Battle to stabilise earthquake reactors

World Nuclear News ^ | 03/12/11 | unkown

[winoneforthegipper]

Attention is focused on the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants as Japan struggles to cope in the aftermath of its worst earthquake in recorded history.

Three of Fukushima Daiichi's six reactors were in operation when yesterday's quake hit, at which point they shut down automatically and commenced removal of residual heat with the help of emergency diesel generators. However, these suddenly stopped about an hour later for reasons as yet unknown.

[winoneforthegipper]

Excellent write up on what is going on with the reactors.

[catbertz]

Interesting details. Thanks for some new info!

[winoneforthegipper]

ur very welcome!

[GOPJ]

Here’s a link to the best earthquake map - free and in 3-D

http://www.wolton.net/quake.html

[GOPJ]

ping

[Frantzie]

Man they should have had back up generators or even portable pump with house into the oceans to pull cooling water as a third or fourth back up. Almost like New Orleans where they set up a portable generators and pump and plug into the cooling system valves.

This is not good.

[allmost]

This is no surprise. They knew the earth would move. Sounds like BS when state all they need is electricity. Just my opinion.

[proxy_user]

“....the help of emergency diesel generators. However, these suddenly stopped about an hour later for reasons as yet unknown.”

So why did the diesel generators stop? Why can’t they be repaired and restarted? They should be completely self-contained.

[ColdOne]

tried that link got nothing. Is it just me?

[matt04]

The article says they did but they only lasted a hour before they failed. Sounds like bad maintenance on the genset or the fuel system or a really bad design flaw if they only had a hour of fuel on hand. Either way, not good.

[Frantzie]

Crazy. They should have backup diesel generators on wheels plus pumps to run hoses to the ocean and plug into the cooling system. A friend has a relative who works for a pump company that does portable pumps. They were used in New Orleans and they can move a lot of water.

The generators could also plug into the electrical of the plant to get the other pumps going.

Here is a 20 KW you could put on a small trailer and it is 2.4 gallons an hour.

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-kw-generator-192.html?hft_adv=10062&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=20%20k%20w%20generator&utm_campaign=Engines%20%26%20Generators%20-%20Phrase&gclid=CIqY5MH6x6cCFQat7QodpT9bDA

I know where I live they had portable generators for the pumps with the city when there was a problem. They would run all night without refueling.

They could put a 150 KW or more generator on a trailer and bring in fuel by helicopter or boat.

They should have had planned for these contingencies.

I bet the US Navy or Sea Bees could straighten this s**t out quickly. Get a big generator hooked up.

[Ole Okie]

My bet is that some responsible person let the diesel fuel get down to an hour’s worth.

[GonzoGOP]

So why did the diesel generators stop? Why can’t they be repaired and restarted? They should be completely self-contained.

There was a report on Fox around 5:00 from Japanese TV that said the diesels were taken out by "saltwater contamination". I don't know if it means sea water got into the fuel or if the whole power house got swamped by the tusnami. I just have those two words.

[Ole Okie]

Or maybe I should say “irresponsible person”.

[crz]

I cant make heads or tails of this. The best I saw is that the Gensets were flooded and failed-blew up-threw a rod-whatever.

OK, then, you get the military to fly in a new set of generators and fire the GD Things up. But, I suspect a lot more things got screwed up than just those gensets. If the water got that high, I would bet that the switch stations were wiped out to.

So they basically will have to replace everything from the input valve back to the gensets-my guess. No small task. Last thing you wanna do is pump dirty water into those reactors.

[meatloaf]

The generators at nuke plants are a bit larger than those you see on trailers. Some of them are larger than railroad flat cars. The pistons are the size of large garbage cans.

The generators operate off a day tank that contains a limited amount of fuel. IIRC correctly that’s a 500 or 1000 gal tank. If something happens to that and the connection to the main fuel tanks is disrupted that could be a problem.

[TBall]

It is sad, but I worry about the opportunities that are now being presented to the wolves.

[GonzoGOP]

My bet is that some responsible person let the diesel fuel get down to an hour’s worth.

Or saltwater got into the tanks. As i said in an earlier post there was a report that it was saltwater contamination. And salt in the fuel would make more sense if they ran for an hour and then cut out than the power house just getting inundated.

[NVDave]

The size of the diesel gensets here aren’t going to be something for which parts are readily available.

After an event like this, there could be all manner of things wrong with a big diesel, from mechanical failures to fuel systems getting plugged by all manner of crap on the bottom of the fuel tank getting stirred up.

[DBrow]

Pong! Thanks GOPJ