Reactor Update Mar 16th

[Lastactiongyro]

"...As my colleagues Hiroko Tabuchi, Keith Bradsher and David Sanger report, after about 750 workers were withdrawn from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station following an explosion and a spike in radiation levels on Tuesday, about 50 technicians stayed behind, fighting to prevent three nuclear reactors from melting down and storage ponds loaded with spent uranium fuel pods from bursting into flames.

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials announced on Tuesday evening that they would consider using helicopters in an attempt to douse with cold water a boiling rooftop storage pond for spent uranium fuel rods. The rods are still radioactive and potentially as hot and dangerous as the fuel rods inside the reactors if not kept submerged in water.

“The only ideas we have right now are using a helicopter to spray water from above, or inject water from below,” a power company official said at a news conference. “We believe action must be taken by tomorrow or the day after.”




Here is the current status of the ten reactors at two nuclear plants in Fukushima, according to Japan’s Kyodo News:

Fukushima Daiichi Plant

Reactor No. 1: Cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, hydrogen explosion, seawater pumped in.

Reactor No. 2: Cooling failure, seawater pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, damage to containment system, potential meltdown feared.

Reactor No. 3: Cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater pumped in, hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby.

Reactor No. 4: Under maintenance when quake struck, fire caused possibly by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, pool water level feared receding.

Reactor No. 5: Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool.



Reactor No. 6: Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/latest-updates-on-japans-nuclear-crisis-and-earthquake-aftermath-2/#u-s-scientists-argue-crisis-could-yet-equal-chernobyl

[Ex Lurker]

1. Helicopter plan tabled because of high radiation

per recent update. They are running out of ideas. With all the robotic expertise in Japan, why can't they rig some kind of remotely operated bulldozer or some such to drive up close and pump water on the reactor?

[Lastactiongyro]

2. High radiation scambles robots electronics, they did that at Chernobyl

Thanks for the update on the helicopters

[SpoonFed]

3. japanophile?

I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's because building cocktail-serving drink robots are higher
on the Japanese's engineers priority lists than building robots to put out fires in nuclear reactors?

Either that, or the massive amounts of radiation that destroys humans and electronics make it impossible?

[Name removed]

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