ¥24,000 a day — twice what he'd been promised — he didn't receive a radiation badge until the fourth day on the job and that the work was different from what he had been promised.
Some New Toys
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What Ever Happen To. . .
--Drapping the Buildings?
--Underground Walls?
--Sticky Cement?
--The Floating Russian Reprocessing Plant?