#Contaminated Water Treatment System at #Fuku I: TEPCO to Use SARRY Only from October

Just as I thought. TEPCO will ditch the Kurion-AREVA combo that has had numerous problems from the beginning and will rely solely on Toshiba (and IHI and US's Shaw)'s SARRY for highly contaminated water treatment. Toshiba's SARRY has had its share of problems but not as many as the Kurion-AREVA duo.

The latest trouble at the water treatment system: the density of radioactive materials, reduced after Kurion's treament, shot up again after AREVA's treatment.

From Mainichi Shinbun (9/15/2011):

　東京電力は１５日、福島第１原発事故で生じた高濃度の放射性物質を含む汚染水を浄化して原子炉の冷却に使う「循環注水冷却システム」で、米キュリオン社の装置によって下がった放射性物質の濃度が、続いて仏アレバ社の装置を通すと上がるトラブルが起きたと発表した。アレバ社の装置が処理する高濃度の汚泥が流出した可能性もあり、原因を調べている。現在は、アレバ社の装置は止め、キュリオン社の装置だけで処理している。

TEPCO announced on September 15 that there was a trouble in the reactor cooling system that circulates water treated in the contaminated water treatment system. The density of radioactive materials that decreased after the treatment with Kurion's system increased after the treatment with AREVA's system. It is possible that highly radioactive sludge in AREVA's system leaked. TEPCO is investigating the cause. Currently, AREVA's system is stopped, and the treatment is done by Kurion's system alone.

　東電が同日、両社の装置の処理能力を確認したところ、キュリオン社単独では汚染水の放射性物質の濃度が１立方センチ当たり数百万ベクレルから数百ベクレルまで下がったが、その汚染水を続けてアレバ社の装置で処理すると、逆に数十万ベクレルに上がった。

TEPCO looked at the treatment performance of both systems and found that Kurion's system had reduced the density of radioactive materials from several million becquerels/cubic centimeter to several hundred becquerels/cubic centimeter. However, when that treated water was further processed in AREVA's system, the density shot up to several hundred thousand becquerels/cubic centimeter.

　東電は１０月以降、キュリオン社とアレバ社の装置を組み合わせた浄化システムを止め、比較的故障が少ない東芝製の別の浄化装置「サリー」で汚染水を浄化する方針だ。

TEPCO plans to stop using Kurion-AREVA system starting October, and use Toshiba's SARRY exclusively for contaminated water treatment. SARRY has had a relatively small number of failures compared to Kurion's or AREVA's system.

TEPCO was working on both Kurion's and AREVA's system from September 13, replacing a pump at Kurion's and a stirrer in the coagulation settling unit at AREVA's. Maybe that had something to do with the problem. Maybe not. TEPCO is not very forthcoming, as you may have noticed over the past 6 months.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Toshiba's SARRY Joins the Underperformers at the Plant

TEPCO released the result of the decontamination by Toshiba's SARRY (cesium absorption) after the start of the full run, and it was OK (according to TEPCO) but not as spectacular as the manufacturers (Toshiba, IHI, and the US's Shaw) had claimed.



SARRY achieved the decontamination factor (DF) of about 50,000, instead of 1 million the manufacturers had confidently hoped. The DF of 50,000 means that the system was able to reduce the amount of radioactive materials (in this case, cesium) to one-50,000th after the treatment.



It is still much better than Kurion, whose most recent DF is slightly less than 350 (reducing the redioactive materials to one-350th.



There goes, for now at least, the idea of just using SARRY and bypassing Kurion and AREVA in decontaminating the water. The desalination unit needs the treated water to have radioactive materials at one-100,000th of the initial contaminated water, at least. TEPCO still needs at least two of the three decontamination units.



From TEPCO's handout for the press on August 20:

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#Fukushima Water Treatment System: Toshiba's Long Tall "SARRY" to the Rescue!

10 workers spent 2 minutes each to fix the PVC joint that broke off in AREVA's unit at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on July 13, according to Asahi (link is in Japanese). The air radiation level at the location is 100 to 150 millisieverts/hour. For 2 minutes work, a worker could have received 5 millisieverts radiation.

The on-again-off-again water treatment system is finally on again, but at this point all TEPCO cares about is probably that these Kurion-AREVA units keep hobbling along, at least processing the amount of water that's being injected into the RPVs (Reactors 1, 2 and 3) so that the highly contaminated water in the reactor and turbine buildings does not increase.

Why? Because Toshiba's "SARRY" will soon come to the rescue. (Photo is from Asahi.)

SARRY stands for "Simplified Active Water Retrieve and Recovery System". Well, it doesn't quite stand for these words, but that's how Toshiba's been calling it.

