Astronuc said:
The problems arise from the Mark I containment, which is certainly non-optimal for the scenario that evolved at Fukushima. The accident was 'beyond design basis' ... the plant staff had so little time to respond, and the response was muted with complete loss of both off-site AND on-site power
Astronuc, you got my point. More modern designs are better, but BWR + Mark I is still the most common. The actual best practice is to contain the core as much as possible, which works fine when there's nothing else to do as it limits the damages. But I don't remember on which report, I read that one hour after the tsunami there were already 400 people on the plant, including operators, firefighters, contractors... that's an enourmous amount of very flexible power.
If I understand it correctly, after SCRAM, as long as the fuel is submerged under water AND the cladding is intact, there's no major release of radiation, and it's still possible for humans to go inside of the reactor building (and around it).
Right on top of the reactor there's a pool with at least 700 tonnes of water (10 meter diameter times 10 meter of depth, without considering the spent fuel pool side which must remain filled, and the tools pool which on the contrary could also be used for cooling).
Once it is clear that there's no electrical power but there's enough "man power", the RPV could be brought to outside pressure, and then the top plug of PCV and RPV could be pulled so that the pool water would flood the fuel, heat up and evaporate naturally at 100 degrees. 700+ tonnes of water, along with the initial venting of steam, would be enough for a few hours of flooded and cooled fuel (but that's just my guess, I didn't do the math).
Human force would just need to fill the pool with water, but with freedom to go inside and outside the reactor building, that wouldn't be an impossible task.
etudiant said:
Your idea is a core element in the design of the newer AP1000 reactors just approved by the US NRC.
(so, it wasn't really "my idea", I shouldn't claim fathership of it ;)
etudiant said:
The problem was that the reactors at Fukushima were difficult to depressurize because the valves needed power to be opened. So a bad accident was made much worse.
I believe they are already required to fix it as soon as possible, along with hardened venting pipes. As I do believe that there're ways to make earthquake/tsunami/power-loss resisting valves, and cranes to lift the cover of the reactor (or any other action required by emergency response).
One factor that made me think of this, is that fire hoses, small portable diesel pumps, and even buckets, are really common and cheap, so it should be economically viable for operators to store many of them here and there on the plant. Much cheaper than many other changes they are now forced to do to the plants.
Jim Lagerfeld said:
I thought you might be interested in this tidbit from the Washington Post...
Thanks Jim, that material was tremendous, it took me two days to read all the emails but it was worth it. Garwin had to think about it after the accident happened and the core already melted, and as he noted, one of the biggest challenge was the radiation level inside of the building and the debris scattered around (that's why the idea of the charges)