UMAT AkhirZAMAN: JEPUN memulakan pengeluaran Rod bahan Api dari loji Fukushima . . .

Unit kren dipasang ke kolam renang menghabiskan bahan bakar di dalam bangunan reaktor No.4 di kilang tunami-cacat Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuklear di wilayah Fukushima, dalam foto ini dikeluarkan oleh Kyodo November 6, 2013. (Crane units are installed over the spent fuel pool inside the No.4 reactor building at the tunami-crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, in this photo released by Kyodo November 6, 2013. (Reuters/Kyodo - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

N.nizah – TEPCO sedang bersedia untuk memulakan tugas yang berbahaya mengeluarkan lebih daripada 1,500 batang bahan bakar nuklear daripada loji Fukushima nuklear Jepun. Operasi berisiko adalah satu langkah penting dalam menstabilkan laman, dalam satu proses yang boleh mengambil beberapa dekad.

Membuang bahan api yang dibelanjakan dari kolam di dalam reaktor yang ke-4 Fukushima Daiichi loji membentangkan risiko penting diberi radioaktif daripada rod adalah 14,000 kali lebih banyak daripada apa yang telah dibebaskan pada tahun 1945 pengeboman Hiroshima. Satu kejadian yang tidak diingini sedikit dapat melepaskan sejumlah besar radiasi ke atmosfera.

Penyingkiran bahan api adalah sebahagian daripada kerja tetap di mana-mana loji kuasa nuklear, tetapi “keadaan yang berbeza daripada biasa kerana bencana itu,” kata jurucakap syarikat Mayumi Yoshida.

Japan to begin removal of fuel rods from Fukushima plant

TEPCO is preparing to begin the dangerous task of extracting over 1,500 nuclear fuel rods from the Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. The risky operation is an essential step in to stabilize the site, in a process that could take decades.

Removing the spent fuel from a pool inside the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s fourth reactor presents significant risks given the radioactivity of the rods is 14,000 times more than what was released during the 1945 Hiroshima bombing. A slight mishap could release a huge amount of radiation into the atmosphere.

The removal of fuel is part of regular work at any nuclear power plant, but "conditions are different from normal because of the disaster," said company spokeswoman Mayumi Yoshida.

Photo bonus loji Fukushima (Fukushima plant - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

Rancangan Tokyo Electric Power untuk pengekstrakan rod telah diluluskan oleh Jepun Tenaga Nuklear Keselamatan Pertubuhan Rabu dan akan bermula pertengahan November. Pengeluaran pada asalnya dijadualkan bermula pada hari Jumaat, tetapi Tenaga Nuklear Keselamatan Pertubuhan dipanggil untuk ujian keselamatan yang lebih yang menetapkan proses kembali.

Operasi ini akan melibatkan mengangkat berkas uranium 4 meter panjang dan batang plutonium daripada kolam simpanan di mana mereka disimpan apabila gempa bumi mencetuskan tsunami melanda Fukushima pada tahun 2011.

Rod akan kemudian secara individu dipindahkan ke dalam tong berisi air dan dimuatkan ke dalam trak untuk dihantar ke laman yang lebih selamat di wilayah stesen kuasa. TEPCO telah memberi jaminan bahawa proses 18 bulan akan pergi tanpa halangan dan bahawa langkah-langkah yang perlu telah diambil untuk memastikan keselamatan.

Tokyo Electric Power’s plan for the extraction of the rods was approved by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization Wednesday and will begin mid-November. Extraction was originally due to begin on Friday, but the Nuclear Energy Safety Organization called for more safety tests which set back the process.

The operation will entail lifting bundles of the 4-meter-long uranium and plutonium rods out of the storage pool where they were being kept when the earthquake-triggered tsunami struck Fukushima in 2011.

The rods will then be individually transferred into a water-filled cask and loaded onto a truck to be transported to a more secure site on the territory of the power station. TEPCO has assured that the 18-month process will go off without a hitch and that the necessary measures have been taken to ensure safety.

Photo bonus loji Fukushima (Fukushima plant - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

Syarikat itu telah mengukuhkan kolam penyimpanan di mana Rod sedang diadakan dengan keluli dan konkrit dan mendakwa bahawa ia boleh menahan gempa bumi magnitud yang sama sebagai salah satu pada tahun 2011.

Di samping itu, shell keluli telah dibina untuk menghalang kebocoran radiasi manakala rod sedang bergerak.

