TEPCO = BP
This was written by Richard Black, an Environment correspondent for BBC News. It is not a Monty Python script: Choppers and cannons bring no nuclear relief
The attempt to use helicopters to dump seawater on to the Fukushima power station is almost certainly unprecedented in more than half a century of nuclear power operations around the world.
And the long-range video images coming in indicate why it is not a method in general use: it does not appear to work.
The helicopters flew in some way above the reactor buildings, and went past without hovering – presumably because of fears of radiation.
Later, at a news conference given by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), a spokesman said they were not able to tell whether any of the water had been successfully delivered.
The ABC is also covering the effort: Choppers, trucks douse stricken nuke plant
Japan is making a last-ditch attempt to cool stricken reactors at its Fukushima nuclear plant, but efforts so far appear to have had little effect.
Special military fire trucks unleashed jets of water on a damaged reactor at the quake-hit plant on Thursday, after police were earlier forced to withdraw their own water cannon from the scene due to high levels of radiation.
While police must be outside to use their vehicle, the military vehicles are built to allow personnel to remain inside.
As well as water-spraying trucks, four twin-rotor Chinook helicopters from the Japan Self-Defence Forces flew water bombing missions over the plant, emptying tonnes of water onto reactors which have been overheating since being damaged by last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.
But there are serious doubts the water drops will have any major effect, with the amount of water each chopper drops a fraction of what is needed to fill the pool.
The focus of the missions appeared to be the No.3 reactor but there have been reports that only two out of the four water drops actually hit their mark, and the missions appeared to have little impact on the radiation levels.
Part of the reason why the water drops have not been that accurate is that they were not allowed to fly too low because of the radiation levels.
Defence minister Toshimi Kitazawa said an additional 11 military vehicles would be deployed for efforts to help cool the reactors, while pumps supplied by the US armed forces were also being transferred.
You get the feeling that the people in charge haven’t really absorbed how bad things really are at the plant, and haven’t really thought through what needs to be done.
The last two temperature readings they had from the reactor 4 pool were 65° Celsius. That’s 149° Fahrenheit. Water boils at 100° C, but it evaporates at much lower temperatures. There was no reading yesterday, but there have been suggestions from TEPCO officials going back about three days that water is being lost from the pool.
If they would attach a camera and instruments to a metal water pipe and stick it through the framing where the walls have been blown out by the explosions, they might be able to reliably get water into the buildings, and have some idea what is going on in there. The Chinook helicopters are certainly capable of the job,
2 comments
They might as well be pulling their collective peckers out of their pants and tinkling on the fire, for all the use a helicopter would be in this situation. Doesn’t Japan have fire departments? Tug boats? Ocean going ships with steam turbines that could be repurposed to force massive amounts of water onto fires? Robots that could be used to guide fire hoses and water lines to where they need to be? WTF?!
Of course, this is all tied in to *another* part of Asian culture. One of my constant frustrations with outsourcing was that my team in China would *never* tell me that they didn’t understand something that I’d just told them, or didn’t know how to do the task I’d just assigned them. They’d literally sit there and generate utter nonsense rather than admit any such thing. And they’d outright lie to you and tell you yes, they DID understand, even when they didn’t! I had to treat them like idiot middle school kids and explicitly question them about what I’d just said to them before getting any comprehension out of them, because otherwise nothing would ever get done, they’d literally run around in circles trying to figure out all by themselves rather than ask me a single question that could have resolved the situation in a minute.
So I’m getting that same vibe out of TEPCO right now…
– Badtux the Ain’t-Asian Penguin
For a while most of the paper in Japan had cotton content courtesy of my underwear that I had to leave behind because it would not be back from the laundry before I had to take off. It was so annoying. They would promise a specific date, and they weren’t able to do it, but they refused to say they couldn’t.
I ended up carrying a flight bag with nothing but underwear every time I had to deploy.
They avoid conflict of any kind by agreeing with you, knowing that what you are asking is impossible.
You’re right, they need firemen to explain how to do this, because it is not a new and unexpected problem. You need metal pipe because of the potential heat, but we have been sending water through metal pipes since the Roman Empire, and I assume that the Chinese where doing it even earlier.
I still don’t know what they think they are going to do with the electricity they are bringing in. The controls and motors were soaked with sea water by the tsunami, and would be dangerous to use.
I don’t understand their motives or actions.