Power is connected to Nuke plant. (IAEA)

[Turbineguy]

Japanese Earthquake Update (17 March 17:55 UTC)

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that engineers were able to lay an external grid power line cable to unit 2. The operation was completed at 08:30 UTC.

They plan to reconnect power to unit 2 once the spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building is completed.

The spraying of water on the unit 3 reactor building was temporarily stopped at 11:09 UTC (20:09 local time) of 17 March.

The IAEA continues to liaise with the Japanese authorities and is monitoring the situation as it evolves.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

Now hopefully the pumps were already checked out. If things go well (these people could use some good luck for a change) we could see the situation under control later tonight. This last bit is my opinion

[tabatha]

1. A little bit of good news. At last.

[ClarkUSA]

2. Wonderful news. The men working at this are heroes who are sacrificing themselves for their nation.

I hope they and their families are honored and completely supported by the government for their sacrifice.

[Recursion]

7. +1000

Not to mention lots of streets being renamed after them, etc.

[Kadie]

10. Absolutely.

True heroes.

[northernlights]

40. there are women working on this as well.

The recently published blog was by a woman working in the plant at the time of the quake and tsunami.

[apnu]

49. These people aren't just working for Japan, they're working for the world!

And they're all heroes. So are their families. So are their dogs, cats, fish and pet birds.

[drm604]

3. Here's hoping.

I hope this works.

[Make7]

4. I'm pretty sure every person on the planet is hoping this works. ( n/t )

[Yo_Mama]

16. I'll say n/t

[Hannah Bell]

5. +100000000000000000

[Recursion]

6. That is actually outstanding news

The catastrophic failure came about because of power loss; if power comes back positive controls can be gradually reapplied now.

[godai]

8. Very important step to determine pumps functionality.

Hopefully they have a plan to test various possibilites, while they maintain some overall control. If the pumps work to some degree when reconnected to power a big step away from the brink.

[frazzled]

9. Such good news.

I pray this begins to turn things around.

[backscatter712]

11. IIRC, the U.S. Army delivered several pumps to the site earlier.

They were just waiting for something to power them.

The pumps are good - all they need is power.

[xchrom]

12. here's hoping for the very very best. nt

[jtrockville]

13. YAY !! Here's to hoping the pumps will pump!!

[BeFree]

14. Good news!!

What is simply amazing is that the plant totally lost power.

If they had a tsunami wall would any of this have ever happened?

[Chris_Texas]

19. Why do you believe that they did not? And in any case...

The Tsunami rolled over the walls everywhere else.

[BeFree]

21. So

You admit that nothing man can do can control nature?
Then why fuck with nature by doing things that when nature calls really fucks everybody up even worse?

If there was no nuke plant there, we would even be talking about this?
So, do you support building another nuke plant there?

I don't expect a reasoned response.
The only reasoned response would be that we never do stupid shit like this again.

[Statistical]

36. IF there was no nuclear plant there 12,000 people would have still died in Japan.

Since we can't control nature I guess they should leave Japan forever.

[BeFree]

38. "...I guess they should leave Japan forever.""

WTF are you babbling about now?

Makes no sense whatsoever.

[Yo_Mama]

15. It will take longer at best

They are going to vent 2 (everyone goes to shelter), and then connect the power line. I think that's when it goes "live".

They got one of the diesel generators working, which will be used to supply power for pumping alternately to 5 and 6.

However the really damaged reactors will take a long time to fix. But at least they may begin to get gauges working, and they can start to fix the pumps. It took days at Daini, and after they got them all working the power supply failed on one and a pump component failed on another, so they had to go back and fix those again.

They have put seawater through the pumping systems - they are not designed for it.

[Thunderstruck]

17. That's very good news. So now they can get water to all the reactors

and to the spent fuel rod pools?

Great!

[ljm2002]

18. That's great news...

...here's hoping the water starts pumping and further catastrophe is averted.

They have made heroic efforts so far, I pray those efforts will now pay off.

Every bit of water they put on those rods helped, even if from a distance we wrung our hands and said it was too little. But they have fought valiantly and persevered and maybe, just maybe they will prevail after all.

K&R

[Hannah Bell]

20. +100.

[Jersey Devil]

22. But do they have pumps and water supply to connect to the electric?

If power lines were washed away by the tsunami, what about the pumps and the water lines to the pumps? Weren't they also washed away, or at least knocked out of place? I can't believe the motors for those pumps are all going to start right up after being dunked in salt water at the least. They are going to have to jury rig replacement pumps and pump salt water from the ocean I would think. I sure hope they can do all of that before it is too late.

[Turbineguy]

27. The number 2 plant

sustained the least damage. I'm guessing there are piping system crossovers to supply vital systems (cooling and feed) throughout the plant. Based on my reading, they actually do not need full flows in order to cool the pools or the reactors. They may have to relieve steam to the atmosphere for some time from units 1 and 3. They may be able to raise vacuum and dump steam from unit 2 into the condenser.

[Statistical]

43. Yup decay heat is about 7% of peak power.

however by now (7 days since shutdown) decay heat is down to about 1% of peak power. BWR use multiple cooling loops, plus emergency cooling loops. If any of them are functional then cooling can be achieved.

Now if none of them are functional.... well that would be bad. The feedwater pumps are in the turbine building which appears to have not sustained much damage.

