Fukushima upgraded to Cat 7 TEPCO: Radiation leak may have topped Chernobyl release

[Steeplerot]

People are liking this Arnie Gunderson guy so I will keep the newest one of his videos up,


Closing Ranks The NRC the Nuclear Industry and TEPCo Are Limiting the Flow of Information

Newly released TEPCO data provides evidence of periodic chain reaction at Fukushima Unit 1


PICS

More here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...an-flies-unmanned-drone-stricken-reactor.html

New images have been released that show the clearest evidence yet of the destruction at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant


The cooling system failure at the No. 2 power plant came after officials were already troubled by the failure of the emergency cooling system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, which officials feared could cause a meltdown.

That's the #2 with MoX on left.

 

[Doppel]

Already this is bad enough it will be a set back for proponents of nuclear energy.

 

[DesiPower]

very troubling news... I hope they can work something out...

 

[spacejamz]

Already this is bad enough it will be a set back for proponents of nuclear energy.

Oil? Oil Spills...
Coal? Trapped miners...
Wind? No one wants those eye sores destroying their scenic views...

guess you can't make all the people happy all the time...

 

[MotF Bane]

Of course, what does it take to cause a problem at a modern nuclear plant? Oh, just a mere 8.9 earthquake, an everyday occurrence.

 

[CLite]

Of course, what does it take to cause a problem at a modern nuclear plant? Oh, just a mere 8.9 earthquake, an everyday occurrence.

For Fukushima it appears the tsunami was the death knell. Backup diesels are supposed to be designed to work after a DBE event. At first when I heard their diesels were down I was thinking someone fucked up the seismic analysis, however it appears they got swamped by the follow up tsunami.

Hopefully they can get the pumps started up again, that's the critical race agaisnt time for them. The reactor has quite a while before it melts down, but if it does then the molten contents will cool upon spreading out over the containment's floor. It's actually an analysis that was done a long time ago to show that the molten contents would cool before breaching the containment walls (at least for US reactors... not too familiar with Japan).

Plans are actually designed for two types of earthquakes, one is an operating earthquake which is theoretically a moderate magnitude that can occur several times during the life of the plant. The rules for OBE earthquake design are fairly stringent to prevent breaks and failures. For a DBE or design basis earthquake, the goal is to prevent a breach of containment and theoretically a plant only lives through one DBE event.

Japan is going to be struggling with power generation for a while because even the plants that successfully shutdown will have to undergo extensive NDE inspections before restarting to ensure there were no cracks formed during the earthquake.

 

[JSt0rm]

Of course, what does it take to cause a problem at a modern nuclear plant? Oh, just a mere 8.9 earthquake, an everyday occurrence.

On a long enough time line what are the odds of a earthquake happening?

 

[MotF Bane]

On a long enough time line what are the odds of a earthquake happening?

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php

 

[CLite]

On a long enough time line what are the odds of a earthquake happening?

Large enough where there are extensive rules in place for seismic design. Every single nuclear power plant in the USA and I'm quite sure the world has seismic design guidelines for OBE and DBE earthquakes. The seismic load case governs most of the piping support designs and quite a few of the structural support designs.

 

[Throckmorton]

Nuclear power is safe! Nuclear power is safe!

 

[davmat787]

On a long enough time line what are the odds of a earthquake happening?

100%

 

[CLite]

Nuclear power is safe! Nuclear power is safe!

I'm sorry but I see a country with fires burning everywhere, all sorts of random industrial sites are blowing up, hundreds are dead, and a nuclear facility right on the ocean got smacked by the largest recorded earthquake in Japanese history and by a follow up Tsunami and not a SINGLE person is dead from that facility. Meanwhile not a SINGLE containment dome has been breached.

Your sarcasm is well placed, clearly nuclear power plants have terrible designs.

 

[Jaskalas]

At any moment the news from Japan could be that one of these things melted down. Very troubling that we're faced with the possibility.

 

[Throckmorton]

I'm sorry but I see a country with fires burning everywhere, all sorts of random industrial sites are blowing up, hundreds are dead, and a nuclear facility right on the ocean got smacked by the largest recorded earthquake in Japanese history and by a follow up Tsunami and not a SINGLE person is dead from that facility. Meanwhile not a SINGLE containment dome has been breached.

Your sarcasm is well placed, clearly nuclear power plants have terrible designs.

The risk when a nuclear power plant gets damaged is release of radioactive material. That's far worse than fire or explosions or smoke. And that's what happened here.

You can rationalize nuclear power all you want, with stupid comparisons to the downsides of other power sources... but face it, there is a fucking reason we are so concerned about nations becoming nuclear weapons capable, when we aren't concerned about them having conventional weapons. Smoke and fire goes away within a human lifetime.

 

[Jaskalas]

Just how DOES one compare a dirty bomb to an oil spill?

Hell, this would be far worse than a bomb.

 

[Minjin]

O
n a long enough time line what are the odds of a earthquake happening?

This is a 1000 year earthquake. If your engineering gets partially defeated by something that only happens (statistically) every 1000 years, I'd call that acceptable.

