Unit 3 Daiichi Pool Accident Analysis

TEPCO announced this week that the 1.5 ton mast for the refueling crane fell into the pool and sank as they tried to remove debris from the pool. TEPCO has done some testing of radiation levels near the pool and does not think there was fuel damage based on not finding drastically elevated levels.

The mast falling could create a couple of potential damage situations. It could fall and damage the fuel assemblies held in the pool. It could also damage or puncture the spent fuel pool metal liner causing a leak in the pool. The condition of the liner or the concrete pool has not been confirmed by TEPCO to date.

The mast that fell looks like this under normal conditions. It has minimal connections to the refueling crane.

TEPCO released these photos of the pool work showing where the crane is, the debris being removed and relative location. We have oriented all photo so that the sea side wall with the remaining bits of wall frame are at the top of each photo.

U3_pool_before_130208_01

 

Taking the marked up photo TEPCO provided that circled the location of the mast and doing a rough overlay with a map of the spent fuel pool you can see a rough idea of where the mast fell. It appears to have fallen into the space left open for fuel handling. It could have nicked the nearby fuel rack but that would depend on how it fell once it began to sink. We can tell how and approximately where it fell. It is unclear what the mast did as it fell to the deeper depths of the pool.

U3_mast_path1

The red and green landmarks provide points of reference for other photos of the pool that show the mast falling.

U3_mast_path2
The purple circle is the mast as it falls and sinks.

These are the video stills of the mast in the original location and the progression as it falls and sinks.
U3poolvid1
U3poolvid2
U3poolvid3
U3poolvid4
U3poolvid5
U3poolvid6
U3poolvid7
U3poolvid8

The full video of the event can be found on our youtube channel

This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team
Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org

© 2011-2023 SimplyInfo.org, Fukuleaks.org All Rights Reserved Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than http://www.simplyinfo.org (or http://www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content in full or in more than a phrase or quote, please contact us first to obtain permission.

Editor

Editor, SimplyInfo.org

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: