NISA and JAIF information

Just had a briefing take place with NISA and not surprisingly the JAIF status document showed up at about the same time. The information train is back rolling along in Japan; surely the unexpected smoke and vapor yesterday is what temporarily stalled it.

1000 23 MARCH JAIF STATUS

NISA indicates that power is up to the Instrumentation & Control panels in the No. 1 and No. 2 control rooms and the equipment will probably be checked today. Core heat is obviously a problem and at 2:23 AM local a fire engine started pumping increased seawater into the core. The spent fuel pool at No. 1 is not large and not hot, so TEPCO isn't planning to have cooling on line for it until the 25th.

The workers in No. 2 are finding lots of water and water damage (as predicted right here) and lots of debris and failed equipment so the work is dragging on in getting the control room up. The reactor core seems stable. External fire pump supply to the built in spent fuel pool cooling system continues to operate.

No. 3 plant has power now (from No. 4) and the control room lights are on. There is power up to the I&C power supply transformers and a pump described as the "core condenser pump" (obviously a loss in translation) is being either fixed or replaced to get forced core cooling. This will use installed systems and fresh water and TEPCO wants it working by tomorrow. Tokyo fire crew will do 2 hours of spray of the spent fuel pool today but later a fire truck will be hooked up to the installed piping normally used to cool the spent fuel pool (just like was re-engineered for number 2 plant) and this might take over the spent fuel cooling requirements there. Tokyo fire should start the spray about 1600 hours local time.

No. 4 has power to its main equipment panel. The concrete truck is scheduled for three hours of spray on the spent fuel pool from 10 AM on, but later an attempt will be made to hook up a fire truck to the spent fuel cooling just like at No. 2 and No. 3. This seems the system design of choice right now, and given this writer's preference for simple and aggressive thinking it's a good choice.

That is all of what I got out of the prepared portion of the NISA briefing. More details and documents when they become available.

9:50 PM Eastern Tuesday 3/22
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW