Fukushima Tropical STORM - Typhoon Alert Man-yi

Typhoon Man-yi Fukushima Alert

The strong tropical storm Man-yi is expected to approach Japan's northeastern Fukushima Prefecture on Monday but already we are seeing heavy rain and winds at the Fukushima Plant. And we are following this event live here at the chat.

I have added another livecam to the show and if you also turn on the TBS JNN livecam stream you will get the audio of the wind blowing and heavy rain. The new Futaba livecam is showing us the situation outside Fukushima. You can see the powerlines going to the Fukushima plant when the camera is facing away from the intersection.

And already we see how the trees are blowing. There have been cars going by from time to time. I guess this is either workers or personel in the area trying to keep the water out of certain areas. There have been reports of that they have been increasing patrols to make sure contaminated water does not overflow in the heavy rain.

At Sep. 15, 2013 - Updated 20:16 UTC they said

Tokyo Electric Power Company workers have placed weights on large cranes used to move debris around the reactor building to keep them from being toppled by strong winds.

They also attached ropes to outdoor piping and pumps that are used to inject water into the reactors.

The operators are strengthening patrols to prevent rain from entering and overflowing the basement of turbine buildings and the underground tunnel where highly contaminated water has accumulated.


   
They found water overflowing from a fence around storage tanks near the Number 4 reactor on Sunday afternoon. TEPCO officials are inspecting the leaked water to determine if it's contaminated.

The workers are dismantling a wastewater tank from which highly radioactive water is suspected to have leaked last month.

TEPCO says it plan to continue the work on Monday, but may decide to stop if the weather worsens.

Fukushima Daiichi Running WITHOUT Backup Generators

Well this story came out today, it was about the Spent Fuel Pool cooling systems going offline at the damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi but also for the other Nuclear Power Plant Daini. They say the cooling, Cesium absorbing system, Nitrogen injecting system for reactor 1,2,3, and the gas purifying system of reactor 2 were stopped because of trouble with the power exchanging facility in Iwaki Fukushima.

The press conference TEPCO held we can read what was said

1. TEPCO’s switching station in Minami Iwaki had a problem that caused the voltage to drop momentarily. They turned the switch off for a few milliseconds to clear the system.
2. TEPCO doesn’t know what caused the problem at the switching station.
3. The systems are getting back online. Kurion is still stopped. None of the systems needs to be continuously operated.
4. (There is absolutely no urgency in either question or answer, so I think everything is dandy now. I’m signing off.)

Everything seems to be online again and power have been restored since this incident, but what really is surprising to find out if you read between the lines is that the Fukushima Plants are running without any backup power generators!!

We have had some big (M5) earthquakes these past weeks around Japan and Fukushima with one of them causing damaged to the Fuel Pool at the Daiichi Nuclear Plant (not reported on in the news) cracking the cooling system causing an evacuation at the plant. Military helicopters to come in and 100s if not 1000s of Police have been seen by locals to arrive at nigh time (to try and avoid any suspicion by the locals)

☢ Fukushima Earthquakes Jan 2012 Updates Emergency Evacuation at Nuclear Plant Workers Have Left Province ☢
☢ MP3 - Fukushima Deteriorating - Yoichi Shimatsu and Jeff Rense 01-09-12 ☢

Well this happened the first day of 2012 at nigh when the earthquake struck. I'm getting a little bit of track here but I only want to keep you updated that's all. Because the news sure doesn't.

This is just insane, to think that all this time the plant would have been running without backup generators working properly. Is this really true? How stupid are they really. We have been so close to another big earthquake that could easily take out the power another time just as long as it did that day in March 2011 when the earthquake struck these past weeks. And looking at the earthquake activity and reports from people studing the activity seem to agree that there is going to be another big earthquake sometime in the near future.

Some scientists also have alarmed about the posibillity that another tsunami could come in that is as big or even bigger than the one that caused the disaster. 

