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Recent Events
- updated by boatsie on 3/29 @ 10:110 pst.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the government and experts are considering whether to cover the reactor buildings with a special material, to stop the spread of radioactive substances.
Tokyo Electric Power Company is struggling to drain off highly radioactive water that has leaked from 3 reactors at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the levels of radioactive substances detected are low, at one-to-ten percent of those occurring in an operating nuclear reactor.
The agency says the type of radioactive substances found in the water in the tunnel indicates some relation to the contaminated water in the basement of the No.1 reactor turbine building. It says the water in the tunnel will not be released into the sea.
Source: Kyodo Nuclear News Feed
- Updated by MAHW on 3/29/11 @ 6:00 mst.
From IAEA briefing for 3/29/11
Fresh water has been continuously injected into the Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPVs) of Units 1, 2 and 3. From today at Unit 1, the pumping of fresh water through the feed-water line will no longer be performed by fire trucks but by electrical pumps with a diesel generator. The switch to the use of such pumps has already been made in Units 2 and 3.
--snip--
At Unit 1, there has been an increase in temperature at the feed-water nozzle of the RPV from 273.8 °C to 299 °C. The temperature at the bottom of the RPV remained stable at 135 °C.
--snip--
With the increase in temperature at Unit 1, there has been a corresponding increase in Drywell pressure.
The latest pressure readings reported from NISA for #1 are:
PRESSURE at Gauges A&B IN #1; pressures are reported in MPa.
29-Mar 8:00 0.493 0.603
Previous readings are as follows:
17-Mar 0.173 0.144
18-Mar 0.265 0.243
19-Mar 0.306 0.256
20-Mar 0.304 0.263
21-Mar 0.297 0.265
22-Mar 0.328 0.306
23-Mar 0.481 0.495
24-Mar 0.511 0.488
25-Mar 0.453 0.453
26-Mar 0.452 0.481
27-Mar 0.475 0.517
28-Mar 0.477 0.553
(h/t Siri)
- Updated by Drewid on 3/29/11 @ 12:45 est.
From yo
- Updated by Drewid on 3/29/11 @ 8:11 est.
From NHK
No major progress is reported in the effort to drain radioactive water filling the basements of turbine buildings near 3 reactors in the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility. The delay is hampering work to cool down and stabilize the Daiichi nuclear power plant.
h/t peraspera
- Updated by Drewid on 3/29/11 @ 1:35 est.
From the LA Times:
They sleep with just one blanket apiece anywhere there's space — in a conference room, in the hallway, near the bathroom. Because deliveries of supplies are limited, they get by on very little food: Breakfast is packages of high-calorie emergency crackers and a small carton of vegetable juice; dinner consists of a small bag of "magic rice" (just add bottled water) and a can of chicken, mackerel or curry. There is no lunch — handing out a noontime meal would be too complicated in the crowded two-story building
- Updated by Drewid on 3/28/11 @ 7:00pm est.
From The Japan Times
Reactor turbine basements flooded with highly radioactive materials kept a desperate effort to stabilize the Fukushima No. 1 power plant at bay Monday, as fresh data showed that nearby seawater was being contaminated further by the leaking facility. Efforts by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to restore the cooling systems for reactors No. 1 through 4, as well as their spent-fuel storage pools, continue to be halted by the highly radioactive water, which is now at lethal levels.
- Updated by rja at Mon Mar 28, 2011 at 04:42 AM CDT
From Kyodo News: URGENT: High-level radiation detected in trench outside Fukushima reactor building
High levels of radiation exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour were found in water in a trench outside the No. 2 reactor's turbine building at the troubled nuclear power plant in Fukushima on Sunday afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.
Similarly high levels of radioactivity have been found in a pool of water in the basement of the turbine building at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, raising concerns that radioactive substances may have seeped into the environment, including the sea nearby.
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