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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Post-Crash Index-Moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Reaper who wrote (12052)	3/16/2011 12:45:56 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 119360

Japan increases efforts to cool damaged nuclear plants ____________________________________________________________ The number of workers battling the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is doubled, but leaking radiation has hampered attempts to dump water on some areas and the situation appears to be deteriorating. By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles Times 8:50 AM PDT, March 16, 2011 Authorities battling the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have doubled the number of workers on the site to 100 in an effort to continue cooling the three reactors and the spent fuel pools but have abandoned — at least temporarily — plans to use helicopters to dump water on the pools because of the radiation danger. Police may now use water cannons to spray the pools. The status of reactor No. 3 at the site was not clear, with some reports saying that the reactor containment vessel may have been breached and was releasing radioactivity and others saying that it was still intact. The containment vessel at reactor No. 2 has previously been breached, and it appeared to be leaking small amounts of radioactivity. As the crisis at the power plant entered its sixth night, the situation appeared to be deteriorating. One sign was that the Japanese government increased the maximum radiation dose that workers could be exposed to from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts, describing the move as "unavoidable due to the circumstances." The workers are all wearing full protective gear and working only in short shifts, but they are still believed to be exposed to significant doses of radiation. All of the workers were pulled out of the plant for nearly an hour Wednesday when radiation levels spiked, but pumps continued to inject seawater into the reactors in their absence, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co, which owns the plant. The workers returned as soon as the radiation levels had subsided. The radiation spike was believed to result from the release of steam from reactor No. 2. Authorities estimated that about 70% of the fuel rods in reactor No. 1 had been damaged and about 30% of the rods in reactor No. 2. Those were merely estimates, however, because they have no direct way to measure the extent of damage. Military helicopters were seen flying over the reactor buildings Wednesday night to measure radiation levels. Authorities had planned to use helicopters to drop water on the spent fuel cooling ponds on the roofs of the buildings, which have also lost their emergency cooling systems. The need was especially critical at the pool for reactor No. 4, which has caught fire twice and where the cooling water was boiling and was believed to be reaching dangerously low levels. Authorities concluded, however, that radiation levels were too high to allow the water drops. Authorities said the police may now attempt to use water cannons, normally used to quell riots, to spray water into the pools. Workers will first have to remove some debris from near the buildings, however, so the apparatus can get close enough. The good news is that the reactors should be undergoing a certain amount of cooling on their own. When an operating reactor is shut down, it continues to produce a large amount of heat, known as decay heat. Within the first week after a shutdown, that decay heat declines by about 50%, experts said, so that the reactors require less external cooling. thomas.maugh@latimes.com Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

To: The Reaper who wrote (12052)	3/16/2011 12:52:46 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 119360

I would guess it's a drone makes sense to use them here

To: The Reaper who wrote (12052)	3/16/2011 1:05:50 PM
From: Jim McMannis	1 Recommendation Respond to of 119360

Radiation levels too high to fly over them at low altitude? They won't even drop a water bomb.

To: The Reaper who wrote (12052)	3/16/2011 1:09:12 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 119360

i'm assuming those would be the heat mapping variety...would surely help to define where the fires are and the degree of heat in the spent rod containment pools...sort of surprised this hasn't been done earlier

To: The Reaper who wrote (12052)	3/16/2011 2:03:42 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 119360

UPDATE AS OF 10:00 A.M. EDT, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16: "News reports that high radiation levels led to the evacuation of all workers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station are not accurate. Workers were evacuated for about an hour but returned to the site to continue efforts to restore safe conditions at the plant. Restoration of electrical power to the site was under way at the Daiichi plant as of 6:00 a.m. EDT Wednesday. A temporary cable was being connected between an off-site power line and Daiichi reactor 3. Off-site power has not been available at the site since the earthquake on March 11. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the plant are being cooled with seawater. There is some level of uranium fuel damage at all three units, and containment structure damage is suspected at units 2 and 3, NucNet reported. Before the earthquake, reactor 4 had been in refueling and was completely defueled. Attempts to provide cooling water to the used fuel pool at reactor 4 by helicopter were not successful. Preparations are being made to inject water into the fuel storage pool using a high-capacity spray pump. There have been two fires inside the reactor containment building at reactor 4, but they have been extinguished. Although the reactor containment building at Unit 4 was damaged, the primary containment vessel remains intact." nei.cachefly.net