Japan Fukushima nuclear thread
Discussion
Globs said:
Interesting vid from back in August: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baya8-agPs4
Bear in mind it's probably 'hysterical and biased', perhaps a balance to the 'cold shutdown' propaganda.
Any corroboration of the claim (in the video) that the NRC found fuel fragments from a reactor core (not the pool) over 1.5 miles from the plant?
Bear in mind it's probably 'hysterical and biased', perhaps a balance to the 'cold shutdown' propaganda.
Any corroboration of the claim (in the video) that the NRC found fuel fragments from a reactor core (not the pool) over 1.5 miles from the plant?
sound bite sensationalismone minute the steam from the ground, and frankly incredible dose rates, are due to the fuel getting into the ground water; then it's 'when the fuel reaches the ground water there will be a catastrophic steam explosion'
I call BS on the fuel fragment claim without something more credible as a source - throwing debris 1.5 miles from any explosion is quite an achievement. I've looked at the NRC website - could not find even a hint of such material being found so far from the plant
Re some of the comments within this thread regarding dosage etc. Anyone seen this:
New Take on Impacts of Low Dose Radiation
http://www.healthcanal.com/public-health-safety/24...
In other words, short high bursts bad; continuous exposure to low levels, perhaps not so bad as previously thought...
New Take on Impacts of Low Dose Radiation
http://www.healthcanal.com/public-health-safety/24...
In other words, short high bursts bad; continuous exposure to low levels, perhaps not so bad as previously thought...
Good article Oystercatcher, let's hope we do not see too many additional cases.
I found this interesting youtubie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-4YJfwF1MQ
Of course it's biased, but it does address the media bias that radiation is our friend. I particularly liked the bit at the end, where the guy advocating people could safely live in the area dons special boots before touching the ground..
The Wall Street Journal article here is well worth a read:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240529702043...
Not least for the pictures. Go to the gallery too. Lest we forget this is what that large bang at reactor 3 did:
The hairy bits are the steel reinforcing rods that were ripped out of the concrete support beams they used to be embedded in, which gives a good idea of the amount of force in that explosion. Checking out the picture of reactor 4 it's easy to see the difference.
Below is an interesting video where a nuclear expert explains why the hydrogen explosion of number 1 was quite different to the power and force of what happened in number 3... and a theory about where that extra energy came from.
http://vimeo.com/22865967
I found this interesting youtubie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-4YJfwF1MQ
Of course it's biased, but it does address the media bias that radiation is our friend. I particularly liked the bit at the end, where the guy advocating people could safely live in the area dons special boots before touching the ground..
The Wall Street Journal article here is well worth a read:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240529702043...
Not least for the pictures. Go to the gallery too. Lest we forget this is what that large bang at reactor 3 did:
The hairy bits are the steel reinforcing rods that were ripped out of the concrete support beams they used to be embedded in, which gives a good idea of the amount of force in that explosion. Checking out the picture of reactor 4 it's easy to see the difference.
Below is an interesting video where a nuclear expert explains why the hydrogen explosion of number 1 was quite different to the power and force of what happened in number 3... and a theory about where that extra energy came from.
http://vimeo.com/22865967
Well there has been quite a bit of news from Fukushima, none of it good.
First from Enenews, a good source of news but has some loopy people. In the absence of _any_ official visibility of what Tepco are up to (the company that faked it's own safety records) it will have to do.
First an earthquake underneath
http://enenews.com/report-shallow-quake-right-unde...
The worry is that these weaken the SFP (spent fuel pool)s which are already weak (#3 smashed anyway, #4 leaking faster and near collapse). It also seems that after the New Years quake cesium levels were up:
http://enenews.com/cesium-fallout-rises-sharply-fu...
Also a lot of reports about animals and birds getting ill, not sure what to make of that.
http://enenews.com/fukushima-birds-unable-fly-allo...
Reports of corium being dug out of the concrete, looks like uranium oxide as that's yellow
http://enenews.com/fukushima-whistleblower-contain...
Not sure about this but the corium is eating into the concrete so I guess they are finding it there. At least no one is claiming reactor integrity (apart from 'cold shutdown' propaganda).
A certain amount of extra isotopes being detected outside of #3
http://enenews.com/report-radioactive-tin-113-anti...
which was the one where the SFP was pulverised by the huge explosion there in March.