It is already being installed at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, and is expected to come online sometime in early August. As it is planned right now, this Toshiba's system comes after Kurion and before AREVA.

SARRY is being jointly built by Toshiba, IHI, and the US company Shaw. A metal cylinder of 1.4 meter in diameter and 3.6 meters in height is filled with synthetic zeolite and titanium silicate. The system will connect these cylinders serially to decontaminate the water. The first half of the cylinders use absorbers with low percentage removal of cesium, and the second half of the cylinders use absorbers with higher percentage removal.

Toshiba thinks SARRY can reduce the amount of radioactive materials in the water to one-millionth, and process 1,200 tonnes of water per day.

The water will first go through the resin filters that remove oil, then through the cylinders filled with zeolite and titamium silicate for cesium removal. The system will be surrounded by lead panels to reduce radiation. Compared to Kurion's system which basically uses the same principle, Toshiba's system uses less pumps and thus less chance of breakdowns, according to TEPCO/Toshiba.

The drawings are probably written in a language that TEPCO and workers understand without dictionary, and it is probably being installed by Toshiba and its affiliates who are building the system.

If Toshiba's system delivers what it promises, there will be no need at all for Kurion or AREVA, and TEPCO can simply bypass both and just use SARRY. Kurion+AREVA can remain as a backup.

We'll see if Murphy will get Toshiba. After all, processing 1,200 tonnes of water per day and reducing the radioactive materials in the water to one-millionth is what was promised with Kurion and AREVA's systems.

Yomiuri has a video that Toshiba has released, showing the manufacturing and assembly of SARRY.

TEPCO's handout for press on July 14 has the diagrams and photos:

(I have a suspicion that Toshiba engineers wanted to call it "Sally", as in "Long Tall Sally". The system does use long tall cylinders, doesn't it? But as I said, "Sally" and "Sarry" don't make a bit of difference to most Japanese who are incapable of differentiating between "l" and "r". In Japanese they are pronounced the same, more like "l".)

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Toshiba Pushes for Spent Fuel Processing Plant in Mongolia, in Discussion with US Government

Toshiba owns and operates Westingshouse Electric (77% ownership), and has continued to sell nuclear power plants all over the world after the Fukushima accident. So does Hitachi with GE, and so does Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with AREVA. Business as usual, no matter what.

From Kyodo News Japanese (10:08PM JST 7/1/2011):

米原子力大手ウェスチングハウス・エレクトリック（ＷＨ）を子 会社に持つ東芝の佐々木則夫社長が５月中旬、米政府高官に書簡を送り、使用済み核燃料などの国際的な貯蔵・処分場をモンゴルに建設する計画を盛り込んだ新 構想を推進するよう要請、水面下で対米工作を進めていることが１日、分かった。

It became known on July 1 that Norio Sasaki, the president of Toshiba which owns Westingshouse Electric, a major nuclear energy company in the US, sent a letter to a high ranking official in the US government in mid May urging the US government to promote the new scheme that includes a plan to build an international storage and final processing plant for the nuclear spent fuel in Mongolia.

　モンゴルでの核処分場計画は、新興国への原発輸出をにらみ、モンゴルで加工したウラン燃料の供給と使用後の処理 を担う「包括的燃料サービス（ＣＦＳ）」構想の一環。米国とモンゴルが主導し、日本にも参加を呼び掛けた。経済産業省が後押ししてきたが、外務省が慎重姿 勢を示すなど政府内に異論もある。

The plan to build a processing plant in Mongolia is part of the "CFS [Comprehensive Fuel Service?]" scheme to process uranium and to process the spent fuel in Mongolia, eying the lucrative nuclear plant markets in developing countries. The US and Mongolia have been leading the effort, and have asked Japan to join. But there is a difference of opinion within the Japanese government; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been pushing for the idea, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not too keen.

As I wrote here before, Mongolia does have faults that are capable of producing Magnitude 8 earthquakes. How to transport the spent fuel rods to Mongolia should be a problem, though. Either China or Russia has to agree to have them transported overland. Russia is unlikely to allow that, as it is in direct competition with the US and the West to win nuke plant contracts in developing nations with a packaged deal like the CFS. And China? Maybe, if the US/Mongolia/Japan let China in on the scheme, in exchange of allowing the use of the facility and some "technology transfer" from the US and/or Japan.

It looks like the Cold War has never ended in the minds of politicians and nuclear industry people.

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Toshiba Announces new 4 inch HD Display - for the iPhone 5

The idea of ​​the iPhone 4 successor (iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S) is fast approaching and the rumor mill is fed continuously with new information.

As Reuters reported earlier last year, provides for a new 1.3 billion dollar facility, the future high-end displays for Apple's smartphones are established. Toshiba won this purpose was therefore as a supplier. The plants are now nearing completion, with

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