Given all these threats, you really would expect them to have working generators in place at the Fukushima Plant / Plants if we count in Daini also. But reading this story it sure don't seem like it. Another devestating quake and Daini is also going to follow the same fate as the disaster stricked Daiichi plant.

Will Godzilla rise again?

Reactors Venting Steam at North Anna Plant After Quake

Related: ☢ 5.9 Earthquake Shuts Down North Anna Nuclear Power Plant 70 miles from Washington D.C Aug 23 2011 ☢


North Anna Nuclear Powe Plant reactor units that shuts down after the facility lost power after the 5.9 earthquake that struck Virginia are now venting steam. The facility went to backup power after the earthquake and 1 of the 4 diesel generators that supply backup power failed.

The North Anna Nuclear plant is built to handle earthquakes and the 5.9 earthquake did not exceed the stated maximum capacity (5.9-6.1) of the construction this time.

The diesels have enough fuel to run continously for 3 days. And with batteries only would give a minimum of 4 hours. And off course there is always the possibility to fill up the diesels and charge the batteries so the treath of meltdown is not that great at this moment.

There are two “loops” of steam/water in a nuke plant. One is “hot” meaning it comes in contact with the core and is radioactive. This is heated by the core and goes to a heat exchanger, usually under pressure so it is not boiling or steam. That heat exchanger connects to the other loop of water that gets its heat from the heat exchanger. This is usually transported to the turbins as steam, turning the turbines and those turn the generators. After the generators it goes to another heat exchanger that condenses it back to water and the second loop continues. There is a third heat exchanger loop usually that extracts the residual heat from the second loop helping to condense the steam.

When the plant shuts down and the generator turbines are “free wheeling” there is still heat in the core or “hot” water system that has to be removed through the heat exchanger and the second loop. The second loop is not pushing the turbines, so the heat removal is not efficient enough to cool the second loop. Steam is looping too fast to let the heat exchangers work efficiently. Therefore the second loop has to vent the system as steam to get enough cooling. The second loop is not radioactive unless there is a leak in the system.

Amanda Reidelbach [an emergency management spokeswoman for Louisa County] said the plant was venting steam but there was no release of radioactive material.

5.9 Quake Shuts Down North Anna Nuclear Power Plant

By Steve Hargreaves @CNNMoney August 23, 2011: 4:10 PM ET

NEW YORK - Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna power plant outside Richmond, Va. have shut down as a result of the earthquake Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

North Anna facility, located seven miles from the quake's epicenter, is now relying on back up diesel generators to keep spent nuclear fuel cool.

Nine other nuclear power plants in New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland have also declared unusual events but have not shut down, the NRC said.

The shutdown at the North Anna facility was automatic, an NRC spokeswoman said, triggered by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake. The plant is located just seven miles northeast of the quake's epicenter in Mineral, Va. It is 40 miles from Richmond, Va. and 70 miles from Washington, D.C.

Two other plants are located within 100 miles of the epicenter -- Calvert Cliffs near Lusby, Md., and Surry near Williamsburg, Va. Those plants have not reported any problems.

The reactors at North Anna are now relying on power from four back-up diesel generators to run basic plant functions, the NRC spokeswoman said. Those functions include running pumps that keep spent nuclear fuel stored at the plant cool.

The power plant is shut down and in a safe condition, a Dominion Resources (D, Fortune 500) official and the Louisa County public information office told CNN. There has been no release of nuclear material, Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda Reidelbach said.

A disruption of offsite power, not an unheard of event, is one of the biggest fears for critics of nuclear power. Power is needed to circulate water that both cools the rector core and the spent fuel, which lies near the reactor in specially-designed pools.

It was the loss of power at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, not the tsunami itself, that ultimately led that plant to meltdown. The flooding prevented backup generators from working.

The NRC spokesman said all four diesel generators are working properly at the North Anna facility.

When offsite power is lost, nuclear power plants can usually rely on backup diesel generators for several days, although offsite power is normally restored within hours.

Original Story: https://money.cnn.com/2011/08/23/news/economy/earthquake_nuclear/index.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/money_latest+(Latest+News)