Quite a bit of radiation over the US being detected too, it looks like they are right downwind of the disaster. My own prediction is that Fukushima will make Chernobyl seem like a small local event. I would trust Russian operators more than the Japanese (apart from the lunatics who created Chernobyl) but for reading about the complete and utter mess that is the LNPP(Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant) http://www.bellona.org/filearchive/fil_lnpp.pdf . I found p39 on the most disturbing to read.
It's interesting that there is SO MUCH nuclear waste. At the LNPP they filled up all their storage, then they crammed it all in at double the density, then they built another plant to put the wretched stuff in concrete, thousands and thousands of spent fuel assemblies to get rid of, always needing cooling and monitoring. So I now understand why there is so much spent fuel hanging around at Fukushima. Chernobyl involved the main reactor core and no spent fuel, Fukushima obviously has the three melt-thoughs but also it has dozens of spent fuel pools - many of them badly damaged, ready to cause even more trouble. For all the waste it's a shame they just throw the heat away, after a time that decay heat much eventually add up to a pretty big amount.
Also talk of a neutron ray from the plant - from criticality events I guess. No idea how they would affect people who are miles away though so it may be bunk but it does seem that more people are sickening than expected.
http://enenews.com/breaking-neutron-ray-measured-i...
Also in Tokyo suburbs they are running out of space for the storage of radioactive ash from incinerators
http://enenews.com/mainichi-massive-radioactive-wa...
Makes you wonder how much radiation disappeared out of the chimney of those incinerators, and about just how much fallout there is and when the peak emissions were.
Now from the excellent newsblogged - worth bookmarking to keep up to date from:
http://newsblogged.com/fukushima-nuclear-power-pla...
Also cesium now found in well water
Link
Only a tiny bit but does beg the question of how it got there.
Other than that the plant seems fine.
First from Enenews, a good source of news but has some loopy people. In the absence of _any_ official visibility of what Tepco are up to (the company that faked it's own safety records) it will have to do.
First an earthquake underneath
http://enenews.com/report-shallow-quake-right-unde...
The worry is that these weaken the SFP (spent fuel pool)s which are already weak (#3 smashed anyway, #4 leaking faster and near collapse). It also seems that after the New Years quake cesium levels were up:
http://enenews.com/cesium-fallout-rises-sharply-fu...
Also a lot of reports about animals and birds getting ill, not sure what to make of that.
http://enenews.com/fukushima-birds-unable-fly-allo...
Reports of corium being dug out of the concrete, looks like uranium oxide as that's yellow
http://enenews.com/fukushima-whistleblower-contain...
Not sure about this but the corium is eating into the concrete so I guess they are finding it there. At least no one is claiming reactor integrity (apart from 'cold shutdown' propaganda).
A certain amount of extra isotopes being detected outside of #3
http://enenews.com/report-radioactive-tin-113-anti...
which was the one where the SFP was pulverised by the huge explosion there in March.
Quite a bit of radiation over the US being detected too, it looks like they are right downwind of the disaster. My own prediction is that Fukushima will make Chernobyl seem like a small local event. I would trust Russian operators more than the Japanese (apart from the lunatics who created Chernobyl) but for reading about the complete and utter mess that is the LNPP(Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant) http://www.bellona.org/filearchive/fil_lnpp.pdf . I found p39 on the most disturbing to read.
It's interesting that there is SO MUCH nuclear waste. At the LNPP they filled up all their storage, then they crammed it all in at double the density, then they built another plant to put the wretched stuff in concrete, thousands and thousands of spent fuel assemblies to get rid of, always needing cooling and monitoring. So I now understand why there is so much spent fuel hanging around at Fukushima. Chernobyl involved the main reactor core and no spent fuel, Fukushima obviously has the three melt-thoughs but also it has dozens of spent fuel pools - many of them badly damaged, ready to cause even more trouble. For all the waste it's a shame they just throw the heat away, after a time that decay heat much eventually add up to a pretty big amount.
Also talk of a neutron ray from the plant - from criticality events I guess. No idea how they would affect people who are miles away though so it may be bunk but it does seem that more people are sickening than expected.
http://enenews.com/breaking-neutron-ray-measured-i...
Also in Tokyo suburbs they are running out of space for the storage of radioactive ash from incinerators
http://enenews.com/mainichi-massive-radioactive-wa...
Makes you wonder how much radiation disappeared out of the chimney of those incinerators, and about just how much fallout there is and when the peak emissions were.
