• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Merged nuclear power safe?

Corsair 115 said:
Last night the CTV national news in a report used the term "suicidal" to describe the fact that the workers in the plant were still there, working to resolve the problems.
Click to expand...

Information from the IAEA:
17 people (9 TEPCO employees, 8 subcontractor employees) suffered from deposition of radioactive material to their faces, but were not taken to the hospital because of low levels of exposure

One worker suffered from significant exposure during 'vent work,' and was transported to an offsite center

2 policemen who were exposed to radiation were decontaminated

Firemen who were exposed to radiation are under investigation
Click to expand...

Another source indicated that the significant exposure to one worker was in the 100 milisieverts range. Radiation sickness starts to show up at dosages above 500 millisieverts.
 
MattusMaximus said:
Yeah, you would think by now that a responsible media would have figured out how to learn at least a little science so they can inform people of the basics of dosage & the related health effects :rolleyes:
Click to expand...



Do you have any idea how expensive and difficult it will be to survey and release the evacuation area around the plant?

Any health physicists with experience in finding hot particles want to chime in?

I hope the Fukushima staff will restore AC power soon, and hope they think to fill their vessel level indication systems with water before they flood the cores.

Just in case, so they don't make things worse by adding a moderator and oxidizer to a hot pile of zirconium and uranium.
 
What is one to make of the chairman of the NRC's remarks to Congress yesterday? He stated that the situation in Japan is far more serious than the Japanese are admitting, and he used some rather alarming language. His comments would seem at odds at what has been stated by other authorities.
 
MarkCorrigan said:
So apart from being a danger to the workers and soldiers, this is pretty much as the pro-nuke people have been saying all along, a storm in a rather hazardous teacup?
Click to expand...

No. I think that wouldn't be a very accurate account.

Yesterday, in the evening I went to an engineering plant where they design "balancing machines" for, I think, turbines (and maybe for centrifuges) in nuclear power stations and for other industries. The guys there sounded very grave about the situation and when I posed the possibility that this is "a storm in a teacup" or words to that effect, they said "No!" This is a very serious problem, according to those who said they had knowledge of nuclear reactors.

I'll try and get a better post-mortem on the situation from them in the weeks to come because it seems too soon to tell how serious this could have been. Even those who were promoting the "No serious problem" stance have been seen to go very wobbly on this.
 
Last edited:
angrysoba said:
No. I think that wouldn't be a very accurate account.

Yesterday, in the evening I went to an engineering plant where they design "balancing machines" for, I think, turbines (and maybe for centrifuges) in nuclear power stations and for other industries. The guys there sounded very grave about the situation and when I posed the possibility that this is "a storm in a teacup" or words to that effect, they said "No!" This is a very serious problem, according to those who said they had knowledge of nuclear reactors.

I'll try and get a better post-mortem on the situation from them in the weeks to come because it seems too soon to tell how serious this could have been. Even those who were promoting the "No serious problem" stance have been seen to go very wobbly on this.
Click to expand...
I didn't say it wasn't a potentially serious problem, I said that nothing severe had yet happened outside of the confines of the plant itself.
 
dudalb said:
Most of the power in Northren California comes from hydroelectric power, thanks to the Sierra Nevada range and a lot of very fast running rivers, but there are a lot of areas where geography is not that favorable.
Click to expand...

OT comment: Did you see the movie "the Fugitive?" The Harrison Ford character was tried in Chicago, sent to prison, the train crashed and he escaped by jumping down the face of a HUGE dam, then he made his way back to Chicago. Where was that dam in relation to Chicago?

/OT comment
 
Hindmost said:
Originally, the diesels did start and run for an hour before the tsunami hit. What caused their failure is unknown to all of us here…and you don’t know if the utility did or did not evaluate this type of issue. There just isn’t enough information right now.
Click to expand...

What I read somewhere is that the engineers did not think a tsunami could top the protective walls, and that the diesels were in a low lying portion of the facility that flooded.
 
If there was no water right after they shut down the reacters, wouldn't that alone cause a dangerous problem? What was keeping the reacters from being damaged at that time? They were very hot at that time, right?
 
angrysoba said:
You didn't say that.

At least not in the post I quoted.
Click to expand...

True enough I guess. I was rather too glib.


To phrase it better, this isn't a serious problem outside the plant yet, and if they keep their heads screwed on it won't be, and the people panicking in the USA and especially Germany are rubes scared by the press.
 
MarkCorrigan said:
I didn't say it wasn't a potentially serious problem, I said that nothing severe had yet happened outside of the confines of the plant itself.
Click to expand...


No, you said "it's perfectly safe"

Care to admit you were wrong, saying that after the explosions.
 
So what's this that I'm hearing about a "Fukushima Fifty" - workers that are going to be (or have been sent in) to fix things and basically die from the radiation?
 
bobdroege7 said:
No, you said "it's perfectly safe"

Care to admit you were wrong, saying that after the explosions.
Click to expand...

It's perfectly safe outside of the evacuation zone for now but yes, I'll happily admit I understated the seriousness of the problem.


What, you expected me to not admit I was wrong?
 
bobdroege7 said:
Do you have any idea how expensive and difficult it will be to survey and release the evacuation area around the plant?
Click to expand...

The evacuation zone was precautionary. So far, nothing has happened to require a complete survey before letting people return to their homes after the crisis is over.
 
jnelso99 said:
So what's this that I'm hearing about a "Fukushima Fifty" - workers that are going to be (or have been sent in) to fix things and basically die from the radiation?
Click to expand...

A not-very-accurate reference to 180 workers who were rotated in groups of 50 to work in the plant.

And no, not sent in to "basically die". Their exposure limits were raised to 250 mSv, which is much higher than ordinary limits but offers little in the way of medical danger.

That said, their work was and still is dangerous, even though it appears that (a) they are making progress getting cooling water where it needs to go, and (b) there has been no major release of radioactive materials (i.e., threatening health) outside the immediate area of the problem reactors.

So, if things go well (and I understand the situation correctly), the immediate dangers should be resolved within a few days, leaving no long-term effects on any workers, but a lengthy and expensive cleanup and decommissioning. And a lot of lessons-learned sessions.
 
JihadJane said:
Yeah, the perfectly safe hydrogen explosions... no nuclear reactor is safe without them.
Click to expand...

The ones that were the product of venting the pressure system that (probably) did no damage beyond blowing the roofs off the reactor buildings?

Ohhh, scary. :rolleyes:
 
MarkCorrigan said:
The ones that were the product of venting the pressure system that (probably) did no damage beyond blowing the roofs off the reactor buildings?

Ohhh, scary. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Who needs a roof anyway? Dunno why they bothered putting one on in the first place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom