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Yeah, when they seemed reluctant to give out information, I looked them up. Not exactly encouraging. The media outlets keep talking about how good the Japanese are with nuclear reactors.
I'd been switching between Fox and CNN most of the night, checking NHK, but since Fox has gone live (they came on a half an hour early) they've been interviewing a nuclear expert and he's agreed to stay around.
If you have access to NHK, it's worth checking, because they'll probably have information if there's some additional event. As I've mentioned, I'm sort of expecting at least one other containment building to explode in the next few hours.
Yeah, when they seemed reluctant to give out information, I looked them up. Not exactly encouraging. The media outlets keep talking about how good the Japanese are with nuclear reactors.
Thanks OV
Supposedly, there is also another reactor at another plant that they are not being able to cool down. They are not talking about it much so I guess thats not as bad.
Been watching Fox myself, here's the link for the NHK live stream http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm
Here's how a nuclear reactor works if anyone is interested:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/h...ml/reactor.stm
Reactor Nuclear reactors work on the principle that nuclear fission releases heat, which can be harnessed and used to heat water into steam to drive turbines.
A typical nuclear reactor uses enriched uranium in the form of fuel 'pellets', each roughly the size of a coin and about an inch long. The pellets are formed into long rods known as bundles, and housed inside a heavily insulated, pressurised chamber.
In many power stations, the bundles are submerged in water to keep them cool. Other types use carbon dioxide or liquid metal to cool the reactor core.
To function in a reactor - ie produce heat through a fissile reaction - the uranium core must be 'critical'. This means that the uranium must be in sufficiently enriched form to allow a self-sustaining chain reaction to occur.
To regulate this process, and allow the nuclear plant to function, control rods are inserted into the reactor chamber. The rods are made of substance, typically cadmium, which absorbs neutrons inside the reactor.
Fewer neutrons means fewer chain reactions are started, slowing down the fission process. There are more than 400 nuclear power stations across the globe, producing about 17% of the world's electricity. Nuclear reactors are also used to power submarines and naval vessels.
1. Reactor core
2. Coolant pump
3. Fuel rods
4. Steam generator
5. Steam pumped to turbine, which generates electricity
6. Containment building
They've declared emergencies at both Fukushima 1 and Fukushima 2, which are about 7 miles apart. They've had the same problem in reactor 2 of Fukushima 1 as they had in reactor 1. I've been telling my wife for about 24 hours that there's some unforseen design flaw that's keeping them from cooling the reactions. I hope I'm wrong, because if that's the case, then this is going to get really bad over the next few days.
Remember, they weren't talking much about this. Fox News was relaying reports from Japan's government that the explosion was in an unrelated building while simultaneously showing video of the reactor building exploding.
There's a lot of bull going on in Japan right now. I don't trust anything the government is telling their people and the media but I guess they have a good reason to be tight-lipped. I guess there's no point in creating mass hysteria by compounding what just occurred with the earthquake and tsunami.
Japan has confirmed "some" fuel rods exposed and that cooling has failed at five of the six reactors onsite at Fukushima 1. They reported reactor 1 exposed a few hours before the containment building blew up.
Reuter updates:
BBC says Prime Minister Naoto Kan urges people to take "responsible actions", and listen to the media.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano says no large amount of radiation leakage is expected.
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lol "listen to the media". I've never been into conspiracy theories but this just reeks of it.
Yeah, it's spooky. Secretly increasing the evacuation zone, saying that nothing was wrong or that it was a seperate building, all the while telling people in the area to close their windows and doors and to put masks over their faces. I don't really know how an explosion big enough to blow a six foot thick concrete building apart is going to fail to damage the nuclear reactor inside, but I guess it's possible. Maybe there's another building inside that we can't see.
Following twitter is interesting right now. All kinds of conflicting stuff being posted (as usual, I suppose)
More updates:
-He also says that data shows amount of radiation levels decreased after the explosion, and that the amount of radiation is staying at a low level.
-Edano says no explosion at nuclear reactor container at Fukushima plant.
-Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano says no large amount of radiation leakage is expected.
