CNN reports that new power cables are being laid to the NPP site to pump water to cool the fuel rods.
Power is OK. But the pumps and the pipes would have defenitely damaged by the hydraulic force of the tsunami waves. The best way to de-activate the fuel rods is to encapsulate them in concrete.
For that use dredger ships of the type used in the building of The Palm township in Dubai, which has the capacity to throw concrete slurries after being anchored at sea near the site.
Throw concrete on the reactors and encase them in solid concrete, preventing the chain reaction of generating the heat. Also the holes blown away by explosion can also be plugged this way.
Power is OK. But the pumps and the pipes would have defenitely damaged by the hydraulic force of the tsunami waves. The best way to de-activate the fuel rods is to encapsulate them in concrete.
For that use dredger ships of the type used in the building of The Palm township in Dubai, which has the capacity to throw concrete slurries after being anchored at sea near the site.
Throw concrete on the reactors and encase them in solid concrete, preventing the chain reaction of generating the heat. Also the holes blown away by explosion can also be plugged this way.
Agreed. The stricken plant in Japan could be buried in concrete. Such burial simply solves this problem, it does not make nuclear power safe.
ReplyDeleteTo make the existing nuclear power plants safe, we suggest the following:
1. Produce a lead enclosure to store a spent fuel rod in transit to a earthquake absent area.
2. In the earthquake absent area, create a storage facility that is air cooled through natural ventilation.
3. To be doubly sure, this storage depot is designed to be earthquake resistant.
4. Design the depot similar to emergency shelter for civilians to protect them from nuclear radiation in case of a nuclear accident nearby. This center has walls and corridors so arranged that no radiation reaches the area in which the public stays. Instead of the public, store the spent fuel rods each encased in its own concrete cylinder such that no radiation reaches the street.
In case there is any objection to exposing the nuclear radiation to the atmosphere from any leak in the depot, design the concrete walls and the lead doors such that the strength of the escaping radiation is comparable to that of the radiation from nuclear ores occuring in nature. Further, even with water-cooled storage of spent nuclear fuel, there is nuclear contamination of the water table of the area. So, mankind has no option but to live with some residual nuclear radiation in the environment.
a stroage facility that's air cooled through natural ventalation???? Still takes water to cool the fule rods. Their too hot to be cooled by ventalation, any such system would be overwhelmed. Water going to be cooled by air ventalation? Still have to circulate the water using pumps.
ReplyDeleteAnd what happens to the return water which will be highly irradiated? It has to be discharged to the sea,coz,cooling system is not circulatory.The radiation from the discharged water can disperse to all coasts of China, USA,
ReplyDeletefar east countries etc.,,
A single rod by itself could be air-cooled. Water simply carries the heat from the spent fuel as we keep the storage space small. When we design an air-cooled storage space, we need larger area. There are many home designs that are cooled and heated by natural ventilation.
ReplyDelete1.) there closed systems,ie: recirculated.
ReplyDelete2.) very clean water water does not become "hoghly irradiated". Thats why their not covered or shielded when stored...
The fuel rods are first cooled by recirculating heavy water and then the heavy water is cooled by water which then generates steam for the turbines. So the heavy water system itself might have been damaged.
ReplyDeleteWe learn that Japan has no reprocessing facility and thus all the spent fuel rods are stored. Similar arrangements could be considered for other countries desirous of taking the nuclear route to energy-sufficiency.
ReplyDeleteInstead of relying on water as cooling medium, discharging irradiated water into the underground water system or the river or the sea, air cooling of the spent fuel rods causes minimal environmental damage.
Many places in USA emit radon gas due to the nuclear activity of the soil. The radon gas that accumulates below the houses gets collected and pumped above the house into the atmosphere. Thus the air-cooled spent nuclear fuel rods behave as naturally occuring radon emitting soil. This causes no undue environmental damage.
As every spent fuel rod is encased in its own concrete enclosure, as and when the reprocessing is desired, such rods could be easily extracted and reused.
When we use heavy water to absorb the heat from the active fuel rods of a nuclear power plant, by necessity the interface between the heavy water and the steam water has to be thin metallic sheets and thus the steam could be irradiated as well.
After entombing the active reactor part in concrete, the whole entombed reactor shall be cut loose with the foundation by concrete cutting machines and transported to the deep sea and thrown down or buried in an old mine shaft, 2 kms deep under the earth.
ReplyDelete