Reactor #2 Feeling Cooler

Things are finally starting to cool off in Japan.


A cooling system for the water in a temporary storage pool for spent nuclear fuel rods has been fully restored at the Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture) Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear power plant. This is the first of four such projects completed at the plant, and was completed months ahead of schedule, according to TEPCO, (Tokyo Electric Power Company), who own and operate the facility.

Dai-ichi was damaged on March 11, 2011 after a 9.0 Magnitude earthquake caused a massive tsunami to knock out the electrical generators at the plant. These generators powered the cooling system, a much needed operation to continue keeping the water surrounding the nuclear rods (spent and currently being used) from heating up. If the rods were to overheat, a nuclear meltdown would be imminent--something that nearly happened.   

TEPCO announced that the cooling system was restored on May 31, 2011 for the storage pool at the No. 2 reactor building, providing the first full recovery of a cooling system at the plant since March 11. The recovery was also far ahead of TEPCO's January 2012 deadline

The cooling system cools a pipe that run from the temporary storage pool into a heat exchanger, using the cooling water in the exchanger. The water from the heat exchanger is cooled with air from a fan.The water in the storage pool ranges in temperature between 70 - 80 Celsius, but as water is lost through vaporaization, more water is needed to keep the rods completely covered. If the cooling system works efficiently, the temperature will be stabilized at around 40 C, according to TEPCO.

Because steam from fuel pool has caused the humidity within the No. 2 reactor to be as high as 99 per cent,the cooling system will reduce this, making further, more efficient recovery work possible.

Cooling systems will be up and running in Reactors No. 1 and No. 3 by the end of June, with Reactor No. 4 completed sometime in July.

Files compiled by Andrew Joseph