2011 Japanese Tsunami

unkbill · Post by **unkbill** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 2:16 pm

GORDON wrote:No one has built one in America for at least 10 years as it is.

That is in the works.
What is it about Japan and radiation? If they go off? Think the Japanesee will want more nukes?

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:34 pm

Some Perspective On The Japan Earthquake

Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors

The thing is the reactors are working as designed. The plans account for failure, and this has not been failure. This is nowhere near As Bad As It Could Be, because of careful design and planning. This is the bruised elbow of nuclear disasters. And it's worth it for the better, cleaner, cheaper power.

Edited By TPRJones on 1300304148

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:12 pm

It seems like there is too much uncertainty to say it's just a bruised elbow at this point.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:27 pm

Yeah, I am seeing the news reporting everything from CHERNOBYL 2: THE NUKENING to "Nothing to see here, move along." Sometimes on the same page. So I don't know what the hell to think.

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:39 pm

So far the best summary I've seen is: "It's currently somewhere between 3 mile island and Chernobyl" which seems to be a pretty decent gulf, to me.

But at the same time, seems to reflect the fact that, let's face it, only the 150 people there have a good/decent clue of what's going on, and even they have a lot of apparent hurdles with all of the sensor/power outages.

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:59 pm

This sounds ungood

A US agency helping Japan tackle its nuclear crisis at a stricken nuclear power plant says there is no water in one of the reactor's pools, leading to "extremely high" radiation levels.

The announcement by the chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Gregory Jaczko, came as the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant said it had almost completed a new power line that could restore electricity to the facility and avoid a meltdown.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said today that officials were planning to test out the line "as soon as possible", but gave no specific time.

The line would activate electric-powered pumps, allowing TEPCO to feed a steady water supply to troubled reactors and spent fuel storage ponds so they can be kept cool. Workers at the plant have been manually feeding seawater into the reactors to prevent the fuel rods from heating up and melting down after Friday’s earthquake and tsunami shutdown all the country’s nuclear power plants.

Mr Jaczko, who was briefing US politicians in Washington, said the NRC believed "there has been a hydrogen explosion in this unit due to an uncovering of the fuel in the spent fuel pool".

"We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool. And we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures."

The NRC and US Department of Energy both have experts on site at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the Associated Press reported.

The US Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, also expressed his concern at the US energy funds hearing, saying that "the events unfolding in the Japan incidents actually appear to be more serious than Three Mile Island".

Article.
And you know the article is up to date, cuz it's from the FUTURE (aka Australia)

Edited By TheCatt on 1300309194

Post by **TPRJones** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:29 pm

"We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed..."

Well, that's new. If that is true, then it is indeed becoming more serious. Still far far far away from Chernobyl serious, though.

Post by **TheCatt** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:50 pm

Americans: It's bad
Japanese: It's not so bad.

America's top nuclear official told Congress today that the pool cooling spent fuel rods at the crippled Japanese nuclear complex had lost most of its water or all of its water, a potentially catastrophic situation.
The Japanese quickly challenged that statement, but gave few details saying only that the situation at the holding pool was "stable."

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said that the fuel pool at unit 4 at the the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had lost massive amounts of water.

"We believe at this point that unit 4 may have lost a significant inventory, if not lost all of its water," Jaczko told a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "What we know at unit three, and again our information is limited, what we believe is that there is a crack in the spent fuel pool for unit three as well, which could lead to a loss of water in that pool."

The spent fuel rods are kept in pools of water to prevent them from overheating and ultimately melting down. The outer shell of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.

Japan's nuclear safety agency and Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the complex, deny water is gone from the pool. Utility spokesman Hajime Motojuku told the Associated Press the "condition is stable" at unit 4.

I do hope this stabilizes, and not just cuz of the impact on my investments

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:58 pm

When it comes to practical experience with modern nuclear plants, I must defer to the originators of Iron Chef. Fukushima is 25% bigger (in terms of power output) than anything we've got the balls to operate.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:00 pm

My money is on the Japs pulling out a save. If this were happening in any other country on Earth, I would not be so optimistic.

It is bad news to nuke Japan... they only come back stronger. With tentacles.

unkbill · Post by **unkbill** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:30 pm

Didn' t read most of this page. Government or not. Just wait til a couple million die of cancer,
I have nothing against nuke power just the side effects

Post by **thibodeaux** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:26 am

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2011/03/dear-news-media.html

Dear news media:
Remember back in '50s and early '60s, when we set off something like 900 atomic bombs in Nevada? And how we just let the fallout blow wherever and it landed all over the eastern US? And how it wiped out life as we know it and all that was left from Colorado to the Atlantic were six-legged rats battling two-headed cockroaches in the glowing ruins?

Yeah. Exactly. So shut up with the panic already.

Malcolm · Post by **Malcolm** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:48 am

and all that was left from Colorado to the Atlantic were six-legged rats battling two-headed cockroaches in the glowing ruins

That'd be fucking awesome.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:24 pm

http://www.isegoria.net/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-source/

If you look at deaths per TWh by energy source, you find that nuclear energy is — surprise! — quite safe:

Coal (161)
Oil (36)
Natural Gas (4)
Hydro (1.4)
Nuclear (0.04)

Post by **TheCatt** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:01 pm

Seven days after the 9.0 quake off Japan, donations to nonprofit organizations have reached about $87 million, according to a tally by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofits. In comparison, one week after the earthquake in Haiti, donations totaled about $275 million. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, it was over $522 million, CNNMoney reports.

Japan can kinda take care of itself, right? I mean, they aren't Haiti or NoLa.

Post by **GORDON** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:40 pm

I wouldn't think Japan would need money to recover from a disaster any more than the USA would, though I always figured donations were for stuff like the Red Cross to help at a person-level instead of a government level.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:22 pm

TheCatt wrote:Japan can kinda take care of itself, right? I mean, they aren't Haiti or NoLa.

Raaaaaa-cist.

Post by **thibodeaux** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:23 pm

I don't donate to charities. They pay enormous salaries to their people. I already drive a Japanese car.

Post by **TPRJones** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:25 pm

thibodeaux wrote:I don't donate to charities. They pay enormous salaries to their people. I already drive a Japanese car.

The key is to find the right charity. Some good ones end up using 100% of donations for whatever their expressed purpose is. One bad one I know of spends roughly 98% on salaries and operating expenses. It's all relative.

Not really on topic for the thread, just wanted to mention.

Post by **TPRJones** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 2:30 pm

http://xkcd.com/radiation/