Japan Has a Nuclear Power Reactor "Problem"

[Chuckiechan]

They say it's under control...Therefor it is not...

Nothing like compounding the problems they already have.

Japan earthquake: Meltdown feared at nuclear reactor in Fukushima - latimes.com

[Toadman]

The backup diesel generators to power the cooling pumps were flooded out by the tsunami. Oops. This could get ugly. Somewhere between Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl.

[RicheemxX]

That news is a bit old. According to more recent reports they've expanded the evacuation notice and reports are that some radiation may have already leaked. Nothing is totally confirmed but its not sounding good.

[Gomer]

URGENT: Radiation could already have leaked at nuke plant: TEPCO | Kyodo News

URGENT: Radiation could already have leaked at nuke plant: TEPCO

TOKYO, March 12, Kyodo
Radioactive substances could have already leaked at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Saturday.


Radiation has been more than eight times the normal level at a monitoring post near the main gate of the plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the industry ministry said.

[surreal]

I thought they were saying it was 1,000 times more than normal.
That's in the reactor.. never mind

[Gomer]

I thought they were saying it was 1,000 times more than normal.

In the control room. 8X at the main gate outside the plant.

[surreal]

Got it,

Japan issues 2nd nuclear plant emergency - World - CBC News
Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside the Fukushima No. 1 reactor has risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal.

To reduce the pressure, slightly radioactive vapour will be released.

Is that at the main gate from the steam release?

[Gomer]

Got it,
Is that at the main gate from the steam release?

Not sure, but probably. It's been a long time since I read up on TMI and other disasters, but I seem to remember that things can get "hotter" just by virtue of the carefully controlled process malfunctioning.

[Gomer]

All Things Nuclear • Containment at Fukushima

The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is now saying the containment pressure at Unit 1—not Unit 2, whose core cooling was said to have failed—has risen to about double its normal value.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has announced it will “implement measures to reduce the pressure of the reactor containment vessel for those units that cannot confirm certain level of water injection by the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System, in order to fully secure safety.” It is not clear if this refers just to Unit 1, or to the other two effected unit as well.

The increase in containment pressure resulted from the loss of alternating-current (AC) power to the reactors, which stopped the containment cooling system. There are large water-cooled air conditioning units inside containment. Motor-driven pumps send cool water to the units. Motor-driven fans blow air inside the containment across the metal tubes containing the cool water. But without AC power, the pumps and fans don’t work and can’t provide cooling. The heat radiating off the hot reactor vessel (over 500F) and the hot piping heats up the air in the containment building very rapidly, which causes an increase in pressure.

The rising pressure reduces the ability of the containment to absorb the energy released from a pipe rupture, should one occur. The volume of air in the containment building and its wall thickness are designed to contain a specified level of energy being dumped into containment. If the pressure gets too high, then an energy release like a broken pipe, should it occur, could over-pressurize the containment and cause it to fail. So emergency procedures call for venting air from the containment to reduce the pressure if it gets too high.

If the containment structure was weakened by the earthquake, then what pressure it could withstand is not known.

The reactors have a containment ventilation system that can be used to vent air from the containment building. In this situation, the vented air would be routed through a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, charcoal beds, and another HEPA filter to remove as much radioactivity as possible before being released from a very tall stack to dilute the flow as much as possible.

If there has been no appreciable reactor core damage, the air vented from containment will contain minute but detectable amounts of radiation. The filtration systems are designed to lower that radioactivity release by nearly a factor of 100.

The latest news is that evacuation around the plants is being expanded from a 3 km to a 10 km radius, which suggests the crisis isn’t over yet.

[pickel]

They LIE !!!!


I worked @ Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant for over three years installing the wiring, especially in the control room and the cooling pump house. And worked closely with many engineers and got a good basic understanding of how these plants work and what happens when they fail.
Like the venting of the steam to reduce the pressure in the containment bldg.
The media as usual, is blowing steam ( smoke) you know where.
Ifin they do not get the heat down quickly, the sheet is going hit the proverbial fan.
BTW, just in from CNN, the evacuation area has been increased to 10 miles.
They should try 50 miles. IMO.

[surreal]

BTW, just in from CNN, the evacuation area has been increased to 10 miles.

Which was the last line in the post above yours...Do you read other's posts?

[surreal]

Reactors at two Japanese power plants can no longer cool radioactive substances inside, a prominent electric company said Saturday, according to a news agency report that added that atomic material may have leaked out of one of the plants.

