[Column] The meaning of the news ~ Coolant water goes out of the buildings

On 7/12/2013, Fukushima Diary reported “Tepco admitted leakage from reactor2&3 to the trench,”150,000,000,000Bq/m3 of Cs-134/137, 0.1 Sv/h””. [URL]

The number, “150,000,000,000Bq/m3” is eye catchy. Probably most of the people would think

“What a high reading of Cesium !?”
“It must be flowing to the sea.”

but the real point of this news is not there. I couldn’t write it in the original post so I would like to explain it here.

The point of this news is this measurement proved the reactor coolant water is flowing out of the buildings regardless of their attempts to stop it.

Now 400 tones of groundwater is flowing to the basement of the plant everyday. It is on purpose.
In order not to let the contaminated water (coolant water) spread out of the plant, they are letting groundwater flow into the plant instead.
It was technically difficult but thought to be safe. For the increasing contaminated water, Tepco built purifying system and provisional storage tanks, which they couldn’t even weld, and even underground reservoir, which was found leaking this April.

However, on 7/11/2013 Tepco found contaminated water is flowing to the part outside of the buildings called “Trench”.
Even though they let 400 tones of groundwater in everyday, coolant water was spreading out of the buildings from other routes, which are lower than the water level of the inside of the buildings.
It proved they can’t stop the contaminated water spreading out of the buildings.

At this moment, Tepco states it’s only reactor2 and 3. However, there are 3 more shafts in reactor3 trench, and Cs-134 density of reactor2 trench is not even announced.

Contaminated water must be flowing to other places than the trenches too.
Tepco would need to act a Sherlock Holmes to detect where the contaminated water goes.
However unlike Sherlock Holmes, Tepco can’t stop the leakage itself.

 

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/06/spare-contaminated-water-20000m3-of-highly-contaminated-water-still-retained-in-the-seawater-trenches-4-2-tera-bqm3/

[Analysis] There is no way of stopping ground water flowing into the plant

[Tepco report] Progress and schedule of the groundwater bypass construction

 

 

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Français :

[Édito] Le sens de la nouvelle ~ le système de refroidissement finit à l’extérieur des bâtiments

 

Le 12 juillet 2013, le Fukushima Diary publiait Tepco reconnait la fuite des réacteurs 2 & 3 vers la tranchée : “150 milliards de Bq/m³ de Cs-134/137, 0,1 Sv/h”

Le nombre “150 milliards  Bq/m³” attire le regard. La plupart des gens pensent sans doute
“Qu’est-ce que c’est élevé en césium !?”
“Ça va forcément dans la mer.”
Mais le point important de cette information n’est pas là.
Je ne pouvais pas le mettre dans le sujet original alors je voudrais l’expliquer ici.

Le point important de cette nouvelle est que ce relevé prouve que les eaux de refroidissement fuient à l’extérieur des bâtiments quels que soient leurs tentatives de l’empêcher.

Maintenant, le fait que 400 tonnes d’eaux souterraines inondent les fondations de la centrale tous les jours, c’est fait exprès.
Pour ne pas laisser les eaux extrêmement radioactives (les eaux de refroidissement) s’échapper de la centrale, ils laissent les eaux souterraines l’inonder à la place. C’était techniquement difficile mais pensé être sûr.

Concernant l’augmentation des eaux extrêmement radioactives, Tepco a construit un système d’épuration et de citernes provisoires de stockage, qu’ils ne peuvent même pas souder, et même des réservoirs enfouis, qui ont révélé leurs fuites en avril.

Or, le 11 juillet 2013 Tepco a découvert que des eaux extrêmement radioactives s’écoulent à l’extérieur des bâtiments, dans une partie dénommée “la tranchée”.
Bien qu’ils laissent 400 tonnes d’eaux souterraines entrer quotidiennement, les eaux de refroidissement s’écoulent hors des bâtiments par d’autres voies, plus basses que le niveau de l’eau dans les bâtiments.
Ça prouve qu’ils ne peuvent pas empêcher les eaux extrêmement radioactives de sortir des bâtiments.

En ce moment, Tepco affirme que ça ne concerne que les réacteurs 2 et 3. Or, il y a 3 autres tuyaux exutoires dans la tranchée du réacteur 3 et la concentration en césium 134 de la tranchée du réacteur 2 n’est même pas communiquée.

Les eaux extrêmement radioactives doivent s’écouler aussi par d’autres chemins que ceux des tranchées.
Tepco aurait besoin d’agir comme un Sherlock Holmes pour trouver où vont les eaux extrêmement radioactives.
Mais, contrairement à Sherlock Holmes, Tepco ne peut pas arrêter la fuite elle-même.

