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Hiddencamper
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Pressure and level gauges are outside the containment.
Could it have been some type of notching or reference leg boiling?
Could it have been some type of notching or reference leg boiling?
The water level measuring system at the plant was not very advanced, and could not cope well with elevated temperature, and evaporation from the reference leg under these accident conditions. There was no way of correction for loss of water from the reference leg, meaning the readout values for the water level would likely systematically indicate a significantly higher level of water in the RPV, than the level actually was. The gross unsteadiness of the readings in the hours before the explosion come on the background of a period with limited and intermittent injection of coolant into a water starved RPV. One could say, perhaps it was the reactors way of saying "duck and cover or run"..jim hardy said:Something was affecting reactor water level indication shortly before the explosion
from http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/EXPORT/projects/fukushima/plots/cur/out/plot-un3-t-I-full.png
ahhh so something did run down the TIP tube. Should be telling.Azby said:Here's the English version of the press release about the samples:
Their may not be much in the way of TU nuclides. They could do inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectroscopy, gamma spectroscopy and neutron activation analysis.jim hardy said:ahhh so something did run down the TIP tube. Should be telling.
Can they estimate neutron spectrum from little samples like that ?
I guess you need glass or mica to see fission fragment tracks?Astronuc said:They could do inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectroscopy, gamma spectroscopy and neutron activation analysis.
jim hardy said:ahhh so something did run down the TIP tube. Should be telling.
The range of fission products is on the order of a few microns, which is less than a typical average grain size of 10 to 15 microns for UO2.jim hardy said:I guess you need glass or mica to see fission fragment tracks?
Gary7 said:This was the first I'd heard anything about the destruction of the concrete lid of Unit 1, but I haven't been following this as closely as I used to.
Azby said:I'm not sure if this has been posted here yet, but it's very informative regarding TEPCO estimates of fuel melt and disposition, including muon scan results. Unit 3 muon scans weren't available yet, I think:
Estimation of current status inside RPV and PCV at Fukushima Daiichi NPS
July 3, 2017
http://ndf-forum.com/ref/d2_mizokami_en.pdf
Sotan said:
Yep, sounds like stainless steel reactor internals and clad . They use low cobalt alloys wherever there's neutrons.Sotan said:They mention below that "in addition to Fe, Cr, Ni, Mn and other elements from the various supporting structures, Zr has been detected, which is usually to be found in the internal structures of the reactor and also in the outer covers of the fuel cells (i know it's a clumsy translation... maybe Zr cladding?)
May mean kilo (thousands) of counts.Sotan said:KCnt (?)
XM-19, aka Nitronic 50®, is a high nitrogen austenitic stainless (UNS 20910) with 22% Cr, 13% Ni, 5% Mn and 2.2% Mo with additions of Nb and V ~0.2%. The addition of N in solid solution to about 0.2% provides strength, such that XM-19 in the annealed state has strength similar to that of 20% CW 316. XM-19 was patented (US 3592634) by Armco (now AK Steel) in 1971. It is also used as bolting/fastener material in nuclear systems (usually ex-core applications) and components in variety of industries including aerospace and oil and gas exploration/development. XM-19 (Nitronic 50) is one of several Nitronic® stainless steels. Nitronic is a trademark of Armco and its successor AK Steel. XM-19 is a more common designation, or 22-13-5 (or 22Cr-13Ni-5Mn). It's a material of interest to me in my research.Sotan said:CRD index tube is made of nytrogen-treated (?) XM-19 stainless steel with similar melting point.