Now from the excellent newsblogged - worth bookmarking to keep up to date from:
http://newsblogged.com/fukushima-nuclear-power-pla...
Also cesium now found in well water
Link
Only a tiny bit but does beg the question of how it got there.
Other than that the plant seems fine.
I'd hate to have a power station belching out radioactive waste all the time
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=c...
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=c...
thinfourth2 said:
I'd hate to have a power station belching out radioactive waste all the time
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=c...
I do not think anyone has any issue with systems to collect fly ash from coal plants. In fact I'm fairly sure the modern ones do, just to remove carbon particulates. I also suspect no one has any issue with the low environmental radiological signature of a properly function nuclear plant.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=c...
So I have no idea what your point is.
On the point of safe operation: nuclear is clean if operated properly. In practice there are low level accidental leaks of radiation from time to time. Additionally there is a long term safety issue with the SNF that coal doesn't have, because it needs to be cooled for a long long time and then protected for about 100,000 years as the rod assemblies (FAs) are still dangerous. This long term safety issue increases with each new dump of SNF, which adds up to a big storage/legacy issue.
The additional point of safe operation is that a coal plant is literally impervious to natural and human disasters. Sadly the reason for this thread is that when a nuclear plant loses coolant all hell breaks loose and long term contamination of tens of thousands of square miles is literally assured.
Ironically for your post TF2, since March 11 2011 we have had power station belching out radioactive waste all the time, blanketing the surrounding areas, Tokyo, Hawaii, the US, Canada etc with radioactive fallout including uranium, plutonium, cesium, strontium, iodine and various other trans elements. This is not from a functioning coal station but from a nuclear plant that only had its cooling interrupted for a few days. Given the fact there are literally hundreds of nuclear plants and SNF cooling ponds in the world that would do the same thing if their coolant was interrupted I find your faith in nuclear statistically challenged. In fact there was a russian incident of a pool drying out and subsequent explosion causing massive contamination, I'll have to look that up again.
Apache: Not sure of your question, but in Fukushima some of the spent fuel was stored in the reactor building in open topped cooling pools about halfway up the building, older stuff was moved to a common pool in the Daiichi plant.
There is a reasonable theory that the very big explosion at #3 ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdHbp-tU5O0 )came from a criticality at the reactor's SNF caused by a pool SFA melt down and triggered by a hydrogen explosion above the pool. Even if the mechanism was different the effect was to literally blow (one of) the SFA pools in #3 apart and fuel rods all over the place. #3 as a result is the worst condition and has the most radiation and the most unknowns, next is #4 that has significant leaks to the SFA pools (the reactor was empty - transferring the problem to the fuel pools as it had fresh hot fuel put in it recently to the incident).
ETA: One non-intuitive thing that people probably miss is that in a nuclear plant the brand new fuel assemblies are pretty (radiologically) safe before they go into the reactor, but when they come out they are extremely hot and full of a whole range of radioactive isotopes created by the neutrons that power the nuclear reactions.
So the spent fuel is the dirtiest and most radioactive stuff that is in a nuclear plant, the fresher from the 'oven' it is, the worse it is, another reason for storing it under pure clean water is to shield some of the radiation (the high water purity also slows corrosion). Hopefully 9 months of impure water and seawater has not corroded the (warm) Fukushima fuel assemblies too much.
Edited by Globs on Saturday 7th January 12:19
thinfourth2 said:
Globs said:
So I have no idea what your point is.
And other then nuclear power is dangerous I have no idea what your point is.This thread has one point: to discuss the Japan Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
It's not a thread to discuss how safe nuclear can be, despite several desperate attempts to turn it into one.
The disaster at Fukushima has already happened. The genie is out of the bottle now. Get over it.
thinfourth2 said:
Globs said:
The disaster at Fukushima has already happened. The genie is out of the bottle now. Get over it.
Sounds like a damn good idea
From http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/01/actual-fukushim...
Despite an estimated 40 years of cleanup and much of the cooling attempts using temporary pipework it seems people are being withdrawn from the disaster site. I guess the positives is less people get dosed, the negatives is that less gets done to stop the leaks.
From the webcam thread: http://enenews.com/forum-fukushima-webcam-discussi... it seems there are still fires at #3 and #4 SFA pools so I'd be tempted to send people away too.
