How To Monitor Leaky Radioactive Water Tanks

freaklabs writes "The radioactive water leaks are getting worse at Fukushima Dai-Ichi. In a recent New York Times article, it was mentioned that TEPCO didn't have a reliable way to monitor the water storage tanks for leaks. I decided to write a tutorial on how to wirelessly monitor water levels in storage tanks."

Comments

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[Anonymous Coward]

I guarantee that there is frustrated engineer with a workable solution who spends half of all
his days trying to argue for the installation of monitoring equipment, but the organization

      - doesn't really want to monitor the tanks
      - is too incompetent to execute anything
      - has a turf war over who is supposed to be monitoring the tanks
      - is hung up on acquisition/budget issues
      - is hung up on safety protocols

Hardening

[pjt33]

So now we'll never know whether they remembered to take into account radiation hardening.

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[Tom]

Because your website needs more hits and the experts in Japan certainly never thought of some of the most obvious ideas, yes?

You may not be familiar with japanese culture. I am, at least a bit.

In the US, this admition would translate to "we can't be arsed to give it some attention".
In Japan, this is a major loss of face and could well mean the end of someone's career.

This face thing is a major problem in many cases in Japan, because people won't admit to mistakes until they can't hide them anymore. Yes, even more so than in the West.

It would be fantastic if someone from the japanese geeks involved in the whole thing would read /. and rip your blog-wiseassing to shreds. Unfortunately, that's unlikely and so your ego can feed on a false sense of superiority.

Re:radioactive water

[Half-pint HAL]

Heck, I'm wondering whether you can do anything wirelessly in a radioactive environment -- ionising radiation most bugger up the charge in an antenna something chronic....

Re:Solar Perhaps

[icebike]

The radiation in these tanks is easily stopped by the tank wall. (Its almost solely Beta radiation). So climbing the tank is not particularly a problem.

Water is always being pumped into and out of these tanks (they are used to circulate cooling water for shut down reactors and the separation plant where radioactive elements are separated). As such, water level in the tank is not static, there are surges as pumps start and stop, etc. Think of the tank as a buffer in a continuous flowing circuit. There are systems to make sure there is always sufficient water in the circuit, and water may be added at locations far removed from the actual tank. Its vitally important to make sure there is adequate cooling water, it can never be allowed to run dry.

When you view it this way, missing a couple hundred gallons over the course of a month is not something you can count on detecting by monitoring water lever in a tank, because it fluctuates naturally, loss will be automatically compensated by new water additions.

So thanks for playing along, but I believe this issue is best left to the big boys,(even the ones you might, in your make-believe environment, consider to be incompetent). The problem is much more complex than you know, and won't be solved with your cute little lash-up toys.