The danger remains at the Japanese nuclear power plant

World opinion is more reassuring when workers bring electrical wires to the reactors of the Fukushima I nuclear power plant in Japan, but in fact the most difficult and dangerous tasks are still unresolved.

Experts and workers in Fukushima I. Source: Internet

The group of workers and experts at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant led the wire to six reactors, despite the high temperature inside the radiator. Their success makes public opinion hopeful that disaster is calming down. But nuclear engineers say the most dangerous and difficult tasks are still ahead . Completing them depends on the repair team, the New York Times said.

For example, the repair team will have to use the hand to guide hundreds of liters of water and radioactive gas from the pumps, the path out of the cooling system. Those pumps and pipes are beneath hot reactors.

The urgency of blocking radioactive dispersal from the factory is shown by health officials warning children not to drink water from the tap. This warning applies to Tokyo, which is 250 km southwest of the factory.

' We have at least 10 days to two weeks to prevent a bad situation before the government announces the end of the nuclear incident ,' Michael Friedlander, who operated the nuclear reactor at the Fukushima I plant for 13 years. , to speak.

Nuclear engineers are increasingly concerned about a problem. It is salt that accumulates inside the reactors causing the temperature inside the furnace to rise faster. In the worst case scenario, when the salt in the furnace is too large, the heat in the furnace will increase to the point where the uranium rods melt and radioactive material spread out. The accumulation of salt may cause the " Fukushima 50 " group to act harder.

Richard T. Lahey, who assumed the position of General Electric's safety assurance team when the group installed the reactors at the Fukushima I plant, said that people pumped seawater into the reactor. So when the sea water evaporates, the salt in the water stays. Lahey calculates that nearly 145,000 kilograms of salt are accumulating in the No. 1 reactor, more than 250,000 kilograms of salt in the No. 2 kiln. The amount of salt in the No.3 reactor could be even greater.

The big question now is: How much salt is still dissolved in water and what is the salt content of the layer around the uranium fuel rods?

The salt layer isolates the fuel rods with water making them heat up faster. If the thickness of the salt layer is large enough, they can block water flowing between the fuel rods. As the fuel rods heat up, the outer zinc shell can crack or break, releasing radioactive iodine in gas form. Even the cracking of the zinc shell can cause uranium to melt and release more radioactive material.

However, part of the salt can settle to the bottom of the reactor rather than sticking to the fuel rods.

Japanese officials announced that part of the seawater used to cool the furnace has returned to the ocean. That means that part of the salt has come out of the oven with radioactive material. However, the rate of salt remaining in the furnace is still larger than the amount of salt out.