Japan Earthquake: nuclear plants

AntonL

because the salt crystals will clog the system and encase the fuel rods thus decreasing cooling
capacity, and grind away the impellers of Recirculation pumps and making these inoperative.

AntonL

Hello TCups
Yes - I edited original post with below sentance

also satellite photo confirms this look at the arrangement of access roads.

TCups

I think not, sir. Apples and Apples, unless the two have EXACTLY the same layout:

AntonL

TCups - hat off - you are right!!

Also Daini reactor are all inline

TCups

Sorry to have to disagree, again, Anton. Did I mention I am a radiologist by trade and make my living by looking at pictures and that I am pretty good with spatial relationships and extracting 3D info from 2D images? Daini is not a match. Daiachi (spelling?) is.

TCups

Now go back and match the radiation readings to the debris fields we spent so much time on earlier. . .

I must get some sleep.

M. Bachmeier

So should I but you guys are so loud your keeping me awake.

tortamuss

Surface winds are due to temporarily turn onshore from the northeast @ the 25th

jensjakob

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=C1

Nishiyama:
"The "vapor" rising near the No. 1 reactor at the plant is "only natural" and not a cause for alarm, he said, especially since water is now in that unit's nuclear spent fuel pool"

-------
My comment: hmmmm, at least they are now telling us that #1 SFP is SERIOUS hot too.... Has it been dry?
If I read the comment squarely, I could argue that he implies that before todays dousing, the pool was dry....

jensjakob

2 nuclear plant workers sent to hospital
Japan's nuclear safety agency says 2 workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were taken to hospital on Thursday after being exposed to high-level radiation at the plant.

The agency says the workers' feet were accidentally exposed to 170 to 180 millisieverts of radiation while they were working in the turbine building of the Number 3 reactor.

A third worker was also exposed to radiation but apparently did not require treatment.
Thursday, March 24, 2011 15:43 +0900 (JST)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/24_39.html

AntonL

The austrian news service orf.at reports

Translated means:
The work at the nuclear power plant Fukushima I going slowly: Time and again, workers must be withdrawn because the radiation is too high. "According to current situation we must not be too optimistic, " said government spokesman Yukio Edano on Thursday at a press conference in Tokyo. Of all the cooling, showing slow action might become a new problem.

Is he referring to salt problem addressed earlier - and what does "we must not be too optimistic" mean?

TCups

Jens - that would be the building in front of Unit 3 with the holes in the roof (and with radioactive debris now on its floor?).

http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/n...g%26newest%3D1

M. Bachmeier

NHK reported the workers were in the basement of #3, whatever that means.

|Fred

Lots of information was release regarding the situation at the plant this morning (GMT)
I'll try to get a proper translation....

The Underground of the turbine room linked to the unit 3 was flooded with 30 cm watter , the worker doing stuff there related to pump had there feet in the watter "radioactive" those were the worker rushed to the hospital (radiation exposure about 180 mSv)

edited

jensjakob

Ok, found this quote on BBC:
""Although they wore protective clothing, the contaminated water seeped in and their legs were exposed to radiation," said a spokesman."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12845304

M. Bachmeier

An idea that might even be worse is waiting too long to get the situation under control. I have a feeling the workers were aware that they were taking risks, but were weighing the consequences of further delays. There have been a lot of delays. Delays at this point are not good.

P.S. An NHK spokesman even implied the workers might not be wearing the safety equipment properly, but I doubt that.

jlduh

Well, my personal FEELING is that there is what is being said which (tries to) give the impression that some things are under control, like the personnel management concerning radiations. I'm not so confident with this, but only time will tell the true story and the reality behind this. There are always the words and the numbers on one side, and on the other side there is the "real thing". My work as an environmental expert for court and environmental management teached me that sometimes the two ones fit together. Sometimes.

We live more and more in a world of words, numbers and images, but reality still continue to exist and PREVAIL. With time, the two tend to better fit though. We are all here trying to fit words, numbers and images on a reality which we are not experiencing on the ground (fortunately for us) and this is always a tricky game (especially when these words, numbers and images are not from us but from other people!), we have to recognize the limit of this, even if obvioulsy we still can get a feeling of what's going on.

This moment, like every disaster, is a big come back to reality in a world where virtuality or "augmented reality" (hummmm!) seemed to replace the true experience of reality.

By the way, but i won't go further with this here, the guy talking in the CNN interview has a point of view which is typical of this tendency, as his conclusions is basically that the japanese would rather build psychiatric hospital than a sarcophagus to deal with the health consequences of the accident (to summarize it in a few words!). This is a strange way of dealing with reality. Military troops are always subject to psychic trauma of course but I'm not sure this trauma would be the same if they were fighting moving pixels with electronic weapons actioned by a keyboard/joypad in front of a 30 inch flat screen... This is a strange way of trying to describe the reality, yes.