Fukushima nuclear plant explosion

[Brian d marge]

Pleased to see that in spite of everything going down over there you still retain a sense of humour.

Dont worry, I have a hat , all tin foil lined , They wont catch me with George Micheal

Stephen

[jonbuoy]

I wonder when all this is over if all the other reactors will be fitted with a better backup cooling system or sealed boxes and massive snorkel stacks for the generators. You´d hope we all learn from mistakes/experience.

[jonbuoy]

probably not on topic, but a guy i was working with yesterday had an interesting observation.

he said "if we keep taking billions of barrels of oil out surely the planet will become like a balloon that is 1/4 filled with water."


he's no genius but i think he might have a point.

If there was enough oil to lube tectonic plates we wouldn´t be running out for a few more million years.

[Brian d marge]

Power in Tokyo is off tomorrow ,

Charge those laptops !!!

Stephen

[Winston001]

I wonder when all this is over if all the other reactors will be fitted with a better backup cooling system or sealed boxes and massive snorkel stacks for the generators. You´d hope we all learn from mistakes/experience.

Fukushima No 1 is a 40 year old Westinghouse reactor design with known limitations. I haven't researched the latest designs but apparently they automatically run their own emergency cooling - which is what you are suggesting.

In fairness, who'd expect a massive earthquake, followed by a huge tsunami? This reactor had three layers for emergency cooling so there was a lot of redundancy planned for.

[Maha]

''In fairness, who'd expect a massive earthquake, followed by a huge tsunami''?

Given Japan's proximity to a major fault line and the fact that the country is the one that is most ready for a earthquake of any magnitude, to answer your question, I would say the Japanese?
And isn't tsunami a Japanese word?

[onearmedbandit]

And isn't tsunami a Japanese word?

Indeed it is.

[MIXONE]

[I]''In fairness, who'd expect a massive earthquake, followed by a huge tsunami''?
And isn't tsunami a Japanese word?

Yes roughly translated it means "run like fuck..."

[jonbuoy]

Fukushima No 1 is a 40 year old Westinghouse reactor design with known limitations. I haven't researched the latest designs but apparently they automatically run their own emergency cooling - which is what you are suggesting.

In fairness, who'd expect a massive earthquake, followed by a huge tsunami? This reactor had three layers for emergency cooling so there was a lot of redundancy planned for.

I was thinking maybe they should put the emergency generators in a lighthouse style building instead of on the ground where they could get wet. Lighthouses can take some punishment. Clearly the reactors weren't built with enough redundancy, surely somebody saw what happened in Thailand could happen to Japan. Japan has been hammered by tsunamis in the past. It probably all comes down to money.

[Crasherfromwayback]

Umm...actually counter-intuitive as it must seem, I'm still in favour of nulear power. This Fukushima reactor is a 40 year old Westinghouse which is known as old and a bad design. It has had safety features added but clearly they were defeated by this massive earthquake.

The new reactors are far better designed. Japan has a lot of reactors and this is the only one which has failed. Provided the public are evacuated - which has been going on for 24 hours - they are safe.

I hear ya. But I'm still preferring water or wind as a way of generating power. We have plenty of both here, and then we also have no waste we need to dispose of, and no worries of a meltdown regardless of how new and modern the facility is.

[onearmedbandit]

Wind power would be great, but you know what the greenies think about having fields of wind farms.

[James Deuce]

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/20...lear-reactors/

[oneofsix]

A good blog that simply explains the events from the writer's view point.
Particularly liked the line "The Cesium and Iodine isotopes were carried out to the sea and will never be seen again". I wish. They do raise the back ground level in the atmosphere but I understand what the writer meant.

[Mike Troutman]

A pressurised water reactor has three coolant loops.

The reactor coolant cannot directly power anything, instead it heats secondary coolant in a steam generator. The secondary coolant removes heat from the reactor coolant by evaporation in the steam generator. This steam is then used to do actual work. this turns some of the steam back into water. the rest must be cooled by your third loop, which can be seawater, air whatever. the third loop is generaly an open loop. your secondary coolant returns as liquid water to the steam generator and the cycle repeats.

the diesel generators are required to power the primary coolant pumps as well as secondary pumps if required. most power plants have a secondary system that will function indefinently without any pump but this requires an open loop system. so the primary concern is the primary coolant flow. even then once you have flow restored to your primary coolant if you don't have some means of cooling that coolant you're still up a creek without a paddle. the primary coolant loop is a closed system so if you dont remove the heat from that somehow you will eventually get it hot enough to create steam which is just bad in a nuclear reactor. cuses things to melt as steam is a very poor thermal conductor.

There are plants in exsistance that have the possibility of creating an open primary coolant loop. it's strictly an emergancy system as dumping highly radioactive primary coolant anywhere is bad.

[Mike Troutman]

A good blog that simply explains the events from the writer's view point.
Particularly liked the line "The Cesium and Iodine isotopes were carried out to the sea and will never be seen again". I wish. They do raise the back ground level in the atmosphere but I understand what the writer meant.

Rodioctive Cesium and Iodine are highest on the list of contaminants in the coolant system, however not the worst. Cobalt 60 is by FAR the worse as even a small amount is very very very bad. and highly radioactive. cesium and iodine both occur naturally in a radioactive state, releasing more of the radioactive isotope isnt good, but not a world ender. Cobalt 60 however.... not good. bad thing is cobalt is an unintentional contaminant. it's from the bearings in the primary coolant pumps.