ID :
178117
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 22:11
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/178117
The shortlink copeid
TEPCO checks to see if water is leaking from No. 1 reactor container
TOKYO, April 27 Kyodo -
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex on Tuesday started checking to see if water is leaking from the No. 1 reactor container ahead of work to flood the vessel with water as a step to stably cool the troubled reactor.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that remote-controlled robots did not find ''notable water leakage'' during Tuesday's observation at the No. 1 reactor building, and it plans to continue checking by increasing the amount of water currently being injected into the reactor and measuring the change of reactor pressure and other factors.
With concerns lingering over the safety of many of Japan's other nuclear reactors, governors of nine prefectures hosting nuclear power plants agreed during an unofficial meeting in Tokyo that they cannot allow the restart of reactors which are now suspended for regular checkups, unless the central government gives them ''appropriate explanations'' about the ongoing nuclear crisis.
The utility known as TEPCO is trying to contain the country's worst nuclear disaster in line with a recently unveiled roadmap, which seeks to restore stable cooling to the reactors and spent fuel pools in about three months.
As for the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors, TEPCO plans to take the unprecedented measure of filling up the reactor's primary containment vessel with water up to the level above the reactor fuel, placed inside the pressure vessel.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a press conference in the evening that although TEPCO did not confirm notable leakage in the No. 1 reactor's primary container, there still remains a possibility that water may be leaking. The robots have only checked part of the reactor building.
TEPCO said that it plans to temporarily more than double the amount of water to be injected inside the reactor to a maximum 14 tons per hour from 6 tons per hour as early as Wednesday.
TEPCO and the nuclear safety agency will also check whether the container, when flooded with a large amount of water, can tolerate aftershocks of the March 11 quake and tsunami.
The nuclear regulatory body said, meanwhile, that industry minister Banri Kaieda ordered TEPCO on Monday to swiftly collect and report data on the plant's reactors, such as on the pressure and temperature, taken during the immediate aftermath of the magnitude 9.0 quake.
''There was about an hour until a tsunami hit the plant after the quake. So we believe that some of the data remain at the site before measuring gauges and computers lost power,'' Nishiyama told a separate press conference held earlier in the day.
So far, postquake data released by TEPCO starts at 7:30 p.m. March 11, about five hours after the 2:46 p.m. quake, according to Nishiyama.
The record of the data is believed to be left inside the central control rooms where radiation levels are still relatively high.
The reactors and spent nuclear fuel pools of the Nos. 1 to 4 units need to be periodically injected with water from outside because they lost their cooling functions after the quake and tsunami.
But the emergency measure has created vast pools of radiation-contaminated water at the premises of the crippled six-reactor complex, located on the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture some 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
The nuclear agency and TEPCO said that there may also be a leak in the No. 4 unit's spent fuel pool, as the water level does not appear to have risen as expected compared from the amount of water poured into the pool.
The No. 4 reactor, halted for a regular inspection before last month's disaster, had all of its spent fuel rods and unused fuel rods stored in the pool for the maintenance world.
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex on Tuesday started checking to see if water is leaking from the No. 1 reactor container ahead of work to flood the vessel with water as a step to stably cool the troubled reactor.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that remote-controlled robots did not find ''notable water leakage'' during Tuesday's observation at the No. 1 reactor building, and it plans to continue checking by increasing the amount of water currently being injected into the reactor and measuring the change of reactor pressure and other factors.
With concerns lingering over the safety of many of Japan's other nuclear reactors, governors of nine prefectures hosting nuclear power plants agreed during an unofficial meeting in Tokyo that they cannot allow the restart of reactors which are now suspended for regular checkups, unless the central government gives them ''appropriate explanations'' about the ongoing nuclear crisis.
The utility known as TEPCO is trying to contain the country's worst nuclear disaster in line with a recently unveiled roadmap, which seeks to restore stable cooling to the reactors and spent fuel pools in about three months.
As for the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors, TEPCO plans to take the unprecedented measure of filling up the reactor's primary containment vessel with water up to the level above the reactor fuel, placed inside the pressure vessel.
Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a press conference in the evening that although TEPCO did not confirm notable leakage in the No. 1 reactor's primary container, there still remains a possibility that water may be leaking. The robots have only checked part of the reactor building.
TEPCO said that it plans to temporarily more than double the amount of water to be injected inside the reactor to a maximum 14 tons per hour from 6 tons per hour as early as Wednesday.
TEPCO and the nuclear safety agency will also check whether the container, when flooded with a large amount of water, can tolerate aftershocks of the March 11 quake and tsunami.
The nuclear regulatory body said, meanwhile, that industry minister Banri Kaieda ordered TEPCO on Monday to swiftly collect and report data on the plant's reactors, such as on the pressure and temperature, taken during the immediate aftermath of the magnitude 9.0 quake.
''There was about an hour until a tsunami hit the plant after the quake. So we believe that some of the data remain at the site before measuring gauges and computers lost power,'' Nishiyama told a separate press conference held earlier in the day.
So far, postquake data released by TEPCO starts at 7:30 p.m. March 11, about five hours after the 2:46 p.m. quake, according to Nishiyama.
The record of the data is believed to be left inside the central control rooms where radiation levels are still relatively high.
The reactors and spent nuclear fuel pools of the Nos. 1 to 4 units need to be periodically injected with water from outside because they lost their cooling functions after the quake and tsunami.
But the emergency measure has created vast pools of radiation-contaminated water at the premises of the crippled six-reactor complex, located on the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture some 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
The nuclear agency and TEPCO said that there may also be a leak in the No. 4 unit's spent fuel pool, as the water level does not appear to have risen as expected compared from the amount of water poured into the pool.
The No. 4 reactor, halted for a regular inspection before last month's disaster, had all of its spent fuel rods and unused fuel rods stored in the pool for the maintenance world.
