nisa press conference live now. nhk english.

[Hannah Bell]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

[originalpckelly]

1. "Things didn't go as smoothly as planned."

Gee, ya think?

At least our nuke guys don't weak funny blue and white uniforms.

[Skip_In_Boulder]

3. I saw that as well and thought

No shit. :spank:

[Hannah Bell]

6. hardly the gist of it. it's the #3 reactor of the #1 plant.

already from the same power plant a nuclear situation was declared so we didn't issue additional evacuation orders because people were already being evacuated.

they need to restore power but they are able to cool without power through "fire extinguisher method", still trying to hook up normal power

refer to the handout

as was explained during the morning briefing, #3 reactor at #1 fukushima plant has a high pressure cooling system (unlike the other reactors in same plant).

the cooling system malfunctioned, what we need is to restore the power generators and the generator & water injections system

we initially used a non-power method to get water to the reactor

we are now trying to restore the water injection system...it seems they've tried to reconnect with the power source, it didn't work, the cables were taken away & they're trying to reconnect with the power source again

the water feed system needs to be restored but even without the power the fire-extinguisher source can be used

but so far not able to confirm exact situation, we were hoping to confirm before this conference but we are reporting on what we know so far

[originalpckelly]

8. What do they mean with the bit about the power cables?

Do they mean they tried to reconnect to other plants on the grid, and they didn't have their generators synchronized to the frequency of the grid?

Or what?

And if the method using the low pressure fire suppression system works, why even try the other?

In about 12 hours, this reactor's containment building will blow up. Then we'll know something didn't go right.

[Hannah Bell]

9. i'm not sure i understood completely & as i was typing as they were talking,

i didn;t get exactly every word either.

but as i understood it, they were trying to connect power to the water pump (as i understood it, the pump on reactor #3 is a bit different than on reactor #1 (the one in the same plant that had trouble) as it's "high=pressure" instead of whatever #1 is.

but they tried twice & it didn't work either time, not sure why. they're continuing to try to get power.

meanwhile, they're using something called the "fire-extinguisher method" which doesn't require that particular power supply. it wasn't clear if it was completely manual or used a different power source.

they had a handout which they referred people to so that may have been part of the problem.

i'm assuming they want to use the methods the reactor is designed for rather than back-up methods.

they mentioned that they had vented to relieve pressure with small radiation release. apparently successful venting.

my impression was that they'd expected to have a bit more concrete info but because the techs were in the middle of doing their thing they hadn't been able to get it. but that was just my impression/assumption, not sure if based on something i heard & didn't write down or complete assumption.

[Hannah Bell]

10. they're running it again.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

[Skip_In_Boulder]

2. INES Level 4: Accident with local consequences

Which is what they are calling this.

Impact on People and the Environment
Minor release of radioactive material unlikely to result in implementation of planned countermeasures other than local food controls.
At least one death from radiation.

Impact on Radiological Barriers and Control
Fuel melt or damage to fuel ­resulting in more than 0.1% release of core inventory.
Release of significant quantities of radioactive material within an installation with a high ­probability of significant public exposure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Scale#INES_Level_4:_Accident_with_local_consequences

[originalpckelly]

4. That's just the first reactor.

The other one that's got cooling problems will be its own event. We'll see what happens there.

[Skip_In_Boulder]

5. Yeah I know, it's getting hard to keep all of these various

reactors straight. That within itself is not really a good sign.

[Hannah Bell]

7. this is the #3 reactor in the #1 fukushima plant. he just said so in the press conference.