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VIDEO: Workers explore inside Fuksuhima

10 May Update: video of unit 3 spent fuel pool has been added.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company has released some video of what could arguably be the least glamorous job on Earth right now: going inside the damaged Fukushima Daiichi power station to set up ventilation equipment (here’s the complete plan). The video is about a minute long and shows what appears to be filtration equipment in place inside the reactor’s turbine hall:

TEPCO reports that installation of the “exhausters” that filter out radiation is now complete. No word on when more extensive repairs might begin.

The company has also released some video of the spent fuel pools at the unit 3 and unit 4 reactor:


First the unit 4 reactor’s pool:

I believe that the things that look like milk crates are fuel elements from the reactor’s core, packaged separately to avoid a recriticality event. The stairwell is not supposed to be there, but overall things look fairly intact (see here for more on whether fission was sparked in the spent fuel pool).

And here’s a first look at unit 3’s pool from 8 May:

Unit 3 only had 566 assemblies (about a third as many as unit 4 according to the IAEA), but I think it goes without saying that the damage looks far more extensive.

If you’d like to learn more about Fukushima Daiichi quickly, check out our video on it:

For full coverage of the Fukushima disaster, go to Nature’s news special.

For a selection of our coverage in Japanese, see Nature Asia Pacific.

Video: TEPCO

Comments

  1. SSR0601 said:

    Looking at the sharply decreasing trend in radiation levels, I think the crews might do well to wait a few more days before setting up the eagerly-awaited cooling tools.

    In the meantime, they might consider installing another ventilator in other reactor building, which would also offer enough time to decontaminate the reactor building.

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