Japan Nuclear Agency: Reactor Building No. 4's Basement Filled With Five Meters Of Water

[jpak]

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2011/04/18/japan-nuclear-agency-reactor-building-4s-basement-filled-meters-water/

The water in the basement of the No. 4 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is now five meters deep following frequent water-spraying with outside equipment to cool its spent fuel pool, the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Agency said Monday.

The No. 4 reactor was not operating at the time of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and there were no fuel rods in use, therefore there is no risk of overheating, unlike units Nos. 1-3.

"Removing water from the No. 4 reactor building is not high on our priority list," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman and deputy director general of the agency.

However the spent fuel rods being held in a pool near the top of the unit has been an ongoing concern, prompting officials to pour water through the damaged roof into the pool in order to avoid overheating. The roof was damaged by a hydrogen explosion.

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[FBaggins]

1. "Not high on our list" ?

Must be an awfully long list.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Fox Business-- a real "authority"

Click the link and see "Page Not Found"

[Wilms]

5. Gundersen mentions this in the 4/18/11 update.

http://www.fairewinds.com/

I'd be surprised if the claim is vapor.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. Seeing that it was from Fox Business, I had to check other sources

Here's a Japanese site (Mainichi Daily News, one of Japan's Big Three dailies) that discusses the 5 meters of contaminated water in No. 4's basement

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20110419ddm003040125000c.html

According to the article, there is a huge difference in radiation readings between the NE and NW sides (difference is a factor of 1000). Wow.

there is also a chart that shows the current status of each unit:



The circles mean OK. The X's mean "damaged". The triangles mean "suspected damage".
Nitrogen is being pumped into the first unit.

[jpak]

6. here's a working link

http://nuclearstreet.com/nuclear_power_industry_news/b/nuclear_power_news/archive/2011/04/19/flooding-in-unit-4-reported-monday-while-robots-record-high-doses-at-two-other-fukushima-daiichi-reactors041902.aspx

<snip>

Separately, NISA indicated unit 4's outer building is flooded with water 5 meters deep, Kyodo news reported Monday. In addition to the tsunami that washed over the plant, water used to flood reactor cores and spent fuel tanks in the place of damaged cooling systems is believed to be flooding three other units. Owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. already is in the process of removing an estimated 20,000 tons of irradiated water from units 1 though 3 so workers can reach the reactors.

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[FBaggins]

7. Are you saying that the quote is inaccurate?

There isn't any editorial there... just a straight report of what someone said.

The source of the report becomes much less of an issue in those cases... and jpak isn't prone to using RW sources.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Considering that it's Fox

and considering that lots of Japanese quotes have been mistranslated in various English-language stories, I have my doubts about the accuracy of the quote.

So I will check Japanese sources to see if I can get a confirmation.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. OK, here's the deal according to Mainichi

The water flooding the basement of No. 4 is believed to have come from the tsunami. 4 was not in operation when the tsunami hit.

Priority is being given to Nos. 1 through 3 (especially No. 2) because of water leaking from the reactor cores.

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20110417k0000m040068000c.html

[CJvR]

4. Well as long as...

...the water isn't particulary irradiated and all they need to do is pour more in the spent fuel pool it is probably a long way down on the list. It is probably the vacation spot at Fukushima. "What calamity am I dealing with today? OH goodie! I just get to pour water in a pool."

[FBaggins]

2. Deleted

Dupe