Explosion reported at Fukushima #2

[Mini 14]

Probably "just news" again, and not "bad news."

This would be the third reactor at Fukushima to suffer an explosion.

 

[Mini 14]

Live feed:

NHK WORLD TV on USTREAM: Official NHK WORLD TV live on USTREAM. NHK WORLD TV is an English language 24-hour international news and information channel. New...

Hard to see, but it looks intact.

 

[Mini 14]

Explosion now confirmed by government.

 

[Mini 14]

"suppression pool" has been damaged. "desperate situation" says government.

 

[skookerasbil]

Anybody know worst case scenario with this.........in terms of spread and effects???

 

[Zoom-boing]

Japan crisis: third explosion raises spectre of nuclear nightmare - Telegraph

 

[skeptic]

Kyoko Nambu, whose home was destroyed by the tsunami, said: “It’s like a horror movie. Our house is gone and now they are telling us to stay indoors.

Like the explosion in the No 1 reactor on Saturday, the problem was caused by a build-up of hydrogen released from water surrounding the reactor as temperatures rose above 2,200C.

That better be a misquote or a misprint. The steel walls of the containment vessel will melt at less than 1000C.

As technicians tried to contain the temperatures inside all three reactors at the plant, there were warnings of a possible third explosion as fuel rods inside the No 2 reactor became fully exposed.

Workers managed to pump enough seawater into the reactor to cover the rods, but they became partly exposed last night. Ryohei Shiomi, an official at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said the rods in all three reactors appeared to be melting.

Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the nuclear safety authority in France, the world’s second-largest producer of nuclear power, said the accident was now “worse than Three Mile Island but not as great as Chernobyl”. The partial meltdown in Pennsylvania in 1979 was rated five out of seven on an international scale, with Chernobyl put at seven.

While Japan’s nuclear safety agency rates Fukushima as level four, Mr Lacoste said: “We have the feeling that we are at least more than level five and probably at level six. I say this after speaking to my Japanese counterparts.”

Japan urgently appealed to US and UN nuclear experts for technical help on preventing white-hot fuel rods melting.

Japan crisis: third explosion raises spectre of nuclear nightmare - Telegraph

 

[Mini 14]

Anybody know worst case scenario with this.........in terms of spread and effects???

Worst case is airborne fallout. All of the maps I've seen place the fallout on the California coast in 6-7 days from full melt. Those maps also seem to agree that the fallout would reach as far as New Mexico.

The links to those maps are in one of the other threads. The bigger one, I think.

Japanese government now reporting that radiation may be leaking from the core of #2.

 

[skeptic]

"suppression pool" has been damaged. "desperate situation" says government.

the suppression pool is one of two barriers that encase the containment vessel.

 

[Trajan]

damn man you're on it I just saw it too, they are saying radiation is leaking.......not much to flesh that out. IF the shell around the core is breached, they are so fuc!ed, those poor bastards.

apparently they rods ARE melting.

 

[mudwhistle]

Anybody know worst case scenario with this.........in terms of spread and effects???

 

[boedicca]

Anybody know worst case scenario with this.........in terms of spread and effects???

Worst case is airborne fallout. All of the maps I've seen place the fallout on the California coast in 6-7 days from full melt. Those maps also seem to agree that the fallout would reach as far as New Mexico.

The links to those maps are in one of the other threads. The bigger one, I think.

Japanese government now reporting that radiation may be leaking from the core of #2.

That is not the likely scenario. These are water moderated reactors, not graphite ones.

Early speculation was that in a case like this the fuel might continue melting right through the steel and perhaps even through the concrete containment structure—the so-called China syndrome, where the fuel would melt all the way to China. But Three Mile Island proved this doesn't happen. The melted fuel rods simply aren't hot enough to melt steel or concrete.

The decay heat must still be absorbed, however, and as a last-ditch effort the emergency core cooling system can be activated to flood the entire containment structure with water. This will do considerable damage to the reactor but will prevent any further steam releases. The Japanese have now reportedly done this using seawater in at least two of the troubled reactors. These reactors will never be restarted.

None of this amounts to "another Chernobyl." The Chernobyl reactor had two crucial design flaws. First, it used graphite (carbon) instead of water to "moderate" the neutrons, which makes possible the nuclear reaction. The graphite caught fire in April 1986 and burned for four days. Water does not catch fire.

