They've been having quakes and tsunami's since the huge one. A 9.1, followed by hundreds of quakes and tremors afterward was virtually unthinkable. I'm sure the plant gets priority.. but you can't get juice from nothing. I think the amount of power to cool four reactor cores is quite large.Spearhead wrote:
Well, still, its kinda scary... considering its been what? Two days since the quake/tsunami? Why not prepare for more?
(Reuters) - The wind over a Japanese nuclear plant that is leaking radiation will continue blowing from the south, which could affect residents north of the facility, an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said on Sunday.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co's, is located about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo on the country's northeast coast.
The wind will keep blowing from the south in the area from noon until early evening, the official said.
The direction of the wind is a key factor in judging possible damage to the environment from the radiation leaking from the plant, which was devastated on Friday by Japan's biggest earthquake on record and a subsequent tsunami.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said on its website that the weather in the area is likely to be clear on Sunday, with the maximum temperature of 15 Celsius (60 F).
The plant was damaged by Friday's 8.9 magnitude quake, which sent a 10-meter (33-foot) tsunami ripping through towns and cities across the northeast coast.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said earlier on Sunday that radiation levels have risen above the safety limit around its nuclear plant and the company has informed the government of an "emergency situation", Kyodo agency reported.
It did not pose an immediate threat to human health, the company said.
I imagine that with the explosion and the relatively high radiation levels it could be hard to tell exactly what state the core is in. They could also be saying "Meltdown is not happening", but we are going to react as if it were.. comprenez vous?Hurricane2k9 wrote:
Why is it only an assumption? Shouldn't they be able to tell whether it certainly is or isn't a meltdown?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … 55480.htmlThe company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.
Thousands of evacuees from areas around Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant were scanned for radiation exposure, though the Japanese government insists radiation levels are low. Video courtesy of Reuters
Simultaneous seismic activity along the three tectonic plates in the sea east of the plants—the epicenter of Friday's quake—wouldn't surpass 7.9, according to the company's presentation.
The company based its models partly on previous seismic activity in the area, including a 7.0 earthquake in May 1938 and two simultaneous earthquakes of 7.3 and 7.5 on November 5 of the same year.
Tepco officials didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
http://bltwy.msnbc.msn.com/politics/jap … 3252.story-Sh1fty- wrote:
If there were so many large aftershocks, wouldn't there have been a few more tsunamis? I haven't read any news about other tsunamis which surprises me.
I think the aftershocks would help to maintain the current levels of flooding and not necessarily be pushing further inland.Government officials also ordered evacuations in several coastal areas and warned that aftershocks may trigger new tsunami waves. Residents were told to head for higher ground
Not necessarily, the tsunami was the result of a subduction quake. This is where one plate curles under another. The plate thats on top gets pulled down at it's edge and springs back.-Sh1fty- wrote:
If there were so many large aftershocks, wouldn't there have been a few more tsunamis? I haven't read any news about other tsunamis which surprises me.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano is giving a press conference core number 3 is partially deformed (ie melting).Graph translation
red tag 1: melting (hard to read)
red tag 2: outbuilding explosion
Green line is electrical systems, blue is cooling, orange is the nuclear container.
First reactor: X(failed), added sea water, added sea water
Second reactor: X(failed), Triangle(partial failure), under high pressure
Third reactor: X(failed), failed(water being added), under high pressure
reactors 4-6 were already stopped for inpections
That would make sense - these reactors are fairly old.KuSTaV wrote:
I saw somewhere that Japan isnt wasnt really up to speed with its quality of nuclear plant engineering, and that they've had a few issues in the past.
And with the second meltdown occurring, looks like they're in the shit for good.
Makes sense that the outer walls are weakened. In the event of a hydrogen explosion, like we already saw, it allows the energy to escape rather than implode. This same reasoning is why Hitler was not killed in the assassination attempt at the Wolf's liar. Wooden walls and windows instead of concrete.Spark wrote:
I'd expect so, reactor containment vessels are made to withstand a beating. I would bet the outside wall is deliberately weakened somewhat in comparison too.
Spearhead wrote:
So who else is wondering why they would build a nuclear plant without enough back up power/whatever to be self sustaining for a longer period of time?
They pay people to anticipate and prepare for these types of scenarios.... it seems to me anyway, that someone seriously F'ed up.
Older post from earlier today, but anything by is Dr. Kaku worth sharing.The reactor was hit with a double punch. The 8.9 earthquake knocked out off-site power. Then the subsequent tsunami caused the back-up generators to go out, meaning that the reactor was dead in the water, without any emergency power or back-up systems.
So think of driving a car without brakes, which is out of control.
The fail-safe systems failed. This is the accident that was never supposed to happen, the accident that engineers told us was unimaginable. Only battery power was left, about 8 hours worth, to keep water circulating over the core of the reactor. But after that was exhausted, temperatures began to rise, as well as pressures. (If the core of the reactor is ever exposed without water, temperatures can rise to 5,000 degrees F, at which uranium dioxide fuel beings to melt, initiating the China Syndrome.
It takes 30 minutes to several hours for an exposed core to melt down. Then a steam explosion might have enough force to rupture the vessel and containment.) Attempts were made to ship 14 back-up generators. This might have stopped the accident right there if the generators could energize the back-up pumps and keep the core covered with cooling water. But with the pressure inside the reactor rising 50% above normal, attempts were made to vent some of this dangerous, excess pressure. Radiation levels soared to 1,000 times normal levels inside the containment building.
But steam and hydrogen gas began to accumulate in the containment building. Suddenly, all hell broke lose. There was a hydrogen/steam explosion, which tore the entire containment building to pieces, leaving only the skeleton of the building. Four workers were injured. The utility expanded the evacuation radius from 2 miles, to 6 miles, then to 12 miles.
Plans were discussed to distribute iodine pills (to flood the thyroid gland with harmless iodine, to prevent radioactive iodine from concentrating in the thyroid and causing cancer.) These are last ditch measures in a nuclear accident. But fortunately, the reactor vessel (which actually contains the super hot uranium dioxide rods) was intact.
Think of a run-away car which has no brakes. Now imagine that the radiator explodes. This is the situation now.
The reactor is stable, but this is an illusion. It is sitting on a knife's edge. Anything (a broken pipe, a secondary earthquake, loss of water, etc.) can set off a meltdown. Now, the utility is thinking of importing boric acid and sea water.
It was hit by a huge quake and apparently even the tsunami hit the plant, the thing is now the containment vessel has been blown to shit. So if the reactor goes now then you're in for some real fuckery. They're saying #3 is gonna explode too, but that like with #1 the reactor itself should sustain the blast and the containment vessel is gonna blow.KuSTaV wrote:
I saw somewhere that Japan isnt wasnt really up to speed with its quality of nuclear plant engineering, and that they've had a few issues in the past.
And with the second meltdown occurring, looks like they're in the shit for good.
http://www.space.com/11115-japan-earthq … -days.htmlBy changing the distribution of the Earth's mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused the Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microsecond.
