Fukushima reactor on track for cold shutdown by year-end: TEPCO

zichi,

Great clip, absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately very true and l can definately see the Japanese taking offense. I feel another episode like the BBC saga coming on. Japan complains and someone must apologise for making a joke at the victim (sorry Japans) expense.

Good laugh anyway thanks.

You would think that you could trust the IAEA for the facts. I did shortly after the disaster. Unfortunately the main goal of the IAEA is to promote the proliferation of nuclear power.

...for over 4 months...

Went to the IAEA website for some up-to-date information and trustworthy figures. They have a special Fukushima section.

Not been updated for four over months.

I saw a series of side-view illustrations somewhere recently of 1~3 showing how the corium may have dripped down through the fittings around the control rods in the bottom of the reactor vessels. The lowest concrete floor of the reactor building basements in said to be 3 meters or about 10 feet thick. There is no suggestion that this basement floor has yet been breached, but there is speculation that some thickness of the concrete may have been melted away.

The basements are full of water. The temporary cooling systems are decontaminating this water to some degree, and then re-using this same water and pumping it round and back into the reactors, so it is dripping/pouring back down into the basements again. No suggestion yet that the basements are drying up. (?)

Hey Smorkian. Reputable. Now there is a good word. It seems to me that Arnie Gunderson has been correct in all his assessments of the Fukushima disaster since it began. And it seems to me that the Japanese government and TEPCO have been either wrong or not revealing the absolute truth since the problem began. Now who would you apply this condescending word 'reputable' to?

There seems to be a lot of evidence (unless you are relying on the Japanese media) that recriticality has been recurring since the initial meltdown and subsequent melthrough.

In the paranoid blogger community, perhaps. Not in any reputable publication.

TEPCO...when pigs fly.

That is odd. There seems to be a lot of evidence (unless you are relying on the Japanese media) that recriticality has been recurring since the initial meltdown and subsequent melthrough. WiliB. If you think that cold shutdown is near at hand, then I also have some rice from Fukushima that I would like to sell you. Because you are a born sucker. Which fanatics are you talking about? Do you live in Fukushima? Would you be willing to live there? Please check more sources than NHK and JapanToday.

kurisupisu:

" I think that ssway has a point ;no mention has been made on where the cores are. "

Mostly inside the reactor vessel, with a small amount leaked out through the control rod openings sitting on the containment structure. That is the consensus on the situation. Unless you have a a secret private window into the middle of the reactors, any other speculation from your side is just that.

zichi:

" From what I understand, a meltdown means 70% of the fuel rods melt but that would leave the other 30%. "

There is no such definition. What you "understand" is your imagination.

It is good to hear that the cold shutdown is on time. Screaming denial of the fanatics nonwithstanding.

I would suppose that the first we would know of it is when superheated steam starts erupting from the ground.....that would be the proof

I think that ssway has a point ;no mention has been made on where the cores are.

Are we to believe that Tepco is really cooling down radioactive material that has melted through containment into the earth-now far below ground?

Yes, ssway, we know you fear all of this. You mention this in every single post. Every one. Do you think of anything else? No? How sad.

COLD SHUTDOWN is an impossibility. They reactors breached and the fuel melted through into the ground and beyond so what are they going to shutdown? Also what about the Spent fuel racks? We have yet to get any real confirmation as to what state all of the spent fuel inventory is in. I fear it has likely all melted too which is a doomsday scenario in slow motion.

Zichi's correct. His numbers match reputable sources. The government has shown no compunction whatever against redefining the words 安全 and "safe" in order to permit school children to dine on nuclear waste after wading through it on their way to school. It is continuing its quest to expand the meaning of 冷温停止 and "cold shutdown". I lived in America long enough to learn the punch line to the Texas dance Cotton Eyed Joe. We can assume that phrase applies to just about any pronouncement these nefarious prevaricators emit.

Some of zichi's figures follow those released by NHK Japanese news service yesterday. "それによりますと、１号機から３号機の原子炉周辺の温度が、いずれも１００度を下回ったことに加えて、新たに原発から放出される放射性物質の量も最新の調査で１時間当たりおよそ１億ベクレルと推定され、事故当初に比べて８００万分の１まで減ったと評価しています。これは、先月に比べて半分程度に減っていて、" Most recent measurements of radiation released from Nos 1~3 indicate 100 million becquerels per hour, which is one 8 millionth of what was being released at the time of the accident, and half of what was being released this time last month.

