• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant

American

Trump Grump Whisperer
DP Veteran
Monthly Donator
Joined
Mar 11, 2006
Messages
96,050
Reaction score
33,368
Location
SE Virginia
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Conservative
Link

12 March 2011 Last updated at 05:24 ET
A massive explosion has struck a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday's devastating earthquake.
A huge pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured.
Japanese officials fear a meltdown at one of the plant's reactors after radioactive material was detected outside it.
A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 600.



With everything else going on this is not good.
 
This is terrible. As a side issue for us here, I wonder what impact it will have on nuclear power in the USA? It certainly cannot help win over more converts to nuclear power.
 
They didn't design well enough.

Better there than here. At least over there they have experience with radioactive contamination of urban centers.
 
This is terrible. As a side issue for us here, I wonder what impact it will have on nuclear power in the USA? It certainly cannot help win over more converts to nuclear power.

It won't have any effect at all.

Nuclear power is dead in the USA until the nation manages to purge the government and the greens and the reds who want to do as much damage to the country as they can.
 
This is terrible. As a side issue for us here, I wonder what impact it will have on nuclear power in the USA? It certainly cannot help win over more converts to nuclear power.

True, but this was a major, major earthquake. Not all locations would be like that.
 
True, but this was a major, major earthquake. Not all locations would be like that.

California comes to mind where that would be a major consideration.
 
California comes to mind where that would be a major consideration.

Well, California probably isn't the best part of the country for nuclear plants for lots of reasons. But they could do quite well in places that aren't disaster-prone.
 
They didn't design well enough.

Better there than here. At least over there they have experience with radioactive contamination of urban centers.

that is a revolting and disgusting comment reflecting the worst of cultural elitism and contempt for the historical suffering of the Japanese from the atomic bombs.
 
that is a revolting and disgusting comment reflecting the worst of cultural elitism and contempt for the historical suffering of the Japanese from the atomic bombs.

This might be the only time I agree with you Hay.
 
This is terrible. As a side issue for us here, I wonder what impact it will have on nuclear power in the USA? It certainly cannot help win over more converts to nuclear power.

You can forget it! :rofl

This is the BP spill for nuke plants. Everytime someone lokks like they might be even thinking about suggesting nuclear power, the treehuggers are going to start screaming, "Fukushima, Fukushima!".
 
True, but this was a major, major earthquake. Not all locations would be like that.

Doesn't matter. An earthquake is nothing but a defined excitation and shock load. Perfectly possible to design for higher shock loads to ensure reactor safety in the event of an earth quake. Cost is the limiting factor, is all.

Anyone know how old this japanese reactor was?
 
Definitely not what Japan needs to be dealing with right now, and I'm sure it will have negative effects on the nuclear power industry here in the US.
 
that is a revolting and disgusting comment reflecting the worst of cultural elitism and contempt for the historical suffering of the Japanese from the atomic bombs.

Perhaps, but Snorkum's right, in that the Japanese have alot of experience dealing with radiation contamination.

You can't ignore reality, for political correctness all the time.
 
that is a revolting and disgusting comment reflecting the worst of cultural elitism and contempt for the historical suffering of the Japanese from the atomic bombs.

your response is off topic and emotional.
 
Perhaps, but Snorkum's right, in that the Japanese have alot of experience dealing with radiation contamination.

You can't ignore reality, for political correctness all the time.

BS. It was a smartass comment.
 
The plant started operation in 1971, but they have 6 reactors, some of which are much more recent than that.

It sounds like they had a serious design flaw in their emergency cooling systems, something the Californians should heed if they ever start their San Andreas reactor project. (Don't bother to search, it's made up.) I've read where their procedures command a reactor scram in the event of an earthquake...which isn't necessarily the best thing to do as it takes the power station off line and it can no longer power it's own pumps. The reviews on this incident are going to be interesting. We should apply those lessons learned to US reactors in the future, if we have a future.

However, the days of the high power density reactor are limited, anyway, and Fukushima shows why.
 
It sounds like they had a serious design flaw in their emergency cooling systems, something the Californians should heed if they ever start their San Andreas reactor project. (Don't bother to search, it's made up.) I've read where their procedures command a reactor scram in the event of an earthquake...which isn't necessarily the best thing to do as it takes the power station off line and it can no longer power it's own pumps. The reviews on this incident are going to be interesting. We should apply those lessons learned to US reactors in the future, if we have a future.

However, the days of the high power density reactor are limited, anyway, and Fukushima shows why.

From what I read, when they shut down the Reactors at Fukushima, they had backup diesel generators that were supposed to provide enough power for pumping cooling water. Those were also damaged in the quake though. I guess the lesson here is to protect your backup generators better, but I'm not really sure how much you can protect stuff from an 8.9 earthquake. Seismic engineering has its limits.
 
From what I read, when they shut down the Reactors at Fukushima, they had backup diesel generators that were supposed to provide enough power for pumping cooling water. Those were also damaged in the quake though. I guess the lesson here is to protect your backup generators better, but I'm not really sure how much you can protect stuff from an 8.9 earthquake. Seismic engineering has its limits.
was it the earthquake or the resulting flood waters from the tsunami that knocked out the power system
 
was it the earthquake or the resulting flood waters from the tsunami that knocked out the power system

I'm sure it's safe to say that both had something to do with the power outtage.
 
that is a revolting and disgusting comment reflecting the worst of cultural elitism and contempt for the historical suffering of the Japanese from the atomic bombs.

We rarely agree, but I thought basically exactly the same thing when I read his post. I chose to ignore it...
 
From what I read, when they shut down the Reactors at Fukushima, they had backup diesel generators that were supposed to provide enough power for pumping cooling water. Those were also damaged in the quake though. I guess the lesson here is to protect your backup generators better, but I'm not really sure how much you can protect stuff from an 8.9 earthquake. Seismic engineering has its limits.

Generally, in both Japan and Taiwan, 7.0 is the standard by which buildings are built to withstand, but nuclear plants may meet more stringent requirements than that. Regardless, an 8.9 quake is nearly 100 times more powerful than a 7.0.

Frankly, while I have long been an advocate of our fourth nuclear power plant here in Taiwan (which has seen delay after delay due to political opposition), I have to rethink my support for it as we are just as seismically active as Japan. In most of the U.S., where seismic activity is minimal, this isn't really an issue, but Taiwan faces just the sme seismic forces as Japan and there really isn't any place in either country immune from them... And as good as Taiwanese engineering is, it is second to Japan's in this regard...
 
Japanese tweets say that 10,000 people are missing in the area of Minami-Sanriku.

TEPCO nuclear plant incident - 20km evacuation radius from Plant 1 ordered / 10km evacuation radius from Plant 2.

Real-time tweets are available at the link below:

2011 Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami
 
Back
Top Bottom