Nuclear meltdown in Japan reactor?

[martybegan]

Airlines scramble to assist Japan exodus - Google News

So its basically people on thier own trying to leave, not an evacuation.

The panic train has commenced.

 

[skeptic]

a spontaneous evacuation, yeah. Everything I have seen said it is orderly.

 

[Zander]

The end result of this catastrophe will be a resurgence of the anti-nuclear power movement. The anti-nuke crowd are positively thrilled that this happened despite Old Rocks denials. Truth is truth, even when it is ugly.

 

[Valerie]

The end result of this catastrophe will be a resurgence of the anti-nuclear power movement. The anti-nuke crowd are positively thrilled that this happened despite Old Rocks denials. Truth is truth, even when it is ugly.

To imply anyone is thrilled by radiation exposure is ridiculous.

Anti nuke people were afraid of this sort of worse case scenario and the discussions naturally shift with more concrete experience...Just like with the deep water drilling.

It would be stupid not to learn something from a catastrophe and I am not anti nuke or anti drilling, it's just common sense to rethink the risk/reward and how to and where to, etc...

 

[FuelRod]

Isn't doing nothing going to make the situation worse?

 

[Ravi]

it's a spontaneous evacuation, mostly foreigners but Japanese families as well. Probably a precautionary evacuation. Would you stay in Tokyo with your kids?

You betcha...in a heartbeat. And then if nothing happens I'd return.

Why take the chance...if we know nothing else we do know that neither the Japanese government nor the power company know what the heck they are doing.

 

[jillian]

Isn't doing nothing going to make the situation worse?

why is it all or nothing? why not assess risks?

i find it weird that some people immediately strike out at anyone who raises the safety issues. In making a decision to use nuclear power, we have to understand that such use entails the types of risks that existed at Three Mile Island in this country and the catastrophic occurrences in Japan.

Those have to be weighed against the catastrophic results of continued reliance on fossil fuels.

It only makes sense to do a cost/benefit analysis... and i don't understand why some on the right in an almost spiteful effort to degrade environmental concerns, refuse to assess the risks.

 

[FuelRod]

Isn't doing nothing going to make the situation worse?

why is it all or nothing? why not assess risks?

i find it weird that some people immediately strike out at anyone who raises the safety issues. In making a decision to use nuclear power, we have to understand that such use entails the types of risks that existed at Three Mile Island in this country and the catastrophic occurrences in Japan.

Those have to be weighed against the catastrophic results of continued reliance on fossil fuels.

It only makes sense to do a cost/benefit analysis... and i don't understand why some on the right in an almost spiteful effort to degrade environmental concerns, refuse to assess the risks.

Pretty simply when dealing with radiation leaks and potential meltdowns, time is of the essence.

 

[Zander]

The end result of this catastrophe will be a resurgence of the anti-nuclear power movement. The anti-nuke crowd are positively thrilled that this happened despite Old Rocks denials. Truth is truth, even when it is ugly.

To imply anyone is thrilled by radiation exposure is ridiculous.

Anti nuke people were afraid of this sort of worse case scenario and the discussions naturally shift with more concrete experience...Just like with the deep water drilling.

It would be stupid not to learn something from a catastrophe and I am not anti nuke or anti drilling, it's just common sense to rethink the risk/reward and how to and where to, etc...

I agree that we can and should learn from this. But the anti-nuclear energy crowd are not a rational group- they do not want to learn. They want to end all nuclear power.

PS- The nuclear industry in the United States has maintained one of the best industrial safety records in the world.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

This is an interesting radar map

Spread of the cloud for now 6:00 UTC and 18:00 UTC today (assuming constant release)
Google Translate

 

[skeptic]

It is unraveling quickly.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

They have completely lost the cooling towers. Unable to stop the heating now.

Evacuated to a radius of 10 miles, and expanding as fast as they can.

It isn't good.

theres a danger that the radioactivity may come over here to the states as well.THIS FAR REACHING.cross your fingers it doesnt happen.

 

[dilloduck]

They have completely lost the cooling towers. Unable to stop the heating now.

Evacuated to a radius of 10 miles, and expanding as fast as they can.

It isn't good.

theres a danger that the radioactivity may come over here to the states as well.THIS FAR REACHING.cross your fingers it doesnt happen.