Utrack:

" Thanks Zichi, Your comment is more informative than the article. "

No, it is not. Is pure speculation, with figures imagined out of thin air or taken from conspiracy sites. With all the reasonable scepticism towards official figures, calling wild speculation "informative" is misguided.

the_odeman

Thats why the radiation level in Koriyama, as reported by CITY OFFICIALS twice DAILY, have not changed for the past 2-3 months. It is still about .84 an hour here

I hate to be super-picky but units are absolutely critical here. 0.84/hr what? Microsieverts? Milli? It's quite a bit higher than 0.84 microsieverts by me in parts of Chiba.

@zichi

Thanks, nice sum-up.

@the_odeman

It seems there is something wrong with the link that you posted. So I can't check the figures. But I think the part(s) that you are missing is: Firstly , that the half life of cesium is about 30 years. That means even with no additional cesium added to your environment, it still takes 30 years for half of the existing cesium to decay into its fission products. And as some of the fission products of cesium will be radioactive as well,with their own half life values, it will take a long time for levels to decrease.

Secondly, the levels at the Dai-ichi is not directly related to levels at koriyama. Particles will disperse in patterns dependent on wind patterns and type(weight) of the particles being ejected from the power plant.

How much ends up in koriyama, or any other place is rather difficult to predict.

It's still very much a fluid situation. Any 'stability' is being held together with ad-hoc, dead ending approaches and / or systems very vulnerable to problems and breakdowns and that's without the very really possibility of a large earthquake at or around Dai-Ichi. The tasks facing the people working to bring this unprecedented catastrophe under control are mountainous, it is still very tenuous, to say the least, and the spin of 'it's alright' simply does not sit within a reality framework worthy of our own knowledge base. Bottom line it's BS.

@Doeman; If anything with continual release there should be an accumulation of radiation. Remember, Cesium 137, the main isotope released, will not see any reduction for 30 years... There will be no fast curve to safety. Not at the plant. Not in the surrounding areas. Not in thos areas contaminated. Not in the food chain.

From the same guys who don't know what to do with used Tyvek suits.

Thats why the radiation level in Koriyama, as reported by CITY OFFICIALS twice DAILY, have not changed for the past 2-3 months. It is still about .84 an hour here (http://www.worldvillage.org/fia/data/pd_e_5128.pdf).

I really wanna believe this article, but if progressed had been made, wouldnt we see it in the form of radiation levels in the surrounded areas dropping?

If emissions had been cut by half as reported, then wouldnt the rate here in Koriyama have gone down to at least 0.5?

If I missing something, then Id greatly appreciate someone pointing it out to me...

I don't think TEPCO want to lie outright as there is a possibility they will be caught out later. (Happened already and they didn't like it.)

For this reason they attempt a) selective information blackout, and b) selective information release. We can see examples of these in requested documents handed over to the government with large sections censored in black. The article above is an example of selective release. This can be aggravated by further processes, such as editing by a news agency, or translation into English which sometimes leaves out vital snippets, e.g. the actual amount of radiation being emitted today. (Supplied by zichi, for which thanks.)

Although this 'bitty' and selective release of information is irritating and insulting to the intelligence of us sheeple, I much prefer it to outright lies, or to no news release at all.

Rejoice! TEPCO have saved us all!

Let's hope and pray that this situation is gotten under control ASAP!!! Stupid Tepco!!!!!

They are SO SO SO stupid to make an announcement like this, all these morons shud say is if they are making any progress, but to state they will make some deadline only sets them up again to look like the dumb a$$ses that we all know they are......

I believe everything I read.

Thanks Zichi,

Your comment is more informative than the article.

The amount of radiation (provisional) is only 100 million Bq/hr now. It was two quadrillion Bq/hr (2,000,000,000,000,000) on March 15 according to TEPCO. You can imagine the amount of radiation released so far.

This article is meaningless.

The emissions are half of what exactly?

According to Reuters the amount of radioactively contaminated materials stands at 360 tonnes a day and increasing.

There are massive amounts of radioactivity concentrated in sludge and ash,this is being recycled around the air and water of Japan by burning-there is no way for these materials to be processed unless there is containment.

The real situation in Fukushima cannot be verified as independent journalists are excluded from the sites.

The problem in Japan right now is radioactive contamination NOT a tsunami.

"Fire trucks"?!? Japan needs to go on a shopping spree in France for some dedicated equipment, not just rely on improvised gear designed for a vastly different purpose. That's one reason this problem has festered for so long.

Japan's reluctance to procure from abroad hurts the country and its people in more ways than one.

TEPCO says..........