Possible reactor meltdown in Japan

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: Mystic
No, the truck was right outside of the reactor (a huge fire truck vehicle) and it was spraying water on the reactor. They could spray water continuously because they are using seawater and they are right near the ocean. It should work a lot better than using a helicopter to drop water (hopefully) on target. And if they are right outside of the reactor than the radiation levels must have gone down.

At any rate, I am a lot more optimistic now than I was even yesterday.

They have electricity there now also, but will the pumps still work and are the water lines still intact?

Unless there is some major setback, things may be greatly better in just a few days. They were talking about spraying Reactor 4 after Reactor 3, and Reactor 4 is where the exposed fuel rods are located.


Actually, they couldn't stay near the truck. They came back every three hours to re-fuel it from what I've read. They are using it to fill up the used fuel storage pool.
 
I guess I was being too hopefully optimistic, but the situation at this nuclear facility has gotten worse. They had to evacuate the workers when gray smoke started to pour out of two of the reactors. There was radiation 1,600 times stronger than normal detected some 12 miles away. I saw images on either CNN or Fox News (I have been watching both) of workers with what looked like radiation burns on their faces.

It is hard to say how this will all work out. Maybe the Japanese will still manage to bring these reactors under control without too much effect on Japan. Or maybe there will be core meltdowns in at least two reactors. It is hard to say. It can look promising one day and the next day things go downhill.

I don't believe anything that this Japanese electric utility company says.

I have pretty much stopped listening to what the 'experts' say. The final statement will be the end result of all of this-whatever that final result may be. In some ways these reactors have proved to be remarkably robust and able to stand up to major abuse and damage. But we may still in the end face a terrible disaster.
 
Originally Posted By: Mystic
I guess I was being too hopefully optimistic, but the situation at this nuclear facility has gotten worse. They had to evacuate the workers when gray smoke started to pour out of two of the reactors. There was radiation 1,600 times stronger than normal detected some 12 miles away. I saw images on either CNN or Fox News (I have been watching both) of workers with what looked like radiation burns on their faces.

It is hard to say how this will all work out. Maybe the Japanese will still manage to bring these reactors under control without too much effect on Japan. Or maybe there will be core meltdowns in at least two reactors. It is hard to say. It can look promising one day and the next day things go downhill.

I don't believe anything that this Japanese electric utility company says.

I have pretty much stopped listening to what the 'experts' say. The final statement will be the end result of all of this-whatever that final result may be. In some ways these reactors have proved to be remarkably robust and able to stand up to major abuse and damage. But we may still in the end face a terrible disaster.



A bit disheartening eh?

Most of their "cooling efforts" have been on the spent fuel rod pools. I don't think anything has been done about the actual reactors themselves. I imagine there isn't much they CAN do.

I still think this may go Chernobyl.
 
Quote:
TOKYO — Just a month before a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi plant at the center of Japan’s nuclear crisis, government regulators approved a 10-year extension for the oldest of the six reactors at the power station despite warnings about its safety.

The regulatory committee reviewing extensions pointed to stress cracks in the backup diesel-powered generators at Reactor No. 1 at the Daiichi plant, according to a summary of its deliberations that was posted on the Web site of Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency after each meeting. The cracks made the engines vulnerable to corrosion from seawater and rainwater. The generators are thought to have been knocked out by the tsunami, shutting down the reactor’s vital cooling system.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, has since struggled to keep the reactor and spent fuel pool from overheating and emitting radioactive materials.

Several weeks after the extension was granted, the company admitted that it had failed to inspect 33 pieces of equipment related to the cooling systems, including water pumps and diesel generators, at the power station’s six reactors, according to findings published on the agency’s Web site shortly before the earthquake.

Regulators said that “maintenance management was inadequate” and that the “quality of inspection was insufficient.”

Less than two weeks later, the earthquake and tsunami set off the crisis at the power station.