-Edano says Japan will allow Fukushima plant owner Tepco to fill the reactor with sea water to cool it down, and that there was an explosion at the plant, but not at the reactor container.
Last edited by NASpurs; 03-12-2011 at 07:01 AM.
Radiation inside the reactor was at 1000 times normal level 12 hours ago, and had put out a year's worth of radition in an hour at some point yesterday, and that was before the explosion. I wonder what they consider a "large" amount of radiation.
TEPCO just spin doctoring like usual apparently.Radiation inside the reactor was at 1000 times normal level 12 hours ago, and had put out a year's worth of radition in an hour at some point yesterday, and that was before the explosion. I wonder what they consider a "large" amount of radiation.
rofl, watching the Edano news conference. he doesn't seem to know
Well, these are the same guys that refused international aid the last time they had a major disaster, probably out of politeness, and the rest of the world didn't help because they didn't understand how Japanese communicate. This time, they went ahead and asked for help quickly. I'm not completely sure why they'd be giving out misinformation, simply because if they said "yeah there's a radiation cloud the size of Korea headed toward Tokyo" there likely wouldn't be panic or anarchy in the streets. But if there were a cloud headed toward Tokyo, what could anyone do about it?
By the way, Japan officials have said in the last hour that the containment building is the metal structure beneath the part that blew up. I could have sworn we'd been told that the containment building was six feet of concrete. I wish someone who knew more about how the reactors were physically constructed would speak up on one of the news organizations.
Nothing says "there's no radiation leak" as when policemen wear respirators. Only thing they're missing is the hazmat suit.
Police officers wearing respirators guide people to evacuate away from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following an evacuation order for residents who live in within a 10 km (6.3 miles) radius from the plant after an explosion in Tomioka Town in Fukushima Prefecture March 12, 2011
Gotta be careful with those giant traffic lights.
A man rides a bicycle through a debris-strewn street in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan March 12, 2011.
"The nuclear reactor is surrounded by a steel reactor container, which is then surrounded by a concrete building," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "The concrete building collapsed. We found out that the reactor container inside didn't explode. We've confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn't occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside."
Cool. I really hope they're correct, because the concrete building didn't collapse, it exploded like a bomb. Oddly, Karl Rove just said exactly what you just quoted.
I also heard a Japanese official say that a Chernobyl type situation isn't possible in Fukushima because it's a light water reactor. I did a little research, and both Chernobyl and Fukushima are variants of boiling water reactors, which are both light water reactors.
Wow, there are so many conflicting reports out there.
Fox just said that there are reports that people are being told to cover their face and keep their mouths closed if outside (in the vicinity)
Also saying that people are being turned around up to 70 miles away
The Japanese are well known for not being able to handle embarrassment well, and doing whatever they can to "save face". Let's hope those efforts don't ultimately cost lives
This is some fascinating stuff. (and very, very sad)
Some Japanese already slamming government secrecy on twitter
good info from RT http://rt.com/news/nuclear-plant-japan-tsunami/
The situation bears a striking resemblance to Chernobyl
However, although these two situations may seem similar, RT’s correspondent and expert on the Chernobyl disaster, Aleksey Yaroshevsky, believes that, in reality, they are quite different.
First of all, what is happening in Japan is an aftermath of a natural disaster, and not a man-made one, like Chernobyl, Yaroshevsky emphasized.
Besides, the Japanese reactor is one hundred times more powerful than the one in the fourth block of the Chernobyl power plant, which exploded in 1986. In fact, the two stations in the Fukushima region produce the world’s largest joint amount of energy.
The security systems at Japanese nuclear power plants have been designed in a way that should an incident occur, a certain dome will cover the station, preventing any leaks in the atmosphere.
Obviously, such system could not exist in the Soviet times, that’s why the whole European continent suffered from the Chernobyl disaster.
However, what happened on Friday in Japan is that the automated security systems went on after the earthquake at most of the nuclear stations except for Fukushima. At the moment it remains unknown whether the security system will work there in case of any leak.
Experts say that should any explosion or leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant occur, this may lead to a much worse contamination of the atmosphere than the one that was caused by the Chernobyl disaster.
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