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Japan: Nuclear Fuel could have 'Melt through' Pressure Vessels.. Government Report(reactors 1,2,3)
Yomiuri Shimbun ^ | 06/07/11

Posted on 06/07/2011 4:55:17 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

/begin my excerpts

Nuclear Fuel could have Melt through Pressure Vessels ... Government Report

On Jung 7, the whole content of government report to be submitted to IAEA has been revealed, regarding TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Plant.

The report points out the possibility that molten nuclear fuel leaked out of the bottom of damaged pressure vessels in Reactor Unit #1 to #3 and accumulated in the containment vessels.

Molten nuclear fuel falling down to containment vessel is called "melt-through" and this is the worst case which is beyond meltdown. It also says that the location in pressure vessel where control rod passes through was damaged, and water tainted with highly radioactive substance was leaked out. This is the first time that government admitted the possibility of melt-through.

/end my excerpts

(Excerpt) Read more at yomiuri.co.jp ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fukushima; meltdown; meltthrough; radiation

1 posted on 06/07/2011 4:55:21 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster; sushiman; Ronin; AmericanInTokyo; gaijin; struggle; DTogo; GATOR NAVY; Iris7; ...

P!


2 posted on 06/07/2011 4:55:52 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
Correction: JungJune 7
3 posted on 06/07/2011 4:57:43 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Does it continue to melt through?


4 posted on 06/07/2011 5:25:27 AM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
Molten nuclear fuel falling down to containment vessel is called "melt-through" and this is the worst case which is beyond meltdown. It also says that the location in pressure vessel where control rod passes through was damaged, and water tainted with highly radioactive substance was leaked out. This is the first time that government admitted the possibility of melt-through.

Oh come on I've been told a hundred times that a melt-through can't possibly happen. The whole Japanese government must be a bunch of fear mongering DU trolls. /sarc
5 posted on 06/07/2011 5:55:19 AM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: wolfcreek

It can...and probably has caused holes and leaked through..but the nothing to see here crowd will naysay and say it hasn’t.

But then again, they also claimed what we are just now finding out probably didn’t happen, as well.

This is an interesting article
http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/05/24/nuclear-power-plant-suffered-a-nuclear-meltdown-with-3-5-hours-of-the-japan-earthquake-and-was-hid-from-the-public/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theenvoy/20110606/ts_yblog_theenvoy/plutonium-found-near-fukushima-shows-nuclear-crisis-is-far-from-over

In totality with all of the ramifications..this will be worse than Chernobyl.

China has sold off our debt. Japan will be next to pay for this disaster.

This is a good blog to read

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/

he translates news articles


6 posted on 06/07/2011 5:58:09 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: RummyChick

Here is an article for those that claim radiation isnt a problem

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/business/energy-environment/07radiation.html?_r=1&ref=business

And here is the striking statement..given what you have seen from the Japanese Government...would this really surprise you:

As if this were not complex enough, another school of thought suggests that the radiation effect on people exposed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was worse than the official statistics show. “


7 posted on 06/07/2011 6:06:30 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: RummyChick
In totality with all of the ramifications..this will be worse than Chernobyl.

Depends on how you define worse. There won't be anything like the number of deaths as there were at Chernobyl. Nobody has died from radiation yet, and with proper precautions nobody has to. Of course all of those precautions (evacuations, frequent crew rotations, robots) cost money. And that brings up the the second factor.

From a financial standpoint it is going to be much worse. Russia had the option of just fencing off a huge area of land and walking away. Japan, with a larger population than Russia crowded onto a relatively small group of islands doesn't have the option of just walking away. They are going to have to clean the mess up and that isn't going to be cheap. And every time another layer of containment gets breached the more waste that has to be disposed of.
8 posted on 06/07/2011 6:12:44 AM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: RummyChick

I doubt that the Japanese disaster will be as bad as Chernobyl. The Chernobyl disaster was exacerbated by the fact that it was a graphite moderated reactor. The graphite burned and the fire dispersed the radioactivity far and wide. The Japanese reactors are certainly an intense local disaster but will probably not have the far reaching effects of Chernobyl.

Tellingly, despite three confirmed meltdowns, to my knowledge not a single person has died as the result of the Japanese disaster.


9 posted on 06/07/2011 6:19:53 AM PDT by Zap Brannigan
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To: Zap Brannigan

You’re correct. At least the latest news speculation is that “maybe” there was a melt through which counters the view by some that a melt down means the reactor vessel was breached. Form what I’ve read it appears possible that the torus connected to the reactor vessel may have leaked.

The key is that anything from the reactor or associated systems is still contained with in the primary containement and possibly the drywell.


10 posted on 06/07/2011 6:51:52 AM PDT by meatloaf
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To: GonzoGOP
Nobody has died from radiation yet, and with proper precautions nobody has to.

A day late and a dollar short. Yet? Check back in a few years after the cancers and birth defects start showing up.

11 posted on 06/07/2011 8:20:08 AM PDT by bgill (Kenyan Parliament - how could a man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)
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To: meatloaf

No, the latest news is that there were three full meltdowns.


12 posted on 06/07/2011 8:21:43 AM PDT by bgill (Kenyan Parliament - how could a man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)
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To: bgill

That is what happened at TMI. The melted fuel and internals still remained within the reactor pressure vessel. The news article mentioned a possible, not definite, melt-through of the reactors. As I explained that could have been the torus which is external to the reactor vessel.

What is confusing the issue is the pressure readings are inconsistent.


13 posted on 06/07/2011 9:52:42 AM PDT by meatloaf
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To: Zap Brannigan; GonzoGOP; RummyChick

“Tellingly, despite three confirmed meltdowns, to my knowledge not a single person has died as the result of the Japanese disaster.”

If you read the article, the deaths will come years from now. Many know they are already dying.


14 posted on 06/07/2011 12:10:02 PM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: Zap Brannigan
The graphite burned and the fire dispersed the radioactivity far and wide

A few weeks ago I read an analysis that stated very little if any of the actual graphite burned. We have some of the analysts here (PNNL) and I am going to try to get clarification from them.

15 posted on 06/07/2011 12:15:34 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture (Could be worst in 40 years))
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To: steve86
The graphite fire at Chernobyl lasted for less then a week. The radioactive steam and radioactive water releases from Fukushima have been going on for over 2 months now.
16 posted on 06/07/2011 1:27:03 PM PDT by justa-hairyape
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To: meatloaf

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/06/3-japan-nuclear-reactors-had-full-meltdown-agency-says/

“Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday.”

But, hey, you know better than they do.


17 posted on 06/07/2011 5:39:08 PM PDT by bgill (Kenyan Parliament - how could a man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)
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To: GonzoGOP

Radiation levels from an independent source:

http://enenews.com/5-77-microsieverts-per-hour-of-radiation-measured-near-tokyo-at-ground-level-govt-is-desperately-trying-to-keep-it-quiet-video
Reply


18 posted on 06/07/2011 5:44:37 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Rebelbase
Recently concerned folks in Japan are hiring technicians and run their own test, even doing it themselves using equipment they can buy such as Geiger counters.

They are slowly challenging government credibility, trying to confirm their suspicions which has been sneaking up for some time.

For the disaster which require immediate and full-scale action from the get-go, response has been so slow. This kind of slow actions can be costly but the damage can be repaired in other cases. Not this one. This is a catastrophe.

19 posted on 06/07/2011 6:35:51 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
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