pray for no earthquakes in Japan

[CaptainCrunch]

reator numbers 4 and 3 could cause a Nuclear firestorm if the pool is factured

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...ctor-4-120519/

Errr

The 1,535 spent fuel rods would become exposed to the air and would likely catch fire, with the most-recently added fuel rods igniting first.
The incredible heat generated from that blaze, Gundersen said, could then ignite the older fuel in the cooling pool, causing a massive oxygen-eating radiological fire that could not be extinguished with water.

I'll be in my bomb shelter eating cold ravioli

[J Diddy]

Is the period missing from your keyboard?

[Robotic]

Japan, and potentially the rest of the world is screwed. I've been hearing that the Japanese have been sending in robots to help cool cool down the reactors, and the extreme heat is melting the robots even before they get anywhere near the core. There are approximately 430 nuclear reactors throughout the world. If there would ever be a global disaster, we would all be ####ed.

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Is the period missing from your keyboard?

The last time I missed my period, I wound up gaining 70 pounds and getting really sick.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Is the period missing from your keyboard?

I'm a guy, there are no periods

[The Yen Man]

I had no idea nuclear power can be this dangerous. It's crazy. So if a terrorist attack ever successfully happens at even one of these plants, it can potentially take out the whole world? Wow, that's nuts.

[Canuck-Hater]

Yep, and guess which way the jetstream is moving... They have to get this under control, its been an entire year of nuclear radiation leaking into the atmosphere. Scary thought.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

Yep, and guess which way the jetstream is moving... They have to get this under control, its been an entire year of nuclear radiation leaking into the atmosphere. Scary thought.

Unless they take the very costly step of enclosing the fuel rods there isn't much else they can do.

I don't think that you can accelerate the cooling of the rods.

[Robotic]

I wish all the great minds from all over the world would work together and come up with a solution to stop this from getting worse. This needs to be brought more into the public eye so we all have a better understanding on what needs to be done. It seems like everyone is expecting the Japanese to solve this on there own. If you would compare this to the Chilean miners trapped last year, it was all over the news everyday. Top engineers all over the world helped collaborate a solution that saved their lives. If we could see something similar I would hope that we could stop this from getting worse.

[GreatWhiteEbola]

All the more reason for liquid fluoride thorium reactors

I'm sticking with the no period theme

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by Robotic

I wish all the great minds from all over the world would work together and come up with a solution to stop this from getting worse. This needs to be brought more into the public eye so we all have a better understanding on what needs to be done. It seems like everyone is expecting the Japanese to solve this on there own. If you would compare this to the Chilean miners trapped last year, it was all over the news everyday. Top engineers all over the world helped collaborate a solution that saved their lives. If we could see something similar I would hope that we could stop this from getting worse.

This is obviously a global problem that can only be solved by more debate about gay marriage.

[photon]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I had no idea nuclear power can be this dangerous. It's crazy. So if a terrorist attack ever successfully happens at even one of these plants, it can potentially take out the whole world? Wow, that's nuts.

Not really no, even in this case the threat seems to be being overstated, which is typical of nuclear paranoia. There's risk of course (as with any production of energy, see the thousands that die worldwide due to coal, or stuff like the Gulf disaster), but one plant going through a worst case scenario isn't going to destroy the world no.

Zirconium doesn't even burn. The risk with Zirconium is at high temperatures it reacts with steam to produce Hydrogen gas, which is what burns/explodes.

The risk would be if there's no cooling that the existing rods would overheat and eventually melt together to reach criticality, but usually rods are stored far enough apart to mitigate this, and the usual stuff to slow down the neutrons to allow for criticality in a reactor isn't there either (zirconium is used because it lets the neutrons go rather than slowing them). Still a serious risk, but tons of spent fuel rods are stored around the world safely, so it's something that can be managed.

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Unless they take the very costly step of enclosing the fuel rods there isn't much else they can do.

Or build new cooling ponds.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Unless they take the very costly step of enclosing the fuel rods there isn't much else they can do.

I don't think that you can accelerate the cooling of the rods.

How cold is space? Can we get them to space? No oxygen and it's cold.

Probably not. . .

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I had no idea nuclear power can be this dangerous. It's crazy. So if a terrorist attack ever successfully happens at even one of these plants, it can potentially take out the whole world? Wow, that's nuts.

Nuclear power is this dangerous because the Japanese reactors were built in the early days of atomic energy and should have been decommissioned 40 years ago. Modern technology is significantly safer and has many more fail-safes.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling

How cold is space? Can we get them to space? No oxygen and it's cold.

Probably not. . .

You would never ever dare to put a payload of radioactive waste materials into space. You would need a ton of fuel and if a rocket blew up in the air or in the atmosphere (which happens to modern rockets all the time!) the whole planet would be screwed.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

You would never ever dare to put a payload of radioactive waste materials into space. You would need a ton of fuel and if a rocket blew up in the air or in the atmosphere (which happens to modern rockets all the time!) the whole planet would be screwed.

fmp

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Robotic

I wish all the great minds from all over the world would work together and come up with a solution to stop this from getting worse. This needs to be brought more into the public eye so we all have a better understanding on what needs to be done. It seems like everyone is expecting the Japanese to solve this on there own. If you would compare this to the Chilean miners trapped last year, it was all over the news everyday. Top engineers all over the world helped collaborate a solution that saved their lives. If we could see something similar I would hope that we could stop this from getting worse.

I think that the Japanese government is working very hard to bury this problem. If it truly hits the paper there could be panic and fear of epic proportions not only in Japan but in the whole Asian sphere.

[Jake]

To me, Arnie Gundersen (quoted in article) came off as a whistle blower. It is hard to read that article and determine what the actual risks are.

[Buzzard]

Well.

There goes the good day I was having.

[Puppet Guy]

can we get Godzilla and his monster pals to save us?