Posted on 03/11/2011 3:02:53 PM PST by americanophile
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) said Saturday that the temperatures of its No.1 and No.2 reactors at its Fukushima Daini nuclear power station are rising, and it has lost control over pressure in the reactors.
Fukushima Daini station is the second nuclear power plant the company has in Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan, where the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant is located.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
This is why I’m not all that excited when people start talking up nuclear power as the answer to all our energy woes.
Don’t be so pessimistic. The original GE designers and engineers who made those MARK-n designs were very smart and very cautious. They really over-engineered. We shall all see that in in a situation at the extrema of worst-case (shot of a direct hit by a nuke bomb) the still fail-safe, nearly safe.
IMO.
Frightening words.
I wonder what would the effect of a nuclear plant blowing right on top of the sesmic activity be? I caught a blurb that this quake has shifted the axis, similar to Indonesia quake; did not catch the shift degree (Indonesia was 1/4 degree?)
Bret Baer just showed the permanently subsided areas, noting maps are going to have to be re-drawn.
Japanese are also noted for underestimating the situation to save face, so ‘lost control’ probably means just that.
Prayers.
Really comes down to the amount of water that got into the reactors. It’s the buildup of steam as the temperature rises, which can cause an explosion.
If the cooling apparatuses are destroyed or if they can’t get power there in time to start them cooling again, the amount of time in which human intervention can occur, shrinks quickly.
Praying Mantis was one of my favs. Miners raised him from the Jurassic era. Tore Tokyo up.
Japanese are not given to hyperbole. Does not sound good.
Even if the plant "melt's down" and hits ground water, the worst-case scenario, the containment vessel should contain the steam. American nuke plants are designed to survive direct hits from 747s. I'm sure Japanese plants are similarly designed. Remember that Chernobyl was commie-built.
I'm skeptical of all reportage. Hope everything turns out OK.
It’s never as bad as it is reported.
Two major quakes effecting the Earths axis, this can not be good.
Chernobyl was an older designed Soviet reactor. In Chernobyl, engineers made critical mistakes that caused a potentially dangerous situation to become catastrophic.
I know that Japanese engineers are much more competent than their 1980’s Russian counterparts when it comes to nuke plants.
Who is downwind of Japan?
Hawaii. The West Coast.
Wonderful.
I agree with you about not being excited about nuclear power. As someone who was within 30 miles of Three Mile Island during the accident, I always believe it’s just a matter of time before a major accident. I think we need to keep looking.
This sounds like it's getting away from them.
definitely not good if true -
""If they can't get adequate cooling to the core, it could be a Three Mile Island or worse," said nuclear physicist Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which is working to improve the safety of nuclear power. The loss of coolant at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania for only 30 minutes led to a 50% meltdown of the core in that 1979 accident."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-japan-quake-nuclear-20110312,0,2627198.story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_Water_Reactor
It’s not clear which pumps are no longer operational. I assume it must be the cold-water pumps since if it was the feedwater pumps it seems the situation would immediately become much more dire.
It’s not sounding so good.
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