The decision to extend the reactor’s life, and the inspection failures at all six reactors, highlight what critics describe as unhealthy ties between power plant operators and the Japanese regulators that oversee them. Expert panels like the one that recommended the extension are drawn mostly from academia to backstop bureaucratic decision-making and rarely challenge the agencies that hire them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22nuclear.html?_r=1&ref=asia
 
Originally Posted By: Mystic
There was radiation 1,600 times stronger than normal detected some 12 miles away.


That is the killer. Why don't they just do mass evacuations and let them go boom?
 
I want to know about the spent fuel pool in reactor 4, that is the one the USNEC thought last week may have been cracked and leaked all its water and may be unable to hold water, also had the highest radiation leakage. Since then have heard nothing on it. All the other reactors and pools seem to have had declining minor radiation and they can cool down.
 
Well found some at one of the links above,
UPDATE AS OF 9:30 A.M. EDT, MARCH 22:

"The company on Tuesday was installing cable at reactor 4 and power is expected to be restored at reactors 3 and 4 on Wednesday (Japan time).

TEPCO said the radiation level at the main gate at Fukushima Daiichi has declined from 33 millirem per hour to 25 millirem per hour.

Fire departments on Tuesday continued to pump water into the used fuel pools at reactors 3 and 4. Seawater is being pumped through a manually laid hose and sent to a water truck for continual spraying. Firefighters have sprayed a total of 3,600 tons of seawater, or about three times the pool’s capacity, in recent days.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Ukiyo Edano, reported the detection of low levels of iodine 131 and cesium 137 in seawater near the plant. There is no threat to human health, officials said."

http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/
 
Originally Posted By: Blaze
Where does all the excess water go?.... Is it contaminated?
Any water that comes in contaminated with the fuel is contaminated. Steam boiling off is contaminated to a lesser degree.
 
So basically the reactor(s) will eventually blow up ?
21.gif
 
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
So basically the reactor(s) will eventually blow up ?
21.gif


I doubt anyone knows. With 6 spent fuel pools (4 of them in trouble..now) and 6 reactors and 3 of them in trouble...now. It seems unlikely that all of these groups of buku fuel assemblies can be saved.

I think they just get so hot that the cladding burns and bad stuff goes up in the air. Obviously I hope I'm wrong.
 
While thermal shock or something along those lines may too be an issue, with infrastructure improving marginally day by day, why cant they just flood EVERYTHING with seawater. Seems that by now there should be plenty of accessibility to diesel powered pumps and fuel storage vessels, etc. Just let the stuff run and then refuel.

Obviously this is gross oversimplification, but this stuff could have practically have been shipped from the USA by now...Just get stuff in, let it run, send minimal crews to veify things are OK, refuel, etc., and just move massive amounts of water into/onto everything...
 
Maybe there's a concern that runoff will cause further contamination of the surrounding environment and water table, so dumping an excess of water is considered a last resort.
21.gif
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
why cant they just flood EVERYTHING with seawater.

Obviously this is gross oversimplification, but this stuff could have practically have been shipped from the USA by now...Just get stuff in, let it run, send minimal crews to veify things are OK, refuel, etc., and just move massive amounts of water into/onto everything...

We are talking about billions of curies here. That site is done forever believe me.
Integrity of everything is in question. Water wiil continue to boil/leak making the site worse every day. There will come a time when the site will need to be abandoned...and yet it can't be abandoned. I don't want to speculate after that.

This says something:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42225380/ns/world_news-asiapacific/


"
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

SC Maintenance
  • Locked
South Korea now under martial law?
2 3
Replies
46
Views
1K
dnewton3
Al
  • Locked
Be Afraid. Be VERY Afraid
Replies
8
Views
774
M56959
y_p_w
Northern California fireworks warehouse explosion
Replies
8
Views
283
y_p_w
Owen Lucas
  • Locked
Russian drone strikes Chernobyl reactor protective shell
Replies
2
Views
401
Astro14
R
Four Soldiers and a Tank Lost possibly dead Lithuania
2 3
Replies
47
Views
2K
Ranger83
Back
Top Bottom