Spent Fuel Pools

What did happen to reactor4 ?

On JNN live camera, reactor4 looks different from early May 2012.

 

↓ The comparison of reactor 4 building between 5/5 and 6/21.

What did happen to reactor4 ?

↓ 5/5/2012

See also

↓ Live

Mochizuki
Mochizuki
The writer of Fukushima Diary.
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30 Comments

  1. Well spotted. Can’t think of a clever answer to that one. Looks like part of the roof has collapsed. There is also a strange orange object which appears to be in one of the windows.

  3. Iori
    In my honest opinion, although only as an observer on-line:
    I have been noticing the slow disassembling of the reactor for a while,
    it looks like some of the remains of the roof have been removed (hopefully?), and
    I trust that the work to remove the fuel rods carries on safely.
    (and, btw…Christopher, concurrence usually means in agreement with, or in combination with,
    some kind of evidence, which unfortunately is difficult to ascertain from a grainy video ???)

  5. I feel the same as Jay : TEPCO have been putting a 60 t. heavy structure over the SFP to ensure debris from the upper part they want to scrap do not fall in it. That’s why i believe the removal job is going on. An that explains the changing look at unit 4 upper part.

  6. Lori I just sent you email with my phone number You can call me or I can call you but ENE now calling and you know how I feel about you and FD so please contact me. Too long for email

  7. Can we at least ‘concur’ that a part of the structure is now visible and is broken in some way? It may be that it’s been exposed as the result of clearing away other parts of the structure but it definitely appears to be not structurally in the best state and is above the floor where the fuel pool is. It’s understandable how it might actually be fairly safe even in that state but I’m thinking it might present more of a risk in that state than not in that state. I’m a complete amateur here, a software developer, not an architect, and usually quite skeptical about what’s reported but this doesn’t look good. Especially after so much time past.

  8. what ever happened, it doesn’t look orderly…? looks like part of the structure has collapsed…?

  10. could be someone with a welder cutting parts of the steel girders off the roofi have seen the cranes taking parts off the building away

  12. U4 building is being dismantled. It’s getting most ofThey’ve been using a concrete ‘pecker’ and cranes. An elevated ‘work platform’ has been assembled on the floor of the SFP (floor 5 I believe) and a mechanical digger is now on it. I’ve seen no reports that the recent typhoon has further damaged the building.

    A 60 tonne steel cover has been placed over the SFP, presumably to provide some sheidling for the workers up there, and to stop more debris falling into the pool. There appears to be a large structure being built to it, like a ramp, possibly to provide a ‘precision trolly or lift and transport mechanism. I’d assume that’s going to be necessary to unload the fuel assemblies. If there’s any un-arosolised fuel pellets left in them they will need to be moved in coolant. Also for sheilding the workers and site from radiation.

    The fuel assembly removal system will need to be engineered to carry the tonnes of water needed to cool and sheild the fuel assemblies. Furthermore, if it it even possible to remove individual fuel assemblies (it’s concievable that they’re all fused together from the x2 fires that have been reported in SFP4), it will need to be done with precision as shocks can ignite the zircalloy cladding on the rods. Presuming that they haven’t all burned already. Many have, and this evident from the TEPCO footage of the underwater ROV inspection of SFP4 several months ago. The handles are visible, encrusted with what looks like a white residue (hardened salt crust? oxidisation?), but many of the assemblies appear to be empty, compared to others. TEPCO plans to attempt to remove several unused fuel assemblies first. These are less ‘hot’ than spent fuel.There are clips, photos and articles on other blogs though I only have a couple of links:

    SFP4 immersion ROV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIbM-9ees7Q&feature=related
    TEPCO plans removal of fuel rods:http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201205280056
    SFP4 links at ENEnews:http://enenews.com/?s=sfp4
    Excellent albums of FukUp pics at Troy Livingstone on facebook.

  14. Might want to check to see which dates the tepco cam and jnn cam were offline…

    The break in the upper scaffolding appears to be in the same vector as the crane…

    Its very possibly that the crane had collided with the building…

  15. destruction derby @ reactor nr 4 fukushima daiichi /21-06-2012/
    the starting in real-speed
    http://youtu.be/Yo3wQSBeNy4

    destruction derby @ reactor nr 4 fukushima daiichi /21-06-2012/
    8 x timelapsed
    http://youtu.be/zEF9EsPEQnw

    tepco crunched from 8 to 14 local time on the building formaly know as reactor nr 4.

    in the tepco-stream i had seen a small black crane hypering up and down at the same time.

    “dual-crunch-mode”,
    from outside the black & on ground standing crane and from the inside on the floor (that formaly was known as 4.floor) by a red excavator …öh, sorry, :WAS THERE NOT A GREEN ONE PICTURED OUT BY TEPCO ON 28.OF MAY 2012?
    could it be that tepco had lifted a red excavator too on the floor?
    ON THE NEWLY INSTALLED STEEL-PLATE?

    (and if the excavator push a bitly to hard on the wall–zzzziiiiiippp—platsch/ steelplate slipes away + headed reactor nr 2 and the excavator dives in the sfp4..) 😉

  16. On the early evening just after sunset on 20th, my son and I thought we saw a fire at what appeared from tepco cam to be reactor 4. It was hard to tell exactly with the big spotlight or whatever it is on right of camera..we were worried and tried to find info for last two days….

  17. Let’s hope this is true and the sorry SOBs are getting off their sorry butts and gettin’ it done!
    Otherwise just more opaque obfuscating and twiddling of thumbs…

    Japan nuclear minister speeds up Fukushima decommissioning
    Workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will begin removing fuel rods from a damaged reactors a year ahead of schedule, a government minister said June 21, a move to address concerns about the risk of a new quake that could cause a further accident and scatter more radioactive debris. “We would like to start taking out undamaged fuel this year. Preparation is now under way,” Japan’s nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, told Reuters in an interview.
    http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201206210100

  18. Wow…

    TEPCO said that the building was sound. If they think that Reactor 4 is sound, then that means all the other building are in trouble, too! Look at Reactor 1 build, they covered it because it was so bad!

    The reality of the situation is….everyone is screwed. Face it, this situation can only get desperate. Especially, if they continue working in the same confused, sloppy, and cut-corners way methods they been doing for a year and a half!

    I give Reactor 4 a single hit from one good earthquake and it all comes down!

  20. I live in Sitka Alaska, and noticed radiation sickness on May7 8th,& 11th and again on May 16th, and May 27, 2012!!
    I marked it on my calander because I knew there would be NO INFORMATION AS USUAL UNTIL IT HAD PASSED! I would recomend EVERYBODY KEEP TRACK ON A CALENDER! SYMPTOMS TO LOOK FOR; DIZZYNESS, BLOODY NOSE, NAUSEA AND DIARRHEA !

  21. If many of the spent fuel rods were burned in fires-I would like to know how many and where they went-a map of the jet stream and percentages of where it’s fallen so far across the globe. Also-what are the areas that have been the worst affected by the fallout doing about mitigation for their people and their crops, livestock, etc.??

  24. The only thing we can be absolutely sure of in this situation is that TEPCO will not tell us the truth. Thanks to this site and all the commenters. If that thing blew to high hell they would confiscate cameras and tell us the mushroom cloud was a UFO.
    Speaking of which, if you guys are really out there, I officially ask for help as a citizen of earth. We may not be fit or deserving to join the Federation, but there are a lot of sweet indigo children here who deserve better than a radiological firestorm.

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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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