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current fukushima underwater footage

7/28/2017

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The book Chemistry on a Budget contains inexpensive chemistry labs that are useful with easy to obtain materials.
 
There are two versions of each lab, one with a ten-question conclusion and one with directions for a full lab report.  This way the teacher has the option!  Each lab is two pages to allow for one two-sided handout. 
 
You can buy this lab book for $23 at amazon.com or lulu.com. It will take 1-2 weeks to get to you.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Budget-Marjorie-R-Heesemann/dp/0578129159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389410170&sr=1-1&keywords=chemistry+on+a+budget

http://www.lulu.com/shop/marjorie-r-heesemann/chemistry-on-a-budget/paperback/product-21217600.html
 
It will take a few weeks for the book to get to you, so ORDER NOW!  You’ll want to have some time before the school year starts to see how you can use the book Chemistry on a Budget in your class.
 
*Some of you have already purchased Chemistry on a Budget – be sure to check out Page 141 !
 
 “Tokyo Electric has said that a remotely controlled robot investigating the inside of reactor 3 at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant has finally spotted objects that could be fuel debris — a potential milestone in the effort to clean up one of the worst atomic disasters in history.

This is the first time Tepco has found something likely to be melted fuel. When the utility sent a different robot into reactor 2 in January, it found black lumps sticking to the grating in the primary containment vessel but said they were difficult to identify.

The objects spotted this time look like icicles hanging around a control rod drive attached to the bottom of the pressure vessel, which holds the core…

Enclosed by the huge primary containment vessel, the pressure vessel originally contained the fuel rod assemblies. But the rods melted into a puddle and burned through its bottom once the plant lost power after being swamped by the monstrous tsunami of March 11, 2011.

The robot also captured images of lumps of material that appear to have melted and resolidified near the wall of the pedestal, a concrete structure that supports the pressure vessel.”
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/07/21/national/fukushima-robot-finds-potential-fuel-debris-hanging-like-icicles-reactor-3/#.WXeBY-mQzcs
 
“The Great East Japan Earthquake of magnitude 9.0 at 2.46 pm on Friday 11 March 2011 did considerable damage in the region, and the large tsunami it created caused very much more. The earthquake was centred 130 km offshore the city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture on the eastern cost of Honshu Island (the main part of Japan), and was a rare and complex double quake giving a severe duration of about 3 minutes. An area of the seafloor extending 650 km north-south moved typically 10-20 metres horizontally. Japan moved a few metres east and the local coastline subsided half a metre. The tsunami inundated about 560 sq km and resulted in a human death toll of about 19,000 and much damage to coastal ports and towns, with over a million buildings destroyed or partly collapsed.”
http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-accident.aspx
This article has a list of facts about the accident that may be useful to review.
 
“After an earthquake struck near Japan on March 11, 2011, a tsunami spurred by the quake hit the nuclear plant, damaging generators and causing three nuclear meltdowns and the subsequent release of radioactive material. No radiation-related deaths have been reported, but nearly 100,000 homes had to be evacuated in the aftermath of the disaster.

Six years later, the homes remain deserted. But underwater robots could be the key to decontaminating the area and making it habitable again. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which owns the Fukushima nuclear plant, has been using robots mounted with cameras to explore the site, often losing them to radiation damage or challenging terrain. (See 360 footage of what’s left from Chernobyl, the worst nuclear power disaster in history.)”
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/fukushima-nuclear-reactor-robot-clean-up-video-spd/
This page contains footage of the underwater exploration.
 
“Having entered the stricken Pressure Containment Vessel (PCV) through a pipe designed to prevent the escape of radioactive gas, the robot descended into the cooling water which accumulated following the accident.

The device was equipped with thrusters to navigate through the water, and featured front and rear cameras.

The small ‘radiation-hardened, screw-driven’ submersible robot was designed to fit through the narrow, 14-centimeter (5.5-inch) diameter entrance of the pipe, according to the Tokyo-based International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID), which developed the device alongside technology company Toshiba.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/asia/fukushima-robot-nuclear-fuel-detected/index.html
This page also contains footage of the underwater exploration.
 
“[T]he robot spotted suspected debris of melted fuel for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and destroyed the plant…
Locating and analysing the fuel debris and damage in each of the plant’s three wrecked reactors is crucial for decommissioning the plant. The search for melted fuel in the two other reactors has so far been unsuccessful because of damage and extremely high radiation levels.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/23/fukushima-images-show-massive-deposits-thought-to-be-melted-nuclear-fuel
This page also contains footage of the underwater exploration.
 
“…[F]uel rod assemblies contained in the pressure vessel melted into a puddle and burned through the bottom after the tsunami six years ago.
Lumps of material that appeared to have melted and re-solidified near the wall of the pedestal, a concrete structure supporting the pressure vessel, were also captured on camera.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40696303
 
“The Japanese government said in December that it expects total costs including compensation, decommissioning and decontamination to reach 21.5 trillion yen ($192.5 billion) in a process likely to take at least four decades as high radiation levels slow operations. “
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-robot-fuel-fukushima-reactor.html
 
Past blog posts about Nuclear Chemistry and Nuclear Power include:
2/11/2015              Introduction to Nuclear Chemistry
02/18/2015            Nuclear Chemistry – Part II (Fission,
                                 Fusion & Half-Life)
08/06/2015            Post-Fukushima Restarts
10/30/2015            Current Event – Radioactive Waste
                                 from WWII
10/22/2015            The Future of Nuclear Fusion​
02/20/2016            Nuclear Waste and Lake Huron
03/26/2016            Nuclear Waste Storage
05/01/2016            30th Anniversary of Chernobyl  
07/31/2016            Cost of Nuclear Shutdown in Germany
08/07/2016            Debate about Nuclear Power
11/25/2016            Tsunami Near Fukushima
02/10/2017             High Fukushima Radiation Levels
 
*This Blog contains several entries that would be helpful to your chemistry classroom.  Check out the Topic List to help you to find past Blog entries.
 
Also, Write To Me about your successes, challenges, or questions in the Chemistry Classroom.
 
Remember, buying a copy of the lab book Chemistry on a Budget can be very useful to your Chemistry classroom with labs and class article ideas.

Have a great weekend!

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    Marjorie R. Heesemann is a chemistry teacher with 15 years of experience who is now working to develop resources for the Chemistry classroom.

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