Water level in Fukushima plant's No. 2 reactor only 60 cm

new video in reactor 2 more damage reported



www.japantimes.co.jp...

The water cooling the core of the crippled Fukushima power plant's No. 2 reactor is only 60 cm deep, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday, all but confirming experts' fears that the unit is breached and can't hold its coolant. The utility, better known as Tepco, made the discovery by mechanically inserting a 20-meter endoscope into the primary containment vessel to check its coolant level after failing in January.

Water must constantly cover the nuclear fuel core to prevent the rods from melting. The rods in a boiling water reactor of this type are about 4 meters long. Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Junichi Matsumoto gave assurances that the melted fuel in unit 2 is being constantly cooled by injected water and said the temperature was between 48.5 and 50 degrees. But he also acknowledged that the lower-than-expected water level suggests much of it is leaking from the vessel and into the plant.

This is the second time Tepco has inserted an endoscope into the reactor since the plant was crippled by the core meltdowns triggered by the earthquake and tsunami last March. When an attempt using a shorter endoscope failed to find water level on Jan. 19, the company had to try a longer one to check deeper inside. The fuel in reactors 1 to 3 is believed to have blazed through the pressure vessels and accumulated in the outer containment vessels. Although the water injected into unit 2 was transparent, some sediment was found, Matsumoto said.

Tepco plans to survey the No. 2 reactor again on Tuesday to check the interior radiation level. For the first survey in January, Tepco projected the water level had likely climbed to about 4.5 meters, based on the pressure differential between the main body and a lower component. But it failed to detect any coolant water around 4 meters from the bottom.

what are your thoughts on the progress?

should other countries get further involved?

any other information to add?

Water must constantly cover the nuclear fuel core to prevent the rods from melting. The rods in a boiling water reactor of this type are about 4 meters long. Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Junichi Matsumoto gave assurances that the melted fuel in unit 2 is being constantly cooled by injected water and said the temperature was between 48.5 and 50 degrees. But he also acknowledged that the lower-than-expected water level suggests much of it is leaking from the vessel and into the plant.

Wow.. Talk about a case of "We have good news and we have bad news..."!

Good News: We're keeping an endless flow of water across the insanely toxic and radioactive mass of whatever the fuel has now become.

Bad News: We're putting an endless flow of water across insanely toxic and radioactive material and it's all going..well..we don't really know where it's all going. After becoming very radioactive water. ...but there is an endless flow going in, so ..well... It has to be going somewhere!


I'll say we can be happy there is progress about getting into at least one of the destroyed Reactors to see a literal visual of the interior. That is nice...and I eagerly await all three Reactors surveyed in detail this way. Then we'll at least have some idea of the level of calamity the world is actually facing. We're still in a giant guessing game on that.

not much radiation seen on camera in that vid. im looking for a diagram as to where they entered from and ended up at.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


im with you there.

im guessing its pouring down the hole that the core its burrowing in to the earth.

or its just steam vapor in the containment vessel........right.....

Originally posted by omegacorps
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

im with you there.

im guessing its pouring down the hole that the core its burrowing in to the earth.

or its just steam vapor in the containment vessel........right.....

You know I think you could be proven right either way....It's not like the world has really had a lot of full blown meltdowns to study and learn how they work.

I'm trying to figure out which is worse from the 2 possibilities you raise....and I'm just not sure I can pick one. Beyond a certain point, is there such a thing as the better of bad options?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


well the way i look at it both are bad.

1. if it has passed containment and passed the water table with minimal impact, i say let it go

2. if it is still " contained " and giving off massive radiation, then the red hot poker is still held up to our eye.

im right there with the rest of the world as to what can, has, and will happen.

1A. if it has hit the water table and its effects are carried inland then its game over man.

2A. then what the heck are we still doing looking at it. entomb the damn things.

This is just terrible beyond words. It's even worse that the citizens that are concerned about the radiation are being considered crazy.

I saw this article this morning on The Drudge Report, which was originally posted on InfoWars.
www.infowars.com...

“Some 24.4 percent of people who were hospitalized in Fukushima with psychiatric disorders in the wake of the outbreak of the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had done so possibly because of fears of radiation exposure, according to the results of research conducted by psychiatrists at Fukushima Medical University,” reports the Mainichi Daily News.

What a shame. I feel so bad for these people and the suffering they have been experiencing and have yet to endure.

reply to post by StealthyKat


thank you for the diagram : )