Posted on 03/13/2011 12:24:55 AM PST by Nachum
From the Washington Post:
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were acting on the assumption that a meltdown could be underway at that reactor, Fukushima Daiichi’s unit 3, and that it was “highly possible” that a meltdown was underway at Fukushima Daiichi’s unit 1 reactor, where an explosion destroyed a building a day earlier.
Hours before he spoke, authorities began evacuating more than 200,000 residents from a 12.5-mile radius around Fukushima Daiichi and another nuclear power complex, made preparations to distribute potassium iodide pills, and warned people in the vicinity to stay inside and cover their mouths if they ventured outdoors.
According to this CNN report, they have pumped sea water into reactor #1, which is a measure of last resort:
(Excerpt) Read more at verumserum.com ...
What I want to know is HOW we’ll know if a pile of hot radioactive slag has burned through the containment vessel and started to burn into the ground.
Will we see another explosion? A plume of steam/smoke?
Will we see an actaul “China Syndrome”?
If it were to happen, you would see lots of smoke coming from the reactor location and perhaps a fire but not a lot more.
After that it depends on which way the wind blows...
With such a high water table, it would be more steam than smoke.
At Chernobyl, there was a blue lenticular cloud that hung over reactor #4 during the first night.
Would a pile of radioactive slag actually have the ability to burn through the Earth’s crust all the way to the mantle?
Or, was that hyperbole set forth from the movie?
Maybe playing golf is the best thing he can do in this situation.
I don’t think there’s a need for a community organizer...do you?
My understand is when it hit the water table, the steam explosion would blow it apart and stop the reaction.
understanding, that is.
His playing golf, might be a blessing for the world.
The planet would then become a giant whistle..../s
The bottom line is that the Left will make it harder to build nuclear plants in America. I still say we need to build more nuclear plants. Thorium reactors would be safer.
It likely doesn’t matter what Obama does on a given day. He is a figurehead. At this point it is more important what his handlers were doing.
“My understand is when it hit the water table, the steam explosion would blow it apart and stop the reaction.”
The chain reaction has stopped immediatley after the quack. This is not a nuclear reaction from a critical mass. What has occurred is that the fuel in the fuel rods are emitting alfa and beta particles. Due to short half life unstable elements that are created by the reactor when it is in operation. The beta and alpha particles creat heat. That is the reason it takes several days for a reactor to cool down,
Nuclear power is going to be a damn hard sale now that a nuclear disaster has occurred in a highly industrialized nation.
Obama played golf today. That’s how he helped as the world goes haywire.
And what do you want him to do? Seriously he is the President of the United States not President of Japan. It is bad enough that he sent over the Reagan. We have the Washington right there to help out. I am glad that he is playing golf. It might save us some more debt. I can just imagine him saying lets send over two trillion dollars to Japan to help them out.
Nuclear power is going to be a damn hard sale now that a nuclear disaster has occurred in a highly
Yes it is. We can forget any “new” nuclear power in United States because of this. Maybe if Sarah becomes President, she MIGHT be able to sell it but I doubt even she could at this point. Thirty years from now might be a time to bring it up again.
I think that what we're possibly witnessing is the media reinventing the definition of "meltdown" to mean any melting of material within the reactor vessel. From what I read yesterday, a portion of the fuel rods that extended above the cooling water level did melt on #1 reactor, which is why they released steam and are pumping sea water and boron into the containment structure.
Considering that Japan is at or close to, ground zero for major earth quakes and have minor one on a regular basis (I remember this from when I was stationed at Tachikawa in early 60's) and as the Japanese ain't exactly stoopid, why is it that there were not multiple, redundant, backup systems for just such an occurrence to include more than one generator and cooling source?
We have to know that regardless this WILL give the anti-nuke, echo-zealots ammunition and we can kiss any new licensing in this country goodbye for years, if not decades, to come.
In one description I read, they supposedly had three Diesel Generators where they only needed one. All three failed.
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