http://bbc.in/e29Rho Growing concern over nuclear plants...they were supposed to be fail-safe due to being built with earthquakes in mind...Enquiry as to what went wrong ongoing...World nuclear experts concerned: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Massive_earthquake_hits_Japan_1103111.html ...
...Japanese reacors "cannot be cooled" Core is in danger - meltdown apossibility...0059: Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the two stricken nuclear power plants, confirms it has released a small amount of vapour into the atmosphere to reduce pressure on one of its reactors. It tells AFP there are no health risks.
I'm not to worried about the nuclear power plants, the reactors are shut down the problem is residual heat, these things don't turn off like a switch it can take many hours even many days to get these things to cooled down. The earth quake has damaged much of the cooling systems so the reactors can't be cooled down as they shut down, this could lead to a reactor damage and reactors exploding but not full china syndrome melt down in which the core goes super critical and melts it way out the contaminate dome. Those containment domes are critical in all this, even if the reactors over heat and even blow up it will be contained in the dome and little radioactive material will get out. Chernobyl by the way had no containment dome. A lot of this could have been avoided had instead of pressurize water reactors, investment had been made in other much safer reactors types like molten salt fueled or even simply molten lead cooled reactors. Molten lead cooled reactors aren't pressurized they are just giant cauldrons of lead and a minimal containment dome is needed, the lead can also withstand intense power spikes and large raises in temperature because again its molten, not a gas like steam is in a pressurize water reactor! Of course alternate universe japan with molten lead cooled reactors would be having the opposite problem: instead of worrying about reactors explosion they would be worrying about reactor freeze up. You can't shut down a molten lead reactor for long, its got to stay molten, once it freezes up its now a giant paper weight, rendering the power plant useless for months until either somehow the reactor can be heated up or the reactor is replace with a new one.
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=e...hQeqwLjoBg&sqi=2&ved=0CEYQsAQ&biw=982&bih=559 PWR reactor Schematics
Cars just float if the water rises around them evenly...when we had a flood here I got to see a Porsche bobbing in the wake of the trucks with the lifted suspensions...this is Texas, there were lots of trucks with lifted suspensions. Man, this is terrible. “ It's Hentai, and :spank: Besides, maybe god likes tentacle sex?
If you ever get tired of fixing it Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!, you could always find out...just remember to lift your feet over the dash and kick the windshield out to escape when it does sink. I know my old Tercel would have sank because it took on water whenever I drove it through more than a foot of flooding... Seawater totals a car, pretty much, BTW. All electrical contacts corrode afterwards. Hmm, I bet that means the scrap market's going to plummet in Asia this year...we'll have to stockpile our scrap. And I'll not be buying any used Japanese engines. Ruhroh. Wow, the picture of the tsunami sweeping down on the village-I have goosebumps, that's horrifying... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709791
Well, Cherbobyl it aint (not yet anyway), but to release any radiation these days is a serious matter. Chernobyl would be a poor example. Three-mile-Island is more like the probable outcome from the reactors in Japan. But they've got all the quick bikes over there, so getting away should be a singe..
Only in peoples heads. How many people did 3 Mile Island kill, no one, in fact evacuations wer technically unnecessary background radiation levels in the surrounding area did not increase in any consequential amount. Mean while, back in japan we got the real life threatening problem of people buried under ruble! So focus is miss placed worrying about the nuclear over the perhaps thousands of people buried alive!
Yeaaaaaaah, it just shows how failsafe those nuclear reactors are Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! One of many reasons why we should rethink and start to invest more into alternatives that do not bear these dangers.
That reactor was built 40 years ago. Todays reactors are built much better and many more safeguards are in place to prevent this from happening. Why they didn't bring in a portable generator to start up the cooling pumps is a question I'd like to understand why not.
As a scientist, relative facts make me itchy. For example, when the media says radiation levels are 1,000 times higher than normal, the levels could still be within safe values. I see it as hyping by the media.
I think I made my point..Back to some journalism... ...3000 people reported rescued by SAR teams...Death toll tops 1700...North Korea broadcasts news of events factually and without the usual vitriol...
...new map of key locations and video courtesy of the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12716870 ...Japan's Self Defence Forces: Troops find up to 400 bodies in Rikuzentakata, which was virtually wiped out by tsunami - broadcaster NHK/AFP ...
...About 9,500 people are unaccounted for in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture following Friday's powerful earthquake, prefectural officials said Saturday. The figure is more than half of the population of about 17,000 in the town on the Pacific coast, they said. ==Kyodo News...
...Car manufacturers halt production while they try and find out if thier workers are safe says report: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77159.html ...Japans' self defence force goes into full "relief mode": http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77124.html ...Continued aftershocks continue to plague Japan: "Strong aftershock quake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 hits Fukushima in northern #Japan at around 22:15 local time" - Reuters