But they increased the water flow to 13.5 cubic meters an hour to do it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-07/tepco-injects-boric-acid-into-fukushima-no-2-reactor-as-temperature-rises.html

That's a later, more complete article. Presumably the water is now getting to the hot spot.

Apparently, not.

You don't know what that industry term means, apparently.

and in reality the reactors can jump to criticality at any time.

The term has both an existing definition and one that has been legally created for these reactors. Just because you don't know what they are doesn't mean that you get to invent your own.

in reality the reactors can jump to criticality at any time.

Lol. So you're saying that you read that they were using a material that could avoid recriticality as proof that criticality had already occured and they were actually trying to stop it... right?

Not the industry's fault you misconstrue information that can easily be looked up.

and in reality the reactors can jump to criticality at any time.
=================================

WRONG! A nuclear reactor can no more "jump to criticality at any time" than your car's engine can start at any time.

For Heaven's sake; these things obey the Laws of Physics. Macroscopic effects just don't "happen" spontaneously.

Learn what the terms means, so that you won't be so confused and misinterpret reports.

PamW

During the Fukushima crisis we were told by a "nuclear physicist" that borated water could not be used for this purpose.

The only one I can find shows a handful of posters who confused fission and decay heat. At least one claimed (and others defended) that the borated water was being used to stop an ongoing fissioning (essentially that they were having trouble shutting down the reactor). The nuclear physicist (no scare quotes needed) correctly told the poster that this was incorrect. It's used to prevent recriticality, that the reactors already were shut down.

You weren't told that it could not be used for that purpose, you were told that that was not why they were using it. That thread is really an excellent example of the time immediately after the emergency began where a number of posters here still didn't understand the difference between fission and decay.

but I can't divulge who because of rules

I'll have to run that one by my Reactor Engineering Buds in the AM. I could have sworn that Boron-10 was a neutron absorber, and could be used to maintain a Keffective of less than 1.

Needed more caps.