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State of emergency declared at Japan Nuclear Plant

Excerpted from “Second nuclear meltdown likely under way in Japan, official says,” NBC, msnbc.com and news services, updated 2 minutes ago
[SIZE="+2"]A[/SIZE] partial meltdown is likely under way at second quake-stricken nuclear reactor, Japan's top government spokesman said Sunday.

Fuel rods were briefly exposed and radiation levels briefly rose above the legal limit at the nuclear plant where both reactors are located, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

His statement came after Japan's largest electric utility started releasing steam Sunday at one quake-crippled nuclear reactor while trying to stop a meltdown that began a day earlier in another. …
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Joseph Cirincione reported on Saturday's edition of the NBC Nightly News that a third reactor at Fukushima Daiichi may also have experienced a backup coolant failure. In effect all three operating reactors at the facility are failing.
 
According to CNN, Japan is now operating on the presumption that two core meltdowns are underway, and cooling system of a third reactor has failed. Dear lord. :(
 
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danarhea said:
States of emergency have been declared at FIVE nuclear power plants now. This is serious as hell. Has anybody seen what these nuke plants look like? Let me show you one:

110311_japan-nuclearplant.grid-6x2.jpg


Notice something? No containment dome. They look just like the ones at Chernobyl. This could be a disaster which could be unparalleled by any other in history. I pray to God that Japan does not end up going through another Hiroshima or Nagasaki. There won't be explosions if any of these plants melts down, but the radiation and fallout will be there, nonetheless.

The irony contained within the possibilities here staggers the imagination. Let us all pray that a meltdown does not happen.
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All newer nuclear power plants have this new design. Let's all pray that they can get a handle on this.
 
Holy crap...how bad is this going to get? It seems every hour or so, they revise their story to something worse...

What will the multiple meltdowns mean in terms of radiation release, and potential damage?
 
repeter said:
Holy crap...how bad is this going to get? It seems every hour or so, they revise their story to something worse...

What will the multiple meltdowns mean in terms of radiation release, and potential damage?
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I'm not an expert, but I would expect that any radioactive material would spread outward, but more towards the prevailing winds. IF however, the radioactive particles get into the jet stream, well... then there's going to be radioactivity spread around the world.

Regardless, the biggest threats are the areas nearest these nuclear power plants.

Not to make light of the seriousness of this event, because there's already hundreds or thousands of people dead on top of this, but can we REALLY count nuclear as a 'clean energy' in light of SEVERAL meltdowns?

The Japanese government has not been very forthcoming in this situation, how bad does it have to get?? I hope that people are being given the iodine treatment... I mean, you can live without your teeth or hair, but if you lose the lymph nodes to radiation damage, you can't survive that.
 
Reactor Containment Breached! :doh :shock: :doh


As the crisis continues with Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a variety of STRATFOR nuclear science and engineering sources said Japanese government statements that the troubled Unit 1 reactor container has not been breached are highly dubious. Reports of iodine and cesium outside of the plant indicate that the reactor’s containment structure has been breached.

Iodine is in the fuel pins and cesium is a particulate, meaning there are heavy particles in the air, which are basically radioactive dust. Cesium 137, which Yomiuri Shimbun reports has been discovered in the surrounding area, is probably a product of the nuclear fission process and a strong demonstration of severe damage to the nuclear reactor’s core. The fact that the government has prepared a series of iodine treatments for locals in the vicinity of the nuclear plants suggests it is anticipating the need to prevent iodine exposure.

Meanwhile 90 people were reported as possibly exposed to radiation, including 30 refugees from the area and 60 people on staff at Futaba hospital
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CONTINUED: Free Article for Non-Members | STRATFOR
 
Big Tom said:
All newer nuclear power plants have this new design. Let's all pray that they can get a handle on this.
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The secondary containment structure does not have to be dome shaped. It has to be proven to sustain a defined overpressure, the value of which is some figure like 15 psid or so. While flat walls are less efficient at carrying this distributed load than a spherical dome, it's not impossible, either.

However, given that explosion the first day, it's unlikely their containments survived anyway. I read where they're pumping seawater in to cool things down. Good luck with that. Before earthquake those tea kettles were operating at 95% power or greater, that's how commerical reactors are run, and it will have most likely have been running long enough to have achieved a steady state balance between fission product poisons and rod height.. The post-shut down fission product decay is going to be generating significant amounts of heat for WEEKS, and it will take at least two months before the heat generation will slow down to a safe level.
 
Mayor Snorkum said:
The secondary containment structure does not have to be dome shaped. It has to be proven to sustain a defined overpressure, the value of which is some figure like 15 psid or so. While flat walls are less efficient at carrying this distributed load than a spherical dome, it's not impossible, either.

However, given that explosion the first day, it's unlikely their containments survived anyway. I read where they're pumping seawater in to cool things down. Good luck with that. Before earthquake those tea kettles were operating at 95% power or greater, that's how commerical reactors are run, and it will have most likely have been running long enough to have achieved a steady state balance between fission product poisons and rod height.. The post-shut down fission product decay is going to be generating significant amounts of heat for WEEKS, and it will take at least two months before the heat generation will slow down to a safe level.
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They better start pouring some ice cubes in there! ;)
 
BmanMcfly said:
Not to make light of the seriousness of this event, because there's already hundreds or thousands of people dead on top of this, but can we REALLY count nuclear as a 'clean energy' in light of SEVERAL meltdowns?
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Yes, of course.

