Posted on 03/18/2011 11:13:39 AM PDT by brityank
Fukushima one week on: Situation 'stable', says IAEA
Shameful media panic very slowly begins to subside
By Lewis Page Posted in Physics, 18th March 2011 12:56 GMTThe situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, badly damaged during the extremely severe earthquake and tsunami there a week ago, continues to stabilise. It is becoming more probable by the day that public health consequences will be zero and radiation health effects among workers at the site will be so minor as to be hard to measure. Nuclear experts are beginning to condemn the international hysteria which has followed the incident in increasingly blunt terms.
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Main killer in all this? The panic
Analysis
The Fukushima reactors actually came through the quake with flying colours despite the fact that it was five times stronger than they had been built to withstand. Only with the following tsunami again, bigger than the design allowed for did problems develop, and these problems seem likely to end in insignificant consequences. The Nos 1, 2 and 3 reactors at Daiichi may never produce power again though this is not certain but the likelihood is that Nos 4, 5 and 6 will return to service behind a bigger tsunami barrier.
The lesson to learn here is that if your country is hit by a monster earthquake and tsunami, one of the safest places to be is at the local nuclear powerplant. Other Japanese nuclear powerplants in the quake-stricken area, in fact, are sheltering homeless refugees in their buildings which are some of the few in the region left standing at all, let alone with heating, water and other amenities.
Nothing else in the quake-stricken area has come through anything like as well as the nuclear power stations, or with so little harm to the population. All other forms of infrastructure transport, housing, industries have failed the people in and around them comprehensively, leading to deaths most probably in the tens of thousands. Fires, explosions and tank/pipeline ruptures all across the region will have done incalculably more environmental damage, distributed hugely greater amounts of carcinogens than Fukushima Daiichi which has so far emitted almost nothing but radioactive steam (which becomes non-radioactive within minutes of being generated).
And yet nobody will say after this: "don't build roads; don't build towns; don't build ships or chemical plants or oil refineries or railways". That would be ridiculous, of course, even though having all those things has actually led to terrible loss of life, destruction and pollution in the quake's wake.
But far and away more ridiculously, a lot of people are already saying that Fukushima with its probable zero consequences means that no new nuclear powerplants should ever be built again. ®
Personal bootnote
As one who earns his living in the media these days, I can only apologise on behalf of my profession for the unbelievable levels of fear and misinformation purveyed this week. I have never been so ashamed to call myself a journalist.
Hit the Register Link to read it all.
I do hope they put that poor guy on suicide watch, he’s already lost some workers to death and accidents from the initial quake and tsunami. Then to contemplate you’re sending others in to potentially life-ending situations has to weigh heavily on one’s heart.
To that I agree....
For reference from 2003 on Reactor 3 at plant
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20030209a6.html
Tepco to restart a Fukushima reactor in March
FUKUSHIMA (Kyodo) Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to resume operations of a reactor at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, company sources said Saturday.
If the company obtains approval from residents, it will restart its No. 3 reactor at its Fukushima No. 1 plant as early as next month.
It would be the first step toward Tepco restarting its plants since it was discovered last August that the company had falsified records on cracks at nuclear power plants.
But Fukushima Gov. Eisaku Sato has been cautious about operations being resumed. “It is not time to comment yet (about restarting the plants),” he said.
Operations at the No. 3 reactor, in the town of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, were suspended last July for 103 days due to regular inspections.
Inspections were prolonged, however, when the company found cracks in more than 80 percent of the reactor’s pipes. It has since either repaired or replaced the damaged pipes.
The pipes carry water used to power the drive shaft of the reactor’s control rods.
Tepco was forced to halt operations at 12 of its 17 nuclear reactors in Fukushima and Niigata prefectures because of the coverup.
Tepco had planned to start using uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel at the No. 3 reactor, in line with the government’s plan to promote the MOX program as a key component of a nuclear fuel cycle.
But governor Sato said in September that he would rescind his earlier approval to accept the MOX program following the scandal. He noted that the conditions for the consent to go ahead with the project had “disappeared.”
The radiation fear mongering has been one of the main obstacles to the relief and rescue effort. The evacuation area concentric to Fukushima was ever-widened, displacing residents from not only their homes, but business, schools and hospitals. Some persons have died in the shelters because no more medicine was available. Consider that, had they been left undisturbed, their chances of survival were better. Relief could not be brought in to those who could not or would not leave, and so forth. It is tragedy upon tragedy, all because of foolish, irresponsible publicity and pressure.
Quite a few FReepers are going to be disappointed in their expectation of a “meltdown.”
They’ve got 56 nuke plants over there. They couldn’t find a spare that they could have begged, borrowed or stolen? Too big to helo’d to the crippled plant? Surely they got to have engineers on the crew involved in that.
Yes, please!!!
The diesel fuel storage tanks were the things that were washed away, not the diesels. When seawater entered the intakes of the diesels, those were pretty much ruined. Tanker trucks can deliver new fuel, but getting the new engines and generators to the site in a quick manner would have been a challenge. You're probably talking about several months for such a project under normal circumstances, much less a country essentially ruined by an earthquake of historic magnitude.
It seems to me that even if you have to fly in pallets of 55 gal drums of fuel it's GOTTA be better than the current situation. ANYTHING to get power pumping into those water pumps.
And if they can fly in what was it? 7 tons of water by chopper, that's still not enough to fly in generators?
Ok. I'll stop second guessing now and go take a nap :)
Everything you said. Panic always kills.
TYVM to both you and chimera :)
Just to let you all know, the GE/Hitachi TM2500 13.8KV ‘portable’ unit uses 40 Gallons per minute at full bore output. Here’s a pdf flier to show the details along with some good pictures:
http://www.electricpowergeneration.com/TM2500/TM2500%20Brochure.pdf
Thanks for that. lol. I withdraw my 55 gal drums comment ;)
Sorry; should have pinged you to my previous post too. That’s one hell of a load of fuel to manage!
And on that - I too will take a much needed nap!
Cheers. :^)
Just give him and his people time. I’m sure they will before it is over. The head of the NRC is basically an anti-nuclear activist.
Many of us lived through Tsar Bomba. Unless things really deteriorate, Daiichi’s radiation release will be a small fraction of that of Tsar Bomba.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
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