Posted on 03/23/2011 1:09:44 PM PDT by AwesomePossum
...black smoke was seen rising at the No. 3 reactor building...surface temperatures...have topped the maximum levels...high-level radiation amounting to at least 500 millisieverts per hour was detected...
(Excerpt) Read more at english.kyodonews.jp ...
At least one and maybe two of the plants were slated to be decommissioned later this year. But, as you say, it is still a *very* expensive event. And clean up of this mess, no matter what happens, will be much more expensive than decommissioning an operating plant would have been.
I agree with almost everything you said, except your conclusion that this ignorance will lead to the fall of mankind.
I’m more optimistic than you.
After the quake, the control rods dropped and ALL the units were in "cold shutdown." However, cooling must continue as heat is still generated by the deterioration of the remaining byproducts of the reaction. Hence, all reactors (except 4, which had no fuel rods in the reactor), and all the spent fuel pools need continuous cooling.
500 mSv is 50 rads, not 5.
Actually, it could, depending on the isotopes. If it is 131I, the half-life is eight days, so you are down a factor of a thousand in about 80 days. If it is 137Cs or 90Sr, then you have to look at quantities and how much is likely to be absorbed. Of those, I'd be concerned about Sr, because it is a bone-seeker and substitutes for calcium, but if the quantities are small, you are probably okay, and water treatment facilities are very efficient at removing things like this. Charcoal filters used in municipal water filtration is quite efficient.
For more than 10 years now I've been paying an extra $50 a month for electricity. So have you. So has everyone else. So have all the factories in the country been paying obscene amounts more.
All over the unnecessary panic generated by the enviro-nazis and their willing accomplices in Big Press over 3 Mile.
This has the potential to dwarf that by an enormous factor. A thousand? 500? who knows, but it could be huge.
The extra trillions of dollars Big Press stampeded everyone into over 3 Mile has themdrooling over what they can rip us off for this time.
Freepers shouldn't be siding with those who are trying to us this to destroy capitalism.
Revel, the spent fuel pools are not in the containment. They are pouring water into the spent fuel areas. All of the reports I read indicated that the power plants successfully shutdown following the eartquake and the tsunami. Until the diesel generators shutdown two hours later, operations at the plant were normal.
How about posting a link to the info you’re referring to. I think it’s bogus.
See my post #26. The decommissioning is peanuts.
I meant #126
I have used the RELAP and RETRAN codes developed as a product of these studies and I can tell you they are very, very comprehensive and robust in their methodology and data base.
There has also been a lot of research lately in fission product release which isn't in the public domain (yet). A lot of it was done post-9/11, but some precedes it when it was thought that either RDD or IND were possibilities for sub-national group use. Some of it was done at Battelle labs and I worked with someone who was involved with that. I can't tell you the details, but, in a general sense, fission product release from damaged fuel is only a fraction of the total inventory. You really need to do a lot to get all those fission products out, things like chemical dissolution, or heating almost to the point of vaporization, which is not within the realm of even a worst-case LWR accident. Cladding damage? Yes, probably. Fuel pellet drop? Maybe some. Fuel pellet melt? Very unlikely. Vaporization? No way.
My guess is that contamination being found in Tokyo water is from streams and open reservoirs. Ground water contamination would take longer than a week. If the source of contamination in this event is stopped, the current contamination would dilute (and decompose as well) over a similar period of time, would it not?
Reactors 4, 5 and 5 were down for maintainence but the fuel pools needed to be kept cool. 5 and 6 still had the gensets so no big deal. 4 did not so now it is one of the problem children.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! This is just more sensationalism.
Remind me, how many people have actually died from any of the reactor difficulties? Oh, right. ZERO.
The control rods on a BWR are inserted from the bottom of the reactor.
That being said, and in hopes of taking nothing away from the brave souls dealing with this very serious situation...........there have been many problems and cover-ups in the past, and, also, there appears to be double speak even now...........
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110317/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_nuclear_scandals
IMHO, the main reasons for this very serious situation are:
1. Tremendous forces of nature, a 9.1 earthquake and a 30 to 50 foot tsunami.......
2. The placement of multiple reactors, not of the best design, a few meters above sea level and close to the shoreline of an ocean, in a country known for earthquakes and tsunamis..............in addition, placing important plant equiptment, outside the reactors, right on the water's edge.............
I believe that these reactors will become a permanent monument to all those who had a hand in placing them there..........
8:}
Well, to give the benefit of doubt to whomever it was who said that, my guess is they were talking about a worst-case outcome. And even that would not be a result of the salt water use, but other damage, such as thermal shock to the containment, or excessive fuel damage making restart impractical. Those will probably be the real issues, not the use of seawater itself.
I remain cautiously optimistic that you may be right here.
Cladding damage? Yes, probably. Fuel pellet drop? Maybe some. Fuel pellet melt? Very unlikely. Vaporization? No way.
What happens when you have an entire fuel load sitting in an unconfined, open container, such as the fuel storage pools. If you get enough melting and subsequent reactions going on in these storage areas, couldn't this grow until vaporization begins to occur?
You are right
He is in hiding since his tattooed eyeliner had a meltdown. ....
Dude really....they (meaning TEPCO) detected Neutron Beams 13 times since the disaster (just now reporting it).
Would you care to explain to FreeperLand how Neutron beams are created?
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