Posted on 03/14/2011 1:45:20 PM PDT by americanophile
Japan has asked the US for help to stop a quake-damaged nuclear reactor plunging into uncontrollable meltdown. The plea comes after a second hydrogen explosion occurred at a nuclear plant where officials warned that three nuclear rods in a cooling-starved reactor appeared to be melting.
Plumes of grey smoke billowed into the air after the blast at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's number 3 unit, injuring 11 people.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano confirmed the fear of rods melting inside all three of the site's most troubled reactors.
"Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening," he said.
Officials insist the inner reactor's container remains intact - but concern was raised when number 2 unit's fuel rods were left fully exposed by a falling cooling water level.
Workers managed to raise water levels after a second drop on Monday night, but they began falling for a third time, according to nuclear agency official Naoki Kumagai.
Specialists are now considering spraying water directly on the hermetically-sealed container in an attempt to cool it.
The former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Sky News that the status of the faulty reactor may deteriorate even more.
"I think the situation is still very, very grim - we are by far not over the worst," Olli Heinonen said.
Harvard-based Mr Heinonen said it is now important for US expertise to be employed to minimise the risk of a catastrophic failure.
"They are the best people to know their (reactors') behaviour, particularly when you go into this phase and assess the consequences."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
From my understanding Fukushima 1 is a GE reactor from the 70’s. I would assume that it is not the only one in use in the word of similar design. Most of our plants are form the same era and may very likely have the same reactor in them.
There’s a big, big difference between saying “there’s no problem at all,” and saying “every living thing on the planet is not actually all doomed.”
"Three strikes for them and 18 holes for me.
They are not Moslem, not an enemy of
natural born Americans, and not my people."
I really feel the human tragedy there, and it’s unfathomable.
But you know, I’m so far up here in the mountains of Maine that my biggest worry is: what is this going to do to the price of gas for me?
Didn’t the reaction stop when the control rods were dropped?
That’d be of concern.
Hey Dave, I have it on pretty good authority that we geared up and had generators leaded etc and were ready to help but the Japanese moved their own in. I also believe that several airports(of any size to the plants) nearest have been destroyed. That means sticking them on a barge and bringing them in. But the Japanese must have solved the power problem if they can pump seawater now.
Obama will send teams of lawyers just as soon as he can figure out who to sue.
They're not going to lose the containment. This is a western-designed reactor, remember?
The reason they had to dump sand and concrete on Chernobyl is because it had NO containment at all.
Agreed and for those who worked in the field all we're getting fed through the media is misinformation and in many cases inaccurate and error riddled information.
These guys need support be it personnel to relieve those who have been going without sleep since the earthquake on Friday, be it reliable generators, be it pumps, boric acid, filtration, or fuel.
If these babies are melting down this is going to take a few weeks...not a few days.
U.S. President Barack Obama signs a screen showing Duke Ellington during a visit to Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Virginia March 14, 2011. Obama wrote, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!"', a reference to a Duke Ellington composition. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Under no condition should a reactor be bombed. That will pulverize the fuel and disperse it into the atmosphere.
This is what happened at Chernobyl. The steam lines ruptured and pulverized the reactor. Then the coolant caught fire and smoke carried radioactive fuel particles up into the atmosphere.
He’s probing the 19th hole.
The reactions stopped when the units were scrammed on Friday. What you are dealing with now is the residual heat and the daughter’s breakdown.
There’s nothing to blow-up and stop.
Know what? We agree on something! LOL.
I have been keeping up with a Woman, on another thread, that said it was a shame on us that we hadnt delivered more than 1500 pounds of rice before the day before yesterday...or something like that.
I mean..JHC! What? We now need to station ships all over the GD globe in case of a disaster?
There’s no ‘bright side’ to the prospect of three nuclear reactors melting down.
Glenn Beck has put it in simple terms of what's happening with the nuke plant and it appears that George Soros and The Tide's Foundation are behind some of the scare.
The people that built this reactor are either dead or too old to do much good. It was built in 1970.
Let’s hope this isn’t above Barry’s pay grade.
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