Flip on the news 8.8 quake in Japan

[Zabo]

Originally Posted by 2ndgenz28

CNN just said 2 nukes plants are now venting radiation.


[should have back up wind power or something for the cooling pumps.]

They did have backup pumps. The primaries went out in the quake, the backups got taken out by the tsunami and aftershocks. The reactors shouldn't detonate like Chernobyl due to their design and the rector casings. These were only designed to withstand a Mag 5 quake, though.

The explosion at Fukushima 1 #3 though was a buildup of hydrogen gas, something fell and sparked it off. After that happened they flooded #3 and I think two others and essentially killed them permanently with seawater. It as deemed safer to just inundate the reactors than to try to get the pumps back online and save them. That's gotta be a tough call to make, knowing that doing so probably will cost the plant billions in damage.

[2ndgenz28]

Originally Posted by Zabo

They did have backup pumps. The primaries went out in the quake, the backups got taken out by the tsunami and aftershocks. The reactors shouldn't detonate like Chernobyl due to their design and the rector casings. These were only designed to withstand a Mag 5 quake, though.

The explosion at Fukushima 1 #3 though was a buildup of hydrogen gas, something fell and sparked it off. After that happened they flooded #3 and I think two others and essentially killed them permanently with seawater. It as deemed safer to just inundate the reactors than to try to get the pumps back online and save them. That's gotta be a tough call to make, knowing that doing so probably will cost the plant billions in damage.

I still expect more diaster, since it started they have played it down to much, and then it gets worse, and they play it down, and it gets worse........

like a movie plot, the ere music has started for the final scene

[PoorMansCamaro]

i hope the super valcano that's yellowstone national park doesn't explode. It is overdue...

[2ndgenz28]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

i hope the super valcano that's yellowstone national park doesn't explode. It is overdue...

That one is just dumb, many years ago it should of been tapped to use the heat and pressure built up to generate power. As leaving it along, building more and more pressure yearly, is surly the "right" thing to do?

Its just like blowing up a ballon, it will pop at some point.

[2ndgenz28]

Originally Posted by kwicslvr

Hopefully I can clear up some misinformation hear about the nuclear facilities.

First and for most the Unit 1 nuclear plant in Japan will not "explode". This plant is in no way like the chernobyl design. The uranium in almost all commercial facilities is only enriched to 3-5% uranium-235. For it to "explode" via nuclear detonation it must be enriched to >95%.

Chernobyl was cooled by a source other than water which is what caused the explosion and not the fule itself. This boiling water reactor (BWR) in Japan is cooled by water. If it loses water inventory the metal fuel will get hot enough to melt (Three Mile Island) and that is it. The explosion seen earlier was due to a build up of hydrogen gas. This explosion blew off an outer shell of a building that actually houses the containment vessel which houses the reactor vessel which houses the fuel.

As for back up power. All nuclear facilities, at least in the US and multiple forms of back up power supplies in case of a loss of power. First are diesel generators(multiples just in case) which from what I can gather failed to start or even run at the Japanesse plant. Next is a battery that is big enough to fill a small house. Not sure if they had this and if so why it failed.

Iodine pills - this is being considered currently for people still in the local are and the workers. It has to be given within a certain period of time of a release of radioactive particles (Iodine-131) for it to be effective. IIRC within 4-6 hours of the release. A full release has not occured yet. A full release would require the fuel cladding to "melt", reactor vessel and/or associated piping to break and the containment building to break. It is possible to get minor releases but would create minimal if any issues to the public. Appears to be what has happened so far.

Cooling - The primary means is are pumps that pump water through the reactor vessel and over the fuel to remove the heat. With a loss of all power, safety injection should of initiated, which it appear to of for Units 2 and 3 but not Unit 1. If cooling is not restored, core damage (meltdown) will occur and radioactive fission products will be released into the water that cools the core.

I know there is more but feel free to post up any questiona and I will try to answer to the best of my abilility. Oh, and that whole "The Air Force is flying in coolant" from HRC...um coolant is nothing more than water! Why the hell we flying in water when they are surrounded by it!!! Only to find out later that was bogus info she was spouting. Helps if politicians and the media actually have people around them that know what the hell they are talking about.

Glenbeck just did a nice demo with M&Ms [probably to get more free] on how "safe" it is even though its in melt down.

