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Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Ash Small wrote ...
The Japanese government is considering using military helicopters to drop water onto the spent fuel pools using the same techniques they use for forest fires, but even if they get a 'direct hit', won't it all just splash back out (like putting a cup under a tap and turning it on fully), taking the fuel rods with it?
Perhaps the intention is to reduce the emission of airborne particulate matter, or perhaps the 'water' will contain complexing agents to bind U and Pu into more manageable forms. I know almost nothing about these things.
Registered Member #3414
Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245
Proud Mary wrote ...
Ash Small wrote ...
The Japanese government is considering using military helicopters to drop water onto the spent fuel pools using the same techniques they use for forest fires, but even if they get a 'direct hit', won't it all just splash back out (like putting a cup under a tap and turning it on fully), taking the fuel rods with it?
Perhaps the intention is to reduce the emission of airborne particulate matter, or perhaps the 'water' will contain complexing agents to bind U and Pu into more manageable forms. I know almost nothing about these things.
The intention is to cool the fuel in the pool by dropping water in by helicopter. A number of sources have reported it, including Reuters and the BBC, quoting the Japanese government.
Registered Member #3414
Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245
Inducktion wrote ...
What exactly IS a meltdown, specifically anyway? When the fuel rods get too hot or something?
Yep, they melt and then burn through the bottom of the reactor, and just keep going.....giving off radioactive smoke, etc. Concrete burns, and it can theoretically keep going into the Earth until it reaches the water table, and pollutes the drinking water supply.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Ash Small wrote ...
Proud Mary wrote ...
Ash Small wrote ...
The Japanese government is considering using military helicopters to drop water onto the spent fuel pools using the same techniques they use for forest fires, but even if they get a 'direct hit', won't it all just splash back out (like putting a cup under a tap and turning it on fully), taking the fuel rods with it?
Perhaps the intention is to reduce the emission of airborne particulate matter, or perhaps the 'water' will contain complexing agents to bind U and Pu into more manageable forms. I know almost nothing about these things.
The intention is to cool the fuel in the pool by dropping water in by helicopter. A number of sources have reported it, including Reuters and the BBC, quoting the Japanese government.
I had noticed that, Ash, but wondered if there wasn't perhaps more to it. An armada of helicopters was used at Chernobyl to spray the site with liquid polymers to bind migrating radioactive dust into an immobile plastic mass.
Registered Member #3414
Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245
I suppose that is possible, PM, but I read some more reports earlier that stated that the purpose was simply to fill the spent fuel pools. I've been unable to find them again (I need to search back through the Reuters Live posts ). The government is concerned about the health effects on the military, so the delay of three or four days might be in order to facilitate protection measures for the pilots. (this is pure speculation on my part). I still don't see how the water won't splash back out if dropped from any height, taking the fuel rods with it, though.
Registered Member #2390
Joined: Sat Sept 26 2009, 02:04PM
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin
Posts: 381
I got a bit of info from a close friend that is in the U.S. military. I served six years with this individual so i trust his input. He stated that the reason the Japanese are unable to cool the spent fuel is that the tsunami has put so much debris into the available water supply that they currently have no pumps that are able to move it. I.E. mud, and any fragments of material that was destroyed in the quake and following tsunami. The whole situation sucks in my opinion. At work i have been hearing that some of the equipment that we use is no longer available (mitsumi) but thats not why it sucks! People are and have been loosing their lives and my bosses are worried about getting parts... I hope everything can be contained over there but at this point i am more worried about the Japanese than myself.:-O
Registered Member #96
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061
Yeah, by the looks of it this is a worst case scenario. Burning fuel rods exposed to air with no way to put them out, blown containment at *2 and if this wasn't bad enough it looks like *3 could be about to go "hot" as well.
Sounds like about the only thing they could do now is to drop about 10 kilotons of sand on the plant and hope that this puts the fires out and limits further leakage. Oh, and officially declare it a "Class 7" nuclear disaster.
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Nuclear events taking place in Japan.