Life is a crap shoot. I got better things to do with my fingers.

 

[Chris]

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- All cooling water has drained from the spent-fuel pool at one of the crippled nuclear reactors in Japan, causing the release of high levels of radiation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.

“We believe that the secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent-fuel pool,” he said today at a hearing of a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel in Washington. “We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

The unit at the Fukushima Daiichi plant wasn’t operating at the time of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, said Jaczko, the chief U.S. regulator of nuclear-power plants.

The Associated Press reported that Japanese officials denied all the water has drained and said the reactor, known as Unit 4, is stable.

Radiation at the Japanese site is fluctuating and at peak levels is life-threatening, Jaczko said.

The peak levels “would be lethal within a fairly short period of time,” he said. The pool at the plant’s Unit 3, which was in service, may be cracked and losing water, Jaczko said.

Japan Reactor Loses Cooling Water for Spent Fuel, Jaczko Says - Businessweek

 

[Zoom-boing]

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- All cooling water has drained from the spent-fuel pool at one of the crippled nuclear reactors in Japan, causing the release of high levels of radiation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.

“We believe that the secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent-fuel pool,” he said today at a hearing of a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel in Washington. “We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

The unit at the Fukushima Daiichi plant wasn’t operating at the time of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, said Jaczko, the chief U.S. regulator of nuclear-power plants.

The Associated Press reported that Japanese officials denied all the water has drained and said the reactor, known as Unit 4, is stable.

Radiation at the Japanese site is fluctuating and at peak levels is life-threatening, Jaczko said.

The peak levels “would be lethal within a fairly short period of time,” he said. The pool at the plant’s Unit 3, which was in service, may be cracked and losing water, Jaczko said.

Japan Reactor Loses Cooling Water for Spent Fuel, Jaczko Says - Businessweek

They don't know anything for certain yet.

 

[Chris]

The status of reactor No. 3 at the site was not clear, with some reports saying that the reactor containment vessel may have been breached and was releasing radioactivity and others saying that it was still intact.

Authorities had feared a breach of the reactor vessel after the eruption of a plume of smoke from the reactor on Wednesday. The most recent statement from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, however, indicated that the smoke was probably steam from a spent fuel pool at that reactor building and that the reactor vessel itself had not been breached.

Officials are particularly concerned about reactor No. 3 because it is the only reactor at the facility that is fueled with what is known as a mixed oxide fuel. The pellets in mixed oxide fuel contain both plutonium and uranium. Plutonium is highly carcinogenic in small quantities, and its release into the environment would be very dangerous.

The containment vessel at reactor No. 2 has previously been breached, and it appeared to be leaking small amounts of radioactivity.

Japan reactors: Japan labors to cool damaged nuclear reactors - latimes.com

 

[Liability]

It kinda sucks that there is so much about the situation at those reactors that we don't know and may not be able to find out fast enough.

If, for example, the speculation that the spent fuel rods are no longer sitting in a nice cool bath is correct, what follows from that fact?

It sounds to me like the prospect of a serious meltdown increases dramatically, since the rods go on getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

If the water bathing the spent rods has disappeared, then my next question is "where did it go?" Did it just boil off into steam (bad enough) OR has there been some kind of leak (probably even worse)?

 

[bigrebnc1775]

From tha animated map link I posted you can see a fain't glimps of the cloud passing over California.

 

[skeptic]

It kinda sucks that there is so much about the situation at those reactors that we don't know and may not be able to find out fast enough.

If, for example, the speculation that the spent fuel rods are no longer sitting in a nice cool bath is correct, what follows from that fact?

It sounds to me like the prospect of a serious meltdown increases dramatically, since the rods go on getting hotter and hotter and hotter.

If the water bathing the spent rods has disappeared, then my next question is "where did it go?" Did it just boil off into steam (bad enough) OR has there been some kind of leak (probably even worse)?

I think it did boil off. And I think they may now be fucked. Even spent rods will, as you said, heat themselves enough to catch fire without continual water.

The US military has called all personel away from the reactor (50 miles) and ordered radiation sickness medicine if any must venture into the region.

 

[BolshevikHunter]

Extra Terral's buddy says Radiation has reached California. ~BH

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