[flamingdem]

23. STREAMING NEWS: from Japan says only No.2 can use power others are too damaged nt

[Hannah Bell]

24. streaming from where, please.

[Hannah Bell]

28. well, since you didn't respond, i guess we'll have to wait for actual documented

confirmation.

[Hannah Bell]

55. ....waiting

[leftstreet]

26. Where's that from?

Do you have a link? Thanks

[Statistical]

35. I thought it was that they are connecting #2 FIRST since it's reactor is the most critical? n/t

[Poll_Blind]

25. I'll bet Comcast has already started sending them junk mail!

PB

[Yo_Mama]

29. Link to World Nuclear News article about this

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Progress_by_on-site_workers_1703111.html

They'll just have to see what works and what doesn't.

[Hannah Bell]

30. that is old. it's now 4:32 am the 18th in japan.

17 March 2011


FIRST PUBLISHED: 4.56pm
UPDATE 1: 5.22pm Addition of image

The Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry said at 8.38pm that a cable was being laid to bring external power from transmission lines owned by Tohoku Electric Power Company. This was to be connected when radiation levels had died down after a planned venting operation at unit 2.17 March 2011

[Statistical]

33. Very good looks like offsite power and diesel generators....

----------------
The Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry said at 8.38pm that a cable was being laid to bring external power from transmission lines owned by Tohoku Electric Power Company. This was to be connected when radiation levels had died down after a planned venting operation at unit 2.

In addition, one of the emergency diesel units can now be operated and will be used to supply unit 5 and 6 alternately to inject water to their used fuel pools. Later, the power will be used to top up water in the reactor vessels.

----------------

Granted 5 & 6 are the least critical but ability to refill the cooling ponds and reactors will ensure they stay stable.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

31. Now wouldn't it be nice if a rather large reservoir were at an elevation of perhaps

20 to 30 feet ABOVE this facility with perhaps a few hundred million gallons of water in it and the only thing required for it to "power up" was a

[Statistical]

34. Damn gate valve on my hot water heater line failed on me. I would prefer.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

37. So you do see that the worst case scenario was poorly prepared for, cuz as you

know, gravity never fails.

[Statistical]

42. GenIII+ reactors do use gravity and convection to passively cool shutdown reactor.

No pumps or electricity needed.

Remember the reactors we are dealing with are 1960s technology.
Cars built today are much safer than those built in 1960s.
Building code today is much safer than building code in 1960s.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

45. TrueDelphi posted a day or so ago that we (GWB Admin) pushed for nuclear

in Japan in 2006, looking for a link, need to know if we played any part in keeping this tech going instead of pushing wind and solar.

[malaise]

32. Great news

Rec

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. That and the pumps flew in

that is good news

[suffragette]

41. Great news

K&R

[Tx4obama]

44. Looking at the whole picture.... that is not going to help all that much

Total amount of fuel in the reactors and spent pools in the six buildings at the Dai-ichi plant is 1240 TONS:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x666399
Building six has only 190 TONS of the 1240 total.

Physicist Michio Kaku warns that Japan nukes may go 'beyond Chernobyl'
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/physicist-michio-kaku-warns-japan-nu

[jpak]

46. Other reports say it's been delayed until Friday at the earliest

n/t

[Statistical]

48. It is Friday ...

Current Time according to google. 5:34am Friday (JST) - Time in Japan

Just google: "time in Japan".

[Brother Buzz]

47. Top Hat, Junk Shot, and Top Kill....

So, just where are we now on the timeline? Power is restored and all is well until.....

A cynic, I am.

[Cetacea]

50. Yup. For the weekend.

Just like Bp did every other week.

[Tx4obama]

51. Update from Al Jazeera Japan Live Blog

11:00pm (Japan time)

More on the move by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) to install outside electricity at the damaged nuclear facility to restore power to the cooling pumps.

According to news reports in Japan, Thursday's attempt to set up power cables were unsuccessful, delaying the move until Friday. The reasons why are not clear.

It is likely that trucks and heliopters will also be used again to dump water on the reactors in an attempt to cool them down.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/disaster-japan-march-17-live-blog

[Hannah Bell]

56. it's been friday in japan for the last 7.5 hours.

7:30 am.

your "live" blog report is from 11 pm yesterday, japan time.

[Tx4obama]

57. Whatever. n/t

[Yo_Mama]

52. NISA 28th update

These are always old, but very official. Nice thing about this one is that now there is data on reactors 5 & 6!!!
http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/files/en20110318-1.pdf

It's nice to see progress.

[Statistical]

53. Nice cite. What do you think they mean by A & B for reactor water level.

Nice to see the water levels rising though. Just wondering why two different levels A & B.

[Turbineguy]

54. Separate sensors?

[Turbineguy]

58. At TEPCO presser right now 1825 PDST

Installing 6.9 KV feeder. Will connect to transformers.

Weather is a factor but it's improving.

[TNLib]

59. Yay!!!!!

:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:

[Dorian Gray]

60. I hope so.

This would be good news, indeed.

[Sabriel]

61. I don't think this is true

I've seen at least two other reports that say, no, it isn't hooked up. It's merely at the site.

At least according to the last BBC article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12779512

And just out of curiosity, why isn't every other nation on the planet figuring out some way to help?

This isn't Japan's problem; it's OUR problem.