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Chernobyl New Containment

Media_Truth

Media_Truth

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It was easy to miss this news, while the US election was underway. The new containment was set in place last month, at a cost of over $2 Billion Euros ($3.2 Billion). It should be noted that this is to contain the radiation from the damaged reactor, and it's core, and not radiation that has already contaminated the exclusion zone. It's only rated for 200 years, while many of the wastes have 1/2-lives of over a hundred thousand years. The exclusion zone (or hot zone) is 1000 square miles. I applaud the effort.

However, the US should learn by example! The US has over 200 reactors, many in the most populated areas. Will we have a human error like Chernobyl, or a natural disaster like Fukushima? Imagine a 1000 square mile hot zone anywhere on our East coast or other highly populated areas - Ohio, PA, Michigan, etc, which have a number of nuclear power plants.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster covered by New Safe Confinement structure
 
The company I work for built the robot, multi tool, bridge cranes in the dome. They took a couple of years to build and were installed about 6 months ago. They look small in that dome, but are almost 600 ft long. They were featured in some crane magazine recently.
By the way, Chernobyl was a reactor design that had experts freaking out when it was built. Something about some of the materials used in the reactor vessel/rods.
And as a former sub sailor, I have no problem with nuclear power. Build and operate them to known best practices, build them modular so they can be scaled, and stop building each one like it is the only one. Put the spent fuel in Yucca and don't store it on site.
 
Media_Truth said:
It was easy to miss this news, while the US election was underway. The new containment was set in place last month, at a cost of over $2 Billion Euros ($3.2 Billion). It should be noted that this is to contain the radiation from the damaged reactor, and it's core, and not radiation that has already contaminated the exclusion zone. It's only rated for 200 years, while many of the wastes have 1/2-lives of over a hundred thousand years. The exclusion zone (or hot zone) is 1000 square miles. I applaud the effort.

However, the US should learn by example! The US has over 200 reactors, many in the most populated areas. Will we have a human error like Chernobyl, or a natural disaster like Fukushima? Imagine a 1000 square mile hot zone anywhere on our East coast or other highly populated areas - Ohio, PA, Michigan, etc, which have a number of nuclear power plants.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster covered by New Safe Confinement structure
Click to expand...

You may be interested in this thread: http://www.debatepolitics.com/science-and-technology/274734-videos-inside-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-post1066709756.html#post1066709756
 
trblmkr said:
The company I work for built the robot, multi tool, bridge cranes in the dome. They took a couple of years to build and were installed about 6 months ago. They look small in that dome, but are almost 600 ft long. They were featured in some crane magazine recently.
By the way, Chernobyl was a reactor design that had experts freaking out when it was built. Something about some of the materials used in the reactor vessel/rods.
And as a former sub sailor, I have no problem with nuclear power. Build and operate them to known best practices, build them modular so they can be scaled, and stop building each one like it is the only one. Put the spent fuel in Yucca and don't store it on site.
Click to expand...

You may not have heard, but Yucca Mountain is out of consideration as a deep repository. Radioactive chlorine was found underground, indicating that there is much more water intrusion than the "experts" thought. Here's a link:

https://www.macalester.edu/academic...zenscience2010/yuccamountain/chlorine-36.html

Ironically the radioactive compounds were man-made, and thought to have come from the atomic bomb testing in Nevada in the '50s. Where do you want to put it now? Not one country has an active deep repository yet. France is heavily nuclear power, and they are close, but they are also running into a lot of political resistance. Great Britain had 3 sites selected as their ideal locations. They tried to run tests, and were met with thousands of Scots, demonstrating against it. They didn't even run the tests.

Japan is very advanced from an Engineering standpoint, and yet they had an incredible natural disaster. You think we might have one of those?
 
Media_Truth said:
It was easy to miss this news, while the US election was underway. The new containment was set in place last month, at a cost of over $2 Billion Euros ($3.2 Billion). It should be noted that this is to contain the radiation from the damaged reactor, and it's core, and not radiation that has already contaminated the exclusion zone. It's only rated for 200 years, while many of the wastes have 1/2-lives of over a hundred thousand years. The exclusion zone (or hot zone) is 1000 square miles. I applaud the effort.

However, the US should learn by example! The US has over 200 reactors, many in the most populated areas. Will we have a human error like Chernobyl, or a natural disaster like Fukushima? Imagine a 1000 square mile hot zone anywhere on our East coast or other highly populated areas - Ohio, PA, Michigan, etc, which have a number of nuclear power plants.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster covered by New Safe Confinement structure
Click to expand...

Neglegience takes Fukushima out of the Natural Disaster realm. Stone tidal markers had been at the Fukushima site for hundreds of years marking the high water marks of previous tsunamis. The site was built below the markers. That is negligeince.
/
 
Media_Truth said:
It was easy to miss this news, while the US election was underway. The new containment was set in place last month, at a cost of over $2 Billion Euros ($3.2 Billion). It should be noted that this is to contain the radiation from the damaged reactor, and it's core, and not radiation that has already contaminated the exclusion zone. It's only rated for 200 years, while many of the wastes have 1/2-lives of over a hundred thousand years. The exclusion zone (or hot zone) is 1000 square miles. I applaud the effort.

However, the US should learn by example! The US has over 200 reactors, many in the most populated areas. Will we have a human error like Chernobyl, or a natural disaster like Fukushima? Imagine a 1000 square mile hot zone anywhere on our East coast or other highly populated areas - Ohio, PA, Michigan, etc, which have a number of nuclear power plants.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster covered by New Safe Confinement structure
Click to expand...

I saw a video on some biologists who were checking wildlife condition and population in the exclusioned areas. Wildlife was actually doing pretty well. There was still radiation but the animals were doing pretty good with very little mutation and the like.
I think some of the outer exclusion area will be able to return to use sometime in the reasonably near future. the actually reactor site .. not so much.
 
SocialD said:
I saw a video on some biologists who were checking wildlife condition and population in the exclusioned areas. Wildlife was actually doing pretty well. There was still radiation but the animals were doing pretty good with very little mutation and the like.
I think some of the outer exclusion area will be able to return to use sometime in the reasonably near future. the actually reactor site .. not so much.
Click to expand...

Cesium, which is very soluble in water, was the main element that contaminated the surrounding area, and it is just now reaching it's half-life. The effects of low-level radiation is still not completely understood. It's based on the magnitude of the dose, and also the duration. That said, it can also be ingested or inhaled. I spoke to a 30-year retired worker/friend from Los Alamos, where they have extensive training, about ingestion. He said, "If you're lucky, it will pass right through you. Or it can settle into an organ in your body.". So there's a lot of hit and miss involved.
 
DaveFagan said:
Neglegience takes Fukushima out of the Natural Disaster realm. Stone tidal markers had been at the Fukushima site for hundreds of years marking the high water marks of previous tsunamis. The site was built below the markers. That is negligeince.
/
Click to expand...

A video of the 48-foot wave hitting the nuclear plant, That would be one huge wall. I agree in that, perhaps the plant shouldn't have been built there at all.

Video shows tsunami crashing into Fukushima nuclear site - CNN.com
 
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