8.9 Quake hits near Northeastern Coast of Japan

[The Gemini Method]

That's not good news at all...wow

[IronMaxipad]

Radiation level 1,000X normal at the plant and possibly climbing. I hope that wont be a chernobyl all over again over there.

1000X isn't actually that much. Levels are so low to begin with that even 1000X more isn't dangerous...yet.

[spursfan09]

Nuclear experts say that as of 17:00 GMT if the situation is not resolved in the next few hours it will become serious.[5] David Lochbaum, who worked at three American reactor complexes that use General Electric technology and now works for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the plant was probably equipped to function for some hours without emergency diesel generators.[6] The United States Air Force delivered diesel generators to the plant site to assist in powering the cooling pumps. [7] The water level inside the reactor has dropped; however, the rods were not exposed.[8].

Past midnight local time, it was reported that The Tokyo Electric Power Company was considering venting super hot gas from the reactor vessel into the atmosphere, which could result in the release of radiation.[9] Saturday, the Tokyo Electric Company reported that radiation levels were rising in the turbine building for reactor 1.[10] On 20:30h UTC the pressure inside Reactor 1 was reported to be 2.1 times the "design capacity."[11] At 21:10 UTC, IAEA reported that unit 2 is also experiencing cooling issues.[12]

6:29am Saturday (JST), local time, anti-nuclear expert Kevin Kamp explains the nightmare scenario in Fukushma, via Forbes and the Ins ute for Public Accuracy: “The electrical grid is down. The emergency diesel generators have been damaged. The multi-reactor Fukushima atomic power plant is now relying on battery power, which will only last around eight hours. The danger is, the very thermally hot reactor cores at the plant must be continuously cooled for 24 to 48 hours. Without any electricity, the pumps won’t be able to pump water through the hot reactor cores to cool them. Once electricity is lost, the irradiated nuclear fuel could begin to melt down. If the containment systems fail, a catastrophic radioactivity release to the environment could occur.

---

Ok, that's a bit on the frightening side.

Dude!? WTF is going on?

[baseline bum]

Wow, this could be a nightmare. Chernobyl killed 300,000 people. Something like that happening in as densely-populated a nation as Japan with the fallout then carried over to China would be an enormous tragedy.

[Cry Havoc]

Dude!? WTF is going on?

The quake heavily damaged the generators that run the cooling in the plant, so they had to switch to battery backups, which are only built to last 8 hours. After that, you can't keep pumping + cooling the water into the reactor any longer, and it starts boiling the water away until the rods are exposed to air. When that happens, they start melting down. And that's bad. Like, really bad.

[MannyIsGod]

Chernobyl was also a rather big explosion. A Meltdown and an explosive release don't necessarily go hand in hand. Pretty ing dangerous situation anyway you slice it, however.

[MannyIsGod]

The meltdown of the rods will up the building and make it useless (I think) but what is a real problem is an explosion that releases that radiation and material into the nearby area. Thats the real ter.

[IronMaxipad]

[IronMaxipad]

America yea

[baseline bum]

At least having a free press in Japan will keep people from being lied to for days as they were in Russia and Belarus when that reactor blew at Chernobyl. It's sickening to see some of the news reports on Soviet state TV that flat-out lied about what happened and the dangers the people faced. 10-second blurb for a tragedy that people will still be talking about in 10,000 years? (if the species makes it that long)

[The Reckoning]

The meltdown of the rods will up the building and make it useless (I think) but what is a real problem is an explosion that releases that radiation and material into the nearby area. Thats the real ter.

japan already has enough nuclear history. this will really test human ingenuity, which poses the question: do you fly in all the experts you can, or is the risk too high?

[MannyIsGod]

Smh

[Cry Havoc]

The meltdown of the rods will up the building and make it useless (I think) but what is a real problem is an explosion that releases that radiation and material into the nearby area. Thats the real ter.

The reason for the Chernobyl explosion was that the water stopped pumping to the plant, and then the heat from the core caused the water to flash to steam, which released so much energy from the flash that it generated more power, causing the core to get even hotter, flashing more of the water to steam and forming a feedback loop.

It's possible (but unlikely) that something similar could happen here. It depends if they can keep the plant cool enough to avoid this kind of explosive decay cycle.

[MannyIsGod]

Why would you fly anyone in?

What I'm shocked in is that the safety systems have collapsed so quickly. I mean this type of earthquake is not an IF but a WHEN for Japan so what gives?

[Chomag]

Since the sun has come up over there there are new footages coming in. They are showing a whole city completely gone.... Man that's just terrible

[Cry Havoc]

japan already has enough nuclear history. this will really test human ingenuity, which poses the question: do you fly in all the experts you can, or is the risk too high?

If there is any decent probability of another Chernobyl type incident, then you do whatever it takes. A reactor exploding in that area of the world could kill way, way too many people to even think about. It would be the worst disaster in recorded history.

[Cry Havoc]

Why would you fly anyone in?

What I'm shocked in is that the safety systems have collapsed so quickly. I mean this type of earthquake is not an IF but a WHEN for Japan so what gives?

I think it's the tsunami, not the quake, that knocked out the generators. They were probably prepared for an earthquake, but that much water is really difficult to handle if you aren't 100% ready for it.

[MannyIsGod]

Did they ever vent the nuclear gas?

[The Reckoning]

Why would you fly anyone in?

What I'm shocked in is that the safety systems have collapsed so quickly. I mean this type of earthquake is not an IF but a WHEN for Japan so what gives?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,2627198.story
"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. Air Force is assisting in flying in backup generators, and Japanese ground forces are also trucking generators and batteries to the site, according to media reports. Time is critical, according to experts. Once power to the cooling supply is interrupted, all the coolant could boil off in as little as an hour, Kamps said."

theyre flying in resources and whatnot, and theyre putting american personnel out there in doing so.

[MannyIsGod]

I think it's the tsunami, not the quake, that knocked out the generators. They were probably prepared for an earthquake, but that much water is really difficult to handle if you aren't 100% ready for it.

Not nearly an excuse. Not being ready for a Tsunami in that area of the world is pretty ing re ed.

You don't build nuclear reactors on Japan without this very situation in the forefront of your mind. You'd better ing plan for Godzilla.

[Chomag]

I think it's the tsunami, not the quake, that knocked out the generators. They were probably prepared for an earthquake, but that much water is really difficult to handle if you aren't 100% ready for it.

Ya from what I have heard that the back up generators got flooded from the tsunami.

[MannyIsGod]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,2627198.story
"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. Air Force is assisting in flying in backup generators, and Japanese ground forces are also trucking generators and batteries to the site, according to media reports. Time is critical, according to experts. Once power to the cooling supply is interrupted, all the coolant could boil off in as little as an hour, Kamps said."

theyre flying in resources and whatnot, and theyre putting american personnel out there in doing so.

Yeah I saw that they flew out generators but I thought you meant technical experts to come in and fix the problem. Yeah, I think you do everything you can with this to help.

[Cry Havoc]

Did they ever vent the nuclear gas?

[spursfan09]

The quake heavily damaged the generators that run the cooling in the plant, so they had to switch to battery backups, which are only built to last 8 hours. After that, you can't keep pumping + cooling the water into the reactor any longer, and it starts boiling the water away until the rods are exposed to air. When that happens, they start melting down. And that's bad. Like, really bad.

I guess I should have said it more like, "WTF is going on with the world? We live in crazy times and I can't believe what I'm hearing and seeing."

My bad

[The Reckoning]

"any key? wheres the any key?"