Nuclear meltdown in Japan reactor?

[Mini 14]

They have completely lost the cooling towers. Unable to stop the heating now.

Evacuated to a radius of 10 miles, and expanding as fast as they can.

It isn't good.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

They are probably having a water leak, not a meltdown. Water is only used for heat exchange, not for reactor control

That said, a major water leak from one of those places is not a good thing. The water from one of these places is very poisonous.

on edit.
OOops, a couple random facts got in the way here.

They still need to use water to cool down the cores after they have been shut off. the process generates a lot of heat so they still need to carry that heat away to keep the cores safe.

Also, the storage area needs to have continually circulation water or it boils off, and the water isn't circulating, as the pumps are off.

So things aren't going very well over there.

That said, this is nothing like Chernobyl. And they will be doing their best to get power back to the place to keep the pumps moving water until things stabilize.

Most of the news I see on this is from usual freaks being freaky. People in the know are busy

 

[Mini 14]

They are probably having a water leak, not a meltdown. Water is only used for heat exchange, not for reactor control

That said, a major water leak from one of those places is not a good thing. The water from one of these places is very poisonous.

I don't know. The latest reports make it sound as if the Japanese know something bad is happening and they are not going to be able to stop it.

I don't know anything about nuclear reaction, but the tension is definitely spreading as they continue to be unable to solve whatever the problem is. They are talking now of evacuating to a 50 mile radius?

 

[Ravi]

From what was said on NPR, the back up generators to cool the reactor failed and they only have between five and eight hours of back up batteries.

 

[Mini 14]

From what was said on NPR, the back up generators to cool the reactor failed and they only have between five and eight hours of back up batteries.

Sounds like what I heard too, they cannot control the heating, and they've lost power to the cooling systems.

 

[Old Rocks]

Japan earthquake: nuclear disaster fears as reactor overheats - Telegraph
Prime minister Naoto Kan declared a nuclear emergency as his trade minister admitted that a radiation leak might occur at the Fukushima power plant.

The reactor’s cooling system failed after the 8.9-magnitude tremor hit northern Japan at 2.46pm local time. Pressure in the reactor was continuing to rise after repeated efforts to return power to the cooling systems failed. Radiation inside the plant soared to 1,000 times its normal level, officials said, triggering evacuation orders for about 3,000 residents as the government declared its first-ever state of emergency at a nuclear plant.

Reports were also emerging of a second atomic plant in the earthquake-hit area experiencing reactor cooling problems.

 

[Old Rocks]

Threat of Nuclear Disaster in Japan | Accuracy.Org

AP is reporting: “Japan ordered thousands of residents near a northeastern nuclear power plant to evacuate today following a massive earthquake that caused a problem in the plant’s cooling system.”

KEVIN KAMPS
Kamps is a specialist in nuclear waste at Beyond Nuclear. Last year he was in Japan assessing the state of nuclear facilities there. He said today: “The electrical grid is down. The emergency diesel generators have been damaged. The multi-reactor Fukushima atomic power plant is now relying on battery power, which will only last around eight hours. The danger is, the very thermally hot reactor cores at the plant must be continuously cooled for 24 to 48 hours. Without any electricity, the pumps won’t be able to pump water through the hot reactor cores to cool them. Once electricity is lost, the irradiated nuclear fuel could begin to melt down. If the containment systems fail, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur.

“In addition to the reactor cores, the storage pool for highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel is also at risk. The pool cooling water must be continuously circulated. Without circulation, the still thermally hot irradiated nuclear fuel in the storage pools will begin to boil off the cooling water. Within a day or two, the pool’s water could completely boil away. Without cooling water, the irradiated nuclear fuel could spontaneously combust in an exothermic reaction. Since the storage pools are not located within containment, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur. Up to 100 percent of the volatile radioactive Cesium-137 content of the pools could go up in flames and smoke, to blow downwind over large distances. Given the large quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel in the pool, the radioactivity release could be worse than the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe of 25 years ago.”

 

[Old Rocks]

Just heard on the news that they have declared a nuclear emergency on five reactors in two locations.

 

[dilloduck]

The need some good old reliable generators powered by petrochemicals --shocker.

 

[Old Rocks]

14,000 evacuated now, situation seems to be getting worse.

 

[dilloduck]

earthquake produces a tsunami that shorts out the power to the nuclear reactors that generate electicity for millions. Gotta be caused by man somehow.

 

[rdean]

People have said Japan has the most safe nuclear power plants in the world.

