Nuclear Reactors Hit By Earthquake In Japan

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Skipjack
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Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Post by Skipjack »

Dan, I know that air bursts produce less fallout, but the fallout it is still a lot. It is definitely not less than Chernobyl, I am absolutely sure.

LCARS_24
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Location: Japan
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Post by LCARS_24 »

Well, my idea for Fukushima (which is about 120 miles from my house) is pretty radical, but it's to do a rush, spare-no-expense job of building a permanent storage facility for the spent-fuel rods a few kilometers to the west and moving what they can there ASAP then entombing what's left of the current facility. I realize that would be a massive and extremely expensive undertaking with difficult legal hurdles, etc., not to mention the difficulty of just getting the rods out and transporting them.

Maybe that's been suggested already and dismissed. I don't know.

Giorgio
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Location: China, Italy

Post by Giorgio »

Is not a bad suggestion, unfortunately to evaluate its feasibility we should know exactly the situation of the integrity of the rods in the spent fuel pond.

Skipjack
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Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Post by Skipjack »

WHERE ARE THE DARN ROBOTS?!!!
I thought they were supposed to be there by now. I heard that several entities were going to send them there. What is wrong with these people?
Robots could easily get inside and look at the situation close up. Heck they would probably be even able to fix some things or at least bring some water hoses closer to the pools...
I dont get it, I just dont get it!

ladajo
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Location: North East Coast

Post by ladajo »

There will be nothing fast about setting up and handling damaged fuel.
They are now finally admitting fuel element failures, and a breach.

seedload
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Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:16 pm

Post by seedload »

Skipjack wrote:WHERE ARE THE DARN ROBOTS?!!!
QFT

ladajo
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Location: North East Coast

Post by ladajo »

Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation
These guys are killing me. They knew they had a breach when #3 popped in the first place and they had to add makeup water to the containment.

Giorgio
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Location: China, Italy

Post by Giorgio »

Japanese are quite phlegmatic people.
If there are problems you will hear very few news from them as they will strive to work to fix the issue before being obliged to disclose the issue itself.

Just take a look of what they did in 6 days to fix this freeway:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... coped.html

kinda make you think.....

icarus
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Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:48 am

Post by icarus »

ladajo wrote:
Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation
These guys are killing me. They knew they had a breach when #3 popped in the first place and they had to add makeup water to the containment.
I just can't believe that nobody else concluded from the Reactor 3 explosion video that the reactor had popped (at least nobody publically). The sheer volume of concrete that got airbourne and the telltale little orange flare deep down in the building was all the evidence that was needed. It was completely different from the hydrogen gas blast of reactor 1 that blew away the panels of the building but left the structue intact in a puff of white smoke.

Like ladajo says, we've been in a breached containment situation since reactor 3 popped and the "news" of it is only dribbling out now.

ladajo
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Location: North East Coast

Post by ladajo »

Kite,
Check your PM. I tried to send you something and it did not go. Might be full.

chrismb
Posts: 3161
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 6:00 pm

Post by chrismb »

icarus wrote:I just can't believe that nobody else concluded from the Reactor 3 explosion video that the reactor had popped
Is there a link to this somewhere?

edit.. Found it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_N-wNFSGyQ

...jeeez.....

Well, one might presume from this that if the Japanese say it is a hydrogen explosion, then it is a new form of hydrogen that doesn't burn with an invisible flame.

ladajo
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Location: North East Coast

Post by ladajo »

In the longer version, the stunned look of the Skynews anchor is priceless. They cut this version just before she gets the look.
Or, as my ever creative 7 year old came up with:
"Holy shoot the chicken!"

chrismb
Posts: 3161
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 6:00 pm

Post by chrismb »

Maybe she's no dumb newscaster and she's thinking "... there's a criticality accident in progress and you guys really want me to repeat that this is a H explosion!?!?"

D Tibbets
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Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:52 am

Post by D Tibbets »

A pure hydrogen oxygen explosion dose not a have a visible flame (you might see some blusish flame in the cooler portions if the Shuttle main engines are representative). Most of the flame- glow is in the ultraviolet region. Why would you think a criticallity explosion would have a yellow flame? It is probably hotter than the hydrogen oxygen chemical explosion. In an atom bomb the visible fireball is the local atmosphere heated to incandescence. Whatever produced the yellow- orange flame in this explosion is some other chemicals burning or vaporized/ pulverized and heated to glowing. The color could have come from many sources. Perhaps they had some boron of other bulk material stored there. Does boron burn with a yellow- orange flame? Was it a tank of diesel?. Was it water doped with boron oxide. Could that represent rupture of water pipes going to the core or doped water from the collecting base torus (a breach)? Is it fuel rod cladding or uranium, etc? The speculations are extensive, but most of them probably do not require a breach of the inner containment. Radiation measurements during the blast, and of the cloud and dust plum would be more indicative if highly radioactive material participated in or was taken up by the explosion.

Dan Tibbets
To error is human... and I'm very human.

chrismb
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Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 6:00 pm

Post by chrismb »

D Tibbets wrote:Why would you think a criticallity explosion would have a yellow flame?
oxidation of incandescent metal.

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