Helicopters Drop Water on Nuclear Reactor

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have begun aerial water drops on reactor 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant:

Japanese military helicopters were seen dropping water Thursday morning to cool the damaged No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. The helicopters, belonging to the Self-Defense Forces, were conducting the operations as it was feared the reactor may have released radioactive steam due to damage to its containment vessel, according to a Kyodo news report. Each helicopter can drop about 7.5 tons of water, according to a report on N-H-K World news channel.

You can watch this happening live on N-H-K World or the N-H-K Japanese live feeds.

It has been reported that water cannon trucks are also on their way to the area. However, each truck can apparently only shoot 4 tons of water at a time.

N-H-K says that parts of the Chinook helicopters have been reinforced with lead plates and that the pilots are wearing protective gear. However, they are no doubt exposing themselves to quite a bit of radiation. If they expect to continue this operation for some time, will have to be a lot of swapping of helicopters and crews.

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http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

Stone-cold heroes, whatever the real or imagined exposure, or effectiveness. This was a death sentence for the same operation at Chernobyl, which was (probably?) far worse, but still… When somebody sets up a fund for them and their families, I hope everyone throws some money into the pot.

Rumour, and that’s all it is, is that Washington demanded a ‘suicide operation’. While the ‘soldiers’ of this operation, military and civilian, are risking their health with hoses and helicopters, I’d like to see the ‘generals’ who got us into this mess in a ‘bucket-brigade’.

Ap

I really hope the Tepco jerks who are responsible for the horrible shape of the plant(s) are getting sentenced.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

Note they are GE plants with some fundamental design flaws: location of the pumps, and the ‘pool’, among others. Guessing that was an untendered govt-to-govt deal. Lots of blame to go around, but not to the ones now in harm’s way.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

According to one expert on CNN, over 20 of the plants in America have this exact same design.
So the anti-nuclear program is basically arguing for us to stop building new plants that don’t have these problems (spent fuel storage within containment, cooling requires no power, etc.) so we can keep using the ones that do.
Hmmmm.
jcpb

Nah, the anti-nuclear people will say no to any new nuke plants and close down all existing ones, even if they’re over-engineered and retrofitted with tomorrow’s tech. They want nuke power banned, simply put.

Which, as we all know, is a mirage, since electricity demand goes in only one direction.

Tony D

“I really hope the Tepco jerks who are responsible for the horrible shape of the plant(s) are getting sentenced.”

Considering the plant was built 40 years ago and the earthquake/tsunami was 5 times more powerful than what it was built to resist, I’d say they did a pretty good job…

jcpb

Can you imagine a GE testimonial about that reactor design? “This reactor might not be designed to weather natural disasters, but it did exceedingly well in a highly earthquake- and tsunami-prone region for the past 40 years. Highly recommended for more stable locales!”
leitmotiv

Can you imagine a GE testimonial about that reactor design?

There already was one – in a sense. Several of the GE engineers registered their displeasure with the reactor’s safety by quitting when that design was finalized. I think that their main complaint was the spent fuel storage pool on the roof – under a flimsy cover.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

Western media was reporting the use of seawater as “last resort” for sensationalism.
This, however, does strike me as an act of desperation =/

terry

yeah, delaying the inevitable. Or perhaps waiting/hoping for a miracle.
Liam

Sea Water isn’t a last resort, but it’s certainly not something you’d usually do if you ever want to reactivate the plant in the near future. Seeing however as this plant was originally slated for decommissioning and only recently got an extension on life, it’s no real surprise that they’d be willing to use it. Not really desperation, just a solution that’s easily implemented.

terry

aren’t they just trying to minimize the radiation before electrical power can be turned back on to cool the spent fuel?
http://www.neediff.com Prasad

If radiation increases Japan & Japan’s Neighbouring countries will also face many problems
Personman

so is the core exposed or not? All my nuclear engineer friends say that they wouldn’t be doing this unless the core was exposed.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

Did these friends also point out the difference between core and spent fuel?

Personman

yes they did, but I don’t know anything about nuclear reactors. That’s why they didn’t really believe the reports at first b/c to them, saying that they’re pouring water on the reactor would mean that the core is exposed so they just thought that they were talking about something along the lines of spent fuel.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

So they know that no water is being sprayed over a core… but they believe that water being sprayed over spent fuel rods is proof that the core is exposed ???
Status updates have already shown the spent fuel rods in #4 have been exposed — and probably #3 now too.
http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_images/pdf/ENGNEWS01_1300368041P.pdf

Contrary to popular belief and media sensationalizing for the sake of their headlines, there is no coverup at work here.

Helicopters Drop Water on Nuclear Reactor

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