IAEA Head Says Core Damage at Units 1-3 of Japan's Quake-Hit Nuclear Plant Confirmed

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Reuters: FLASH: IAEA head says core damage at units 1-3 of Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant confirmed, situation very serious

Read more: http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_earthquake2

[snappyturtle]

1. Excuse me...did the IAEA look at the photos to come up with this confirmation....

like the rest of us? I've read that one of the problems with these reactors is their gauges...e.g. ones measuring water in the reactors. I'm sorry, I think this statement from the IAEA is one of CYA. (I realize you're just reporting the statement.)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. 1 through 3 or 1 & 3?

I suspect from the pictures it is one through 3. :(

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Standard nomenclature, that would be one through three.

Son of a bitch. 2 was likely human error, as is 4.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Just found this on FDL -

http://my.firedoglake.com/scarecrow/2011/03/16/78903/


Update as of Wednesday night 11:00 p.m. JST; mid-morning US EDT:

Frantic efforts continue to get cooling water into all six units at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Generation Station. At units 1-3, they are attempting to inject sea water into or around the reactor vessel. Authorities say the core in Units 1 and 2 were fully uncovered in the last 48 hours and may still be partially uncovered, suggesting that fuel and cladding melting may be continuing.

In the last 24 hours, there has been increasing focus on the fuel ponds at each of the reactors, where years of partially “spent” fuel rods are stored.
Yesterday, the focus was on Unit 4, which had been shutdown for maintenance, so all the rods were in the fourth floor fuel pond. There may be little or no cooling water circulation there, hence efforts to inject water from the outside.

Today, that concern is focused on Unit 3, where there are reportedly 514 fuel rods in the Unit 3's storage pond. Early Wednesday (JST) we saw white smoke or steam plumes, some with high radiation levels, rising from Unit 3, believed to be associated with a possible fire started at or near the fuel pond, but possibly involved breach of the containment. (There may have been flammable materials, like lubrication, in the fuel storage area).

At units 3 and 4, authorities hoped to drop water from helicopters onto the area above the fuel storage ponds. The helicopter drop was called off or delayed because of dangerous levels of radiation.

Indeed last-ditch efforts to inject water into reactors or storage bonds have been hampered by excessive radiation in and around the plants, particularly Unit 3. The next plan is to use high power water hoses (“cannons”) from enclosed fire trucks to spray water into the reactor buildings. This will be extremely dangerous for the fire crews.

Units 5 and 6, which have been shut down for maintenance, also have spent fuel ponds that bear watching. Authorities reports rising temperatures in Unit 5, but it is not regarded as serious yet, relative to Units 3 and 4. No reports so far on the condition of the common fuel pond located in a separate building on the Fukushima site.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. There are positive air pressure NBC capable helicopters

but unfortunately they are all combat helicopters. If there's a heavy-lift version where the crew can operate safely in a radioactive environment, I am not aware of it.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. It was reported yesterday 70% of the fuel rods on #1 and 33% on #2 were damaged

Now we can add #3 into the mix at an unknown percentage. With all that steaming it was doing last night, I'm not at all surprised to find out it's overheated.

I read they're going to try and douse it with a water cannon, along with #4's spent fuel storage tanks, However, they'll have to remove derbies from around #3 before they access it enough to do so.

[wtmusic]

5. At this point a water cannon is like a squirt gun

I wouldn't be surprised if all the nuclear fuel in 1 and 3 is lying in white-hot puddles on the containment vessel floors. It will eventually crack the floor and get contaminated with debris, and hopefully reach some level of equilibrium.

The point now is to keep as little as possible out of the atmosphere.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. IF they can get boric acid on the radioactive material it will help

It won't fix it, but it will help. Any bit of helping is good.

I believe it was South Korea who said yesterday they're sending extra supplies of boric acid to Japan to use at the site of the disaster. Japan was going to try mix it with water and douse the plants via helicopters from above. However, they scrapped that original plan due to an inability to shoot the water at the right angles. Thus the water cannons.

I wish them all the luck in the world with this attempt.

[thereismore]

7. Yep. They dropped lead and boron on Chernobyl. But they had an open pit to aim for.

Reactor 2 still has a roof on, and those pesky spent fuel rods are in the way. This is a pretty fucked up arrangement. I think they should consider lobbing a small mortar round on top of #2 to blow off the roof, and then drop water in the hole.

[Kablooie]

9. God. This could be a real China Syndrome.

Except that China is off to the side.

They would have to have an Argentina Syndrome.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. It won't go through the base of the reactor.

The bottom of the containment has a 'catch' pan with damping materials that will allow the melted core material to spread and cool.

The problem remains, radioactive particles and steam escaping through whatever damage there is in the containment.

[Kablooie]

15. Assuming the pan works as advertised. Reality sometimes doesn't succumb to ad campaigns.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. I didn't mean to minimize the feature by calling it a 'pan'.

It's more like 7 feet of very high grade concrete, with graphite or boron or other material on top to intermingle with the fuel.

[Recursion]

18. South Africa, roughly

At least, that's the opposite longitude and roughly as many degrees south as Japan is north.

[thereismore]

10. To think that the reactors were shut down and this is happening with just residual heat.

If they had not been shut down, we would have multiple Chernobyls already.

[EFerrari]

11. A former member of the Nuclear Reg Commission said

this story will not end well, this morning on Amy's show. Also noted that the "it can't happen here" claim has had a way of being consistently disproven.

[patrice]

14. I have worried about this since I was 15 years old. nt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

17. Two good images from BBC