Nikkei : Tepco Continues Desperate Struggle To Block Contamination

[flamingdem]

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110415D15JFA23.htm

No news is bad news. Things are as unstable as ever at the plant, we just don't hear much.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110415D15JFA23.htm

Saturday, April 16, 2011

TOKYO (Nikkei)--With its crippled reactors showing no signs of stabilizing, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) is employing a host of measures to minimize contamination from radioactive water released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The utility on Friday deposited 30 sandbags, each filled with 10kg of zeolite, in the ocean near the water intakes of the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors. The mineral is said to be effective in absorbing radioactive cesium.

Tepco also set up several silt curtains near the intakes to filter out pollutants, and installed seven metal plates to prevent contaminated water from spreading.
By Friday, the company had finished dumping water with low levels of radiation into the sea from a waste disposal facility to make room for more contaminated water from the turbine buildings and elsewhere. It released a total of 10,393 tons of water from this facility and from the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors into the sea. The total radioactivity of this water is estimated at 150 billion becquerels, or 10-100 times government standards.

The nuclear reactors at the site remain in a precarious state, and a lack of precise data is making it difficult to deploy effective measures. SNIP

[flamingdem]

1. Reactor Status 1-4

Temperatures continue to fluctuate in the No. 1 reactor, where some 70% of the fuel rods in the pressure vessel are reportedly damaged. Nitrogen has been injected into the containment vessel since April 7 to prevent hydrogen explosions. But the interior pressure is not increasing as hoped, raising the possibility that radioactive air is leaking from the containment vessel.

At the No. 2 reactor, radioactive substances may be escaping from the partially damaged suppression chamber. The water in the basement of the turbine building and in the trenches there had the highest radioactivity levels, making the reactor the top priority for workers at the plant.

The building of the No. 3 reactor was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on March 14. Measurements on Thursday found that the temperature in the upper section of the pressure vessel had climbed by several tens of degrees Celsius.

The No. 4 reactor has large amounts of spent nuclear fuel in its storage pool. Some of the fuel rods are believed to have been damaged due to overheating when the water level in the pool fell. Based on an analysis of samples collected Tuesday, the water in the pool stood at 90 C and was highly radioactive. And some 200 tons of water was pumped in to bring the level back up.

[jpak]

2. "no signs of stabilizing" but...but...but.. The Happy Talk sez things are getting better

I guess they lack reading comprehension

yup

[flamingdem]

3. I'm realizing that we have to go to foreign sources

Please check out the Ex-Japan Times interview, he's pretty forceful.

"Full Core Meltdown will send deadly radiation over the United States"

They are in full meltdown over there and meh about it.