Posted on 03/21/2011 2:07:54 AM PDT by Kartographer
Plant operators evacuated workers from Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear complex Monday after gray smoke rose from one of its reactor units, the latest of persistent troubles in stabilizing the complex after it was damaged in a quake and tsunami.
Smoke rising from the spent fuel storage pool of the plant's Unit 3 prompted the evacuation, Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Hiroshi Aizawa said. The problem-plagued Unit 3 also alarmed plant officials over the weekend with a sudden surge of pressure in its reactor core.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The first sign they did not have a handle on it was when the roofs started to blow off the buildings and after that, fighting the problem with water-dropping helicopters.
Getting a handle on it is going to take decades and in the mean time there are large areas of Japan that will be uninhabitable, constant concerns over local sources of food and water and many people facing uncertain futures due to the health effects of the radiation.
Count me a skeptic but there is no getting a break from what has already happened.
I wouldn’t worry about it. You can always hide under your bed ... or educate yourself about nuclear power. Hint .. they cannot explode like a nuclear weapon.
I was not worried about the explosion. It’s the radiation that will kill ya.
It seems like there will be an uninhabitable circle 100 miles in diameter around those plants.
I would bet against such a “dead zone”, given what we know about the radiation releases so far.
Of course, some kind of unforeseen catastrophic release could happen, but that is looking increasingly unlikely given the decrease in the tempo of catastrophic events.
Well that's good news then. I certainly don't wish it on them. This is a once in a millenium catastrophe as far as I can tell and nuclear power is still needed. Something this terrible is still awful, though,
My gosh! Could you imagine what the circle would have been if it had been a coal fired power plant in use instead.
Most of us know that Sherlock. The fear is that the public in general when hearing of these struggles will turn against Nuclear Energy due to media hype and anti-nuke scare tactics.
We're out of energy options with this President. Since you're so educated on nuclear power perhaps you should show Tokyo Electric what to do. At the price of oil these days we have a right to be worried about the possible loss of another energy source.
I mean Drudge's website looked like a countdown to doomsday a few days ago, I can't even imagine what was being reported on CNN.
Japan doesn't have any coal, but I see your point. Still, imagine all the dusting...
Most energy on this planet comes from a nuclear source called the Sun that continues to kill people through skin cancer. Nuclear power plants on the other hand release less radioactivity into the environment than coal fired plants.
I’m not sure what it is about nuclear power that makes people irrational.
Don’t talk about people being irrational when you are so purposely distorting the risks of nuclear power.
It is not an unreasonable position to be in favor of nuclear and to believe that technology can be contained and used safely. But you don’t do your argument any favors when you dive into the sublime.
Obviously even some of those that know the reactor cannot explode, still believe something dire will happen. When I see folks believing there will be an uninhabitable zone around the Japanese plants in the future it is obvious that the information that came out of TMI isn’t exactly common knowledge. TMI proved the fallacy of the China Syndrome.
I agree the folks that get the heebie jeebies over anything nuclear power related will be crapping their pants over building additional nuclear power plants.
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is 19 miles, and that reactor spewed its guts into the sky for day after day, which is nothing at all like the situation in Fukushima.
So your “100 miles” is just another example of nonsensical hysteria like the BP well going to “destroy all life in the Altantic” or some such.
It wasn't hysteria. It was an estimate based on the fact that, at least according to the reports I've heard, they've evacuated the area for a 50 mile radius around. Now, for the purposes of discussion here on the forum, I speculated that might be the case because - I admit - I am ignorant of how it will ultimately turn out.
But it is insulting to ascribe it to some sort of hysteria. An approximation while things are still going on is all *anyone* can come up with, even someone with overwhelming knowledge and immune to all forms of hysterical thinking.
It is irrational when you cannot appreciate the comparision to the radiation encountered in everyday life to the radiation emitted by a nuclear power plant. Apparently many still get the nuclear shiver when they make no effort to educate themselves about the construction of a nuclear power plant or the operation.
Do some fact checking about what happened with TMI. Other than the media scaring the hell out of people, there was minimal radiation released. That was a meltdown BTW.
"Do some fact checking about what happened with TMI. Other than the media scaring the hell out of people, there was minimal radiation released. That was a meltdown BTW."There was no spent fuel pool fire at TMI. Only one (vs three) reactors had a meltdown. There were no hydrogen explosions at TMI. The workers being pulled back now does not sound good at all. To me this thing sounds like TMI x 3 plus Kyshtym.
Okay, 50 miles? Say what?
The original radius was 8-10km, and they bumped that up to 20km, which is 12.4 miles. You may not be the source of the hysteria, but it’s still hysteria.
They scanned 19,000 people and found 38 with “higher than average,” but non-hazardous, levels of radiation - 2/10ths of one percent.
I wonder how much useful work in restoring food, water, and shelter could have been done in the time spent on the hysterical scanning of nearly 20,000 people to no meaningful benefit?
There was a hydrogen explosion at TMI. Following TMI igniters were installed in containment buildings to flare hydrogen before it could explode, That was in addition to hydrogen recombiners on the operating floor of the containment.
It’s true that the spent fuel pools are involved in the Japan. Even with those issues the radiation released has not contaminated the countryside like Chernobyl.
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