Posted on 03/12/2011 7:32:41 AM PST by SteveH
Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant
12 March 2011 Last updated at 08:44 ET
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News
The word "meltdown" goes to the heart of the big nuclear question - is nuclear power safe?
The term is associated in the public mind with the two most notorious accidents in recent memory - Three Mile Island, in the US, in 1979, and Chernobyl, in Ukraine, seven years later.
You can think of the core of a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), such as the ones at Fukushima Daiichi, as a massive version of the electrical element you may have in your kettle.
It sits there, immersed in water, getting very hot.
The water cools it, and also carries the heat away - usually as steam - so it can be used to turn turbines and generate electricity.
If the water stops flowing, there is a problem. The core overheats and more of the water turns to steam.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
whatever you do, don’t tell Jane Fonda...
They failed because the plant was hit by the tsunami right after the quake. It’s right on the sea.
Uh, diesel generates don’t run well on diesel fuel mixed with sea water...?
The left is already pushing the anti nuclear power plant agenda so people can die near their 0 power windmills. They are shameless fools and liars and hateful power mongers who use fear and lies in every situation to deceive the mush minded of the world.
The video of the explosion was scary. They aren’t letting out what really happened.
If I read correctly, the earthquake hit and took out the conventional electricity, the tsunami flooded the diesels, and the batteries couldn't hold down the fort enough (given the damage to infrastructure elsewhere and "too many things to do at once") for them to get the pumps started and cool off the reactors.
If anything, this is a world-class ADVERTISEMENT for nuclear power: one of the largest earthquakes in history, a 30-foot tsunami, and the damn thing STILL didn't melt down.
Cheers!
That depends if the Japanese government is as dedicated to lying as ours is.
“They aren’t letting out what really happened.”
This kind of fear mongering is unneeded. They may not know what happened and they most certainly should be focused on taking care of the problem and not holding a press conference.
Check out where these plants are. They’re right ON the coast. As in, “if you have a really good casting arm, you can probably fish off the second floor balcony of the plant.” They’re ON the shoreline.
Not only that, but they’re less than 20 miles from the epicenter of the quake (or what is now being called the epicenter).
First they got the crap shaken out of them, then they had seawater poured over their heads. All things considered, they’re doing a pretty good job of holding it together.
That’s the way I look at it. These guys have held it together through one of the biggest quakes in the world’s history, literally right on their front doorstep, with the attending tsunami coming in on top of them with likely 3 minutes’ warning.
We would not do so well.
When are they going to get a break?
Exactly what I have been thinking. I keep reading updates, just waiting for a positive breakthrough. It just seems like one complication after another. More prayers...!
Think about how much more densely populated the area around that plant is, compared to Chernobyl. And remember most of the radioactivity effects were felt in Belarus, which was hundreds of miles away.
Have you seen any news about rescue operations? Successful rescues?
First, they don’t know what really happened yet.
Second, you try being an engineer and explaining this level of complexity to failed liberal arts majors in the press and media. Go ahead. Try it.
Wanna know what it’s like?
Get a ball pein hammer. Start hitting yourself in the forehead with it, nice and slow. Keep doing it, about one smack every two seconds.
In a very short time, all you will be thinking about is how good it is going to feel when you stop.
That’s what it is like for those engineers trying to explain “what is going on” to the press in a situation like this.
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