1. No matter how safe, nuclear reactors should NOT be built in earthquake zones.

2. This shows the importance of safety regulations. Without them, it would already be over, and it still might be.

Republicans wanted to defund the Tsunami Warning system and they hate regulations. Thank Gawd they aren't scientists and don't believe in science. Otherwise, we would have nuclear power plants on the top of every mountain, ready to "tip over".

 

[Old Rocks]

The need some good old reliable generators powered by petrochemicals --shocker.

Q&A: What's happening at Japanese nuclear plants? - latimes.com

What happened?

Shaking from the magnitude 8.9 quake caused the reactors' control rods to be inserted into the core, a safety precaution that shut down the reactors' ability to generate electricity. The cores remained very hot, however, and would boil away all the cooling water within an hour unless the water were continuously circulating through the reactors' cooling towers. But the tsunami also destroyed the electrical grid that would provide power to the cooling pumps and disabled the backup diesel generators that were supposed to kick in if that happened. That left only batteries to run the pumps.

And they failed. Nature created the earthquake, man created a vulnerable reactor and flawed backup systems.

 

[dilloduck]

The need some good old reliable generators powered by petrochemicals --shocker.

Q&A: What's happening at Japanese nuclear plants? - latimes.com

What happened?

Shaking from the magnitude 8.9 quake caused the reactors' control rods to be inserted into the core, a safety precaution that shut down the reactors' ability to generate electricity. The cores remained very hot, however, and would boil away all the cooling water within an hour unless the water were continuously circulating through the reactors' cooling towers. But the tsunami also destroyed the electrical grid that would provide power to the cooling pumps and disabled the backup diesel generators that were supposed to kick in if that happened. That left only batteries to run the pumps.

And they failed. Nature created the earthquake, man created a vulnerable reactor and flawed backup systems.

We outta leave the earth I guess.

 

[Old Rocks]

Maybe you oughta get a brain.

 

[dilloduck]

Maybe you oughta get a brain.

I'll take a solar powered one please.

 

[Finnguy]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LueiZjHd-kM&feature=feedu"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LueiZjHd-kM&feature=feedu[/ame]

 

[Chris]

Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of the powerful quake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.The earthquake knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and because a backup generator failed, the cooling system was unable to supply water to cool the 460-megawatt No. 1 reactor. Authorities said radiation levels had jumped 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1 and were measured at eight times normal outside the plant.Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the situation was most dire at Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 1, where pressure had risen to twice what is considered the normal level.

Devastation in wake of historic temblor - Lake County News-Sun

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dey put a nuclear power plant over a earthquake fault? Well, dat was dumb...

Japan Quake Causes Emergencies at 5 Nuke Reactors
Mar 11, 2011 - Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake. Thousands of residents were evacuated as workers struggled to get the reactors under control to prevent meltdowns.

Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 scrambled ferociously to tamp down heat and pressure inside the reactor after the 8.9 magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system. Some 3,000 people within two miles (three kilometers) of the plant were urged to leave their homes, but the evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

The government declared a state of emergency at the Daiichi unit - the first at a nuclear plant in Japan's history. But hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site in northeastern Japan, announced that it had lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site. The government quickly declared states of emergency for those units, too. Nearly 14,000 people living near the two power plants were ordered to evacuate.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said the situation was most dire at Fukushima Daiichi's Unit 1, where pressure had risen to twice what is consider the normal level. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that diesel generators that normally would have kept cooling systems running at Fukushima Daiichi had been disabled by tsunami flooding. Officials at the Daiichi facility began venting radioactive vapors from the unit to relieve pressure inside the reactor case. The loss of electricity had delayed that effort for several hours.

Plant workers there labored to cool down the reactor core, but there was no prospect for immediate success. They were temporarily cooling the reactor with a secondary system, but it wasn't working as well as the primary one, according to Yuji Kakizaki, an official at the Japanese nuclear safety agency. Even once a reactor is shut down, radioactive byproducts give off heat that can ultimately produce volatile hydrogen gas, melt radioactive fuel, or even breach the containment building in a full meltdown belching radioactivity into the surroundings, according to technical and government authorities.

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[Big Fitz]

The freezniks are going to come out of their mommie's closet that they've been in since the 1980's claiming that nuclear power (once the salvation of mankind) will kill us all... again.

A freak disaster and suddenly, it's Malthusian Time! Break out the Pinwheels, Mirrors and Moonshine! It's time to wear hemp and live in grass huts while hunting and gathering again.