Japan Nuclear Meltdown Confirmed

reply to post by XtraTL


Well, for God's sake they better not stop pumping! Geez. This is no time to let up.

Now they're showing the before and after pictures and it looks like a pretty good blast, but the reactor is okay. The whole wall is gone and the structure is all that's left.

Apparently the plant "operator" was injured in the last explosion and is awaiting an ambulance. Who will run the plant now?

reply to post by JRCrowley


The hydrogen explosion occurred at 11:01 (? they said 11:08 previously).

The plant operator (some workers) was (were) injured and they are waiting for an ambulance.

At 11:44 the radiation level was 20 microsieverts.

There is a small wind to the southwest.

Edit: don't know the number of injured workers. The report only says "the worker has been injured".

reply to post by XtraTL


The injured worker was "bruised". However 7 workers are unaccounted for. No one in the control room was hurt.

Edit: Two TEPCO employees and one affiliate employee have been injured. Seven unaccounted for.

Level of water in core is -1800mm at 11:35am (unconfirmed and no idea what it means).

Maybe they don't want to have more than one individual in the plant at any time. Just someone to keep an eyes on things. At any rate, yes they called an ambulance to come and get one injured worker.

reply to post by Boreas


that was a much larger explosion than reactor building #1.

Originally posted by JRCrowley
Maybe they don't want to have more than one individual in the plant at any time. Just someone to keep an eyes on things. At any rate, yes they called an ambulance to come and get one injured worker.

I'll bet the guys who got hurt were on a lower pay scale than those bunkered up in the control room.

reply to post by XtraTL


I wouldn't bet against you.

Originally posted by charles1952
reply to post by artistpoet

 

I'm really not trying to be a wiseguy here, but how do you go about preparing for this? Ths US will be covered by whatever it is (if it's anything at all) within, what, three days? I cant think of anything to do except keep going.

Well you can read something like; THIS.


>> If we get some sort of nuclear fallout from Japan. Then keeping a handy supply of "potassium iodide" can help quite a bit. Iodine crowds out the absorption of heavy ionizing isotopes like Cesium.

There are a few other things you can do -- but it's amazing how much something like a Poncho can reduce the impact of fallout. It's all going to be a fine 'dusting" that impacts anything exposed. Then the top layer of soil and eventually the ground water.

reply to post by Boreas


Wow that was much larger and more destructive than I expected. More powerful than reactor #1. Hard to believe the core containment was unaffected by that blast!

reply to post by XtraTL


They found the seven missing people. However, there are now 6 injured workers.

reply to post by Leo Strauss


Well the core containment is a meters thick box of reinforced concrete that holds a crazy thick steel vessel. I'd say it stood a pretty good chance.

Originally posted by ethancoop
reply to post by Leo Strauss

 

Well the core containment is a meters thick box of reinforced concrete that holds a crazy thick steel vessel. I'd say it stood a pretty good chance.

Yeah, they are designed to contain a full meltdown indefinitely. The danger of the containment itself being breached is almost negligible.

In fact, we heard that no one in the control room was hurt, only people elsewhere in the facility. Assuming it is accurate, it's pretty incredible.

Can you imagine the panic in the place though. 6 people out of action. Who knows what pipes and valves not working. Lights and alarms going off everywhere. Radiation at the level of a dental x-ray. Massive explosion above your head. I can't imagine being in that place battling that thing. It must be intensely scary.

Not EVERY reactor has to go critical -- but you can BET if one were about to melt down and spew radiation, we'd get the "glass half full" message from our media and shills for the nuclear industry.

These Japanse reactors are built to better standards to our MOSTLY aging and ready for mothball nuclear plants in this country (they last about 30 years and they are almost all past due).

>> But, from listening to a few "experts" I've narrowed in on the BEST reply I've heard; if the "venting" is an almost constant thing -- that means that the containment chamber is over 1600 degrees -- because the "venting" is of Oxygen and Hydrogen being broken down by the high temperatures. This ALSO means that the core has melted down to concentrate enough of the fuel to REACH that temperature. The claims that these more modern designs "CANNOT EXPLODE" are only true in terms of "what do you mean by disaster?" If small grenade-like explosions and melting down to bedrock (and likely the water table) to produce a situation where steam and radiation geyser up is not a disaster -- what is? The Hiroshima nuclear detonation is going to be LESS damage than a meltdown.

When they have to bring in water -- it means that pumps have failed. The pressure in the containment chamber that has "hydrogen explosions" may get too high to ALLOW the pumps to cool the fuel.

>> So far, it sounds like all the "can't fail" safety mechanisms have failed -- and it's only a matter of degrees to whether it gets too hot to cool down before a catastrophic "melt down."

Originally posted by VitriolAndAngst
>> So far, it sounds like all the "can't fail" safety mechanisms have failed -- and it's only a matter of degrees to whether it gets too hot to cool down before a catastrophic "melt down."

Ah the "Can't Fail" safety measures of Man. Wasn't there another disaster not so long ago with safety measures that just "Can't Fail"?

If I recall, quite a mess was made in the Gulf due to such man made can't fail safety measures.

oops.

With Love,

Your Brother

reply to post by VitriolAndAngst


the design is such that it can't melt down to the bedrock. that's why it's called a containment vessel.

Originally posted by XtraTL

Originally posted by ethancoop
reply to post by Leo Strauss

 

Well the core containment is a meters thick box of reinforced concrete that holds a crazy thick steel vessel. I'd say it stood a pretty good chance.

Yeah, they are designed to contain a full meltdown indefinitely. The danger of the containment itself being breached is almost negligible.

In fact, we heard that no one in the control room was hurt, only people elsewhere in the facility. Assuming it is accurate, it's pretty incredible.

Can you imagine the panic in the place though. 6 people out of action. Who knows what pipes and valves not working. Lights and alarms going off everywhere. Radiation at the level of a dental x-ray. Massive explosion above your head. I can't imagine being in that place battling that thing. It must be intensely scary.

If you cannot COOL the fuel rods -- then it doesn't matter how sturdy the Containment is. There are designs that drop graphite and distribute the Uranium in case of catastrophic failure of cooling -- but the PROOF of a serious problem is going to be; do they have to continuously "VENT" the containment chamber.

From what I've heard that means they've gotten to a certain temperature -- and THAT only happens when the Uranium has melted into a pool and condensed. If the pressure inside the dome gets too high -- they CANNOT cool it by trying to pump in water.

>> I'm sure there are other things that can be done -- like injecting graphite or lead -- but does that work at too high a temperature? I don't know.

reply to post by XtraTL


At 11:13 the container vessel pressure was 380kPa. By 11:55 it had stabilised at 360kPa.

In the service hall of the facility at 11:37am, the radiation was 50 uS/hr. At the entrance at 11:44am the radiation was 20 uS/hr.

The environment in control room is "healthy".

At 5km away at 11:36am, the radiation was 1 uS/hr. Same as yesterday.

No neutron flux has been observed.