Tuesday, August 2, 2011

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 1: More Than 5 Sieverts/Hr Radiation on 2nd Floor

It looks like the survey meter on the robot (no info on whether it was Packbot or Quince) also went overscale.

From Jiji Tsushin (10:47PM JST 8/2/2011):

福島第1原発事故で、東京電力は2日、1号機原子炉建屋2階の空調関連室の放射線量をロボットで測定したところ、最高で毎時5シーベルト(5000ミリ シーベルト)以上だったと発表した。屋内の測定値では、6月3日に同建屋1階で測定された4シーベルト(4000ミリシーベルト)を上回りこれまでの最高。東電は同室を立ち入り禁止とした。

TEPCO announced on August 2 that the radiation level in the air conditioning room on the 2nd floor of the reactor building of Reactor 1 was over 5 sieverts/hr (or 5,000 millisieverts/hr). It is the highest indoor radiation ever recorded at the plant, higher than 4 sieverts/hr recorded also in the Reactor 1 reactor building on June 3. TEPCO closed off the room.

 同室には原子炉格納容器の圧力を逃がす「ベント」の配管と、非常用ガス処理系配管との合流点があり、1日 に屋外で最高の毎時10シーベルト(1万ミリシーベルト)以上が測定された主排気筒との接続部分の上流に当たる。主排気筒と同様に、東日本大震災翌日のベ ントの際に放出された高濃度の放射性物質が付着したと考えられるという。

The vent duct that releases pressure inside the Containment vessel and the emergency gas processing pipe meet inside the room, which is upstream from the main exhaust stack where over 10 sieverts/hr radiation was measured on August 1. According to TEPCO, it is possible that the high concentration of radioactive materials got stuck inside the pipes when the venting was done on the next day after the March 11 earthquake.

According to Yomiuri, 10 sieverts/hr radiation would be emitted from 2 grams of radioactive cesium.

According to Kyodo News Japanese, the room is called the "train room" by TEPCO.

I sure hope the room is located nowhere near where workers have to pass by, on their way to the upper floors to install the heat exchanger for the Spent Fuel Pool.

(If there is any fuel left in the pool to cool, that is.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Soooo... TEPCO... closed the door. That seems to be on par with their 'hide and deny' attitude.

What have we learned? We've learned that stack venting doesn't work. By the time they vented, it was too late. melted fuel (the worst stuff imaginable) was ejected at high pressure into the stack feed line... even though the vent stack fans were inoperative. Better check the stack for 3 and 4 too.

If the vent stack fans had works, molten fuel particles would have spread far and wide.

Nasty.

So, look around you, at the nuclear power plants in your area. Do they have ventilation stacks? If so, now you know that they are useless pieces of crap that do more harm then good in an accident. THEY DON'T WORK!

netudiant said...

This discovery raises an interesting question about the side effects of the stack operations.
Clearly the stack worked as intended to some extent. It successfully spread a huge plume of radioactive material across Japan as well as the ocean. That suggests that even if the plants had not subsequently blown up, the radiation plume would still have forced the evacuations we have seen.
In Sweden, the reactor stacks are vented through an enormous absorption bed, exactly for that reason. It would surely be a good idea to mandate something similar for Japans other reactors, but I have seen no indication the topic has even come up.

Anonymous said...

Watch OUT Japan!
What TEPCO is N☢T telling YOU,
... is hazardous for your health!

Rocco Siffredi said...

Netudiant, well said about what TEPCO should do.
Unfortunately they won't take any dramatic measures as it may cost too much. This whole disaster has been met with a slow and carefully calculated response according to what they can "spend". We're all doomed with governments like this...

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