Intrigued by TF2's issues about nuclear safety I found this interesting video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SruTxZJyMkA
He also does some calculations too which are instructive, and the fact that nuclear fuel melts at 2800 C whereas the steel containment melts at 1400 C. This is why the corium in the three Fukushima reactors left the building.
For instance #1 reactor (the smallest) is at 460 MW, which means it needs about 3x that in heat (these things are only 33% efficient) so that's 1380 MW, so when it's switched 'off' (no neutron reactions) it has 7% power or 96.6 MW of heat to get rid off. So when you leave the cooling off for a few hours or even days that 96.600 kW of heat (imagine nearly a hundred thousand 1kw electric bar heaters) causes the fuel to melt and form the corium melt at the bottom. Once it's melting through the containment it's a big blob that's impossible to cool and carries on downward through everything.
Incidentally there are a lot of 'shallow' earthquakes now coming from directly under the plant, so it's either coincidence or the melt causing steam explosions.
In other news I think there was a big explosion at #4, so that would have been the spent fuel pool, no containment there, so lets hope that not too much radiation got out. If only 3% of the material at Chernobyl caused the amount of radiation seen after that incident I suspect Fukushima will become a much bigger problem than that was. Also more people are dying and more coverups are happening about these deaths. It's interesting comparing the USSR's response to Chernobyl to that of Fukushima, in a way #3 is very similar with fuel lying about and deadly levels of radiation abound, but I think we had more visibility of the soviet operation (ironically) and I think they knew what they were doing, I'm not convinced the Japanese have any plan at all.
Still most news comes from the fringe: http://enenews.com/japan-official-fukushima-seriou...
http://enenews.com/report-journalist-gets-inside-f...
although the WSJ has reported some issues.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/01/13/for-...
http://enenews.com/wsj-latest-food-scare-hits-japa...
Worrying that radiation levels are going up everywhere, this is getting worse, not better.
Still efforts are decontamination prove futile: http://enenews.com/report-radiation-levels-double-...
so we'd better hope it's all harmless after all, because otherwise Japan is going to lose an awful lot of prime land usage.
So it looks like #3 was the worse short term contaminant, then #4 (as none of the fuel was in the containment), then #1 - damaged very early on and the first to leave the building, then #2 as the safest meltdown at the plant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SruTxZJyMkA
He also does some calculations too which are instructive, and the fact that nuclear fuel melts at 2800 C whereas the steel containment melts at 1400 C. This is why the corium in the three Fukushima reactors left the building.
For instance #1 reactor (the smallest) is at 460 MW, which means it needs about 3x that in heat (these things are only 33% efficient) so that's 1380 MW, so when it's switched 'off' (no neutron reactions) it has 7% power or 96.6 MW of heat to get rid off. So when you leave the cooling off for a few hours or even days that 96.600 kW of heat (imagine nearly a hundred thousand 1kw electric bar heaters) causes the fuel to melt and form the corium melt at the bottom. Once it's melting through the containment it's a big blob that's impossible to cool and carries on downward through everything.
Incidentally there are a lot of 'shallow' earthquakes now coming from directly under the plant, so it's either coincidence or the melt causing steam explosions.
In other news I think there was a big explosion at #4, so that would have been the spent fuel pool, no containment there, so lets hope that not too much radiation got out. If only 3% of the material at Chernobyl caused the amount of radiation seen after that incident I suspect Fukushima will become a much bigger problem than that was. Also more people are dying and more coverups are happening about these deaths. It's interesting comparing the USSR's response to Chernobyl to that of Fukushima, in a way #3 is very similar with fuel lying about and deadly levels of radiation abound, but I think we had more visibility of the soviet operation (ironically) and I think they knew what they were doing, I'm not convinced the Japanese have any plan at all.
Still most news comes from the fringe: http://enenews.com/japan-official-fukushima-seriou...
http://enenews.com/report-journalist-gets-inside-f...
although the WSJ has reported some issues.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/01/13/for-...
http://enenews.com/wsj-latest-food-scare-hits-japa...
Worrying that radiation levels are going up everywhere, this is getting worse, not better.
Still efforts are decontamination prove futile: http://enenews.com/report-radiation-levels-double-...
so we'd better hope it's all harmless after all, because otherwise Japan is going to lose an awful lot of prime land usage.
So it looks like #3 was the worse short term contaminant, then #4 (as none of the fuel was in the containment), then #1 - damaged very early on and the first to leave the building, then #2 as the safest meltdown at the plant.
