Hydrogen buildup at Fukushima :What does it mean & why does it happen 11/17/2011

Just came across this latest upload from one of my subscriptions on youtube. First off thank God for people like Artie Gunderson with Fairewind Associates and the break down of knowledge he has on nuclear fission/reactors. I remember him being the FIRST person to come out and start uploading videos (that I immediately began posting here) regarding the Fukushima meltdown while the mainstream propaganda talking "pez dispensers" (a label that I have given the worthless mainstream media talking bobbing heads...one that I find quite fitting actually), but back on topic here....he came out amid all of the confusion and broke it all down in layman's terms for those of us less "nuclear inclined".

Well here is his latest:

TEPCO recently discovered hydrogen buildups within the containment buildings in Fukushima Units 1, 2 and 3. Could there be another explosion, and if so how? Fairewinds conducts a laboratory experiment to show that if oxygen is present with hydrogen in a nuclear power containment, a deflagration explosion might occur.

Lets HOPE that everything goes to plan (but with past recent failures of TEPCO and their handling of this...I won't be holding my breath), I will be praying.


Edit:

Some past recent TEPCO failures of when Hydrogen and Oxygen fail to remain separated:

"2 new Hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Plant. Reactor 3 this time"

www.abovetopsecret.com...

"Faulty hydrogen vents at Fukushima Daiichi spell trouble for US nuclear plants as well"

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Newbomb Turk

I like Gunderson's earlier videos but this one seemed a little lame.

It's basically a home science experiment and then a plea to send him money.

Regarding the title, there's almost no explanation about why hydrogen is produced except to say it's a byproduct of the nuclear reactor.

He holds his face a little bit closer to the bottle than I would have.

Really the most interesting part of the video is when he runs the explosion in slow motion. Then you can see the reaction time between the explosion and him blinking. That was my favorite part.

Yes explosions happened back in March but they've had some time to get their act together somewhat and are pumping nitrogen in to try to prevent another hydrogen explosion. That should work.

Probably the most interesting point in the whole thread is the question of the impact of what we've learned from Fukushima on the vents in US reactors. I'm sure they're looking at this, and I would guess that the nuclear plant operators have been testing valves to make sure they work. Hopefully they've even implemented a periodic testing schedule, but I don't really know any details.

reply to post by Newbomb Turk



Thanks Newbomb Turk, I appreciated that presentation...

Hydrogen is caused by radiolysis of water. It creates H2O2 and H2 with strong beta particles and gamma rays. I had a friend that worked at a place that had radio-cesium filled rods for industrial sterilization gear in a big pool. The pool room had both refrigeration and ventilation to remove the hydrogen as well a silver filters for removing peroxide from the water. Supposedly if you left them in the pool room without anything they would actually heat the pool to boiling , but long before that the hydrogen would build up enough to go boom. Best solution is to vent it, unfortunately with a reactor you also vent radioactive gases, but most have a strong specific activity Tritium, 131I, 85Kr and short biological half life. Compared to the whole thing going boom I'd rather have a controlled release of gas any day.