There is no short-term healing of Fukushima
reactors!
There is an endless source of radionuclides that are either in the process of
escaping, or will escape. Wish I could give good news, but I need to be
realistic.
* There is not much news or information concerning
the condition of the Spent Fuel, which in my experience and opinion is
of DIRE concern, since it is Not Containable. The discussion is
tilted toward the Core in the Reactor Vessels, which of course is also
important.
* On April 17th, TEPCO announced that that it will
fill the containment vessels of Unit 1 and 3 with water up to the levels that
cover the fuel in the reactors
o TEPCO is considering
fixing the damaged containment vessel of Unit 1 and 2.
+ Unit 1 has Leaks from
unknown multiple sources
+ Unit 2 has Leaks from At
Least the Torus
# The water that goes through the cores of all three Units, to cool
it, pick up significant fission products as it travels through the core. -
FEED and BLEED - ending up in the Ocean
# I Read that ZEOLITE (an
adsorbent mineral IS being used in the Ocean)
* Water that is pumped through the cores of Units 1
& 2 (and perhaps Unit 3) flows through the leaks to the onsite buildings
where it collects in low areas such as holding pits. Eventually it leaks to the ocean.
# We had predicted this
action on your programs. It will allow the
Core to drop into a pool of water. It took a long time for them to enable
this action.
o This means that they
expect at least some or more of the Cores to ooze out of the Reactor Vessels
through failures.
+ The water that goes
through the cores of all three Units, to cool it, pick up significant fission
products as it travels through the core.
This highly radioactive water is basically dumped into the containment.
+ The Highly Radioactive
water that comes directly from the Core has to be removed from the plant
because of the Dose it presents to the workers.
# Offsite ocean readings of
Iodine-131 and Cesium-137 has increased significantly - This goes back to our
Concept of constructing a Filter/Demineralizer System prior to releasing it to
the environment
# TEPCO has announced that
it will begin construction of Contaminated Runoff Capture systems that would
recycle the water BACK into the Reactors for Cooling, thereby terminating the
Liquid Release - But NOT the Gaseous Releases
o They may have a problem
filling Unit 1’s containment with water, since I believe it is leaking to the
environment.
o Dr. Bill was correct in
that the Fukushima Units would require some amount of rebuilding. Heat
exchangers will be installed that will allow the Reactors to be brought into
Condition Cold Shutdown (< 200F) within about 3 to 6 months.
o Note that this is TEPCOs
Schedule however, we have anticipated this timeline on your programs.
* I read the Article concerning the
"Smoke" coming from a Panel in Karawazaki
o It is a NON-Issue - This
panel does not control any critical Functions (but I will keep my ears open).
Chris