96600kW not 96.6kW. Best to keep your decimal points in check.
This is heat immediately after shutdown. After a day, it's <0.5% down from 6.5%. By now it's down to hundreds of kW. I doubt it's causing steam explosions.
Nice tool for visualising decay post shutdown; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/DecayChain...
One for playing with decay heat; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/SpentFuelE...
Where's your evidence for these 'covered up' radiation deaths?
This is heat immediately after shutdown. After a day, it's <0.5% down from 6.5%. By now it's down to hundreds of kW. I doubt it's causing steam explosions.
Nice tool for visualising decay post shutdown; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/DecayChain...
One for playing with decay heat; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/SpentFuelE...
Where's your evidence for these 'covered up' radiation deaths?
hairykrishna said:
96600kW not 96.6kW. Best to keep your decimal points in check.
Doh - that was supposed to be a comma!hairykrishna said:
This is heat immediately after shutdown. After a day, it's <0.5% down from 6.5%. By now it's down to hundreds of kW. I doubt it's causing steam explosions.
I think re-criticality is the main source of heat now - would a large blob of corium do that of would it require a moderator?hairykrishna said:
Nice tool for visualising decay post shutdown; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/DecayChain...
One for playing with decay heat; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/SpentFuelE...
Where's your evidence for these 'covered up' radiation deaths?
Cheers for the tools I'll check them out One for playing with decay heat; http://www.energyfromthorium.com/javaws/SpentFuelE...
Where's your evidence for these 'covered up' radiation deaths?
The deaths are in the Enenews links. Is there a 3rd party monitoring health (and numbers!) of staff at the plant? I read that the Fukushima hospital was losing funding but can't see anyway to verify the deaths or health by official means, and TEPCO have lied too often to be trusted. All the rumours, hearsay and tweeting are of deaths at the plant.
Globs said:
I think re-criticality is the main source of heat now - would a large blob of corium do that of would it require a moderator?
Unlikely to contribute heat to any significant degree is my guess. The corium is very heterogeneous so there might be pockets of it that coincidently have enough fissile stuff, in the right mix and the right geometry, to hit criticality again but the tendency is for these to spread themselves out quite quickly. It's actually quite hard to engineer something which sustains fission for an extended period of time. The only two big corium blobs we have observed before (i.e. TMI and Chernobyl) didn't exhibit any significant amounts of heating from criticality, as far as I know.Globs said:
The deaths are in the Enenews links. Is there a 3rd party monitoring health (and numbers!) of staff at the plant? I read that the Fukushima hospital was losing funding but can't see anyway to verify the deaths or health by official means, and TEPCO have lied too often to be trusted. All the rumours, hearsay and tweeting are of deaths at the plant.
No idea on the 3rd party. Probably the same auditing as any nuclear industry company - a s
t load. That Enenews site seems to troll the news sites for any vaguely scary sounding Fukushima news or rumour and repost it, along with it's own pessimistic spin.hairykrishna said:
Globs said:
I think re-criticality is the main source of heat now - would a large blob of corium do that of would it require a moderator?
Unlikely to contribute heat to any significant degree is my guess. The corium is very heterogeneous so there might be pockets of it that coincidently have enough fissile stuff, in the right mix and the right geometry, to hit criticality again but the tendency is for these to spread themselves out quite quickly. It's actually quite hard to engineer something which sustains fission for an extended period of time. The only two big corium blobs we have observed before (i.e. TMI and Chernobyl) didn't exhibit any significant amounts of heating from criticality, as far as I know.Globs said:
The deaths are in the Enenews links. Is there a 3rd party monitoring health (and numbers!) of staff at the plant? I read that the Fukushima hospital was losing funding but can't see anyway to verify the deaths or health by official means, and TEPCO have lied too often to be trusted. All the rumours, hearsay and tweeting are of deaths at the plant.
No idea on the 3rd party. Probably the same auditing as any nuclear industry company - a st load. That Enenews site seems to troll the news sites for any vaguely scary sounding Fukushima news or rumour and repost it, along with it's own pessimistic spin.
)Hairy - I hadn't realised TMI actually produced real quantities of corium. I'd always assumed that it was just primary containment breach (zirc cladding melt) and some partial fuel melting. How much was found after the event?
