Article

2011-03-13 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Another reactor at Fukushima nuke plant loses cooling functions

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Posted by Steve White 2011-03-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11137 views ] Top

#1 Did the Japanese neglect to include a SCRAM function in their reactors? That is simply inserting control rods that strongly limit the nuclear reaction. Typically, the way reactors are designed, unless they are functioning in the nominal range, it is hard to prevent an automatic SCRAM.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-03-13 10:57|| 2011-03-13 10:57|| Front Page Top

#2 They did shutdown when the quake occurred. They went on their emergency diesels when the local power went away. The diesels were lost when the tsunami wrecked their fuel storage tanks. The building damaged in the explosion (a hydrogen explosion) was not the containment itself but the building that houses the containment. Evidently they've had a partial meltdown in at least one of the units. Dose rates are reportedly relatively low and only one person has been reported to have exceeded the required limit.

The evacuations are being played up as an indication of total disaster but the media fails to state that evacuation is required by law when events of significant nature occur. Every US nuclear site has the same rules regarding evacuation.

I expect that we'll see hysterical responses in the northwest along the lines of "We're all going to die" enabled by an incompetent media and a dishonest anti-nuclear movement.

Posted by Omiting the Younger 2011-03-13 11:38|| 2011-03-13 11:38|| Front Page Top

#3 moose,

They scrammed but the residual heat in the scrammed reactors needs to be removed or the water will boil off and the reactor could melt. The circ pumps run off grid or local generators, the grid is down and the gens are down. They might have located the gens in a better location it seems.

Posted by Hellfish 2011-03-13 11:50|| 2011-03-13 11:50|| Front Page Top

#4 The fission products in the reactor are still decaying and generating heat.

The chain reaction was stopped when the quake started, but there is no mechanism to influence radioactive decay.

Posted by Shoth Snolump4059 2011-03-13 19:38|| 2011-03-13 19:38|| Front Page Top

#5 excellent discussion here

Posted by abu do you love 2011-03-13 21:26|| 2011-03-13 21:26|| Front Page Top

#6 Obvious lesson from Katrina & now from Japan: Never, ever locate your emergency generators where they can be flooded.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-03-13 22:31|| 2011-03-13 22:31|| Front Page Top

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