- Conditions in and around the Fukushima Daiichi power complex continue to improve. Reactor water temperatures slowly decrease for Units 2 & 3, and there seems to have been a major drop in #1 reactor water temperature since yesterday of more than 20 degrees C. (Now 197 C – JAIF). Pressure in Unit #1 reactor pressure vessel has dropped accordingly, and is now ~63 psi. The other two reactor vessel pressures continue to be at atmospheric. All three primary containment pressures continue to be stabilized. Work at the plant continues in order to drain the turbine building basements and staunch the flow of radioactive isotopes to the sea.
- There are no new seawater contamination levels to report from either TEPCO or MEXT due to their three times per week schedule. There should be some new information by Sunday.
- The United States government has lifted the evacuation advisory for families of American government employees in Japan. The US State Department says the situation in Japan is “dramatically different” from when the advisory was issued. The department continues that reactor cooling and other mitigation efforts have been successful, thus radiation risks and contamination are low and “do not pose a significant risk”. However, the USA continues to advise that travel within the 80 km. radius of Fukushima Daiichi is to be avoided.If it wasn’t for the Hiroshima Syndrome affliction, the evacuation advisory and the overly-restrictive avoidance distance for travel would never have happened.
- Kyodo News and NHK Japan report that Japan’s Atomic Energy Society (AES) now believes that fuel damage in Units 1 and 3 reactor fuel cells progressed to melting of the uranium fuel during the first several days of the emergency. They caution that the meltage was not the catastrophic type that would burn through the 7 inches thick cast steel of the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel, but rather produced the formation of granular material 1 millimeter to several millimeters in size. These have fallen to the bottom of the reactor vessel and are now dispersed evenly.One problem immediately arises. The re-iteration of the catastrophic meltdown myth popularized two weeks ago by so-called experts in the western news media, is given tacit verification. They should look at the data from Three Mile Island, a severe meltdown, and speculate based on what was found there, but not lionize China Syndrome fictions. Japan’s AES seems to have a bit of the Hiroshima Syndrome affecting them, where exaggerated myth seems reasonable because all things nuclear are always presented in exaggerated form. Nuclear fuel wouldn’t “just melt”…something more horrible must be possible. In addition, AES says the melting is in reactors 1 & 3, but there is no mention of unit #2. On the other hand, TEPCO and NISA have reported their greatest concern for fuel damage is #2 reactor core. There’s an apparent contradiction here between these two groups of Japanese experts, and it ought to be resolved ASAP. There should be a united informational effort between all portions of the Japanese nuclear community, otherwise it appears they are confused. Finally, later in the report (Kyodo News) AES contradicts themselves by saying the fuel bundles in reactors 1 & 2 were the ones uncovered by water, and that the fuel in reactor #3 was always submerged! How can a submerged nuclear fuel cell experience melted fuel?
- Kyodo News reports the reactor pressure is dropping (as reported above from JAIF data), but they then say it’s, “…an indication that air inside the reactor has leaked outside, but that no major changes in radiation levels have been detected.” In other words, Kyodo News implies there’s something wrong with TEPCO’s credibility. How could there be a leak from the intensely radioactive reactor and no increase in radiation levels outside the reactor? TEPCO must expeditiously correct obvious news media errors like this, because all news sources have the penchant to make “two plus two equals five” statements. Fix this fast.
- Kyodo News also reports that Japan is sending their State Foreign Secretary to the Ukraine on April 26, for the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl commemoration. The Secretary is supposed to allay fears concerning Fukushima. WHAT??!! Never send a politician to do an engineer’s job! At least accompany him with experts from JAES, JAIF, and/or NISA who know what they are talking about.
- On one final note, it is reported by TEPCO that four of their “thermal” power plants at Hirono, Hitachinaka, and Kashima were knocked off line by the March 11 earthquake/tsunami, but they have not been restarted. Hirono Units 2 & 4 were reported to be “devastated” by Denki Shimbun on March 29. Hitachinaka Unit #1 (a 1000 MWe supercritical coal plant) is to be restarted by the end of July. Kashima Unit #6 (1000 MWe oil-fired) is expected to be restarted in a few days. So, why hasn’t the press covered these stories?
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