Here ya go:
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 ...
SALT — LOTS OF SALT
“Western nuclear engineers have become increasingly concerned about a separate problem that may be putting pressure on the Japanese technicians to work faster: salt buildup inside the reactors, which could cause them to heat up more and, in the worst case, cause the uranium to melt, releasing a range of radioactive material.”
“The Japanese have reported that some of the seawater used for cooling has returned to the ocean, suggesting that some of the salt may have flowed out again rather than remaining in the reactors. But clearly a significant amount remains.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/asia/24nuclear.html?_r=2&hp
Same type of welds are used on surgical instruments, surgical surfaces like tables, and any metal surfaces which come in contact with biohazardous fluids and need to be washed for sterilization.
Calcium buildup as well, which is in the salt form, calcium chloride and the chalky form, calcium carbonate. They both insulate and prevent water cooling efficiency or temperature transfer.
I thought it was rather telling that they admit that some of the cooling water is returning to the Ocean. So much for the idea that it is all being contained.
Water just gets recycled, so it either goes into the air, the ground table, or the sea. I’m more comfortable with the sea than the ground/water tables.
Here ya go:
Thanks,
There's a reason for using distilled or other purified water in such designs. Hopefully they'll get it cooled down before it becomes a serious problem of its own.
But I don't know anything quantitative to say whether the buildup will limit them in days, weeks, or months. Those reactor cores stay hot for a damn long time.
I was referring to the likelihood (if any) that melting cladding and other, would mix with the melting pellets and help to control the reaction. Is that a false assumption on my part?
Yeah...I don’t know if you could read the article or not. But they estimate 99,000 pounds of salt has accumulated in just one of the reactors. I mean...WOW!
You know, I think that's a very good question! Somehow, uncontained neutron beams out in the wild don't really sound like a good thing, do they?
I've included the following Kyodo News from the following link at the end of my post:
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/80539.html
From that report it would seem that neutron beams are evidence that uranium or plutonium may have leaked and are fissioning a bit out in the open. If this is the case, since the uranium or plutonium were all originally contained in zirconium-clad fuel rods located either inside of the reactor pressure vessel itself or in external spent-fuel storage pools, then the fuel could only have leaked if the rods' cladding melted either in a storage pool lacking water or they melted in a compromised reactor pressure vessel that allowed the contents of the melted rods to spill into the environment. (BTW, is it even possible for a glob of melted uranium fuel out in the open to fission? And if so, how much would such a glob have to weigh?)
Quote from Kyoto News from March 23:
"Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.
TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant's No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this is not a dangerous level.
The utility firm said it will measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam, as well.
In the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, uranium broke apart continually in nuclear fission, causing a massive amount of neutron beams.
In the latest case at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, such a criticality accident has yet to happen.
But the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant's nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuels have discharged a small amount of neutron beams through nuclear fission."
At this point, with the decay time that has elapsed, it is hard for me to imagine reaching the melting point temperature of uranium oxide, if there ever really was a chance of getting to that, even in the early stages of cooling loss. That is just an incredibly high temperature, and there are just too many mechanisms for heat transfer from the thermal mass. But embrittlement of the cladding, maybe with some cracking and slumping, could very well have occurred. Just like with TMI-2, we won't know until we can snake a camera in there and get a look.
There wasn't a trip I made where some pilot wouldn't come running up and asking about the plane, retelling their first lessons in it. On the flip side there wasn't a controller or tower on the east coast that didn't throw darts at that tail number until they got used to me.
I caused the cracks. I used to go in and out of class B airports that would only deal with 90 knots on the glideslope. Shock cooling was hard on the engine. It was pretty funny on finals when on the left was a 737 and on the right side was a cherokee on the same approach and speed. I could stick it down at 75KTS and make the first high speed turnoff. I worked at Charlotte Int'l. I would fly to and from work. I'd depart in 1000 feet, bank a hard turnout and be gone from their departures in a heartbeat. Good o'l days!
I've gotta do a new panel in it now to be legal and don't have the money until my middle daughter finishes college.
post 201
Wait, what?
Tha camshaft AD you are refering to is one type of a hollow camshaft they used. Fortunately I did not have it.
The boiler issue, OTOH, is due to the expansion of water when it undergoes a phase change from liquid to vapor -- pipes bursting due to freezing in the winter is much the same thing, except that here the phase transition is to the solid state.
I used to think owning an airplane was expensive until my daughter went off to college. Airplanes are cheap!
I started out with a $5,500 Cessna 150. A lot of my flying was in an MOA and I had the pleasure of getting passed on the right and level by a B-52. And of all things, after he passed me, he slid right back over into my lane!
That's the truth palmer ...
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