Posted on 04/08/2011 5:47:42 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
New cooling options being explored
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering alternative methods, including the construction of improvised systems, to cool reactors at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Ongoing operations--which involve pouring water directly into the reactor cores to lower temperatures inside the pressure vessels of the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors to below 100 C--have not worked as expected, and restoration of the reactors' existing cooling systems is not likely to happen soon.
/snip
One proposal is to build makeshift cooling systems. TEPCO would have to access pipes connected to the pressure vessels at some point outside the reactor buildings where radiation levels are low. From there, the company could connect the pipes to new heat exchangers and pumps.
Another option under consideration is trying to lower the temperatures of the pressure vessels from the outside, by filling the containment vessels that surround them with water or some other coolant. The success of this plan would depend on whether the containment vessels have been damaged.
(Excerpt) Read more at yomiuri.co.jp ...
P!
This is going well. A thousand PhDs standing around going, “Hell, I don’t know. Get a fire hose and shoot some water on it.”
100 l/m is 26 gal/min. A liter is roughly a quart. That makes the injection rate into reactor #1 is 1,560 gallons per hour.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.