Nuclear accident follows Japanese earthqauke

[Mean Mr Mustard]

Meanwhile, down in Alabama, at the Browns Ferry Nuke Plant -

April 29, 2011 7:00 p.m. EDT

Small Oil Leak Requires Shutdown of a Diesel Generator at Browns Ferry

Shortly before midnight on April 28, 2011, Tennessee Valley Authority equipment operators identified a small oil leak on one of the seven operating diesel generators at Browns Ferry. The equipment operators took prompt actions to shut down the diesel generator for repair minimizing equipment damage. This quick action supported the prompt maintenance of the diesel generator that will allow early return to service of the equipment. The shutdown resulted in some plant equipment being without power on Unit 1 for four minutes and 28 minutes on Unit 2.
During this time period, operators realigned and placed other plant equipment in service which was then powered from a different diesel generator. All three units at Browns Ferry are off-line and in a safe condition following Wednesday’s storms.

Six remaining diesel generators and an off-site high-voltage transmission line remained available and continued to provide multiple redundant power supplies for plant use.

TVA has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of this event. Additionally, an eighth diesel generator that had been out of service for planned maintenance was returned to a standby status and is capable of providing power.

At no time during this event was the public or Browns Ferry employees in any danger. The plant is designed with redundant power and piping systems to ensure the plant remains safe.



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Hopefully normal grid supplies will be restored before too many of them dang diesel generators fail.

[kenneal - lagger]

And some people complain about wind turbines taking grid power some of the time instead of generating it!! This doesn't seem much different to me.

[2 As and a B]

IAEA team to inspect Fukushima plant this month

VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency plans to send a team to Japan in mid-May to inspect the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, agency sources said Friday.

The team, composed of IAEA officials and experts from some countries, will stay in Japan for about a week and conduct on-site inspections of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s complex in Fukushima Prefecture, the sources said.

The team is also expected to conduct on-the-spot inspections of the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant, located near the No. 1 complex, and the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co.

They, like Fukushima No. 1, were automatically shut down after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Members of the team plan to meet with officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, partly to evaluate the Fukushima No. 1 crisis.

The team from the IAEA will compile a report following the inspections, and the U.N. nuclear safety watchdog is expected to present its preliminary evaluation of the crisis at a ministerial meeting on the safety of nuclear power in late June.

Original

There's something to wet a certain someone's knickers.

[RenewableCandy]

Oooh proper Inspectors there, not some prat who sounds off on the Internet, than

[biffvernon]

Talking 'bout me are you?

Of course the IAEA are part of the nuclear industry so they are hardly going to say, "Oops, nuclear power doesn't seem so smart after all; better close them all down."

[biffvernon]

The German media continue to treat the affair more seriously than ours:

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mens ... 06,00.html

Summary for non-German readers thanks to htf of physicsforum

A brief summary of this article in English:

Prof. Kosako, recently announced advisor of the Japanese government on nuclear energy, has resigned and accuses the Japanese government of breaking the laws. He is frustrated and said with tears in his eyes that he cannot accept the government's decision to increase the safe dose for children to 20 Millisievert per year, which is the maximum permissible dose for a German NPP worker. He also says that he got the impression that the government is not seeking for a real solution for the crisis but is playing for time with interim and emergency solutions. The article states that it is very exceptional for a scientist to resigns under protest from such a prestigious job

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread ... 0&page=344

[biffvernon]

Here's a video, for Japanese speakers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO0flpwm ... e=youtu.be

and a translation of some of what was said:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/04/fuku ... -jnti.html

"I believe the fuel rods are completely melted. They may already have escaped the pressure vessel. Yes, they say 55% or 30%, but I believe they are all melted down. When the fuel rods melt, they melt from the middle part on down.


(Showing the diagram) "I think the temperature inside the melted core is 2000 degrees to 2000 and several hundred degrees Celsius. A crust has formed on the surface where the water hits. Decay heat is 2000 to 3000 kilowatts, and through the cracks on the crust the radioactive materials (mostly noble gas and iodine) are escaping into the air....

"The water [inside the pressure vessel] is highly contaminated with uranium, plutonium, cesium, cobalt, in the concentration we've never seen before.

"My old colleague contacted me and shared his calculation with me. At the decay heat of 2000 kilowatt... There's a substance called cobalt 60. Highly radioactive, needs 1 to 1.5 meter thick shields. It kills people at 1000 curies. He calculated that there are 10 million curies of cobalt-60 in the reactor core. If 10% of cobalt-60 in the core dissolve into water, it's 1 million curies."

It's worth watching the video, even in Japanese, whilst reading the translation.

Michio Ishikawa is the former head of the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute and the current "most senior" advisor to the Institute, appeared on an Asahi TV program on April 29 and shared his candid assessment of Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.

He is known as one of the most ardent proponents of nuclear power generation. The Japan Nuclear Technology Institute was set up in 2005 by Ishikawa in order to represent the interest of the nuclear industry in Japan and promote nuclear energy.

[RenewableCandy]

Well, will you accept their report when it's published?

Depends who's paying for it, darling

[Ippoippo]

Sorry to butt in with a reality check:



There is more and more evidence, such as the I/Cs ratio increasing when it should be decreasing, that we still have a critical reactor or three.

Where is the data for that graph from?


EDIT: Ahh found it, TEPCO data

[kenneal - lagger]

Oooh proper Inspectors there, not some prat who sounds off on the Internet, than

Nor some vacuous housewife . . .

When I put Doctor Renewablecandy's real name into a Google search it comes up with 26 pages of references including some academic papers. Hardly "some vacuous housewife"!

How about you, Inspector?

[JohnB]

Oooh proper Inspectors there, not some prat who sounds off on the Internet, than

Nor some vacuous housewife . . .

When I put Doctor Renewablecandy's real name into a Google search it comes up with 26 pages of references including some academic papers. Hardly "some vacuous housewife"!

She probably has to spend half the day dusting all her degree, PhD and other qualification certificates, that must fill half the walls in her house .

[kenneal - lagger]

I suggest that you PM her and swap real identities. She can then confirm to us that value, or not, of your contributions. You will definitely not be calling her a "vacuous housewife" in future.

[An Inspector Calls]

I suggest that you PM her and swap real identities. She can then confirm to us that value, or not, of your contributions. You will definitely not be calling her a "vacuous housewife" in future.

All this questioning of ability was started by her - surprise! So her running. Given that she's probably an academic, (vacuous) housewife if the paper count is to be believed, I would think the last thing she wants (given the quality and tone of her posts) is any possibility that her true identity might be leaked, esp. to her employing university.

And what's in it for me? Am I to assume that if she shows hers and I show mine that there'll be a glow of mutual respect - you must think I came down with the last shower.

[RenewableCandy]

Blimey! I go away for a day and start having an identity crisis in absentia...

However, might I point out that myself, KenNeal and Biff are all easily identifiable: it would almost certainly be a useful addition to the debate if we knew who the Inspector was irl. Not only would it raise the tone, it might shed some much-needed light on the nuclear industry.

I'm ready to hear interesting stuff, because frankly all one hears from the outside is bad news followed by bland assurances that it'll all be alright next time. There must be more to it than that.

[RenewableCandy]

And my employers know I'm here