Second, Chernobyl had no containment structure. When the graphite caught fire, it spouted a plume of radioactive smoke that spread across the globe. A containment structure would have both smothered the fire and contained the radioactivity.

If a meltdown does occur in Japan, it will be a disaster for the Tokyo Electric Power Company but not for the general public. Whatever steam releases occur will have a negligible impact. Researchers have spent 30 years trying to find health effects from the steam releases at Three Mile Island and have come up with nothing. With all the death, devastation and disease now threatening tens of thousands in Japan, it is trivializing and almost obscene to spend so much time worrying about damage to a nuclear reactor.

William Tucker: Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl - WSJ.com


It hasn't been reported that the exterior containment structures have been destroyed.

 

[Mini 14]

It must be bad......skeptic and I have the same thoughts......


I think this is very, very bad. I've been monitoring "fukushima" on twitter (where most of my info has been coming from). There are reports now that they are ordering the employees to evacuate the plant and they may abandon the entire plant.

 

[Mini 14]

Anybody know worst case scenario with this.........in terms of spread and effects???

Worst case is airborne fallout. All of the maps I've seen place the fallout on the California coast in 6-7 days from full melt. Those maps also seem to agree that the fallout would reach as far as New Mexico.

The links to those maps are in one of the other threads. The bigger one, I think.

Japanese government now reporting that radiation may be leaking from the core of #2.

That is not the likely scenario. These are water moderated reactors, not graphite ones.

Early speculation was that in a case like this the fuel might continue melting right through the steel and perhaps even through the concrete containment structure—the so-called China syndrome, where the fuel would melt all the way to China. But Three Mile Island proved this doesn't happen. The melted fuel rods simply aren't hot enough to melt steel or concrete.

The decay heat must still be absorbed, however, and as a last-ditch effort the emergency core cooling system can be activated to flood the entire containment structure with water. This will do considerable damage to the reactor but will prevent any further steam releases. The Japanese have now reportedly done this using seawater in at least two of the troubled reactors. These reactors will never be restarted.

None of this amounts to "another Chernobyl." The Chernobyl reactor had two crucial design flaws. First, it used graphite (carbon) instead of water to "moderate" the neutrons, which makes possible the nuclear reaction. The graphite caught fire in April 1986 and burned for four days. Water does not catch fire.

Second, Chernobyl had no containment structure. When the graphite caught fire, it spouted a plume of radioactive smoke that spread across the globe. A containment structure would have both smothered the fire and contained the radioactivity.

If a meltdown does occur in Japan, it will be a disaster for the Tokyo Electric Power Company but not for the general public. Whatever steam releases occur will have a negligible impact. Researchers have spent 30 years trying to find health effects from the steam releases at Three Mile Island and have come up with nothing. With all the death, devastation and disease now threatening tens of thousands in Japan, it is trivializing and almost obscene to spend so much time worrying about damage to a nuclear reactor.

William Tucker: Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl - WSJ.com


It hasn't been reported that the exterior containment structures have been destroyed.

We may find out very soon.

The consensus from the reports seems to be that the containment core at #2 has fractured. 2.5 meters of the core are exposed, and they may be abandoning the plant.

Something is going on, and it seems to be worse than anything we've seen so far.

 

[Ravi]

I predict a shortage of iodine tablets.

 

[Mini 14]

I got concerned when I saw the pictures of #2. The explosion had been heard, but the building was intact. It looked like nothing had happened.

Reports being confirmed now that containment vessel has been "damaged" in #2.

Measurements are underway.

 

[skeptic]

I predict a shortage of iodine tablets.

I am already making preparations to get some. I am wondering of radioactive iodine is the only fallout to be concerned about.

 

[skeptic]

Reports being confirmed now that containment vessel has been "damaged" in #2.

gotta link?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

If your a praying person - now would be a good time.
Confirmed crack in the outer wall of #2, at least some material is leaking.
God forbid. That would be a true nuclear fallout.
I don't want to even think that an actual meltdown with a compromised outer wall....this has not happened yet...like I say, if you are a praying person...

 

[Mini 14]

Reports being confirmed now that containment vessel has been "damaged" in #2.

gotta link?

Sorry....damn phone

I don't, but its being reported on CNN now as well. First heard it on twitter but didn't see a link.