A nitrogen bomb
P!
Wow, this is FAR from over.
This sounds ominous. Don’t be surprised that if later in the day, Japan announces displacement of the population from the current 30km to 300km from the nuclear plant site.
Sounds like a good Idea. Air is 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, if you purge the reactor with nitrogen and make it 100% nitrogen then you won’t have an explosive mixture.
Those rods take a long time to cool down. They gonna do this continuously for the next 10, 20, 30 years???
Instead of an explosion, you just get a high-pitched squeal.
If one listens to Ann Coulter, this is actually a good thing.
Move along ... nothing to see here.
Has this news been reported by any other source?
At least it might provide some cooling at the same time.
Of course, Obama officials are proposing injecting liquid Oxygen [ /sarcasm off ]
How much Titanium is in a reactor?
Titanium can combust in a pure nitrogen environment.
Who appends the “URGENT” label on these stories? Is this common with Japanese newspapers? It’s one thing to mark an inter-office memo as “Urgent” because the reader is expected to follow through. But what is a newspaper reader expected to do? Jump up and start panicking faster?
Absolutely no knowledge of the subject...but what is the likelihood of an explosion? What magnitude? How long before? Increased environmental damage to what extent?
Thank,
SJB
I had no idea that the Japanese government had eyes that are capable of injecting nitrogen into reactor vessels.
I'm glad the Japanese government is friendly.
I would hate it if any unfriendly government had eyes that could inject nitrogen someplace.
From what I’ve read, the hydrogen is given off when the fuel rods’ zirconium cladding oxidizes, which normally does not occur unless the zirconium gets REALLY hot in the presence of steam.
This means that if they are worried about continuing hydrogen production, then fuel rods in one or more places are continuing to disintegrate due to uncontrolled heat production in the rods. Once the cladding is gone then the fuel can spill out into a melted glob, otherwise known as a meltdown, which now appears to be the case in one or more places in the complex.
It’s pretty obvious that TEPCO really doesn’t know what to do. First it injects seawater as an emergency cooling measure, then it wants to remove the seawater (why?) but can’t because it is too radioactive, and now it wants to inject an inert gas to prevent a hydrogen explosion.
Not to mention, TEPCO has been completely disingenuous about this whole situation. Remember last week when they announced that they had hooked up power to lights in the control rooms, with the unstated implication that as soon as things were checked out a bit, then all would be well?
Given the clueless and disingenuous response by TEPCO, and now the total failure of the Japanese government to help the people in the affected area other than to tell then to stay indoors forever without any food, water, power, medical care or communication, it’s starting to make one wonder how the Japanese have managed to function at all over these past decades.
Generation of hydrogen by the reaction of zirconium and water is well known -- and is well known to have occurred early-on in at least four reactor buildings at Daiichi. (Remember the explosions?)
What is "URGENT" about the practical preventive step of displacing oxygen (which is needed for a hydrogen explosion) with a non-reactive gas (which is, fortuitously, the major component of our atmosphere)? Not a swingin' thing!
Between the Frantic Freepers and the Jump-to-dumb@$$-conclusions "journalists", it is amazing that the ignoroscenti havern't started digging holes and pulling them in on top of themselves.
"URGENT" -- my aunt Frannie's fanny!!!
TEPCO releases new footage of Number 4 reactor
He says at least 90 tons of water a day need to be pumped in to cool the stored fuel rods. The pool in Number 4 reactor building holds over 1,300 spent rods, more than those kept in other units.
And not good, all of it.