[WestSylvanian]

Not to worry. According to Hillary some “really important coolant” was delivered by the US Air Force. I understand they loaded up a C-5 transport plane with jugs of anti-freeze and flew them in.

Is there no end to the incompetence of these people? Heaven help us if the US has a disastrous earthquake.

[wolfpat]

It’s a BWR. Radioactive gasses come out of it all the time. This is no problem.

[Ev Reeman]

Why did the coolant system fail?

Why was there not a back up system in case the coolant system failed?

[Digger]

I hope that they have their potassium iodate tablets. We have 800 tabs just in case.

[fso301]

Live stream from NHK World here. The resolution is quite a bit lower than last night but, it's something for those without cable or cubicle bound. Double click the image to enlarge it.

[G Larry]

SECONDARY COOLING WATER!!!!!

Wait for details and do some homework regarding reactor design before moving on to panic.

[Carley]

Some time in the very early morning hours I heard a news report on the radio that stated that the nuclear plant WAS leaking.

All day there has been little confirmation of the truth about the nuke plant. I suspect that it was leaking but they didn’t report the details until they could get evacuations under way.

[mewykwistmas]

“May have” means godzillas IMO. They are trying to keep the people as calm as they can, considering

[crz]

What type of radiation is this? Is this Cesium? Cesium has a very short half life no?
Cesium concentrates in meat instead of bone if so.

Lastly, if anyone should know about the effects of radiation on humans it should be the Japanese.

[Steely Tom]

How long till Obama orders the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to shut down every nuclear power plant in the country? Until they can be declared to be “safe” in the event of a tsunami.

[theBuckwheat]

I wonder how much of this is xenon-135 (half-life 9.2 hours), and therefore quite a low risk, especially if the wind is blowing offshore.

[Nuc 1.1]

It's pretty clear that the only heat sink two or three of these units have is the suppression pool. We have reports of a sustained loss of AC at one of the units. This would explain their coolant situation but the other two appear to have power yet still no heat sink as evidenced by the high suppression pool temperature. I believe they need some out of the box thinking to buy time. They could sluice some condensate storage tank water into the suppression pool at the expense of overall containment free volume and get some additional heat storage capacity. They could use portable pumps to get some cooling water flowing. Any heat removal avenue would help. I am more concerned about the other two plants that have power but no cooling flow. I find it unlikely that the quake would have damaged all the cooling systems to the point that none remain due to physical failure. I wonder if the systems were filled with debris from the quake and wave action. Still, you could isolate the Residual Heat Removal System (RHR) heat exchangers (Hxs), pull the man ways and install flanges with multiple fire hose connections supplied from temporary pumps. That would get you some cooling water flow. You could use temporary pumps on the reactor side also by pulling check valve internals and covers in the RHR system, replacing the cover with a flange fitted with hose connections. Jumpering around the RHR pump that is not running with a temporary pump that can run. Also there is the spent fuel pool that has a lot of water with significant static head that connects to the RHR system. The resulting flow path would be from the suppression pool, through the temporary pump(s), through the RHR Hxs, into the reactor, into a steam line, through a relief valve, and back to the suppression pool. Circulation through the reactor is established. The heat sink was established to the RHR Hx using a temporary pump(s). These are just some ideas. There are other ways available. Wish I was there.