Breaking:Explosion at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi plant heard around 0630 GMT

reuters ^ | 3-12-11

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Just in:

Explosion at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi plant heard around 0630 GMT

NHK footage shows steam-like smoke coming from Tepco's Fukushima plant

[lefty-lie-spy]

Yeah, just had another a few minutes ago that rocked the house a bit. These are pretty normal, no big deal. Anything less than a 7.0 is pretty run of the mill around here.

Can you post links to the streams you are watching?

[listenhillary]

We need a “We’re all going to die!” thread for the FR hand wringers.

The generators could have been protected to prevent them from being submerged. They can design reactors to use steam to drive cooling pumps. They could take offline the oldest reactors and make sure the new plants that they build have bullet proof back ups. They can build pebble bed reactors.

We face more risk of death from automobiles, yet they’re still being used. Lets all run in circles over a nuclear plant on the other side of the world.

[caww]

Apparently they are now distributing iodine to the people, from Fox.

[2111USMC]

Clockwise or counterclockwise?

[listenhillary]

Why is anyone still living in the Southwest United states?

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 (2000 blasts and we’re not dead yet?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY

[GreatJoeMcCarthy]

“How many car accidents make large masses of land uninhabitable? How many of them endanger the food supply. How many of them harm people sleeping in their beds?”

How many 8.9 earthquakes coupled with a tsunami have hit America in the last 100 years?

[Zeppo]

"kinkyuu jishin sokuhou desu"...

Apparently offshore from the Tohoku region.

I am watching http://www.mbs.jp/.

[spunkets]

"Confirmation it was a hydrogen blast. Apparently outside the reactor, which seems a little odd. 1316: Noriyuki Shikata, deputy cabinet secretary for public relations for the Japanese prime minister tweets: "Blast was caused by accumulated hydrogen combined with oxygen in the space between container and outer structure. No damage to container."

Thanks. Didn't know the design of that facility. Apparently, that "black cloud" in the blast, that quickly went back down, was just a net of rebar.

They,ve been adding water to an overheated core and venting into the containment structure and apparently into the outer building. That much H₂, to cause that kind of a blast, means there's a lot of damage in the core.

[kjam22]

How many 8.9 earthquakes coupled with a tsunami have hit America in the last 100 years?

And would you want to be driving in a car along the coast if it did hit?

[spunkets]

If that’s a true tweet and not just “a controlled release”.

[listenhillary]

Japan to fill leaking nuke reactor with sea water
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTKZ00680620110312
(snip)

“We’ve confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn’t occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside,” he said.

“At this point, there has been no major change to the level of radiation leakage outside (from before and after the explosion), so we’d like everyone to respond calmly,” Edano said.

“We’ve decided to fill the reactor container with sea water. Trade minister Kaieda has instructed us to do so. By doing this, we will use boric acid to prevent criticality.”

Edano said it would take about five to 10 hours to fill the reactor core with sea water and around 10 days to complete the process.

Edano said due to the falling level of cooling water, hydrogen was generated and that leaked to the space between the building and the container and the explosion happened when the hydrogen mixed with oxygen there.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Was discussing this thread with my husband (who works in nuke field). Both of you have made excellent points and posts...and DH wants me to add that many portions of Japan HAVE power (ie., heat, cooking sources, refridgeration, communication) BECAUSE of the well designed nuclear based power grid in Japan.

Lives are being saved because power system/grid there is working.

[Yet_Again]

The problem is that we have a “never let a crisis go to waste” crowd in power. I would expect that the combination of a president who wants to see energy prices “necessarily skyrocket” and an environmental lobby that hates nuclear energy to their core would result in a pretty determined move to end nuclear power in the US, and fairly soon. The merits of the issue almost don’t matter.

(That having been said, I’m certainly glad I don’t live near that reactor right about now...)

[listenhillary]

It’s a shame that the environmentalists haven’t spent their energy helping to design bullet proof reactor designs. Instead they’ve spread lies and propaganda to scare the living feces out of people.

[grey_whiskers]

I'm sorry, but I'm getting kind of numb from all the events at once.

The closest analogy I have is Calvin and Hobbes:

NO cheers, unfortunately. Prayers up for Japan.

[grey_whiskers]

Forget about the reactor, that newscaster was HOT.

Seriously, prayers UP.

This will NOT be good for any chance to put nuclear plants in the U.S.

[samiam1972]

Nothing in this situation is funny. However, that is a great cartoon. I hear my 3 year old playing like that everyday with his trains. Thanks for the smile!

[grey_whiskers]

That's because it can't be used to prop up Obaama.

Prayers UP.

[fred2008]

The best thing I can point out is that the design exists and the prototype is now dormant. In other words, we have the safe design. All it needs is funding.

See:

www.energyfromthorium.com

[spunkets]

"We’ve decided to fill the reactor container with sea water. Trade minister Kaieda has instructed us to do so. By doing this, we will use boric acid to prevent criticality."

That's good they're tossing in the boron, but the use of sea water indicates the move is a last resort. The chloride in the seawater is really going to cause the H₂ generation to jump.