USS Ronald Reagan Moved After Detecting Radioactive Plume (Took 1 Months Radiation in 1 Hour)

ABC News ^ | March 14, 2011 | LUIS MARTINEZ

[buccaneer81]

USS Ronald Reagan Moved After Detecting Radioactive Plume Off Japan Ship's Crew Was Exposed to Low Level of Radiation

By LUIS MARTINEZ March 14, 2011

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other US Navy ships in the waters off the quake zone in eastern Japan were repositioned after the detection of a low-level radiation plume from the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant located 100 miles away.

[BenKenobi]

Exactly, thank you. :)

And thanks for the excellent post. Glad to see I was right that they managed to avert a core meltdown.

[buccaneer81]

Glad to see I was right that they managed to avert a core meltdown.

According to reports, that remains to be seen.

[BenKenobi]

The general irresponsible panic inducers annoy me.

[BenKenobi]

The network news reporters don’t know **** from shinola.

The last I saw is that the Core temps were down to around 100 C, and that was a day ago. So no meltdown yet, it ain’t gonna happen.

[chimera]

Looks like there must have been some fuel damage if they are still getting hydrogen explosions, like at the No. 3 unit recently. While there are other sources of hydrogen in any steam electric plant above a certain output (hydrogen cooling of turbogenerators, for example), the most likely source here is the steam-zirconium reaction. But it appears the primary containment is still intact, as designed. Hopefully, it will remain so.

[JustSurrounded]

For what it’s worth, I just heard this reported on Fox. They said it was a helicopter from the RR that flew through a plume, radiation detected upon landing and cleared.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Ok. Gotcha.

[driftdiver]

“Looks like there must have been some fuel damage if they are still getting hydrogen explosions, like at the No. 3 unit recently. “

As I understand it the hydrogen is caused by the high pressure/temperatures of the water being used as coolant. Under those conditions the water seperates into oxygen and Hydrogen.

Fuel damage would be indicated by detection of radioactive Cesium or Iodine. There apparently has been a small amount of fuel damage as coolant levels became low. However the reactors have been shutdown for a while now so the risk of a “meltdown” is decreasing.

[Magnum44]

outstanding post

[chimera]

Certainly the heat load will drop as the fission products decay, so time is on our side in that sense. They'll still need to keep those fuel assemblies covered.

Thermal dissociation of hydrogen and oxygen in water would still indicate pretty high temperatures. What is the minimum temperature for that to occur and does it exceed the melting point of the cladding? If so, then yes, some or maybe all of the hydrogen could be generated in that fashion.

[Tallguy]

The question is... what type of radioactive isotopes are being detected. If Cesium & Iodine are found in quantity then we have a significant problem. If we are detecting radioactive Nitrogen or Oxygen (which we could given the emergency core cooling techniques) then it’s not so much of a problem. The half-live of the latter isotopes is very short.

Read the article.

[oh8eleven]

To those frothed by imagination into a near-panic state ...
I'm with you. So many bed-wetters you'd think this was a Lib site.

[fred2008]

God Bless the US Navy for having a cool hand at the helm of the RR.

Perspective is a wonderful thing.

[driftdiver]

Yes they need to keep coolant levels up, no disagreement there. Thats probably why they are using sea water. Because the rest of their coolant supply is probably gone.

One article I read said the temperature for the hydrogen/oxygen was about 500 deg C along with some level of elevated pressure. Not sure what that pressure is.

The cladding melts at around 2200 degrees Celsius. They only experienced this on the parts of the fuel rods which became uncovered by coolant. The fuel itself melts at around 3000 degrees.

[maryz]

Thanks! Just wanted to get some perspective, tie it into things I’m at least vaguely familiar with!

[Tallguy]

I’m erring on the side of caution despite all thier macho BS.

What precautions are you taking? Just curious.

[Waverunner]

Japan has experience with radioactivity and ships passing through the plume.

[Candor7]

Why would you position one of your most valued assets right over a few days old 9.0 fault line?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Its the safest place, the future tectonic movement will be along the fault line in a Southwesterly direction along the Sendai, Tokyo, Nagano fault line.Any Tsunamis would be generated Westward of the Reagans position.

[austingirl]

Very informative post.

[OCCASparky]

Interesting, and all these “Nuclear Arm Chair Warriors” here on the FreeRepublic have been saying don’t worry, there’s no danger, this is nothing. I’m erring on the side of caution despite all thier macho BS.

Some of these "Nuclear Arm Chair Warriors" you refer to are people like me, who have worked either with Navy or civilian nuclear power plants. I have experience in both going back 25 years. IOW, some of us DO know what we're talking about, and your histrionics serve no useful purpose.