Posted on 03/20/2011 11:57:29 AM PDT by Niuhuru
They are an anonymous band of lower and mid-level managers who are risking their lives at the very heart of Japan’s nuclear crisis.
But as the stricken reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant appears to stabilise, plant owners are still remaining tight-lipped about the so-called 'Fukushima Fifty' - the heroes fighting to save Japan from nuclear catastrophe.
Fifty essential workers stayed behind to stop a catastrophic meltdown at the plant, as 750 of their colleagues were evacuated earlier this week when the over-heating seemed to be getting out of control.
Five are now believed to have died, 15 are injured and others have said they know the radiation will kill them as they battle to cool overheating reactors and spent fuel rods.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“wow, maybe someone should send this article to Ann Coulter who was on talkradio friday saying that radiation exposure is way over blown and actually has some positive effects! O my...”
She’s right, it was way overblown by the media. They were hyping the apocalypse. The end of times. I think Ms. Coulter was making a statement about the media’s changing the subject away from the fiasco that is taking place in Washington, in the congress and in the office of the President.
If that is in fact what she was inferring, I agree with her. If not, ... I agree with myself.
In my imagination (fwiw), they would be drilling and cutting from top down. from under, they would have all the hydrogen gas trapped at the top in a bubble, and it would be impractical to work there due to (if nothing else) to sparks emanating from the commutator on the drill motor as it rotated past the brushes.
Although, one thing that *might* work is a running water spray (from above and working from above) which would act to prohibit sparks from occurring on the bit surfaces, eg, steel-on-concrete and steel-on-steel. (But one would have to have balls of titanium...)
There are very few things not covered in the plant procedures, especially the “John Wayne” procedures, more commonly known as the Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMG). We have people who spend their careers coming up with worst case scenarios and how to handle them, and they have left very little unaccounted for in terms of what might happen and how to deal with it.
The problem here is the largeness of scale of the event. In the short term, the quake and the tsunami both resulted in all units continuing to work reasonably well and safely under the circumstances. What was difficult to account for was the enormous loss of infrastructure in the broader area, making it difficult to impossible to get new equipment of the right kind and quantity into the area.
But believe me, heavy duty poking around inside the plant under dangerous conditions is what they practice doing all the time, and I believe things could have been much worse had they not already been accustomed to doing the dang near impossible.
The Fukushima 50/180 have nothing but my respect and admiration. God bless them all.
What data do you have to support that?
I confess not having a BWR/3 SAMG handy at the moment.
However, I wonder what the unions say about drilling through concrete walls in the presence of large accumulations of H2 when they read the SAMG... if it the SAMG has anything like that as you infer.
Disclaimer, I am not here implying anything one way or another about TEPCO rank and file, just focused on the procedures reported used at fukushima dai-ichi.
You must have listened to Ann Coulter’s remarks, as I did...
She was indeed referring to the likely effects (miniscule to none) to residents here in the continental US, not to the emergency workers inside the power plant.
Along with the intensity of the source, three things determine total exposure...Time, distance and shielding...
Fukishima’s emergency workers are exposed to a strong source, close by, for prolonged periods...Thus the danger to them...
To us here in the US, not so much...
Believed by whom, and on what basis? Reporters are such morons.
Nothing like misrepresenting what Coulter said.
If you did hear her, you ought to hide your face from shame.
you are a little late friend...she did make it sound like radiation exposure danger is over blown. I quoted some of her piece earlier. I think she just enjoys being excessively provocative really. And what is with her support of socialist healthcare bill Mitt Romney?...yikes! and the log cabin republicans?
Said what?
Everything she said was true, and mostly it was a report on the results of scientific surveys.
What do you have against science, or are you confined to making decisions based on emotions?
Sounds like you are easily stampeded by Liberals.
Time to grow up and act like a rational person, these are serious times with serious problems.
The danger IS overblown, by about ten thousand times.
As I predicted right after this started, the damaged caused by Big Press is dwarfing the actual damages.
It’s maddening to me to see so many Freepers fall prey to Liberal nonsense.
Well, even in Ann’s piece she writes that there were thousands of illnesses after Chernobyl and we do not know really how many deaths. Why diminish the actual risk as those brave Japanese workers are risking their lives and some have already died as per this thread’s title? I think she likes to upset the apple cart a bit too much really. But I am glad she is not on the liberal side!
I get it, so back off.
There are ignoramuses and there are idiots... and then there's you.
Please give me a link where Coulter is shown saying that working inside a nuclear power plant with no working cooling water during the first week after an automatic shutdown, when the residual heat (7% of the normal power output) needs to be controlled by cooling water, is "way overblown."
She was referring to the total useless morons who were gobbling iodine pills along the west coast to save their useless hides. You sound like one of them.
The radiation reaching california was barely measureable. Air travelers flying from New York to San Francisco are exposed to more radiation on every trip!
Educate yourself, if you can, or continue amusing us with your ignorance.
I am not surprised that you are shocked and disgusted.
You did not hear the discussion and are commenting on the hysteria from other ignoramuses.
For perspective, Ann was discussing studies about people who live in areas of natural radiation which exceed the expected level reaching the US as a result of the Japanese disaster.
Attempting to counteract the hysteria of the lowest layer of science IQ in the US. Perhaps she should have used smaller words.
I did not hear her talking only about the west coast concern, but the overall possible effects of radiation on people and she even brought in the chernobyl people who were effected negatively. Maybe I did not hear the whole interview.
You can call me whatever you want, but I was expressing how she came across to me and I am sure many other people. I think you get too offended by that and then cannot really have a civil conservation, but need to try and degrade me. Well, you are forgiven for that!
And what is sadder still is that most of them are not aware that sunshine is the product of a continuous nuclear reaction.
Look up “The 47 Ronin” to better understand Japanese culture.
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