Japanese Nuclear Plant Explosion

[Tim Smith]

Do you have a link to this Tim? Everything I've read says that there have been no serious irradiation so far.

Beyond the journalistic hype it appears that it is a situation where time is on their favor, if they can contain the integrity of the fuel. If I read the scientific s right, in a nutshell they have to keep water on the rods until they cool to the point they are not boiling away the coolant faster than they can replace it. They say this will happen if they are successful in the mean time..

The original link was here...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3468122/Triple-nuclear-meltdown-threat.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

Also here.

http://www.globalnews.ca/world/Nervous+Japan+quake+evacuees+scanned+radiation+exposure/4430528/story.html

More details here...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14military.html?ref=asia

The 50 workers in the plant are probably far past their safe limits by now.

There are actually 6 reactor units at this site and the temperature in the last 2 has started to rise. Number 6 is the biggest of the group. There's a fire in the containment building...hard to know what's ahead yet.

[flytyer57]

...hard to know what's ahead yet.

Total meltdown.

[jdmidwest]

I went to the source to find news about the reactors instead of reporter dramatics and no scientific data. I have been watching the IAEA website which has been giving updates on the status.

IAEA Japan Updates

I also heard another report from a scientist today that the major damage came from the Tsunami and not the Quake. Water breached the walls and flooded out the backup generators which led to the loss of control of the cooling. It seems like it may not be a good idea to place them next to the ocean after all.

[Wayne SW/MO]

One has to wonder if there wasn't a blip in the engineering. The plants seem to be modern in their protocol despite their age, but tsunamis are a product of earthquakes and large bodies of water, both of which Japan has ample.

It seems that the plants are getting the attention while at this point the disaster is elsewhere.

The news is doing their usual job of worrying more about copy sales then providing real information. I saw a headline that said Explosion at nuclear plant, 1000 dead. The story was about the hydrogen explosion and the fact that 1000 were thought to have perished in the quake and tsunami to date.

[Quillback]

Now there seems to be an issue with spent fuel rods that are in storage, fire breaking out at the building that stores them. We have the same problem with what the heck to do with spent fuel rods.

[Tim Smith]

Now there seems to be an issue with spent fuel rods that are in storage, fire breaking out at the building that stores them. We have the same problem with what the heck to do with spent fuel rods.

....and they've just pulled the workers out.

That can't be good.

[Tim Smith]

Continually unraveling....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Hopefully the new power line to the facility will finally get this under control...but it appears things were not in control up to this point and this was just the disaster it was feared it might become.

The containment facilities have been completely breeched. The director of the Japanese company in charge is weeping during press conferences and admiting lethal levels of radiation have been emitted. The Japanese now have a completely and permanently unusable site in their country-side and it remains to be seen how large that area will eventually be.

I would have liked to see more safe nuclear development, but this is a major step back for this technology and I am even less likely to trust what engineers say from this point forward. They consistently just don't seem to get it. All the notions about how it would be cheaper if the safety restrictions were less invasive sound really, really hollow now. We have plants in the US that have been leaking tritium into groundwater over periods of years already. Looks like we were getting off easy.

All these reassurances about how nuclear power is perfectly safe and how there was no risk of radiation leaking out of these facilites and all these people talking about suitcase reactors in individual homes need a serious readjustment in their understanding about the risks here.

At least the radiation won't reach us at any harmful level.

[flytyer57]

At least the radiation won't reach us at any harmful level.

At least as far as we know of.

If it gets worse, it could cause problems. They are monitoring for radiation along the Pacific coast.