TMI 1 was due to operator error, Chernobyl was due to poor and obsolete design compounded by the financial decay associated with a socialist state, and it's safe to say that the Fukushima reactor design parameters did not include consideration of a trench-ripping axis-shifting, island shoving earthquake. Someone said those facilities were built in the 70's?

What's needed to for melt-down free reactors:

1) Air cooling so loss of coolant accidents are impossible.

2) Naturally convective, so loss of flow accidents are unlikely.

3) Low power density cores, so meltdowns are physically impossible.

Shut reactor designs do exist today. But no one is going to scrap existing power plants to build new pebble-bed air cooled reactors. As always, the money counts.

However, Mayor Snorkum believes completely in the ability of the anti-progress environmentalists to beat the drum you're tapping to death.
 
The Giant Noodle said:
They better start pouring some ice cubes in there! ;)
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Sea water, lots and lots of sea water, collected and recycled as best it can, to cool the cores and limit the excursions.

Meanwhile, they should round up all the termite tenting crews in the country and have them cover those areas with some good strong vitane proof tenting to hold the contamination in for now. Or something similar. They can't dawdle. Seattle is downwind.
 
repeter said:
The thing that scares me...there was talk on CNN that the Japanese Government is attempting to save face, or something similar, and that there has already been a meltdown, which they're covering up.

Anyone else hear about that, and could someone please tell me it not true?
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They reported increased radiation levels outside the facilities within hours of the earthquake. Either their pressure relief systems vent to open air, which they almost certainly do not, or their containment systems failed immediately. After all, the whole purpose of a containment system is to contain. And the radioactive material doesn't get outside of the fuel rods unless the rods failed.

Connect the dots, they had a major core violation and containment failure within hours and knew it.
 
apdst said:
My original point, was that it takes 3 acres of hemp to produce 1 barrel of fuel. There are approx 60 million acres of available farm land in the United States. That equates to 20,000,000 barrels of fuel. We would have to plant it all in hemp to meet our annual demand. Starting to make sense, or do I have to ask how we're going to eat, if 100% of our farm land is dedicated to hemp production?
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The countering point is what if it takes 0.9 barrels of fuel to plant, tend, and harvest those three acres? That means 30 acres of land will be required to harvest one barrel of fuel.

More importantly, what if it takes two barrels of fuel to harvest the stuff?
 
ARealConservative said:
who says we have to switch 100% to hemp oil? how about 20% hemp oil, 10% wind, 10% sun, 5% hydro, and the remainder fossil fuels?

so again, you didn't provide enough of an equation to see if it makes sense to pursue this type of energy source.
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oil and electric are 2 different issues....
very little oil is used to make electricity, and electricity is not an issue, we have multiple ways of producing copious amounts of it.
Oil for transportation uses is our main problem, and nuclear won't solve that until we have many millions of electric cars being charged from the grid.
 
They are likely venting radioactive gases to mitigate pressure buildup, and hopefully that venting is done thru some kind of filters, but those filters will not stop gas, just particles...
 
UtahBill said:
They are likely venting radioactive gases to mitigate pressure buildup, and hopefully that venting is done thru some kind of filters, but those filters will not stop gas, just particles...
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From what I heard/read, they are venting through filters, probably high grade HEPA filters.
 
Bad news.

The weather forecast calls for sub-freezing temperatures, snow, and a reversal of wind direction that is going to blow the radioactively charged air back toward the island.

Through it all, look at the behavior of the people. Now, compare them to the lawless Haitians.
 
Erod said:
Bad news.

The weather forecast calls for sub-freezing temperatures, snow, and a reversal of wind direction that is going to blow the radioactively charged air back toward the island.

Through it all, look at the behavior of the people. Now, compare them to the lawless Haitians.
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True that... or the lawless New Orleaneans...
 
Explosion rocks another Japanese nuclear reactor building - CNN.com

Fresh white smoke rose again Monday from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, caused by an explosion at a building tied to the facility's No. 3 reactor.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that, according to the head of the nuclear facility, the container vessel surrounding the reactor is still intact. Initial reports suggest that radiation levels rose following the explosion late Monday morning, but Edano said he does not believe there has been a massive leak.
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:shock: :shock: Nuclear fuel rods fully exposed at Japan reactor - Jiji

(Reuters) - Nuclear fuel rods at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear reactor are now fully exposed, Jiji news agency said, quoting the plant's operator, Tokyo Eletcric Power Co .

The report referred to the Fukushima Daiichi complex's No.2 reactor, where levels of water coolant around the reactor core had been reported as falling earlier in the day.

The Jiji report said a meltdown of the fuel rods could not be ruled out. A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a possible radioactive leak, experts say.

Nuclear fuel rods fully exposed at Japan reactor - Jiji | Reuters


Oh ****!!!!!!! :doh
 
The Jiji report said a meltdown of the fuel rods could not be ruled out. A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a possible radioactive leak, experts say.
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This simply means that the rods are no longer contained in water, not that they're exposed to the outside. A possible radioactive leak would be of the nonlethal variety, i.e. one that isn't dangerous to humans.
 
The s**t's really hitting the fan now, and the only people in the room are the Japanese :(

New radiation leaks harmful to health

The prime minister has warned residents to stay inside or risk getting radiation sickness. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Tuesday that a fourth reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex was on fire and that more radiation was released
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