Report: 2 Japanese plants struggling to cool radioactive material - CNN.com


Seems like the confusion over whether it's plant 1 or plant 2 has been solved.

[pickel]

Report: 2 Japanese plants struggling to cool radioactive material - CNN.com


Seems like the confusion over whether it's plant 1 or plant 2 has been solved.

Did you read the article ????

James Acton, a physicist who examined the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant after a 2007 earthquake, told CNN that releasing the valves from the two power plants might only spew a relatively small amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. A greater concern would happen if -- after what Cochran estimated would occur if temperatures topped 540 degrees Celsius (1,000 Fahrenheit) -- the fuel rods inside the reactors melted down.

"The big problem is if it can't cool and the (reactors') core starts to melt -- then you have the possibility of a greater release of radioactivity into the environment," Acton said. If that happens, "there's a possibility of cancer in the long term -- that's the main hazard here."

[surreal]

No, not the whole thing.
They're talking about it on ABC and now it's 3 plants. The experts are comparing it to Chernobyl. They are saying the batteries that are powering the backup generators for the reactor cooling are going to stop sometime tonight.

[pickel]

No, not the whole thing.
They're talking about it on ABC and now it's 3 plants. The experts are comparing it to Chernobyl. They are saying the batteries that are powering the backup generators for the reactor cooling are going to stop sometime tonight.

The idiots that designed the Emergency Core Cooling Systems , knowing the plates were not far off the coast, should have had the pumps and motors that give them power, either, in an elevated structure or a waterproof enclosure...sorta like trucks that are vented to cross rivers.

PS Since it's Japan, you CAN"T have the China Syndrome

[Whir]

Mr. pickel, ever the optimist.

Hopefully they'll pull through this. Technology has come a long way since Chernobyl. People seem to think NPPs are still dark ages technology. ~_~

Not trying to belittle your experience pickel, just speaking about people as a whole.

[pickel]

Mr. pickel, ever the optimist.

Hopefully they'll pull through this. Technology has come a long way since Chernobyl. People seem to think NPPs are still dark ages technology. ~_~

Not trying to belittle your experience pickel, just speaking about people as a whole.

I understand where you coming from, Whir. And I'm NOT being a Pessimist just a realist.

Hopefully the core(s) will be able to brought under control. But if NOT............

I believe this is NEW ground for those in the Nuclear industry. We'll just have to wait and see how our newer technologies can cope ( and with little haste), with the serious problem at hand.

[pickel]

Radiation Levels Surge Outside Two Nuclear Plants in Japan - FoxNews.com

Technical experts said the plant would presumably have hours, but probably not days, to try to stabilize things.

Leonard S. Spector, director of the Washington office of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said loss of coolant is the most serious type of accident at a nuclear power plant.

"They are busy trying to get coolant to the core area," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The big thing is trying to get power to the cooling systems."

High-pressure pumps can temporarily cool a reactor in this state with battery power, even when electricity is down, according to Arnold Gundersen, a nuclear engineer who used to work in the U.S. nuclear industry. They can open and close relief valves needed to control pressure. Batteries would go dead within hours but could be replaced.

The IAEA said "mobile electricity supplies" had arrived at the Daiichi plant. It wasn't clear if they were generators or batteries.

It also was not immediately clear how closely the reactor had moved toward dangerous pressure or temperature levels. If temperatures were to keep rising to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, it could set off a chemical reaction that begins to embrittle the metallic zirconium that sheathes the radioactive uranium fuel.

That reaction releases hydrogen, which can explode when cooling water finally floods back into the reactor. That was also concern for a time during the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania.

If the reactor temperature keeps reaches around 4,000 degrees, the fuel could melt outright, and the reactor could slump right into the bottom of the containment building in a partial meltdown. Then the crucial question would be whether the building would stay intact.

"The last line of defense is that containment -- and that's got to hold," Gundersen said. If it doesn't, the radioactive load inside the reactor can pour out into the surroundings.

[Gomer]

Hopefully they'll pull through this. Technology has come a long way since Chernobyl. People seem to think NPPs are still dark ages technology. ~_~

I know there have been "upgrades", just wanted to note that this reactor is 40 years old.

[pickel]

I know there have been "upgrades", just wanted to note that this reactor is 40 years old.

Which means the "Containment Bldg." is approx. 43-44 years old;

I do not usually pray, but this seems like one of those times I feel the need.