Wilayah yang tidak diketahui

Keraguan telah mengumpulkan lebih inisiatif TEPCO ini. Ahli-ahli sains telah menggesa berhati-hati kerana operasi sedemikian tidak pernah dilaksanakan.

“Pengendalian bahan api dibelanjakan melibatkan beberapa risiko yang besar,” kata Shunichi Tanaka, Pengerusi Lembaga Peraturan Nuklear. “Ia akan menjadi bencana jika bahan-bahan radioaktif keluar dari batang logam semasa kerja.”

“Ini adalah kejayaan praktikal pertama bagi projek itu,” kata Hiroshi Miyano, pakar sistem nuklear dan profesor pelawat di Universiti Hosei di Tokyo.

“Apa-apa masalah dalam operasi ini ketara akan menjejaskan jadual untuk keseluruhan projek,” katanya kepada AFP. “Ini adalah satu operasi TEPCO tidak mampu untuk mengerjakan dgn diintai.”

The company has reinforced the storage pool where the rods are being held with steel and concrete and claim that it can withstand an earthquake of the same magnitude as the one in 2011.

In addition, a steel shell has been constructed to block radiation leaks while the rods are being moved.

Unknown territory

Doubts have been raised over TEPCO’s initiative. Scientists have urged caution as such an operation has never been undertaken.

“Handling spent fuels involves huge risks," said Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority. "It would be a disaster if radioactive materials come out of the metal rods during the work.”

"This is the first practical milestone for the project," said Hiroshi Miyano, a nuclear systems expert and visiting professor at Hosei University in Tokyo.

"Any trouble in this operation will considerably affect the timetable for the entire project," he said to AFP. "This is an operation TEPCO cannot afford to bungle."

Photo bonus loji Fukushima (Fukushima plant - think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)

Christina Consolo, pengasas dan pelbagai Radio Nuked, yang telah mengkaji bencana Fukushima secara mendalam, memberitahu RT bahawa dia tidak yakin bahawa operasi akan berjaya.

“Senario terburuk adalah bahawa terdapat satu tindak balas rantai nuklear, yang kritikal di kolam semasa prosedur ini dan ia tidak boleh dihentikan,” katanya.

Beliau menambah bahawa Tepco “adalah di atas kepala mereka” dan bahawa Jepun telah menolak bantuan asing, termasuk tawaran dari Amerika Syarikat dan Rusia.

Namun, Consolo berkata Jepun tidak mempunyai pilihan tetapi untuk meneruskan operasi, kerana mereka tidak boleh meninggalkan batang bahan bakar di mana mereka berada, kerana “walaupun gempa bumi sederhana boleh menyebabkan bangunan yang runtuh.”

Jika salah satu batang itu akan terdedah kepada udara ia akan melepaskan radiasi dan panas, yang berpotensi mencetuskan tindak balas nuklear berdikari. TEPCO telah berkata bahawa ini tidak mungkin berlaku.

Pengurusan TEPCO ini keadaan krisis telah dikritik sebagai tidak teratur dan sakit yang dirancang, dengan satu menteri Jepun menyamakan kepada permainan “memukul-najis lalat.” Pada masa ini organisasi yang berjuang untuk menghentikan kebocoran air radioaktif dari tangki yang digunakan untuk menyejukkan reaktor.

Walaupun pengeluaran batang bahan bakar merupakan satu cabaran besar bagi TEPCO, tugas yang lebih kompleks menghapuskan teras cacat daripada reaktor melanda menanti saintis.

Christina Consolo, the founder and host of Nuked Radio, who has studied the Fukushima disaster in depth, told RT that she was not optimistic that the operation would be successful.

“The worst-case scenario is that there’s a nuclear chain reaction, a criticality in the pool during this procedure and it can’t be stopped,” she said.

She added that Tepco “are in over their heads” and that Japan has turned down foreign help, including offers from the US and Russia.

Still, Consolo said Japan has no option but to proceed with the operation, as they can’t leave the fuel rods where they are, as “even a mild earthquake could cause the building to collapse.”

If one of the rods were to be exposed to the air it would release radiation and heat up, potentially triggering a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. TEPCO has said that this is unlikely to occur.

TEPCO’s management of the crisis situation has been criticized as haphazard and ill-planned, with one Japanese minister likening it to a game of “whack-a-mole.” Currently the organization is battling to stop leaks of radioactive water from the tanks used to cool the reactors.

While the extraction of the fuel rods represents a significant challenge for TEPCO, the much more complex task of removing the misshapen cores of the stricken reactors awaits scientists.