3/19 MIT Fukushima status update

UPDATE AS OF 10 A.M. EDT, SATURDAY, MARCH 19 (per NEI):

At a March 19 news conference, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that sea water injection is continuing at reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Preparations were being made to spray water into the used fuel pool at reactor 4, and an unmanned vehicle sprayed more than 1,500 gallons of water over seven hours into the used fuel pool at reactor 3, Edano said. He also said he believed that the situation at the reactor 3 fuel pool is stabilizing.

Some reactor cooling capacity has been restored at reactors 5 and 6 after the installation of generators at those reactors, Edano added.

Edano said that progress had been made on “a fundamental solution” to restore power at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with electricity expected to be restored at reactors 1 and 2 today and reactor 3 as early as Sunday.


http://mitnse.com/

Thanks.

Perhaps this will get under good control now, so they can come up with a final determination on what to do.

So, it is not surprising that the pumps still work. Units 1 to 4 which did have multiple explosions and fires, are still waiting for Off Site Power to be restored, then the condition of the Shutdown Cooling and Spent Fuel Pool Cooling and Makeup Systems will be better understood.

At least that was the plan.

Three and a half gallons per minute isn't much more than a back-yard hose.

Kiloliters? :shrug:

The "Super Pumper" is more than capable of that amount.

Remember, this is over a 7-hour shift.

The old US super pumper trucks were capable of 10,000 gallons/minute back in the 60s at least.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/19/c_13788030.htm

...of water over seven hours..."

That is not very much water, especially if it took seven hours to get that much in there.

A standard bathtub holds somewhere between 40-60 gallons of water, which is 37.5 to 25 bathtubs worth of water. Seems like a drop in a bucket when attempting to snuff hot MOX fuel rods.

So I hope that the "1500 gallons" figure is a typo or mistranslation.

The earlier report was something like 1300 tons of water, but the government reportedly asked them to extend their time so it actually went more than seven hours.

The super-pumper that's feeding the spraying truck is a beast.