Remember what the little yapping hipsters on ZeroHedge thought was going to happen as a result of the oil spill int the Gulf last summer? Oh, they were thinking that we’d have massive die-offs in the ocean and on land as a result of gaseous emissions from the Deepwater Horizon spill. The Gulf spill was going to kill wildlife clear out into the north Atlantic, etc.
Yea, that didn’t happen. The hysterical rantings of most posters at ZH won’t happen this time, either.
The “tent” is being put in place in an attempt to contain the radiation being carried in the steam generated by the plant. This structure might not contain all of it, but they can reduce the overall emissions. And contrary to what snarky idiots think, those of us who work with real industrial materials know that what they’re going to put over those buildings won’t be the same disposable films that you buy down at Home Depot. I’ve worked with poly films that were so thick, you needed multiple men to move a sheet 100’ square. TEPCO doesn’t say how heavy a “film” they’re using, but they’re likely using polyester because as a plastic fabric/sheet, polyester has low permeability, a pretty high tensile strength (ie, it will take a pretty good tension load) and it absorbs less water than most other films.
Here’s a quick comparison:
http://www.ampef.com/chart.html
And here’s TEPCO’s actual proposal, in brief, of what they’re doing:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/betu11_e/images/110614e17.pdf
Think they need cranes that can pick 750 tons for something that’s going to be made from painting drop cloths?
ZH has, sadly, degenerated from a pretty high good source of financial info into a cluster of morons who pollute every thread there with their juvenile “I’m more of a hip, sardonic slacker than you are” contests. When I read ZH and see some of their snarky little twaddle on these topics, I’m moved to say “I’ve taken dumps with higher IQ’s that you twerps.” Where engineering is concerned, they’re almost dumber than liberal arts majors.
“Yea, that didn’t happen.”
Depends on who you talk to. A lot more has happened in the gulf than we know, Thanks to government influence on the media. And only God knows what people have been ingesting.
“The roughly one-millimeter-thick sheets will ...”
That’s from the linked article.
I am new to Zero Hedge but I used to be employed as a marine biologist so I don’t buy the ‘nothing to see here, move along’ attitude re gulf. I saw disaster threads I disagreed with and drew the air of them with cross posts or identifying invalid conspiracy sites - but I don’t think everything is ok fine and I know the gov doesn’t want us to think, talk about it - just move along.
Thanks for the info about sheeting. When it was first proposed the obvious concerns were heat - it’s too hot to put concrete on it so let’s put polyester instead.
You know, I wouldn’t be as skeptical as I am if a) putting polyester over 3 core melt downs had ever been tried before and b) TEPCO wasn’t the one proposing it. After all their evasion and lying and their request to abandon all attempts to contain the reactors in mid March, I believe TEPCO has earned the snarks it gets.