 

http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/06/spare-contaminated-water-20000m3-of-highly-contaminated-water-still-retained-in-the-seawater-trenches-4-2-tera-bqm3/
[Analysis] There is no way of stopping ground water flowing into the plant
[Tepco report] Progress and schedule of the groundwater bypass construction

 

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  1. great idea.. how bout we send Robert Downey Jr. (Holmes) into the reactor dressed in a pretty tin iron can.. would prolly solve all our problems as is.

    i find it ironic-man Japan prides itself on the image of such legends as “Gundam” & now the truth is aghast that we now need Mobile-suit Gundams to decommission nuclear reactors. and meanwhile what kind of technology DO we have? little wally-bots on treadmills that can barely crawl up stairs.. Slinky could have done better. a phenomenon of radioactivity is how it kills digital electronics.. that is a big factor if not the biggest. the set of Naval officers that arrived in Fukushima Daiichi (apparently not knowing how severe the situation even was) dubbed “Operation Tomodachi” was it.. w/e but.. turns out those Ronald Reganeers are going to sue Japan for being put in a hazardous situation (while japan is the only country to suffer Atomic Bombings, plural) it all occurred to them the minute they arrived on port & their digital watches completely stopped. you gota admit, in a situation like that, to fly a HELICOPTER of all things over the reactors to dump water (which was meaningless) was something that was SO dangerous it would even give Michael Bay a transforming woody.

    i find the observation here to be interesting tho, maybe it was unintended as sort of a quirk between languages but to state the obvious, being the unbelievable # of Cesium.. what made me think is how its mentioned the groundwater is coincidentally & selflessly assisting to keep the Reactors under control. rather them using evasive tactics they are giving into the force of nature which for now seems to be to their ‘advantage’, although what is simultaneously giving them a reason to dump it all out into the ocean. a finger in the dyke indeed.

    the whole focus of Nuclear Safety was that to even develop ‘robots’ like Gundam to ensure disaster control was taboo cuz it automatically raised alarms that ‘nuclear energy is unsafe’ so all those projects went unheeded, along with the scientists that chanted over & over to TEPCO about the possibility of a Tsunami. i think its a fact that just in the hours before the Quake that scientist was pushing a legislation on more realistic Tsunami defense. welp, the milk is in the trench.

    im from Tokyo, & i fear we may not make it past this summer.. the mercury is hitting 40C+ here for the first time ever.

    say your prayers.

    Ziro Japan

  2. Hi Iori,

    I repair swimming pools for a living. Sometimes a concrete pool will develop a ragged crack in a wall that needs to be repaired. Trouble is, when I drain the pool to try to dry the crack, water that has already leaked from the pool out into the subsoil, reverses its flow and flows back into the pool through the crack, therefore preventing the sealant from attaching to the surface.
    When this happens, I can run some liquid nitrogen over the crack, which freezes the water coming in and then I can apply a fast set epoxy. By the time the ice melts the epoxy is solid and I can then apply another thick layer and sand smooth. Problem solved.
    Reading through your report There are a lot of exit points for water to leak through in the basements. To stop the coolant from mixing with ground water, could they feed some bulk liquid nitrogen into the basement through a number of tubes drilled into the basement through the outer walls and ground floor so that they can freeze the water in the basement room? Then through larger pipes, introduce fast drying epoxy concrete pumped to cover the ice and set hard in five minutes (depending on the catalyst chosen) every ten to thirty minutes, another load of fast epoxy concrete could be pumped in on top of the last layer until it forms a solid plug to seal off the ground water from the contaminated coolant water.

  3. Heres an idea for a radiation proof robot I’ve been thinking about after reading your report. Radiation resistant robots could trail a bundle of supply lines consisting of a main high pressure water hose and four smaller secondary water tubes along with a number of optical grade fibre optic cables. These could all be wrapped in a Teflon outer sheath to reduce friction. The tracked robot employs water pressure to spin an onboard water turbine and in turn drive the tracks, power work arms, cutters, grippers etc. A multiple valve system in the robot is controlled by the secondary water pressure tubes to activate different valve combinations to operate onboard systems. Optical lenses are situated around the robot to supply visual information to the remote operator. There is no onboard electricity or electronics. Lighting is supplied through the fibre optic system. The unit could travel above or below the water level, and if you add a rubber skirt and high speed suction hose, the bot would attach to a vertical wall and climb on its rubber tracks. there is no water returning from the unit as it is exhausted into the environment at the turbine. The robot is cheap to build using existing pressure cleaner hose, hydraulic valves and fibre optic gear. The unit could be fully recoverable for re use or just leave them in there to undertake various tasks. Has to be faster, cheaper and more durable than what they are using now.

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About this site

This website updates the latest news about the Fukushima nuclear plant and also archives the past news from 2011. Because it's always updated and added live, articles, categories and the tags are not necessarily fitted in the latest format.
I am the writer of this website. About page remains in 2014. This is because my memory about 311 was clearer than now, 2023, and I think it can have a historical value. Now I'm living in Romania with 3 cats as an independent data scientist.
Actually, nothing has progressed in the plant since 2011. We still don't even know what is going on inside. They must keep cooling the crippled reactors by water, but additionally groundwater keeps flowing into the reactor buildings from the broken parts. This is why highly contaminated water is always produced more than it can circulate. Tepco is planning to officially discharge this water to the Pacific but Tritium is still remaining in it. They dilute this with seawater so that it is legally safe, but scientifically the same amount of radioactive tritium is contained. They say it is safe to discharge, but none of them have drunk it.

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