Posted on 03/11/2011 8:32:57 AM PST by BenLurkin
The United States has transported coolant to a Japanese nuclear plant affected by a massive earthquake and will continue to assist Japan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
"We just had our Air Force assets in Japan transport some really important coolant to one of the nuclear plants," Clinton said at a meeting of the President's Export Council.
Even MORE importantly, have we paid them for "All Your Base..."?
Simplified alright, but sounds fairly accurate to me. Might be the memory if failing, or new technology has arrived since my day.
Boron Injection fluid?
You guys called it!
UPDATE 1-US did not deliver coolant to Japan nuclear reactor
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/japan-quake-nuclear-coolant-idUSN1125270120110311
MELTDOWN 101
IT WASNT WATER! water is used in a reactor to produce steam, which ALSO provides cooling to keep the reaction stable. when a reactor shuts down, the control rods are dropped into the reactor core stopping the nuclear reaction, these rods are still “HOT”, the problem is there is a different system to cool the core when the reactor is scrammed because the turbines are no longer being used. this system takes over the flow of WATER in the reactor. the problem lies in the fact that the control rods are displacing the cooling WATER creating less coolant in the reactor to cool the rods, then the water begins to boil, compounding the problem because bubbles (steam) do not cool the rods creating a cascading failure, and releasing that steam reduces the pressure which in itself makes the water boil more(like your car radiator overheating). so the last thing you want in the reactor thats melting down is water! Whatever was sent had an extremely high boiling point and also more than likely had an element/mineral (27-4 perhaps a synthetic version of it?) to absorb the radiation in the core to “cool” the rods. If the reactor core is melting down, which is very possible, the cooling needed is more to stop the nuclear reaction. in which case water is 100% useless. put your frying pan on the stove turn it on high for 15 minutes then drip water into the pan 1 drop at a time, I think you get the picture? the only solution is to turn off the source of heat. I only pray that they only needed antifreeze. as you can see, the problem is more complex than add water...... that would compare to throwing water on a grease fire, you not only didn’t put out the fire, you showered the kitchen with flaming grease. get It now?
What happens if the core melts down? There are containment vessels, correct? What would that scenario look like in realistic terms in regards to the environment, the people of Japan and those far downwind?
They don’t make reactor plants that aren’t contained anymore...I don’t think that any uncontained reactors still operate anywhere in the world. If a meltdown did occur, think TMI, not Chernobyl.
It would appear that they are going into meltdown mode, hopefully this was their last defense backup system going into effect. They have stated that the cooling system is what exploded, my guess is they have introduced a “coctail” of elements to absorb radiation in the core to control the reaction thus cooling the reactor core. the explosion is hopefully the introduction of this “coctail” which hopefully put out the fire so to speak. I hope this is the case, and if not, the reactor is in melt down mode. If this is the case the primary containment vessel is supposed to contain all radioactive material, as it did at three mile island, with little or no danger to the population. they have a mess of epic proportion right now! lets not even think of the worst. the nuclear melted core would not explode like a bomb in any case. the explosion would be from the container that holds the material, rupturing. then the molten material burning into the salt water, creating a radioactive steam cloud. of which I would not want to be rained on. the Russian plant was of a different design they had more of a firecracker in the sand effect, and Japan would be more of pouring molten steel in a bucket of water so what happened there would be completely different than Japans. lets all cross our fingers and pray they have it under control. They were trying not to Scuttle the ship, hoping It could be put back on line sometime soon, that time has passed. they a Scuttling now and trying eliminate collateral damage. these plants are designed for this and should be able to contain the radioactive material. but in all reality the ship flooding with water right now. time will tell....
Maybe it wasn’t even generators? maybe it was hundreds of pounds of demolition material and demolition experts sent to rig the plant for scuttling? the coolant was actually gravity fed sea water, the explosion was the secondary containment vessel being detonated to allow sea water to rush in to cool the core. imagine the mas hysteria that coming out of her mouth would have made?
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