[SteveH]

station blackout defined

[Eyes Unclouded]

Complex systems fail in complex ways.

[hosepipe]

Must be run by liberals.. no replacement electicity generators.. to run the pumps..

[blueplum]

so they need AC power - can that be gotten somehow from a battleship or a nuke sub linking up to some transmission lines?

[fso301]

[VeniVidiVici]

I believe the USS George Washington was in port at Japan when the quake hit.

Let me guess how this will play out. The media will breathlessly report the “meltdown” for days, even describing how many people will be killed by the radiation cloud which has surely been released by now.

Then at the last minute the Japanese will perform a completely successful shutdown of the reactor. At that point the Democrats and leftwingers all over the world will once again proclaim nuclear power is very, very bad and we can’t build anymore plants.

[Danae]

A+ Article!

[americanophile]

"The containment, I believe, is still intact. But if the core does melt, that insult will probably not be sustained, and the containment vessel will fail. All this, if it were to occur, would take a matter of days. What's crucial is restoring AC power. They've got to get AC power back to the plant to be able to control it. And I'm sure they're working on it."

Honestly, we don't they send a ship up there and generate some power?

[chessplayer]

From the comments section of article:

“The containment vessels in this family of reactors have a very high failure rate under stress, on the order of 90%.”

[Art in Idaho]

The Japanese will deal with this the best way possible. They will, in the end, do a fantastic job.

The nuclear reactor cores will be contained. There will not be a "meltdown".

Incalculable data will be gleaned regarding future safety issues for all reactors worldwide.

The US should start building the 200 Nuclear Reactors needed for our future needs - tomorrow. Alas, we'll have to wait until the newagers leave Washington D.C.. . November 6, 2012. Pray for it.

[Mariner]

"So there is a great deal of concern that, if the core does melt, the containment will not be able to survive. And if the containment doesn't survive, we have a worst-case situation."

I suggested on numerous occasions last night that there was enough residual heat in core to melt the fuel rods which could then pool at the bottom of the containment...negating the effect of the control rods and restarting the fission.

There were several Freeper "Nuclear Experts" who claimed it was impossible. Yet, here we have a real Nuclear Expert who posits the same thing.

[kik5150]

I know nothing about anything, but why didn’t they design the system such that the fuel rods are placed upwards and held in the core by electromagnetic force, such that a power failure would drop the rods down and out by gravity? Also, cooling water should be stored in a cistern above the reactor so that it too is gravity fed. Gravity never fails.

[arrogantsob]

Come on over here where there are people who know what is happening in Japan.