Posted on 03/11/2011 4:36:55 PM PST by socialism_stinX
TOKYO – Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/11/japan-issues-emergency-nuke-plant-leak/#ixzz1GLApKL9w
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Now is not the time to joke about this.. Ok?
I believe more of the story I posted above out of Japan--I have faith in their technology. I may be wrong, but "am still staying in cup half full mode". People around the area were already evacuated. People inside were not. Precautionary.
This is being posted:
NUCLEAR POWER: UNNECESSARY, UNSAFE, UNWANTED.
If you are apposed to nuclear power, or just prefer alternative appropriate technologies, contact your state representatives and the white house and let them know ".- Al Gore's Current TV.
"I'm sitting in a power plant right now. Power plants don't use coolent other than water. It sounds like the Feed Water pumps aren't running at capacity because they are on battery power. The only way to cool the reactor is to get the feed water pumps running. Or some how put portable one on line but ive never heard of that being down before. comment by chunga at 3/11/2011 11:53:25 PM6:53 PM ..boric acid or boron infused water can be used as a coolant."
"The U.S. Military did not deliver water to the Japanese. Someone did not prepare Secretary Clinton to speak, and made her look foolish. The U.S. has delivered generators to the power plant to provide power to the COOLING PUMPS. That will aid in cooling the reactor."
Of course they do, but the part I excerpted was info from the Kyodo news agency.
“The Japanese nuclear generation plants are state of the art...”
Yes, and that is a problem for us. Our plants are 1970s technology or earlier. If this can happen to their “state of the art” plants, think of what an 8.9 quake here could do.
Read the safety reports from some of our plants and you won’t get much sleep. I saw a report online about a plant within 80 miles of me, and it wasn’t comforting in the least.
You have heard of sensationalism within the MSM media, correct? They lack facts so they just run with it..historically speaking.
Have faith in Japan's engineers. They may not need as much help from the US government as our government would like you to think. Japan is not Haiti.
Not to sound callous but if they’re only evacuating a 2M radius this is under control. Serious, but within containment.
Prayers up nonetheless.
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I’ve worked in the US nuclear industry for 30+ years and for 18 years I was a licensed senior reactor operator/control room supervisor on a boiling water reactor (BWR) similar to the Fukushima plant. I helped write the emergency procedure guidelines that are used at US BWRs. There is a great deal of information flying around that just does not make sense. There just seems to be no detailed technical information getting out to the public on this. At the risk of over simplifying the system, a BWR is like a giant pot of boiling water. Regular light water, not heavy water, goes through the reactor, is heated by the splitting of uranium atoms, turns to steam and spins a turbine-generator to make electricity. The steam is condensed back to water and pumped back into the reactor to continue the cycle.
There are 3 basic barriers to the release of radiation: the metal clad that encases the uranium fuel, the reactor pressure vessel, and the containment. If 2 of these 3 are compromised, and the third is in jeopardy, US plants will advise shelter or evacuation of nearby residents.
The reactor operates at a normal pressure of about 1000 psig. During an earthquake of this magnitude, the reactor would be expected to automatically shut down (called a reactor scram). Control rods are hydraulically driven into the core in less than 7 seconds. I do not know if this took place but if it did not, we’d probably hear about it because it would be such a big deal. Even with rods inserted, the reactor continues to produce heat equivalent to about 3% of its full power level. This is not the same as taking a pot off the stove and letting it cool. There are still some atoms splitting and fission products decaying that produce heat. This drops off slowly and is why there needs to be layers of redundant cooling with backup power. During such an earthquake, power from outside the plant would not be expected to be available.
The plants have several back up diesel generators (locomotive style engines) that supply power to motor driven cooling systems that will supply high flow of water up to about 300 psig.. There are also steam driven systems to supply cooling water up to 1100 psig. There are also pressure relief systems that active at about 1100 psig. If reactor pressure gets too high, relief valves open and discharge steam to a water filled pool inside the containment.
