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Merged nuclear power safe?

bobdroege7 said:
No source, just heard on CNN I believe that levels in Tokyo were twice normal background.
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Twice normal background is nothing.

I was showing a gieger counter and a se;lection of radioactive samples to a group of cub scouts once, when one of the asked if we could test him. I said "Sure, why not?". So the put put his thumb on the grill and the counter shot up to more than five times normal background (he had likely been in contact with freshly fertilized soil in the schoolyard and the fertilizer likely conatined potassium).
 
ceptimus said:
The backup batteries worked (as designed) for eight hours. Any plane with a backup engine that worked for half that time would be able to make it to a runway.
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Actually, an aircraft carrying enough electric batteries to power all it's engines for 8 hours would likely never get off the ground.
 
BenBurch said:
Airplane travel ought to scare some people to death;

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/info/RadHaz.html
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The Canadian Nuclear Society is predictably made up mostly of university profs and industry professionals.

Ironically, the man who gets the dubious distinction of being the CNS's most irradiated member doesn't work in the industry. He's one of our few layperson nuclear enthusiasts (like myself) whose day job is piloting the Toronto-Beijing/Toronto-Frankfurt routes for Air Canada.
 
GlennB said:
You're fairly certainly wrong.

Finely divided Al will burn in an oxygen stream but the Al superstructure of ships will not burn in air. That was my point and I bolded it in my post. Aluminium is easily melted in the presence of air, hence pretty simple smelting of Al waste.
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Aluminum powder will explode in regular atmosphere. So congratulations you failed basic chemistry. Also, you are completely wrong. I actually double checked this before calling you out on your BS. Only an idiot melts aluminum in open atmosphere. Mind you the reason why you don't do that is also the thing stopping it from really catching on fire easily like Magnesium.
EDIT:
Also your reading comprehension is pretty dam poor. As I wrote in my original post Aluminum is one of the more reactive materials that you will come with outside of elements like Lithium.
 
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Not entirely safe, but necessary as it is one of the few economically viable sources of energy we have today. Just put them in out of the way places where if the worst comes to pass, instead of population centers or fertile farmland, worthless desert is what gets contaminated. Like every major airline crash we learn from each accident and make changes to avoid it happening again. In this case don't put them when Tsunami's (or general floodwaters) can take out the backup systems. Also separate each reactor so if one has an incident, the area around the other five doesn't have to be abandoned and they too go out of control due to lack of supervision.
 
sts60 said:
A twin-engine airliner with a couple of engines failed is in serious trouble. They don't glide that well.
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Actually, they can glide quite well, particularly if a skilled pilot is at the controls. See the incident colloquially referred to as the Gimli glider for one example. Another example: Air Transat Flight 236.

That said, any jetliner which loses all its fuel is in a serious situation as its options become very limited.



bobdroege7 said:
And it is 300 microsieverts on both sides of the fence. Is it ok to assume that?

There will be a dose of 262 Rem per year on the other side of the fence which is 50 times higher than the allowable limit for radiation workers in the US, and an amount of radiation that would be considered to put one at a rather high risk for harm.

It is also 500 times higher than the allowable limit for exposure to the public, therefore the evacuation is required.
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There's a flaw in your analysis: You are assuming the rate per hour you stated will be sustained for an entire year. What's the basis for that assumption?
 
technoextreme said:
Aluminum powder will explode in regular atmosphere. So congratulations you failed basic chemistry. Also, you are completely wrong. I actually double checked this before calling you out on your BS. Only an idiot melts aluminum in open atmosphere. Mind you the reason why you don't do that is also the thing stopping it from really catching on fire easily like Magnesium.
EDIT:
Also your reading comprehension is pretty dam poor. As I wrote in my original post Aluminum is one of the more reactive materials that you will come with outside of elements like Lithium.
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Ummm... You actually can melt and cast Aluminum in open air.

Example;
 
BenBurch said:
The teacup might yet spill and the table will need to be mopped up.
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What size of spill and mop up are we talking about here?

We live a long way from the affected area (approx. 500 miles) and, while I have managed to remain calm up to now, constant calls from relatives in the U.S. at all hours of the day and night warning of certain doom if we don't bolt right the **** now are starting to wear me down.
 
shuize said:
What size of spill and mop up are we talking about here?

We live a long way from the affected area (approx. 500 miles) and, while I have managed to remain calm up to now, constant calls from relatives in the U.S. at all hours of the day and night warning of certain doom if we don't bolt right the **** now are starting to wear me down.
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Depends on whether there is a fuel fire, and how large. But not so bad that I would worry that far away.
 
Gent's,

My point about aluminum ships was:

Don't throw water on a burning metal as it tends to explode and shrapnel flies all over the place.

In the early 80's I witnessed a hangar full of aircraft burn down.

There was very little aluminum to be seen in the aftermath.
 
Well looks like they are nearing having the power hooked back up so they can attempt to restart the cooling systems, hopefully it'll all go well.
 
GlennB is right about the Falklands issue being fallacious.

The sinking of the Sheffield is sometimes blamed on a superstructure made wholly or partially from aluminium, the melting point and ignition temperature of which are significantly lower than those of steel. However, this is incorrect as the Sheffield's superstructure was made entirely of steel.

The confusion is related to the US and British Navies abandoning aluminium after several fires in the 1970s involving ships that had aluminium superstructures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sheffield_(D80)
 
shuize said:
What size of spill and mop up are we talking about here?

We live a long way from the affected area (approx. 500 miles) and, while I have managed to remain calm up to now, constant calls from relatives in the U.S. at all hours of the day and night warning of certain doom if we don't bolt right the **** now are starting to wear me down.
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Send your relatives the link to Mattus' blog. Tell them to educate themselves.


:)
 
DarthFishy said:
It seems at least my country (and Skwinty's :p) is willing to have a go at nuclear:
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The government has also reserved any conclusion wrt nuclear power until the official investigation and findings are available.

I do not foresee SA abandoning the nuclear program.
Sensible people here in SA.:p
 
bobdroege7 said:
Three Mile Island was rated as a 5, and the hydrogen produced by the fuel elements failures there was contained and didn't explode.

In this recent incident the hydrogen did explode and there is spread of radiation outside the plant boundaries.
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That is still no evidence for the evacuation necessity.

You are running around the pot, saying you are an expert (argument from authority) listing even all your qualification, but I am sorry one fact remain : Japan INES was 4 at the time of your claim (might still be I did not check for the last 12h) and you have *NO BETTER* info than us.

Case in point you were plugging in your greenpeace web site citing high radiation outside Fukushima km away. Where did that one go ? Nowhere.

So feel free to pretend being better informed than us, and i will feel free to dismiss your opinion as just that.
 
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