Three Mile Island: The Inside Story:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi09.htm
Fascinating stuff, amazing how hard the set corium was too. And how much melted in such a short time.
I guess we are comparing the US second worst disaster of a overheating 'blip' in a fully functional plant to a plant with ruptured pipes and a week long blackout, containing three melting reactors and many fractured and boiling fuel pools.
The NYTimes reports: Panel Challenges Japan’s Account of Nuclear Disaster
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/global/...
http://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi09.htm
Fascinating stuff, amazing how hard the set corium was too. And how much melted in such a short time.
I guess we are comparing the US second worst disaster of a overheating 'blip' in a fully functional plant to a plant with ruptured pipes and a week long blackout, containing three melting reactors and many fractured and boiling fuel pools.
The NYTimes reports: Panel Challenges Japan’s Account of Nuclear Disaster
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/global/...
article said:
Several investigations — including inquiries by the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power, and the government — have blamed the scale of the tsunami that struck Japan’s northeastern coast in March, knocking out vital cooling systems at the plant.
But critics in Japan and overseas have called for a fuller accounting of whether Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, sufficiently considered historically documented tsunami risks, and whether it could have done more to minimize the damage once waves hit the plant.
Questions also linger as to the extent of damage to the plant caused by the earthquake even before the tsunami hit. Any evidence of serious quake damage at the plant would cast new doubt on the safety of other reactors in quake-prone Japan. Tsunamis are far less frequent.
I'm glad someone is finally going to say what we've all been saying: Running ancient (1971+) nuclear power stations on major fault lines in tsunami zones with back-up generators on the beach was stupid and avoidable. But critics in Japan and overseas have called for a fuller accounting of whether Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, sufficiently considered historically documented tsunami risks, and whether it could have done more to minimize the damage once waves hit the plant.
Questions also linger as to the extent of damage to the plant caused by the earthquake even before the tsunami hit. Any evidence of serious quake damage at the plant would cast new doubt on the safety of other reactors in quake-prone Japan. Tsunamis are far less frequent.
Globs said:
Three Mile Island: The Inside Story:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi09.htm
Fascinating stuff, amazing how hard the set corium was too. And how much melted in such a short time.
I guess we are comparing the US second worst disaster of a overheating 'blip' in a fully functional plant to a plant with ruptured pipes and a week long blackout, containing three melting reactors and many fractured and boiling fuel pools.
The NYTimes reports: Panel Challenges Japan’s Account of Nuclear Disaster
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/global/...
Thanks for that; interesting stuff.http://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi09.htm
Fascinating stuff, amazing how hard the set corium was too. And how much melted in such a short time.
I guess we are comparing the US second worst disaster of a overheating 'blip' in a fully functional plant to a plant with ruptured pipes and a week long blackout, containing three melting reactors and many fractured and boiling fuel pools.
The NYTimes reports: Panel Challenges Japan’s Account of Nuclear Disaster
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/business/global/...
article said:
Several investigations — including inquiries by the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power, and the government — have blamed the scale of the tsunami that struck Japan’s northeastern coast in March, knocking out vital cooling systems at the plant.
But critics in Japan and overseas have called for a fuller accounting of whether Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, sufficiently considered historically documented tsunami risks, and whether it could have done more to minimize the damage once waves hit the plant.
Questions also linger as to the extent of damage to the plant caused by the earthquake even before the tsunami hit. Any evidence of serious quake damage at the plant would cast new doubt on the safety of other reactors in quake-prone Japan. Tsunamis are far less frequent.
I'm glad someone is finally going to say what we've all been saying: Running ancient (1971+) nuclear power stations on major fault lines in tsunami zones with back-up generators on the beach was stupid and avoidable. But critics in Japan and overseas have called for a fuller accounting of whether Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, sufficiently considered historically documented tsunami risks, and whether it could have done more to minimize the damage once waves hit the plant.
Questions also linger as to the extent of damage to the plant caused by the earthquake even before the tsunami hit. Any evidence of serious quake damage at the plant would cast new doubt on the safety of other reactors in quake-prone Japan. Tsunamis are far less frequent.
The bit in bold though just shouldn't happen IMO. Core ponds should be spec'd to not require cooling. Worst case scenario - low water levels due to evap after week of no services - they should be spec'd for thermal roll-over.
On the topic of CPs, any of you ever been in one with lights off? The blue / purple glow from the cherenkov really is an amazing sight to behold.
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