Beware The Idiots of March
The ABC updates this link when new information comes in.
Japanese crews battling to avert a nuclear disaster say they may spray acid from helicopters to stop fuel rods from “reaching criticality” and releasing more radioactivity.
A fresh fire broke out in the No.4 reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant this morning but reportedly later put itself out, with firefighters unable to approach because of high radiation levels.
Engineers were also keeping a close eye on the plant’s No. 5 and No. 6 reactors amid fears they could overheat after cooling systems began to fail.
…A proposal for helicopters to dump boric acid into the reactor is one idea being considered as authorities grapple to keep up with the unfolding crisis which followed Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami.
Boric acid is often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant and in nuclear power plants to control the fission rate of uranium.
…The latest information released by the IAEA says plant operators are considering removing panels from reactor buildings 5 and 6 to prevent a build-up of hydrogen.
…Meanwhile, Japanese media have became more critical of prime minister Naoto Kan’s handling of the disaster and criticised the government and TEPCO for their failure to provide enough information on the incident.
Mr Kan himself lambasted the operator for taking so long to inform his office about one of the blasts on Tuesday, Kyodo news agency reported.
Kyodo said Mr Kan had ordered TEPCO not to pull employees out of the plant. “The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier’s office for about an hour,” a Kyodo reporter quoted Mr Kan telling power company executives.
“What the hell is going on?”
Wow, engineers think that 5&6 might explode when they lose cooling, just like 1, 2, 3, and 4 – these are the experts in charge‽
Why in hell don’t they just add the boric acid to the sea water that they should be pumping into all of the reactors to cool them‽
After four other buildings have blown up because of hydrogen they “are considering” venting the other two‽
They aren’t talking to the Prime Minister‽
The official TEPCO position would appear to be “It’s just a flesh wound.”
2 comments
Just read online that the Chief Cabinet Secretary in Japan is saying that he suspects #3’s containment vessel has now been breached (due to a lot of smoke/steam that recently started in #3). Isn’t the “containment vessel” basically the last line of defense? If this has indeed been breached, what happens next?
The Japanese people have been remarkably calm and pliant up to now, but there appears to be some cracks developing there, too. The natives are beginning to get restless, and complaints are now being made about the government which is nearly unheard of, apparently, in their culture.
The majority of the current problems seem to be with the spent fuel pools, so a containment breach won’t make things much worse. The reactors were shut down automatically, so it is a matter of cooling them down.
Nature is providing some assistance with much colder temperatures and snow, if the maroons in charge can figure out how to leverage this opportunity.