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The Oil Drum | Fukushima Dai-ichi status and potential outcomes

I have been watching the NHK feed and grimly laughing at the helicopter operation. Here is some info:

Capacity of spent fuel pools: 1200-1500 tons water 15 meters deep
Needed to cover rods: 15 meters, 400-500 tons water

For reactor 3, they think there might be enough water that they only need < 100 tons, perhaps less

One helicopter can drop 7.5 tons/load. BUt it can't hover, due to the radiation level. If I heard right, those on board are limited to 100 mSieverts/hour (check the time units). They had measured 250/hr at 30 meters and 87/hr at 90 meters. They dumped from 90 meters. See image. Looks more like crop dusting. There was one drop which looked a little better, but at the speed they are going, hitting the building with much is not likely.

By email from Joules Burn to Euan Means.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Mar 17th, 2011 at 12:24:38 PM EST
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