At What Point Do We Begin Dumping Concrete?!

When the Gulf Oil disaster was taking place, I rather enjoyed how each day it would say in the corner, "Day14", Day 56" etc. It seemed to add some urgency to the situation while the daily reminder woke some people up. Why do I get the feeling that this is not being treated with the utmost emergency. I am no nuclear engineer, so please correct me where you need to.

I feel at this point, large trucks should be pouring cement in ANY exposed reactor. Seal that shiite up. Why are we not doing this? How long has it been? Without my daily reminder, I can't remember.

For cluck sake, seal that god damn reactor.

Nah, lets give it a few more weeks.

reply to post by cluckerspud


from what I understand...it has to be cooled before you can use concrete...
That may take a while...from weeks to years

I don't think they can even get near enough to the reactor to pour concrete because of the high levels of radiation. And, since the fuel rods are so hot, most of the concrete would probably melt anyway.

They should definitely try sealing it, but with a material that doesn't melt as easily.

Not an expert, but from my limited knowledge you have to stop or severely retard the nuclear fuel from producing extreme heat otherwise you are basically building a bomb by enclosing it without cooling. Wow this whole situation and confusion proves that we humans are fast approaching the point where the problems we create can't be solved.

Originally posted by okiecowboy
from what I understand...it has to be cooled before you can use concrete...
That may take a while...from weeks to years

Yikes. That certainly would explain why no dumping is taking place.
I guess the anger in me believes they haven't sealed it cause they hope to fix, repair and make operational again.
It's more profitable to have a n operating plant, rather than a condemned one.

But really, dumping tons and tons and tons directly on and in won't do anything?
Just keep it going. Don't stop. Continuous flow of concrete. Truck after truck. Oh well.

reply to post by okiecowboy


I was under the impression that the reactor was also on top of/close to the wtertable and therefore they are unable to dig under it
Is that true?

reply to post by cluckerspud


I think the more you pour on it the larger the eventual explosion will become. It has to be killed with boron or something.

Also you cant exactly pour concrete underneath something that is melting downwards. The fuel has to be cooled otherwise it's a waste of time.

I read that a mixture of lead concrete and boron could be used. The lead would melt and block and absorb radiation
along with the boron which also absorbs neutrons. This might slow down the reaction and contain it.
Fission is like this


There has to be a way to slow the chain reaction.

reply to post by Nemain73


from what I understand that is true.. that is why there has been a concern about any corium burning down into the water table and creating a steam explosion

why don't they build these things deep underground that could be flooded in case of emergency.

Can't cement the reactors in because the cores are melted. You can't getinto the main mass of nuclear material to stop the meltdown. It would continue heating up and just melt through anyway. It is too late for the reactors and as soon as the molten material melts through the bottom of the containment unit and hits the cold water in the holding tank below it, it will explode bigger than chernobyl. Not to mention not much of chernobyl's core actually got destroyed as compared to 3 fully melted down reactors one of which has plutonium which is far more radioactive than the uranium that is supposed to be in it. The reactor with the mod fuel was never designed to use it

Why wouldn't pouring concrete on the fuel pile at least stop some of the fission reactions from taking place? Or at least shield the atmosphere from picking up more airborne particles?

not a nuke scientist but why pour concrete...why dont they dump a whole mother load of the stuff that makes up a control rod?

Originally posted by Creamy Goodness
Can't cement the reactors in because the cores are melted. You can't getinto the main mass of nuclear material to stop the meltdown. It would continue heating up and just melt through anyway.

I think that's the reason why they don't want to do it prematurely though they may do it eventually.

The short answer to the OP question is, because Michio Kaku isn't in charge and I don't understand why he doesn't understand what Creamy Goodness just explained. We basically got a whole lotta nuclear engineer wannebees including Michio Kaku saying they want to cement it, when they don't understand all the ramifications of that, like the fact it might actually cause a total meltdown through the bottom of the containment structure, the very thing they are trying to prevent.

concrete will explode as it cures due to the immense heat. consider the hoover dam. miles of interconnecting cooling pipes
to stabilise the concrete as it cured. they identified the risk of pouring huge volumes of concrete in-situ and took
appropriate steps to control the temperature. with regards to the reactors, it would be of benefit to pour vast amounts
of sand into the housings. this would absorb both the heat and radioactivity and eventually become vitrified. the cheapest
of solutions and quite an abundant material.
f

Now They Do It?!?!?!?! It Could Have Saved Weeks Of Radiation!

I just started a thread about almost the same thing. I saw they JUST now are going to start getting it ready to cement.

Originally posted by FuGGer
not a nuke scientist but why pour concrete...why dont they dump a whole mother load of the stuff that makes up a control rod?

They are. Boron.

I would think if they started pouring concrete the heat from the rods would just turn the water in the concrete right into steam and you'd have a pile of sand and rock laying there.

reply to post by HoldTheBeans
No the controls would get even hotter without the water to remove the heat, they'd melt down into the water table, form hydrogen, ignite the hydrogen, and cause a huge explosion.

My guess would be about 6 months before it's cool enough to pour concrete, unless it completely blows apart before then like Chernobyl did, then they have nothing to lose by pouring concrete.

Experts knock notion of burying nuclear reactors

The idea of smothering and sealing Japan’s overheated nuclear reactors in sand or concrete to stop the crisis is appealing. But experts say that it’s too early for something that desperate and that it could be a big mistake that could make matters worse.