Options are few to prevent Japan nuclear catastrophe

[somone]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-japan-quake-nuclear-20110319,0,3085957.story

Options are few to prevent Japan nuclear catastrophe
As a crack is discovered in a Fukushima spent fuel pool, officials confront two crucial tasks: preventing a runaway chain reaction into the nuclear fuel and maintaining a massive flow of seawater through the damaged pools and reactor vessels.
By Ralph Vartabedian, W.J. Hennigan and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

Workers struggling to contain radioactive releases from the Fukushima power plant face two critical tasks to avoid turning a nuclear disaster into a catastrophe: preventing a runaway chain reaction into the nuclear fuel and maintaining a massive flow of seawater through the damaged pools and reactor vessels. There are few options, none of them good. "The most imaginative engineers in the world couldn't have dreamed up a situation like this," said Najmedin Meshkati, a USC professor and nuclear power expert.

But to deal with the grim reality at hand, utility workers and some of the top U.S. experts on nuclear reactors are working around the clock, attempting to calculate how to avoid further damage to the reactors and how to get sufficient cooling water through the plant with improvised water cannons, fire hoses and helicopters. If they can buy enough time, possibly several weeks, the nuclear material will cool off and become less radioactive, significantly reducing the risk of a further meltdown or chain reaction event. In coming years, experts agree, the damaged fuel will have to be removed from the plant to a safer location. Most experts say that the plant cannot be entombed in concrete, as was the Chernobyl plant after the 1986 disaster.

"If those water cannons are getting water to the cooling pools, they should keep that up," said Elmer Lewis, an expert on nuclear power plant safety at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. "Until that fuel cools down, they have a real mess on their hands." Edward Morse, a professor of nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, added that it would take huge amounts of water to compensate for the cracks in a containment pool that were uncovered by U.S. surveillance aircraft on Friday. "The best thing to do is use as much of the Pacific Ocean as possible," he said.

The other crucial task is to prevent the fuel in any of the reactors or pools from going critical, an event in which nuclear fission starts on its own and generates tremendous amounts of heat. Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima plant, said it was importing tons of additional boron to ensure it could flood the reactor with the material, which absorbs neutrons that trigger the breakdown of uranium nuclei. Not only will water absorb heat, it also forms a protective barrier against radiation, making it safer for workers at the plant, said David Lochbaum, head of nuclear safety policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a former nuclear plant operator. "If they can cover the fuel, it will reduce the radiation levels and they can use the plant equipment," Lochbaum said...

[rzemanfl]

1. They need Vonnegut's Ice Nine about now. n/t

[obxhead]

2. The most imaginative engineers. Ha, I can envision one far worse.

Far, far worse. If engineers can not imagine the possibility of a catastrophe this size , then they should not be in charge of deciding minimum precaution levels.

ffs, this was not that hard of an ordeal to predict would eventually happen. Tsunami is a Japanese word ffs.

[Control-Z]

5. When I was young.

I mean really young, elementary school age, and first learned about nuclear power plants and their basic functions, I imagined it. Not the tsunami, but the earthquake, the cracked pools, the water escaping, and the reaction. It was not hard. And it was pretty much the way this one has come down.

How could they not imagine it?

[dickthegrouch]

3. Why not freeze it with liquid Nitrogen?

Drive a truck with Liquid N2 up to the rods. Lift the driver out and breach the truck.
Then shatter the rods into much smaller pieces (assuming that's possible).

My expectation is that part of the problem is they are very hot right now and it is too difficult to deliver enough water to cool them down. Therefore the nitrogen freezing should be extremely quick and assuming the specific heat capacity of the fuel rods is actually quite low, easier to keep cool once they are cool.

[cliffordu]

4. That would be a SPECTACULAR explosion, I'd bet.

[tavalon]

11. I'm with you

Fun in the movies but not at all fun in this situation.

[Paradoxical]

7. Extremely hot material+extremely rapid cooling= Explosion.

Rapid cooling of fuel rods will result in instantaneous fracturing and a violent explosion.

Have you ever seen what happens when you pour ice water into a really hot glass pan?

[csziggy]

8. Liquid Nitrogen and really hot water make a pretty spectacular POOF!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfV-t91xFEg

[Stardust]

6. Call me crazy, but I suggest dropping bags of water , ala waterbeds, on the reactors.

The water would be contained to a certain degree and not blow away from the target like "loose" water does. I'd bombard the reactors non-stop. We certainly have the air power to assist.

During the BP Oil Disaster, there was a website we could go to an read how the experts were brainstorming and coming up with different solutions and insights? Is there anything comparable relating to the Japan disaster?

[jtuck004]

9. They are trying to fill the Reactor 3 fuel storage pool

Only thing to cool these with is circulated water. Reporter on Ustream said need 1000 tons of water.

Fire truck last night put 40 tons on, the crew this morning started "early", put 60 tons in by noon.

__

Sounds like this is the only truck they have like this, or maybe all they have been able to get in.

So they need to put in 250,000 gals and are pumping with an extended boom and a nozzle.

Could finish on fourth day from now at this rate and no leaks.

Maybe centrifugal pumps in the plant could fill this in the same day if they can get it electrical and water,
if in working order, if a boat isn't stuck in the intake, pipes aren't broke or missing...

Hot though...

[somone]

10. A fire truck from the U.S. military was also used

[jtuck004]

12. Yes, I heard that other assets were out there, but

wehn they panned across the shot that was the only truck pumping. It may have to do with getting in
and getting a good supply of unobstructed seawater.

That's only one reactor, but in the shot I saw there was nothing going to the others.

If they can get electric to it, it is undamaged, and they can get a water supply that doesn't have lots of
debris, those circ pumps that are built into the plant can pump many times that much water.

But that's a lot of ifs... They need (needed?) a lot more water on this stuff. I was thinking that their response
is slow and doesn't seem to recognize the gravity of what could happen, then I see a story about how they were trying
to protect assets. So instead we get thousands of gallons of seawater that is now radioactive dumped on the place, flowing across the ground and back to the sea. How 'bout those assets? Geez.