5 tons of seawater may have entered Hamaoka nuclear reactor
May 19, 2011
Around five tons of seawater may have entered one of the reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture along with about 400 tons of seawater found in its steam condenser when work was under way Sunday to put the reactor into a state of ''cold shutdown,'' Chubu Electric Power Co., the plant operator, said Thursday.
The reactor will not be decommissioned because the utility will dilute and desalinate the seawater in an effort to prevent any corrosion inside the reactor, the company said.
Seawater might have entered from damaged piping inside the condenser, which cools steam from the turbine and turns it into water.
The company will try to find the cause of the trouble by the end of this month by inspecting around 21,000 pipes measuring 3 centimeters in diameter that are installed inside the condenser.
Because of the seawater that found its way into the No. 5 reactor at the plant, the last to be deactivated at the Hamaoka plant, the cold shutdown procedure was delayed by about two hours.
The nuclear complex sits on a tectonic fault line and is at great risk of being hit by a major temblor. It was closed Sunday at the request of the government to preclude the kind of disaster that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Power plant.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on May 19, 2011)
The reactor will not be decommissioned because the utility will dilute and desalinate the seawater in an effort to prevent any corrosion inside the reactor, the company said.
Seawater might have entered from damaged piping inside the condenser, which cools steam from the turbine and turns it into water.
The company will try to find the cause of the trouble by the end of this month by inspecting around 21,000 pipes measuring 3 centimeters in diameter that are installed inside the condenser.
Because of the seawater that found its way into the No. 5 reactor at the plant, the last to be deactivated at the Hamaoka plant, the cold shutdown procedure was delayed by about two hours.
The nuclear complex sits on a tectonic fault line and is at great risk of being hit by a major temblor. It was closed Sunday at the request of the government to preclude the kind of disaster that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Power plant.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on May 19, 2011)
