Posted on 03/15/2011 8:13:35 AM PDT by SE Mom
Latest news from Japan:
From the BBC-
1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.
1439: A 30km (18 mile) no-fly zone is in place around Fukushima, says the IAEA.
1436: The IAEA says Monday's blast at Fukushima may have affected the integrity of the containment vessel - there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks if happen.
1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0 within three minutes of each other.
Twitter-
-US Geological Survey counts 451 aftershocks since the initial earthquake struck Japan Friday. 238 of them registered magnitude 5.0 or more.
-Despite situations in Japan & Libya, spksmn Jay Carney says Pres Obama's 5-day trip to Brazil, Chile & El Salvador starting Fri night is on.
-FLASH: More U.S. military personnel in Japan testing positive for low-levels of radiation, relief missions to continue - Navy 18 minutes ago via web
Don’t know. I would guess localized in Japan only.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-nuclear-health-idUSTRE72E2JF20110315
Yup. And even then there are differences here - 110v or 120v base, and the 2xx volt group has 208v, 220v, or 240v - both single phase or three phase. You want that in wye or delta? ;^)
I really like that blog- it’s been so useful and informative. That and the BBC one...plus streaming Japanese tv.
Perhaps many of those with the ability or knowledge to deal with the plants were dead, injured, trapped, or just missing.
I can see a plant figuring it out if 10% of their personnel aren’t around. But not if 75% can’t be found.
Putting out a film that claims the Pentagon was hit with a missile (narrated by Charlie Sheen, no less) puts Jones is class by himself. CNN is a beacon of truth compared to Infowars.
Alex Jones is a fly in the ointment. That’s his function.
This isn't exactly the only nuke plant they got. They got 56 of them. They got no spare parts or other reactors that are down that couldn't be cannibalized?
They had a lot of parts available with the same connectors. FOr some reason, they didn't get to the site with the problem. Hell, fly them in from half way around the world if necessary in 2-4 hours, don't irradiate square miles of land they can ill afford to lose.
Tell me about it, I am a maintenance supervisor at a concrete batching plant, the owners many years ago thought they were getting a bargain at an auction of some European machinery, I had to replace all the motors.
And then I modernized the whole plant to use 480V 3 phase as the cables and magnetic switches for 208 would have been too massive for a 100hp motor, I love 480 3ph. so simple to motor reverse, wires and switches much smaller.
Like I said, common mode failure. The industry will have to look at what it will take for plants sited in various locales to assure that the backup power is maintained.
Nuclear plant shutdown is largely automated. I worked on a system in the early 1980s, ATOG (anticipated transient operating guidelines) that gave a visual representation of the plant status on a graphical display. A moving dot represented the plant state as a function of various process parameters, vessel pressure, downcomer temperature, time, main steam pressure, whatever the operator wanted to call up. The integrated control system would keep that little old dot right in the middle, the "sweet spot", of all the various conditions, to achieve cold shutdown as quickly as possible with minimal challenges to the safety systems.
Yeah, maybe but again, this plant wasn't operating in a vacuum. There are other nuke plants within 100-200 miles of this that had people who could understand the systems and what to do to shut it down and keep it cool.
I just did a google search, Japan uses 50hz, west coast is 60hz 100v, east coast is 50hz 100v, must be quite interesting in as such as clocks keeping time.
So sad. So true. They are the ones that my heart and prayers most reach out to. Unimaginable what those 50 people must be going through.
FYI: One source that might still have potassium iodide available is your local "compounding" drugstore/pharmacy. You may need a script.
Japan radiation leaking “directly” into air: IAEA
By Fredrik Dahl
VIENNA | Tue Mar 15, 2011 2:43pm EDT
VIENNA (Reuters) - Japan has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog radioactivity was being released “directly” into the atmosphere from the site of an earthquake-stricken reactor and that it had put out a fire at a spent fuel storage pond there.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information it had received from Japanese authorities at 0350 GMT, said on Tuesday dose rates of up to 400 millisievert per hour have been reported at the Fukushima power plant site.
Sounds like the panic buying we have before a snowstorm. Here are two AOL News feeds on the Japan situation. The first is on the dangers to the nuclear workers.
The second is a feel-good story about the rescue of a baby.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/15/a-few-miracles-offer-small-hope-to-traumatized-japan/?ncid=webmail
WE need the power, but let's quit being stupid here and apply or invent the technology to ensure that not even an incoming meteor will create this kind of threat to humanity or the world again.
Darn - where is a nuclear scientist when you need one? :)
I think he’s an agent provocateur.
:)
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