Fukushima withstood the seismic event, it just was not designed to handle tsunami.
Chernobyl is human mistake. There is no helping that.
Fukushima withstood the seismic event, it just was not designed to handle tsunami.I have seen protective suits worn in laboratories. What I have seen has no resemblance to perfection. There is no perfectly safe laboratory structure or protocol. They have 4 levels of safety in virology labs. Level 4 > Level 3, etc. Don't kid yourself that Level 4 if scrupulously followed is utterly safe. Chernobyl was an unmitigated disaster. Fukushima was designed to withstand the worst reasonably anticipated seismic event. But one came along quite a bit bigger.
Fukushima did fine in the seismic event. It was the tsunami that was the issue.I have seen protective suits worn in laboratories. What I have seen has no resemblance to perfection. There is no perfectly safe laboratory structure or protocol. They have 4 levels of safety in virology labs. Level 4 > Level 3, etc. Don't kid yourself that Level 4 if scrupulously followed is utterly safe. Chernobyl was an unmitigated disaster. Fukushima was designed to withstand the worst reasonably anticipated seismic event. But one came along quite a bit bigger.
Obviously tsunami was always possible. Fukushima's was bigger than the worst they thought might happen.Fukushima withstood the seismic event, it just was not designed to handle tsunami.
Chernobyl is human mistake. There is no helping that.
Pretty confident we can walk and chew gum at the same time.As for the lab leak stuff - lab safety is important, but it's really a fundamental distraction from the more realistic origin of the virus and a way to distract the American public from the unmitigated disaster that was the Trump Administration's response to the whole affair.
No, I don't think the American public can do that when issues are closely related and when there is a dedicated group using it to obfuscate the prior administration's role in the disaster of a response.Pretty confident we can walk and chew gum at the same time.
The choice to build a graphite reactor was not a design flaw. The Soviets had a policy that all production facilities must be dual use. From truck plants to nuclear reactors, a facility had to support civilian and military needs. Graphite reactors provide power but can also be used to produce plutonium for weapons.Obviously tsunami was always possible. Fukushima's was bigger than the worst they thought might happen.
I believe there were also design failures involved in the Chernobyl disaster.
The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was caused by a combination of design flaws and human error:
Other design flaws included the reactor's lack of containment structure and the fact that design features were known elsewhere but not communicated to Chernobyl personnel.
- Reactor design
The RBMK reactor at Chernobyl was similar to the world's first reactor, which was built in 1942 and used graphite as both a moderator and coolant. The Chernobyl reactor used water as a neutron absorber instead of a moderator, which made it more unstable when it lost cooling water. The reactor also had a "positive void coefficient," which meant that the nuclear chain reaction and power output would increase if it lost cooling water.- Human error
Technicians at the reactor shut down the power-regulating and emergency safety systems, and removed control rods from the core while the reactor was running at low power. They also reduced the reactor's power level too quickly, which caused a buildup of fission byproducts that poisoned the reaction. The operators tried to compensate by removing most of the control rods, but the reactor was still unstable at its low operating level.
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World Nuclear Association
Chernobyl Accident 1986 - World Nuclear Association
The design characteristics of the reactor were such that substantial damage to even three or four fuel assemblies would – and did – result in the destruction of the reactor. The overpressure caused the 1000 t cover plate of the reactor to become partially detached, rupturing the fuel channels and jamming all the control rods, which by that time were only halfway down. Intense steam generation then spread throughout the whole core (fed by water dumped into the core due to the rupture of the emergency cooling circuit) causing a steam explosion and releasing fission products to the atmosphere.
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energyeducation.ca
RBMK - Energy Education
The RBMK reactor's water wasn't a moderator (the graphite was) it was a neutron absorber. The lack of water meant more neutrons were there to make nuclear reactions, which is how things got so out of control!
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Human Factors 101
Chernobyl: The drama - Human Factors 101
Jul 20, 2019 — Stop for a (safety) moment. ... Besides the behaviours of front-line staff, human factors can also refer to flawed design, misplaced priorities and other wider organisational issues. ... What human factors influenced the behaviours of the operators in the control room? ... Does your organisation impose artificial deadlines that may lead to corner-cutting or shortcuts, in order to meet targets? Investigations sometimes conclude that an incident is the result of 'human error' and blame a few individuals. ... The design features of the RBMK nuclear reactors were known elsewhere, but not communicated to the personnel at Chernobyl.
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PBS
Chernobyl | Nuclear Reaction | FRONTLINE - PBS
When the experimenters finally started, they felt pressed to make up for lost time, so they reduced the reactor's power level too rapidly. That mistake caused a rapid buildup of neutron-absorbing fission by products in the reactor core, which poisoned the reaction. To compensate, the operators withdrew a majority of the reactor's control rods, but even with the rods withdrawn, they were unable to increase the power level to more than 30 megawatts, a low level of operation at which the reactor's instability potential is at its worst and that the Chernobyl plant's own safety rules forbade.
Nuclear Energy Institute
Chernobyl Accident and Its Consequences
May 1, 2019 — The reactors were highly unstable at low power, due to control rod design and “positive void coefficient,” factors that accelerated the nuclear chain reaction and power output if the reactors lost cooling water. These factors all contributed to an uncontrollable power surge that led to Chernobyl 4's destruction. The power surge caused a sudden increase in heat, which ruptured some of the pressure tubes containing fuel.
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American Nuclear Society
A reactor physicist explains Chernobyl
Apr 28, 2022 — In detailing some of the RBMK's flaws, Perfetti noted that the reactor did not have a containment structure. Another flaw was that the reactor was cooled by water but moderated by graphite, making it over-moderated and giving it a positive void coefficient. “This is not a safe design feature,” he said, adding that reactors in the United States are not allowed to have a positive void coefficient. Perfetti said that because of the safety design features and containment structures that are required for U.S. reactors, a Chernobyl-like accident is not possible in the United States.
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britannica.com
Chernobyl disaster | Causes, Effects, Deaths, Videos, Location, & Facts
Apr 29, 2024 — The Chernobyl disaster occurred when technicians at nuclear reactor Unit 4 attempted a poorly designed experiment. They shut down the reactor's power-regulating system and its emergency safety systems, and they removed control rods from its core while allowing the reactor to run at 7 percent power.
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Los Angeles Times
Chernobyl Design Flaws Made Accident Worse, Soviet Report ...
Aug 23, 1986 — In its basic concept, the Chernobyl reactor resembles the world's first reactor--an “atomic pile,” it was called then--of graphite and uranium built under a University of Chicago stadium in 1942, at the start of the Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first atomic bomb. It differs radically from most nuclear power plants in the West, which use water as both the moderator and coolant. This difference accounts for the Chernobyl design's tendency to race out of control when cooling water is lost or blocked by steam bubbles. Normally, cooling water absorbs some of the neutrons released by fission.
Indeed. It is well known that in nature, viruses can jump when having a for the situation proper mutation, from species to species. Everywhere, where humans live in close proximity to mammals, virus jumps are possible. The domesticated pig is a prime example , like all domesticated animals , like for example cows and chickens. Dogs, and cats but there are many more. SARS-CoV2 is special because of the ACE-2 receptor. It seems all mammals posses such a receptor. But perhaps on different cells, making for different infection behavior of the cells of the infected host.Factory farms don't breed trans-species strains because the animals are isolated from other species and the factory farms are isolated from each other as much as possible. The wet markets cram everything together. The lesson of trans-species diseases is birds, pigs, and humans: pick two. Putting all three together and diseases jump.