Table Summary below:
Posted on 03/16/2011 6:55:05 AM PDT by Nobel_1
REACTOR No 4: 784-MW
-- What is happening:
TV on Wednesday showed smoke or steam rising from the facility after flames were seen earlier. The reactor had been shut down for maintenance when the earthquake and tsunami struck.
On Tuesday, a pool where spent fuel is stored caught fire and caused an explosion. Japan's nuclear safety agency says the blast punctured two holes around 8-metres square in the wall of the outer building of the reactor.
TEPCO has said it may pour water through the two holes within two or three days to cool spent nuclear fuel that is inside. Workers cannot prepare to pour water into the pool sooner because of high radiation levels, Kyodo said.
Instead, TEPCO plans to bulldoze a road to the reactor building so water-pump trucks can approach and hose water inside, said Kazuya Aoki, a director of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
-- What are the risks:
Exposure of spent fuel to the atmosphere is serious because there is more radiation in the spent fuel than in the reactor, said Gundersen. The spent fuel pool is not inside a containment facility either.
"They need to keep water in those pools because the roof over the building housing the pools is already damaged and radiation will escape," he said.
The pools contain racks that hold spent fuel taken from the reactor. Operators need to constantly add water to the pool to keep the fuel submerged so that radiation cannot escape.
Exposing the spent fuel to the atmosphere will release radiation.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Table Summary below:
yawn........
Nice work, esp for those of us who like our information neatly stacked! Please post this on the other thread also? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2689586/posts
some possible misnomers in his terminology
he descrbes the reactor vessel as the first line of defense, the reactor building as the second line of defense
in this scenario the buildings have blown on several of the reactors, so the last line of defense is actually the vessel and even if the vessel is breached there are further damage mitigation and controls in the designs
yes leaking radiation and airborne pollution is a serious problem, for an undetermined period of time (not permanent) and to undetermined extent
but the “China Syndrome” or visions of a nuclear detonation are fantasies encouraged by an irresponsible MEdia seeking ratings and headlines
No more raw sushi for Japan, all is cooked with radiation, probably going to happen everywhere soon, does China has a secret weapon that causes earthquakes? Hmmmmm, Hmmmmm?
Re: cross post
no prob
Yes, thank you for that spreadsheet. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good chart can be worth even more.
“They need to keep water in those pools because the roof over the building housing the pools is already damaged and radiation will escape,” he said.
Is Gunderson a hired media “expert?” The roof over the building contains nothing. It keeps out the weather and the birds.
Nominated for dumbest post of the week.
I think all the “what me worry” posts by the pro-nuke crowd are the most embarrasing of the week. Its as if they do not understand the exponential function of entropy, especially that smart azz Karl Deninger whose dismissive posts are some of the worst.
Great info in your spread sheet. Good job!
It’s painful.
perfect, that was the intention..
The chart is helpful, thanks.
The comments are totally, mortifyingly, ignorant. Petulant, sarcastic, and completely useless, with chem trails, conspiracies, GE is the devil, and various other juvenile mumblings. What an embarrassment.
LOL.
Explain your point in relation to 1/D2.
Gunderson is an alarmist, anti-nuke a-hole. On DC's WTOP radio Sunday night (repeated early Mon AM) he said that a containment pool meltdown would be "Chernobyl on steroids". They have had better experts since, but their resident moron, Dmitri Sotos (sp?) doesn't listen to their answers.
I believe the roofs contain materials that, if collapsed, help control the reaction
I also believe nuc designers are pretty smart people who do not intend to harm mankind by taking shortcuts and consider in their designs ways ot ensure safety for 99.999% probability of most imaginable disasters
Of course, then there is human error - which can turn a crayon into a death instrument
Spent fuel pools are usually several stories tall, and you’d want to pour water in from above that, so the hole they want to access is likely very high above ground level. Remote controlled hover tanks might work, but they’ll likely need ladder access to add water to these pools.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.