- TEPCO is now injecting Nitrogen into the primary containment of Unit #1. They say this is a preventative measure in case considerable water radiolysis (by gamma radiation) has occurred which would separate water into its two separate elements, hydrogen and oxygen. In a Boiling Water Reactor system, these gasses would be removed from the condenser, on the turbine exhaust. An air ejection system, connected to the condenser for the removal of gasses, would then strip the hydrogen and oxygen from the system. Oxygen is not desirable in a system designed to be essentially non-corrosive during routine operation. Without oxygen there will be nearly zero corrosion inside the pipes to and from the reactor, inside the reactor vessel, and inside the turbine. If corrosion products did occur, they would be carried through the reactor core where the neutron radiation field will make them radioactive isotopes.
- Thus, with no flow through the condenser, any radiolysis occurring inside the 3 reactors at Fukushima will produce both free hydrogen and oxygen which can build up in concentration internal to the reactor vessel. Now, here’s my question. If there is actually hydrogen building up inside #1 primary containment, outside the reactor vessel, how is it getting there? Primary containment pressures have either not changed or decreased slowly for more than a week on Units 1, 2 & 3. The occasional pressure increases inside the reactor vessels, both intentional and unintentional, have not seemed to affect primary containment pressures. This is a strong indication that the reactor pressure vessels are not leaking into their primary containments. I would love to know the suspected pathway from the reactor vessel to the primary containment. Regardless, it is planned to inject nitrogen into all three primary containments, not just Unit #1.
- TEPCO is planning on building some sort of barrier between the port/docking area inside their break-wall, and the open sea at Fukushima Daiichi. Previously, it was reported this barrier would be made of wood, but the Japanese Press now states the barrier will be made of rubber boards.
- TEPCO has announced it has stopped transferring water into the turbine basement of Unit #4 because the drainage trench of Unit #3 was filling up and they wanted to see if there was a connection between the two. Once they stopped the water flow into turbine #4 basement, the water level in Unit #3 trench stopped increasing. So, where was the water coming from that was being transferred into turbine #4 basement?
- Since the stoppage of contaminated water flow through the cracked power cabling pit, seawater contamination along the shoreline nearest to the power plant complex has dropped by 50%. Because the seawater contamination level withing 330 meters of the Fukushima Daiichi shoreline has not completely vanished, this indicates there are yet other leaks to be discovered. TEPCO reports they continue to search for these other leaks.
- The discharge of the very low level contamination waters from the Waste Treatment Facility and Unit 5 & 6 drainage tunnels, continues. World-wide outrage also continues, now amplified by the local fisherman’s association of Japan. This aspect of Hiroshima Syndrome-based radiation phobia also continues to amplify (of course).
- Japan Atomic Industrial Forum has posted the latest TEPCO-reported radioactive iodine concentrations in seawater off the coast of Fukushima Daiichi. All sampling locations at 30 km and 40 km distances, west and north of Fukushima have iodine levels either below the 0.04 Bq/cc regulatory limit or are completely undetectable. At 15 km distance, the levels are below the limit southwest of the power complex. West and northwest of Fukushima, the iodine radioactivity concentrations are slightly above the limit. Samples taken immediately along the shoreline (out to 330 meters) remain above the limit. MEXT (the Health Ministry) has taken their own samples in the same locations as TEPCO, and their results are either the same or lower in Bq/cc. MEXT has also taken deep water samples at mostlocations, the Bq/cc levels of iodine are 5 to 10 times lower than at the surface. Thus, there is no reason for fishermen to not fish beyond thirty kilometers from shore, but their phobic fear of radiation has resulted in no fishing whatsoever in these safe waters.
- IAEA reports the reactor vessel temperatures for Units 1, 2 & 3 continue to decrease. All reactor vessel pressures remain stable. Unit No. 3 reactor temperature is now below atmospheric boiling level (85 degrees C) at the feedwater nozzle, high up on the vessel and above the water that covers the core. Temperature at the vessel’s bottom is 115 degrees C. This is inverse of what ought to be the case, where the feedwater nozzle have the the higher temperature. (heat rises) Reactors 1 & 2 temperatures are higher at the feedwater nozzle and lower at the vessel bottom, as expected. This writer suspects that the degree of fuel damage to Unit #3 is greater than in the other two, resulting in some sort of insulating effect for the lower part of the vessel. This reminds me of the post accident temperature situation with TMI’s severe meltdown, more than 30 years ago.
- All three reactors have no indication of fuel core temperatures. All reactors have core temperature monitors, but the three sets at Fukushima are not working. This is further indication of an over-heating condition having occurred in all three cores the first few days of the emergency, The temperature sensors are made of materials that would experience failure at temperatures below those that would cause Zirconium to embrittle (and release free hydrogen) and well-below the fuel damaging temperatures of uranium. Thus, it it not surprising that the core temperature monitors are not working.
- IAEA supports and applauds the NISA emergency-response regulatory changes we reported yesterday. Mobile power supply trucks and temporary pumping trucks are already being sought out for immediate placement at all Japanese nuclear power plants, where they will be housed in water-tight rooms or buildings at the plants. The rapidity with which these emergency “fixes” are taking place has this writer flabbergasted! This sort of thing would take years with the politically-driven regulatory environment in America. Self regulation is not merely vastly superior to political regulation…it’s infinitely superior!
- 300 police wearing full anti-contamination clothing and dosimetry are now starting to look for the remains of the bodies of those drowned by the tsunami inside the 20km evacuation zone around Fukushima. It’s about time!! Once again, irrational phobic fear of radiation-itself has kept this most necessary circumstance from happening for several weeks. I’m disgusted.
- NHK Japan reports that schools have closed in South Korea because it is raining. This is no April-fool’s joke! 42 schools and 85 kindergartens in the Province north of Seoul (the capital) have closed for fear that the rain will drop “radiation” from Fukushima on the children. This is the most ridiculous example of Hiroshima Syndrome-inspired over-reaction I have yet encountered. News media around the world commend the school districts for what they are doing, which only promotes the rest of the world to similarly panic over the radiation bogey man. Korea should be sternly admonished for this absurd move, and not commended.
- Finally, the Japanese government has formally requested all foreign news media to stop sensationalizing and exaggerating what is happening at and around Fukushima. I am giving the Japanese government a full, five minute standing ovation on this one. <pause> Here’s the link to the Kyodo news report…http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/83786.html
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