Robot finds sauna-like conditions around damaged reactor (Unit 2)

[jpak]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/19/japan.nuclear.reactors/?hpt=T2

A robot probe found sauna-like conditions inside the No. 2 reactor building at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but lower levels of radiation than in other damaged units, the plant's owner reported Tuesday.

Reactor No. 2 is believed to be leaking water, thousands of tons of which are filling the basement of its turbine plant and utility tunnels. A robot inserted into the unit's reactor building Monday found temperatures up to 41 degrees Celsius (106 F) and humidity ranging from 94-99 percent, the Tokyo Electric Power Company reported Tuesday.

Those conditions fogged up the lenses of the probe's cameras, forcing operators to withdraw the device after a few minutes, company officials said. But the radiation levels were low enough that workers might be able to re-enter the building for short periods of time, Tokyo Electric officials said.

The robot clocked a radiation level of 4.1 millisieverts per hour -- less than 10% of the amount found in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactor buildings on Sunday. By comparison, the average resident of an industrialized country receives a dose of about 3 millisieverts per year. A CT scan produces just under 7, and a chest X-ray delivers a one-time dose of about .05 millisieverts.

<more>

[CJvR]

1. Odd?

One would have thought that a leaky reactor would contaminate more than that, perhaps the fuel in block 2 wasn't as badly damaged as in 1 & 3. Or the source of the water is from the fuel pools.

[Wilms]

2. Gundersen mentions high temp and low pressure in #2 in the 4/18/11 update.

http://www.fairewinds.com/

He suggests #2 is the scariest. He also said #3 may be "out of the woods".

[FBaggins]

3. A leaky reactor DOES "contaminate more than that"

But where/how it contaminates still depends on the type of leak.

#2 may actually be the most damaged core, but the leak appears to be primarily water pouring through the suppression chamber. You wouldn't necessarily end up with lots of radiation in the levels above there from that (though obviously Nemo and his buddies for miles around can tell you where the leak ended up).

Or the source of the water is from the fuel pools.

A high percentage of the leaked water probably is from the pools... but a comparatively low portion of the radioactivity. The levels and isotopes detected had to come from a core (and #2 is the most likely culprit).

[Ian David]

4. I didn't think robots LIKED saunas.

[jberryhill]

7. Saab makes a line of Swedish robots that love saunas /nt

[jimlup]

5. I can see that the unrec bots are hard at work too

I wonder if they are radiation resistant as well.

:kick: and rec

[flamingdem]

6. Yesterday they admitted it's too "hot" for workers to go into the reactors

on Japanese TV. Today CNN is doing a 10 second bit saying oh the robots (entertainment value) are checking out the reactors so workers can return to work on them (smiles all around).

Doubtful

[buddysmellgood]

8. That sounds so relaxing.

[SpoonFed]

9. give me an effing break with the newspeak

a destroyed nuclear facility is nothing like a sauna.

and the fact they withdrew the robots would suggest it's the hellish
radioactive environment that anyone with any common sense knows it
to be.

but yeah, if it's a sauna,
maybe the pro-nuke du pundits wanna take a constitutional there forthwith!