TEPCO/Atomic industry need to stop mixing up unknowns and knowns

Mar 2, 2017 1:48 AM

Back in February TEPCO sent a robot into the room below the Unit 2 reactor to find the fuel. The plan was to follow the blue line shown at the bottom to take photos and gather info on what had leaked out. Problem was, the grated metal floor was melted all to shit. "No biggie" they said, "it's a 1m hole, we'll go around it and follow the curved blue line at the top." Bear in mind this is the image they put out to the press.

Problem is, make a composite photo with the images TEPCO had already released and you'll see that the entire front half of the floor is melted or missing with no where for the robot to travel. So this alternative route or 'Plan B' was never going to happen.

Near as I could tell from the images they released, it was clear to see at least this much of the floor of the room had been melted or blown away, at least. The question marked area could be equally damaged, the robot didn't take images of that part clearly so we don't know.

Two weeks later TEPCO put out a revised drawing confirming this exact same thing. Not a 1x1 meter hole, more like a 2x3 meter hole. All of a sudden 'Plan B' was off the table. This was obvious to any casual observer. So why bother with the original 'Plan B' narrative? To downplay the info put out to the public and the press? Please don't pretend you don't know something when it's clear that you do. That's just ridiculous.

This leads up to the other thing I don't like; pretending you know something when it's easy to prove you don't. These images show that fuel melted out of the reactor, through the bottom head and into the room below. The graphic illustrates as much. What isn't clear, is how much of the fuel melted out of the reactor vessel. There was 150 tons of fuel in Unit 2 at the tine it melted down and the images don't show whether it was 5% or 95% that escaped. The muon scans were inconclusive at best. The escape percentatge is a clear unknown.

Now 'experts' say: "We know only a small amount of the fuel escaped because if it all melted out, that round room with the concrete walls below the reactor would be full to the brim with molten fuel."

Well let's look with shots TEPCO took from an identical undamaged reactor to see if that's true. Here we are in the room below, looking up at the bottom of the reactor vessel and the control rod drives.

Here's the round room with the thick concrete walls below. In Unit 2 this is exactly where the molten fuel that melted out of the reactor above and fell through the grating would have landed.

But look, the shots show drain-lines and pipework in the flooring of this room. So possible exit number 1

What's this?

A large doorway in the concrete room. Judging by the worker, about 4ft wide x 8ft high.

So before flooding this concrete room, any molten fuel would have been able to escape unimpeded out through here just like a drain in a bathtub.

Running out into the containment vessel proper/torus area here.

Now as TEPCO filmed this exact same sequence of locations in preparation for finding the fuel in Units 1 and 2 this is definitely a likely fuel exit. That means you can't state how much fuel exited the reactor based on whether the sub room was flooded with molten fuel. So why make the categorical statement that only a small amount of fuel leaked out of the reactor? For downplay and false pretences? I don't know.
All in all, with something as serious as an atomic accident, I can't state how annoying it is to see obvious facts unnecessarily shrouded in mystery while ongoing mysteries are put forward as hard facts.

TLDR; https://youtu.be/_w5JqQLqqTc?t=33

TEPCO incompetent, sun rises in east, water wet. The real question: why on earth are they in charge of this operation?

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