Posted on 03/29/2011 2:35:33 PM PDT by Ron C.
Workers at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant appeared to have "lost the race" to save one of the reactors, a U.S. expert told the Guardian.
Richard Lahey, who was head of safety research for boiling water reactors at General Electric when the company installed the units at the Japan plant, says the radioactive core in the Unit 2 reactor appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on a concrete floor.
"The indications we have, from the reactor to radiation readings and the materials they are seeing, suggest that the core has melted through the bottom of the pressure vessel in unit two, and at least some of it is down on the floor of the drywell," Lahey told the paper.
Lahey did add there was no danger of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe.
snip...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
..yes, I’m sure there’s nothing to concern ourselves about.
Just in time for legions of anime artists, who — having pretty much run the networked-nanobots-take-over-your-mind theme to death’s door — are desperately in need of a new mega-concept.
Now that what was the core is a puddle of molten, fiercely radioactive metal on a concrete slab, can it finally be gotten out? With something like a vacuum cleaner made of high temperature ceramic? (Taking careful mind not to let it assume a shape which would send it critical.)
But you have to wonder what they can do about the material there... can't cool it, can't remove it, can't get close to it.
“Save” is a word that probably went out of functionality a few weeks ago. We are talking about ten nuclear reactors, roughly 5 GW of power generation, that is flat out GONE for a decade. IMO this is going to have a very longlasting impact upon Japan’s GDP etc etc for a very long time.
And I probably don’t have to say that the cause of nuclear plant construction (which is really the only means of energy “salvation” for us) in the US is likely set back a minimum of five years while we review review review.
This report leaves a lot lacking for me.
The “reactor” was lost weeks ago when cooling was lost and they started injecting sea water.
It’s been known for some time that approx. half the fuel was exposed and assumed melting. The report does not indicate how much has melted and how much remains if any.
It is most likely a molten-hot puddle, that will be molten hot for quite a while - all the while emitting loads of radiation. They may try to wall it off and seal it up.
The job is shovel ready, but not feasible to survive even touching it.
We're only getting part of the story. Even the people on site still haven't figured out the full range of damages.
Won’t it eventually cool on its own?
Months?
Nuclear power in the US, like the US itself is dead.
If not set back permanently due to irrational citizen protest...
I keep hearing Chernobyl,That graphite reactor was in a warehouse like structure and blew up! these are different in both design and containment.
What a surprise. Are we dead yet?
Japan Asks US To Help Stop Reactor Meltdown Monday, March 14, 2011 4:28:10 PM · 74 of 280
ScreamingFist to fso301
"Agreed, It's never been clear to me why the necessary gensets and pumps couldn't be airlifted in unless it's a matter of the reactor vessel having a 6 inch inlet pipe but the vessel is leaking the equivalent of a 6 inch pipe."
Once again, they have had those since the 12th March, they have outside power restored as well. The reactors are sub-critical, but because of problems with valves and pumps and stuff that gets damaged when hydrogen is being vented and explodes, it's rather difficult to keep all 4 reactors as cool as they would like while the cores finishes cooling down. I'm sure they have already written off the reactors. I assume the cores will be a slag heap on top of the 14 foot thick concrete containment basin. Then they will remove them and build new and better plants.
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There is nothing for the melted uranium to burn in the drywell. It can eventually be cleaned up.
Yup - for me too, and a lot of others.
From what I can gather, the saw, 'nothing to worry about' may be right on, but they need to be quite a bit more definitive about why.
Just in time for legions of anime artists, who — having pretty much run the networked-nanobots-take-over-your-mind theme to death’s door — are desperately in need of a new mega-concept.
Weren’t most of the classic Japanese movie monsters (like Godzilla) the result of nuclear testing in the pacific?
At least the fear of nuclear radiation is what inspired the creation of the classic Japanese movie monsters.
LOL Yah... in maybe one hundred years?
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