But he adds that the quake was 7x greater then it was built for so who knows. what?

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by 2ndgenz28

That one is just dumb, many years ago it should of been tapped to use the heat and pressure built up to generate power. As leaving it along, building more and more pressure yearly, is surly the "right" thing to do?

Its just like blowing up a ballon, it will pop at some point.

The magma chamber is something like 12,000 cubic miles if my math is correct. I'm pretty sure there is SFA that you can do to relieve pressure from it. Yellowstone will do what it does, until it blows, at which point we have no reference for what will happen, the nearest similar eruption was hundreds of times smaller than other Yellowstone erruptions. What is known is that it will be the single most violent event in history and destroy civilization as we know it, the details are merely accedemic. Thankfully, it may not go again for another 150,000 years, if ever. Or it could blow up next week. Either way, I'm not going to lose much sleep over it. Nothing I can do to stop it, so there is no point in worrying.

[PoorMansCamaro]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

The magma chamber is something like 12,000 cubic miles if my math is correct. I'm pretty sure there is SFA that you can do to relieve pressure from it. Yellowstone will do what it does, until it blows, at which point we have no reference for what will happen, the nearest similar eruption was hundreds of times smaller than other Yellowstone erruptions. What is known is that it will be the single most violent event in history and destroy civilization as we know it, the details are merely accedemic. Thankfully, it may not go again for another 150,000 years, if ever. Or it could blow up next week. Either way, I'm not going to lose much sleep over it. Nothing I can do to stop it, so there is no point in worrying.

if it does, i'll be stealing a yacht off the coast of Cali and making my way further west or maybe alaska. lol The jetstream should take the majority of the ashes to the east. And if it's too much chaos at the docks, then i'll just drive down to mexico/central america...

[2ndgenz28]

FOX: USS Ronald Regan moves so not to be downwind of metldown plant

After 17 people on the ship tested pos for radiation, but it was low lvl, soap n water clean up.

[2ndgenz28]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

The magma chamber is something like 12,000 cubic miles if my math is correct. I'm pretty sure there is SFA that you can do to relieve pressure from it.

But still its a waste of free energy, got enough heat to produce all the juice and heat every home needs for cheap.

[2ndgenz28]

#2 just blew up...

[2ndgenz28]

recap

#3 and #2 have blown their outter cap/box/shell?

radiation is already spreading by air
[war ships had to move]

And as such of #2 blowing they have had to leave the power plant, camera n monitors are down, so #1 should blow soon.


gonna be a big set back for nuke power. tree huggers don't care if it was a natural diaster that started it.

[Milk 1027]

apperantly the quake was revised to 9.0.

I don't know who does the revision. From what I understand the difference from a 8.8 to a 9.0 is massive as the scale grows exponentially.

[Lazerbrainz2k3]

Originally Posted by 2ndgenz28

But still its a waste of free energy, got enough heat to produce all the juice and heat every home needs for cheap.

Or you could do it - probably much more easily - at Mt. St. Helens, which from what I understand has been slowly bulging again. Personally I'm not real big on playing games with volcanoes for energy, though.

The American natural disaster I'm most worried about is New Madrid going berserk on us again. Even one 8.0 quake in that region could criple the nation- not to mention kill tens of thousands of us.

[Zabo]

Originally Posted by 2ndgenz28

recap

#3 and #2 have blown their outter cap/box/shell?

radiation is already spreading by air
[war ships had to move]

And as such of #2 blowing they have had to leave the power plant, camera n monitors are down, so #1 should blow soon.


gonna be a big set back for nuke power. tree huggers don't care if it was a natural diaster that started it.

Fukushima Daiichi (Fukushima 1) has 6 reactors. As of right now:

#1: Popped it's cork due to hydrogen gas discharge. Vessel supposedly intact

#3: Popped it's cork due to hydrogen gas discharge. Vessel supposedly intact.

#2: Popped it's cork HARD due to unknown reasons. Believed to have possible damage to the containment vessel

#?: On fire.

That's right, they've got a 4th reactor on fire. This isn't Chernobyl, but it's bigger than TMI '79 as it stands right now.

On the upside, Fukushima Daini (Fukushima II) 15km south did shut all it's reactors down successfully, but they're having the same cooling issues on Units 1, 2, and 4 due to damaged pumps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daini