BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:38 PM

I believe that if the interior pressure builds to a high enough level, the containment could burst and release a lot more radiation than what escapes in the controlled venting process. Perhaps that's what was meant by "explosion".

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:36 PM

Well ..... I'm not taking any chances kids ... first thing in the morning I'm heading down to the City Market and stocking up on as much Grand Manaan dulse I can get my hands on !

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:36 PM

He os nearly as funny as Dr. Strangelove

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: artbrooks
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:34 PM

It is generally accepted that nuclear plants cannot explode through anything except planned detonation (i.e., an attack of some kind), and then it is not a nuclear explosion. A meltdown can release significant radiation, such as at Chernobyl, but probably only if the plant is as badly maintained as that one was. Most likely there would be no measurable release of radiation, which was the case at TMI. The "100% increase of radiation" reported by some media sources refers to radiation in the plant control room, which is normally a shirt-sleeves environment.

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Peace
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:31 PM

Georgia Tech Nuclear expert: Japan's nuclear plant doesn't sound dire

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By Ty Tagami
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The alarming news coming from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant doesn't worry one of Atlanta's experts on nuclear reactors.


Farzad Rahnema, a Georgia Tech professor of nuclear engineering, had been reading stories that hinted at the possibility of a meltdown at the plant, which was shaken by the massive earthquake there. But he said the details he'd gleaned from those accounts, and from industry reports, suggested that a meltdown was unlikely.

The word conjures images of the Chernobyl plant in the former Soviet Union, and the devastation it wrought when its reactor melted down. Will the Fukushima plant disgorge hot nuclear fuel, dumping radiation into the air and sea?

"I don't think this thing is anywhere close to that," said Rahnema, who studies reactor safety. He added a caveat -- his opinion was based on "sketchy" details. But he said the fact that plant officials hadn't deemed it necessary to activate an emergency cooling system was reassuring.

Despite a loss of power to the plant's primary cooling system, it appeared officials were able to obtain backup power, he said, basing that opinion on a terse statement issued by the Tokyo Electric Power Company at about 4 p.m. Friday Atlanta time. It said the water level necessary to cool the reactor fuel had been "maintained."

That wouldn't have been possible without backup power, Rahnema said. "If the water level in the reactor is maintained," he said, "that's good news."

Even if the reactor core were to melt down, Rahnema said it probably would not produce the dire consequences seen in Chernobyl. That plant had few of the safety features required in Japan. Even if the Fukushima reactor were to melt the central pressure vessel that contains it, he said, the radioactive fuel would still be held within a concrete containment, something he said was lacking in the Chernobyl design.

Still, if officials cannot get the plant online, they'll have to control the temperature of the nuclear fuels with standby power, possibly for months. The nuclear reaction will continue at least that long, Rahnema said.

The nuclear reactions "have a long half life, so they continue creating heat," he said. But the heat from the reaction drops significantly within a day after the reactor is shut down, to as little as 1 percent of the amount when it was at full power, he said. "It's easy to manage."

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:25 PM

Here is the actual meltdown

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:23 PM

... tick ... tick ... tick

and the suckers do meltdown the prevailing jet stream winds could pick up some of that stuff blow it from Japan directly across the Pacific ocean to the west coast of the United States.


biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:22 PM

I checked at my pharmacy for iodine too...I am SOL if it happens. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:21 PM

Heeeeere's the best link

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:01 PM

5 seperate Japanese reactors are at this moment hours away from meltdowns.

tick tick tick

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 09:17 PM

The radioactivity is 8 times normal and rising outside the plant.
We are officially 8 to 12 houra away from some form of a melt down event.

My Pharmacy did not have any dietary Idodine. Seaweed is high in Iodine. It prevents the uptake of radioactive Iodine in your Thyroid gland.

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:33 PM

They are completely different kinds of reactors but the U238 and PU are the same.

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:31 PM

This could very well be as bad as Chernobyl if they can't get the bad-boy cooled down... And fast... Make Three Mile Island look like a pleasant Sunday afternoon picnic...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:28 PM

Worst case scenario is that Japan will lose over half of thier Island nation to an uninhabited danger zone similar to a Chrnobyl death zone.

Best case scenario, the plant is saved in the nick of time and the damage is limited to the readioactive steam that has already been released.

Subject: BS: Nuclear plant disaster looming
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:20 PM

Japan's oldest reactor is now 1000% more radioactive than yesterday.
An explosion is a possible outcome.
A meltdown of les destructive proportions is also possible.

If it explodes (and it could) it will be a fission event with more fuel than any ever detonated on earth.

IF TWO OR MORE NUCLEAR PLANTS IN JAPAN MELTDOWN BEYOND THE CONTAINMENT BUILDING:

Wind currents will disperse radioactive cesium, Iodine, Strontium, plutonium and other nasty atoms world wide.

Of the dizens if nuclear plants in Japan, currently the oldest one bulit in 1960 and finished in 1970 is in the most serious condition of being unable to cool the fuel rods which are now venting radiactive steam. Once the un-cooled water turns entirely to steam the fuel will melt and may or may not be contained in the old brittle vessel. The steel in an old plant being bombarded by protons and neutrons for decades will behave like steet that is hundreds of years old. If heated or cooled rapidly the steel will crack wide open. This N plant has no electricity to run the cooling pumps after the back up generators flooded, the back up batteries have run out hours ago.
This part is speculative but when it was reported that Russia and America are rushing "COOLANT" to Japan's N plant it may be referring to powered boroon to dump on top of the reactor to ease the risk of ...gulp detonation...the same way Russian firefighters did on Chernobyl. All the first responding firefighters who dumped the boron from helicopters died within weeks.

A second critical N plant is also having trouble cooling down.


Hillary Clinton said we are sending coolant to Japan. The airforce says they they do not know of any flights of coolant.
(Maybe we shipped it Federal Express?!)



How will a looming nuclear disaster as well as the earthquake (which pales in comparison), effect the rest of the world?

Financially only about 10 to 20% of Japan's losses are covered by insurance.

Insurance does not cover natural disasters of nuclear accidents. Even your home owners policy will say this.
The special insurance for natural and atomic accidents is sold in large part by AIG. 70% of AIG is in receivership to the taxpayers of the US. AIG would need a bail out to cover the pay outs.

Toyota and Nissan are shut down with no reopen date in mind.

Imagine buying a product from Japan you might suspect of being radioactive. Not good for business.

Hyundai will take over the Toyota market share of Toyota and Nissan for a year or more.

Japan has a current debt margin of 200% compared to the United States debt margin of 25%

After WW2 the US had a margin of 100.



The US will have to provide money and resources equivalent to what we spend in Iraq and Afghanistan every week which is about 2.5 billion.
If we are serious about saving Japan, we should consider declaring victory in Afghanistan this coming Monday and shift to help Japan. As Bush senior said "Na-gonna-doit"



If it melts but does not go critical it is difficult to ever clean up as water explodes from a deep radioactive hole in the ground. If the Zircon shield at the bottom of the reactor holds the way the 3 Mile Island Plant did, we all be very lucky indeed. Since the N plants are next to the sea. I'm sure you can see the difficulty containing the problem if it goes catastrophic.



Again if the N plants (one or more) melt down there will be more death in slow motion over decades.

There is no such thing as one possible outcome.

The outcome of a meltdown ranges from an enormous bomb event to a persistent radiation event

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
In the weeks to come please buy and take Iodine pills as directed. Stop drinking milk and cheeses made after the end of March.
Monitor/measure radioactivity in outside swimming pools.