Here are some information being reported that does not make sense. Reports that the pressure is 1.5 times normal; incorrect. There are at least 10 relief valves and any one can handle the energy after a plant shut down. CNN reports the US military has flown coolant to the site, but the coolant they use is regular water; I can’t imagine why the US would need to fly in coolant.
Right now I’d want to know a few things.
Are all rods fully inserted? What is the water level in the reactor? It’s normally about 12 feet above the top of the fuel. What injection systems are available? What is the reactor pressure? What is the status of containment?
Based on limited information, this is what I think might happen:
Earthquake hits, high vibration on the main turbine automatically trips the turbine by rapidly closing stop valves. Reactor automatically shuts down (scrams) all rods go in. Earthquake disrupts off site power to the plant and back up diesel generators should have started, maybe they did not. Main sources of water to the reactor are not available. If there is no pipe break off of the reactor, the pressure will slowly increase. After about an hour, a relief valve(1 of about 10) will open at about 1100 psig and drop pressure to about 1080. The steam is sent to a pool of water called a suppression pool in the containment that condenses the steam. This valve will cycle open and close every 5-10 minutes. Operators would use a small steam driven turbine (RCIC) to supply water at high pressure to the reactor under these circumstances for several hours. You can sit like this a long time, hot and at 1000 psig it’s no big deal as long as water covers the fuel in the reactor pressure vessel. If that turbine is not available, there is a larger steam driven turbine (HPCI) that supplies more water meant to provide make up if there was a pipe break.
If neither of these systems is available, the relief valve will continue to cycle and reactor water level will slowly drop. At some point before the water level lowers to the point of uncovering the fuel, all the relief valves would be open (ADS) and pressure would be reduced to below 300 psig to allow the low pressure but high flow systems (CS & LPCI) to restore water level and cooling. These pumps however, need electricity, like from the diesel generators, to run. If things get this far but there is no injection, in US plants there are things like diesel fire pumps that can be tied in to provide alternate sources of water. I’m not sure if they are set up to do this in Japan. Without cooling, eventually the fuel temperature will exceed 2200 deg F and the clad will melt. Fission products that are highly radioactive will get dispersed into the reactor vessel. If there is a pipe break or relief valve open, those fission fragments get dispersed through containment.
No you're not.
If you are sorry for your actions, apologize
If you are not, don't.
There is no "if" .
Amen.
Yes..so did I, updates are at the top and reported news at the bottom. The rest re: "1000 times" I posted above etc.
There are outlined emergency steps to follow which are precautionary.
I wonder who's head Hillary Clinton will have on a stick!
Thanks
I’m going to throw out a question for those of you who are knowledgeable about the bond market (I freely admit that I don’t know diddly):
What happens, once Japan determines that she has a huge need for cash for cleanup and rebuilding ruined areas, and someone suggests they sell off all or part of the approx. $700 billion in US treasury bonds?
That may be a silly thing to worry about but I haven’t heard it mentioned so far. To me, it is a legitimate thing to worry about given Japan’s monetary needs and our exposure.
Serious answer, anyone?
BBC now saying large blaze has started at Miagi Nuke plant.....what next, its like one thing after another.
Nuclear power is unneeded except for the fact that, coal,oil,and natural gas are kept at artificially created high prices.
This will give the greens enough to stop new development and beat the solar and wind drum loudly.
I work in power and if it wasn’t for large subsidies no one would think about the above two in large centralized power.
We are going in the wrong direction and it will continue to damage us all economically.
Is that the only thing of value they have to sell?
Bad day.
If you start with a penny, a 1000-fold increase in your wealth does not make you rich in any way.
I am not sure why when the control rods go in hydraulically that the plant cannot be shut down. I realize it is still hot but would expect that within a few hours that the plant could be totally shut down.
Those videos made me think of all the morons on the West Coast who look forward to the Big One.
Hopefully, the worst is over for Japan.
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