TEPCO announced a plan to establish cooling and cover the buildings which would take 6 to 9 months. The condition of the existing plant systems and the high radiation levels in the reactor buildings led to a decision to build a new facility which will cool and reprocess the water being injected into the reactors to establish a closed loop system. Units 1 and 3 will be put on the new system first. Unit 2 will first need to have the reactor containment patched before being placed on the cooling system. The damaged buildings will be temporarily covered with construction tarps while design of a cement structure is developed. Entry into the reactor buildings is dangerous because of the radiation levels. A robot was sent into the Unit 1 and 3 reactor buildings which measured radiation levels which limit a human to a 4 to 5 hour stay time before reaching the maximum allowed annual dose. The robot will be sent into Unit 2 today and where higher radiation levels are expected.
The level of contaminated water collecting in the Unit 2 tunnel rose a few centimeters over the weekend. We did not see any reports of pumping to the condensers taking place. Ground water sampling did not see any increase in radiation levels. TEPCO is preparing the on site waste water treatment plant, which is normally used to cleanup non contaminated water for discharge into the ocean, for holding some of the highly contaminated water. It provides and additional 30,000 tons (7.9 million gallons) of capacity.
The tens of thousands people evacuated from the area have been told it will be months before they can return to their homes. Prior to their return the plant needs to be stable with no more radioactive releases and the contaminated grounds must be cleaned up.
Below is a picture taken by a T-Hawk drone of Unit 4 showing the debris on spent fuel pool area which prevents knowing the water level in the pool. The green structure is the bridge which spans the pool and is used for lifting the fuel assemblies. Steam is being produced by the spent fuel. (reference: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp8/daiichi-photos8.htm)
Below is a picture taken by a T-Hawk drone of Unit 4 showing the debris on spent fuel pool area which prevents knowing the water level in the pool. The green structure is the bridge which spans the pool and is used for lifting the fuel assemblies. Steam is being produced by the spent fuel. (reference: http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp8/daiichi-photos8.htm)
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