8.9 Earthquake hits Japan

[Kaneman]

Trip, what's your estimate of the damage that will happen from the meltdowns alone?

[tallywacker]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

WOW that is way F'in weird!!!

Are they still having quakes?

Yeah, continuously

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...n/Asia_eqs.php

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...egion/Asia.php

[tallywacker]

Tokyo (CNN) -- A meltdown may have occurred at at least one nuclear power reactor in Japan, the country's chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said Sunday, adding that authorities are concerned about the possibility of another meltdown at a second reactor.

"We do believe that there is a possibility that meltdown has occurred. It is inside the reactor. We can't see. However, we are assuming that a meltdown has occurred," he said about the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility.

Hmmm

[Gas Man]

It really makes you feel helpless. I am glad to see that our govt and it's many agencies are going to their aid. Seems like we have a great deal of military there helping them as well. I always like seeing human aid, especially for those that are deserving.

[tallywacker]

Sunday, March 13, 2011
Meltdown Caused Nuke Plant Explosion: Safety Body

TOKYO (Nikkei)--The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.

The same day, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), which runs the plant, began to flood the damaged reactor with seawater to cool it down, resorting to measures that could rust the reactor and force the utility to scrap it.

Cesium and iodine, by-products of nuclear fission, were detected around the plant, which would make the explosion the worst accident in the roughly 50-year history of Japanese nuclear power generation.

An explosion was heard near the plant's No. 1 reactor about 3:30 p.m. and plumes of white smoke went up 10 minutes later. The ceiling of the building housing the reactor collapsed, according to information obtained by Fukushima prefectural authorities.

At a news conference Saturday night, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano discounted the possibility of a significant leak of radioactive material from the accident. "The walls of the building containing the reactor were destroyed, meaning that the metal container encasing the reactor did not explode," Edano said.

The amount of radiation detected inside the plant after 4:00 p.m. slightly exceeded the dose people can safely receive in a year, according to information obtained by the Fukushima prefectural government.

The No. 1 reactor shut down automatically soon after a massive earthquake hit the area Friday, but its emergency core cooling system failed to cool the reactor's core sufficiently.

NISA is affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

(The Nikkei March 13 edition)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110312D12JFF03.htm

[tallywacker]

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Kaneman

Trip, what's your estimate of the damage that will happen from the meltdowns alone?

First, you need to understand what the Media is calling a "meltdown."

This is what was taken from one of the articles. We don't use the term "meltdown" in the nuclear industry for what they are referring to.

A meltdown refers to a very serious collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to manage temperatures. A complete meltdown would release uranium and dangerous byproducts into the environment that can pose serious health risks.

I think this is going to be a successful failure. They have mitigating worst case scenarios and in one unit they have resorted to calling the unit a loss and dumping sea water in it. That pretty much assures it will never be used again. The explosion, while bad, was not in the containment building. The containment building is still intact. It's nowhere near as bad as Chernobyl.

You got to understand there are several "buildings" inside of "buildings" in the overall reactor building. Where the explosion happened was in the concrete reactor building because they released gases with hydrogen from the containment building to relieve pressure. Those gases reacted badly and took down the concrete reactor building. There is also a very thick steel containment building thats inside the concrete building, which is still intact. This steel building has all the primary cooling systems and reactor vessel protected inside it. The vessel is the protection for the actual core.

Unit 3 to my knowledge is still salvageable, if they start dumping sea water in it as well, you know they have given up on it.

[derf]

Originally Posted by Trip

First, you need to understand what the Media is calling a "meltdown."

This is what was taken from one of the articles. We don't use the term "meltdown" in the nuclear industry for what they are referring to.



I think this is going to be a successful failure. They have mitigating worst case scenarios and in one unit they have resorted to calling the unit a loss and dumping sea water in it. That pretty much assures it will never be used again. The explosion, while bad, was not in the containment building. The containment building is still intact. It's nowhere near as bad as Chernobyl.

You got to understand there are several "buildings" inside of "buildings" in the overall reactor building. Where the explosion happened was in the concrete reactor building because they released gases with hydrogen from the containment building to relieve pressure. Those gases reacted badly and took down the concrete reactor building. There is also a very thick steel containment building thats inside the concrete building, which is still intact. This steel building has all the primary cooling systems and reactor vessel protected inside it. The vessel is the protection for the actual core.

Unit 3 to my knowledge is still salvageable, if they start dumping sea water in it as well, you know they have given up on it.

Video of the boom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjx-JlwYtyE

[goof2]

Originally Posted by Trip

Well considering Georgia Power is currently in process of building some new design AP1000s and TVA is going to be building two AP1000s and two old design Westinghouse PWRs at a site that currently has 0 reactors, I would say the coverage is being done poorly right now.

I guess we will see. I'd be surprised if the TVA site is generating any electricity in the next 12+ years.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by goof2

I guess we will see. I'd be surprised if the TVA site is generating any electricity in the next 12+ years.

Unit 1 at bellefonte is due to begin construction in 2013. After watts bar 2 is complete.

Tva is only building as we need the power. We got in a lot of debt by building too many sites a few decades ago.