Breaking News: M7 hits Japan and water leakage at reactor 4

[flamingdem]

Though the connection with this earthquake is not clear, Tepco announced water is leaking from the cooling system of spent fuel pool in reactor 4.

The water level of the tank to pool overflowed water from spent fuel pool decreased by 8cm from 2PM to 5PM on 1/1/2012.

This tank is to give back the water to the spent fuel pool after purifying the water. Tepco assumes the leakage is at a joint of pipe but it’s not detected yet.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/01/m7-hit-japan-and-water-leakage-at-reactor4/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FukushimaDiary+%28Fukushima+Diary%29

[kristopher]

1. More information - it wasn't a leak, the flow was reversed by the quake.

Fukushima Reactor 4 Skimmer Surge Tank Latest: Earthquake Caused the Water to Go from SFP to Reactor Well Instead, Says TEPCO

TEPCO admits the January 1, 2012 earthquake caused it, and no it wasn't a leak but the water from the Spent Fuel Pool went the other way to the Reactor Well, instead of going to the Skimmer Surge Tank.

I started reading the Mainichi Shinbun article, but it was very short on details, and knowing TEPCO couldn't have held a press conference on January 2 I went to look for TEPCO's own words somewhere. It was in the handout for the press on January 2, 2012.

The handout is in Japanese only for now, so the following is my translation. It was clearly written over time as new information came in. (I will put up the English reference handout when TEPCO issues one.)

...

At 5:30PM on January 1, it was observed that the water level of the Skimmer Surge Tank of the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 dropped by 240 millimeters during the 3 hours from 2PM to 5PM (while the normal decline is 50 millimeters in 3 hours). Later we surveyed the facilities, but found no leak outside the reactor building, at the pipe joints of the SFP cooling system or at the location where the cooling system was installed....

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/01/fukushima-reactor-4-skimmer-surge-tank_02.html