8.9 Magnitude quake hits offshore Japan

[CaptainCrunch]

Yeah, I figured that out after the fact.

[wooohooo]

Can't they just dump tons of concrete on that thing and entomb it in concrete?

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

Can't they just dump tons of concrete on that thing and entomb it in concrete?

That doesn't work too well if they don't plan it out properly. Russians did that and the concrete cracked in about 15 years?

[photon]

And you want to be sure that it actually does what you want, rather than just covering it but leaving the stuff exposed underneath.

Having that cooling pool where it is really makes this more complicated.

[TylerSVT]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

That doesn't work too well if they don't plan it out properly. Russians did that and the concrete cracked in about 15 years?

Japan 2011> Soviet Russia 1986

[Pinner]

I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned the cause of all this is a power outage...and why wasn't power restored before all this happened.

The gen sets got swamped, dry them out or replace them, whatever it takes...

[photon]

They're trying to get a powerline connected, last I heard that was very close.

Part of the problem I guess was the generators and fuel for the generators were right out by the flood walls. After the earthquake they were working fine and everything was under control. Then the tsunami went over the flood walls and washed away the generators and the generator fuel, and the kind of generators they're talking about aren't that easily fixed or transported.

I guess for US reactors those generators and fuel are underground.

[ernie]

After the generators were swamped by the tsunami, back up battery kicked in. That lasted for 8 hours by design. Disaster planning/design assumed power resumption by the time that 8 hours was up. Tsunami was in fact taken into account but not this size of tsunami which is a very rare event (similar to the size of earthquake).

With the amount of destruction they simply could not restore power within that short amount of time.

From what I've heard the pumps should be fine and operational once they get power restored. For the most part the buildings exploded in the way they were designed to explode....blowing the walls out and roof off so that equipment is protected. It really is amazing how they can design buildings for explosions. There was a chemical plant I visited once that literally had a house 15 feet from the side wall of the reactor building (housing several 5000 gallon reactors). That building blew up at a later date when a reaction went out of control and beyond a couple of broken windows there was no harm to the house.

[Kerplunk]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Japan 2011> Soviet Russia 1986

Plus the workers at Chernobyl started to glow in the dark after being close to the reactor for half a minute. I don't think the Japan ones are leaking radiation that badly yet.

[wooohooo]

Originally Posted by Kerplunk

Plus the workers at Chernobyl started to glow in the dark after being close to the reactor for half a minute. I don't think the Japan ones are leaking radiation that badly yet.

Wait... actually?

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I'm talking the green painted reactor, not concrete exposed, but the machinery itself.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s-exposed.html

Well according to some of the diagrams I have seen in this thread and elsewhere, the reactor core is just beneath this spent-rod pool is it not?

[CaptainCrunch]

Thats whats confusing the crap out of me, thank god I'm not a nuclear reactor type guy.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Kerplunk

Plus the workers at Chernobyl started to glow in the dark after being close to the reactor for half a minute. I don't think the Japan ones are leaking radiation that badly yet.

Is this because they were coated in radioactive dust, or are you actually implying their human bodies were undergoing spontaneous nuclear fission?

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck

Well according to some of the diagrams I have seen in this thread and elsewhere, the reactor core is just beneath this spent-rod pool is it not?

Yes, but unlike the spent-rod pool, the reactor is enclosed in a concrete and metal shell, which to this point is still intact.

[HOOT]

CNN is reporting that they found someone alive after being stuck under rumble for 8 days. Crazy!

[Red Ice Player]

The fifty or so nuclear plant workers working almost non stop in that hellish inferno impress the hell out of me. I'm sure when they took those jobs heroic sacrifice was the farthest thing from their minds. Nevertheless, they are latter day samurai and I salute them. Makes complaining about my crappy work day ring pretty hollow.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Red Ice Player

The fifty or so nuclear plant workers working almost non stop in that hellish inferno impress the hell out of me. I'm sure when they took those jobs heroic sacrifice was the farthest thing from their minds. Nevertheless, they are latter day samurai and I salute them. Makes complaining about my crappy work day ring pretty hollow.

Wonder what they get paid.

I am thinking it better be 4 figures a day.

edit: Actually after thinking about it, they better be making closer to 5 figures a day

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Wonder what they get paid.

I am thinking it better be 4 figures a day.

If the Simpsons has taught me anything, they can't be getting paid very much!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

If the Simpsons has taught me anything, they can't be getting paid very much!

I would NOT want Homer at the Fukushima plant right now!

[Yasa]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I would NOT want Homer at the Fukushima plant right now!

You're forgetting that his eeny, meeny, miny, moe tactic saved all of Springfield from a total meltdown. I think you DO want Homer at Fukishima.