 

[Fear No Evil]

The risk when a nuclear power plant gets damaged is release of radioactive material. That's far worse than fire or explosions or smoke. And that's what happened here.

You can rationalize nuclear power all you want, with stupid comparisons to the downsides of other power sources... but face it, there is a fucking reason we are so concerned about nations becoming nuclear weapons capable, when we aren't concerned about them having conventional weapons. Smoke and fire goes away within a human lifetime.

I can only assume you've stopped your usage of electricity?

 

[CLite]

The risk when a nuclear power plant gets damaged is release of radioactive material. That's far worse than fire or explosions or smoke. And that's what happened here.

You can rationalize nuclear power all you want, with stupid comparisons to the downsides of other power sources... but face it, there is a fucking reason we are so concerned about nations becoming nuclear weapons capable, when we aren't concerned about them having conventional weapons. Smoke and fire goes away within a human lifetime.

Clearly, you have no knowledge of statistics.

Lets say a Nuke leaks 1/100000. Meanwhile a house will burn down and kill 1/1. The nuke would have to kill 100,000 more people than a house burning down for it to be worse overall. These stats are just an example and meant to educate you via an illustration.

A better case is adding up all the deaths due to earthquakes in zones around the world with nuclear power plants versus deaths due to leaks at those nuclear power plants you will see that there are far far far more dangerous things in the world than well designed nuclear power plants.

People just seem to get wrapped up in stupidity when the word nuke is brought up and don't seem to realize far more people will die to things they might consider more innocuous.

 

[JEDIYoda]

This is bad if secondaries are going out. What is left? The containment structure itself? What a mess to clean up.

I am sorry but you are being an alarmist!
Also no where on any news site does it say the secondary system is also not working!!

Also -- LONDON (Reuters) – New power supply cars to provide emergency electricity for systems that failed at Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after a massive earthquake have arrived there, the World Nuclear Association said on Friday.

"The World Nuclear Association understands that three to four power supply cars have arrived and that additional power modules are being prepared for connection to provide power for the energy cooling system," said Jeremy Gordon, analyst at the London-based WNA.

The cables were being set up to supply emergency power. Other power modules were in transit by air, WNA added on its website.

Earlier, the WNA had said the situation at the plant was "under control," but a WNA source who did not want to be named said instead "the situation is improving."

The Japanese government warned that there could be a leak from the reactor, whose cooling system was damaged by the massive earthquake.

Tokyo Electric Power Co, which owns the facility, said pressure had built up inside the reactor after the cooling system was interrupted by the earthquake, the largest on record in Japan.

Pressure was set to be released soon, a move that could result in a radiation leak, officials said.

The Japanese government had declared an emergency situation around the plant as a precaution and evacuated residents.

 

[Throckmorton]

Clearly, you have no knowledge of statistics.

Lets say a Nuke leaks 1/100000. Meanwhile a house will burn down and kill 1/1. The nuke would have to kill 100,000 more people than a house burning down for it to be worse overall. These stats are just an example and meant to educate you via an illustration.

A better case is adding up all the deaths due to earthquakes in zones around the world with nuclear power plants versus deaths due to leaks at those nuclear power plants you will see that there are far far far more dangerous things in the world than well designed nuclear power plants.

People just seem to get wrapped up in stupidity when the word nuke is brought up and don't seem to realize far more people will die to things they might consider more innocuous.

This is exactly the stupid rationalization I'm talking about. If an area of land is contaminated forever in human terms, and no one dies, is that acceptable?

Nuclear power is the only type of power that can do that.

 

[Throckmorton]

I can only assume you've stopped your usage of electricity?

I sure as hell am not using any NUCLEAR POWER. Did you not fucking read my post or what?


They shut down the diesel power plant in Kahului last night, but no one was worried about the tsunami causing it to contaminate 10% of the island with radioactivity. Because diesel isn't radioactive.

 

[CLite]

This is exactly the stupid rationalization I'm talking about. If an area of land is contaminated forever in human terms, and no one dies, is that acceptable?

Nuclear power is the only type of power that can do that.

Forever? You can visit the trinity test site and walk in the blast crater. People live in Hiroshima, people live in Nagasaki.

Please don't tell me you are dumb enough to think that a nuclear reactor leak would mean the ground is inhabitable forever....................

 

[JEDIYoda]

TOKYO – An official with Japan's nuclear safety commission says that a meltdown at nuclear power plant affected by the country's massive earthquake is possible.

Ryohei Shiomi said Saturday that officials were checking whether a meltdown had taken place at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, which had lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake.

Shiomi said that even if there was a meltdown, it wouldn't affect humans within a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius.

 

[novasatori]

its funny how people buy into the sensational media headlines

learn about nuclear fission for yourself

tomorrow the nuclear reactor will blow up and destroy all of japan and spread radioactive dust across the entire world

we're doomed

oh don't forget the meltdown prior which will melt through the earth to [country on the opposite of japan]

^_^

 

[Throckmorton]

Forever? You can visit the trinity test site and walk in the blast crater. People live in Hiroshima, people live in Nagasaki.

Please don't tell me you are dumb enough to think that a nuclear reactor leak would mean the ground is inhabitable forever....................

So is the land at 3 Mile Island usable yet?