Organicpete

The linkk in the above post finishes with....“The plant is still in a precarious state,” said Kazuhiko Kudo, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University in southwestern Japan. “Unfortunately, all we can do is to keep pumping water inside the reactors,” he said, “and hope we don’t have another big earthquake."

So is that open ended pumping, not circulated ?

shudder

Pete

US PBS TV just had item saying Fukushima exclusion zone to be reduced !

sorry can't find any link to confirmation.

They had a nice circular graphic of the new smaller zone.

A circle that was half in the ocean, lucky the radiation will be safe beyond that line...

My thoughts are with Japan and anyone down wind or down tide...

Pete

I don't believe in a perpetuum mobile until I see one....

neither did Tesla... He wasn't making energy just transducing what is already here.

Pete

I may apologize for saying "nonsense" without strict qualification what I meant: the nonsense is what the article suggests, that even Japanese are shutting down their nukes.

Thanks

The PM is simply usinig (the initiative to build 20m high construction to house backup systems) of Hamaoka, started by the plant itself, without him knowing. Out of 58 nukes in Japan, I doubt he can tell more than 10-15 of them.

Harvesting the points that he needs after the public has grown mistrustfull about his handling of Fukushima. He is not wrong but is irrelevant. Except that he covers energy shortages caused (by the temporary closing, until the structure is built and used).

Ah the cynical politics...

Pete

Nonsense.

He is exploiting the situation with Fukushima to gain points and remain in the saddle.................

Comprehensive reply. Thankyou

Pete

Maybe the PM should have just consulted with think_too_mut and realised there was no problem...

Pete

http://www.bbc.co.uk...acific-13306358

Japan PM orders halt at Hamaoka nuclear plant

Scientists said the chances of a powerful quake striking the Hamaoka region was high

Japan's prime minister has told a power company to halt operations at another nuclear plant

due to fears an earthquake could trigger a new crisis.

Naoto Kan said three reactors at Hamaoka plant should be suspended until new safety measures were put in place.

Experts said the chances of a powerful quake hitting the area were high.

Weather at Fukushima for last month (a long way from the actual nuclear site) was mostly around freezing:

http://www.weather.c...XX0010?month=-1

Occam's Razor - the simplest answer is probably the right one.

Fair enough, thanks for clearing that up for me

Pete

I saw a close up TV shot of one of the reactor buildings last night.

The one with the several meter wide hole in the side.

There was smoke or steam coming out the hole.

As they zoomed in, there appeared to be large flakes like snow wafting about.

What the heck would that be ???

sorry no link to actual footage.

Pete

Well that would be the snow, then.

Thanks for your reply.

It wasn't snowing...

the stuff wafting around seemed to be coming out of the hole.

Pete

...

"Amakudari" is widely practiced. - Descendents from heaven" are people who worked previously in the govt and then chang(ed) to private enterprises landing right in top management positions. This opens the door for what? This provides a close network and relationship of government, controlling agencies and businesses. This is especially very strong in the case of the atomic insdustry in Japan.

We shouldn't be surprised by the tooth-less controlling/reporting over there.

sounds like the revolving door in the USA ...

I saw a close up TV shot of one of the reactor buildings last night.

The one with the several meter wide hole in the side.

There was smoke or steam coming out the hole.

As they zoomed in, there appeared to be large flakes like snow wafting about.

What the heck would that be ???

sorry no link to actual footage.

Pete

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/29/japan-lost-race-save-nuclear-reactor

'The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site................'

great...

Pete

Good analogy Atsiii.

It was Sioux City.

Pete

Sounds just like the "selective capitalism" we have in the U.S. these days.

Yep, nationalise the costs, privatise the profits...

The lunatics running the asylum

Another interesting tidbit I read this morning: power for the eastern portion of Japan and Tokyo is 60 hertz, while for the west of Japan it's 50 hertz.

50 and 60 ! good grief

Pete

5 billion people on the planet. They need energy. Where is it gonna come from?

The sun, wind, water, geothermal, jetstream winds, tides, ......but most important factor in the energy equation: CONSERVATION.

Nuclear is fraught with more problems than a balloon woven with human hair in a firestorm.

Well put.

Conservation will never be as sexy

as some magic bullet technology but we had better wake up to it

Pete

I find it hard to believe anyone would prefer to source their news from this thread instead of....

Whys that ?

I found this thread at the start of the nuclear disaster when there was precious little news.

I return as it seems to be a useful collection of up to date links ( and text )

and possibly more informed discussion.

That NHK is fine if you like reading little scroll boxs

Pete

Hey! Here's another idea... how about jfchandler posting links (L-I-N-K-S) to the news stories that he is Googling from the web rather than the whole text?

Then there might be room for other people to get a word in edgeways.

What a load of rubbish. I find jfchandlers posts are what I look for in this thread.

Perhaps people could prune the huge quotes they include with their one line comments...

that would tidy the thread.

Pete in NZ

Just be aware, it's not just a matter of connecting a working AC feed...

The existing pumps in the reactors were trashed by the tsunami...

As best as I understand it, TEPCO will either need to repair those or replace them... And I haven't heard anything about their intended approach to that...

And whatever work they're going to be doing on the pumps, it's going to be in a radiation exposure environment.

They, supposedly, didn't make as much as expected progress on the AC today because the water spraying didn't happen until late in the afternoon/evening.

ah yes... the loss of the pumps themselves seems to have been glossed over in the ongoing reports.

They still seem to smack of 'everything will be ok' PR spin

I wondered how the infrastructure had coped with the impact of disintegrated buildings

Pete

Hello, First post here, this forum thread has been very useful to follow the disaster, thankyou. Did either of the reactor buildings that lost their roof also have the pool with 'depleted' rods as part of the structure ?

cheers Pete in NZ

Hi and welcome!

All plants have a storage pool, but no mention has been made about the status / amount of fuel rods in there except for the #4 plant. The #4 plant itself is fine, as there is no fuel in its core due to it being in maintenance at the time. However due to the maintenance its fuel rods were moved to the storage pool, which is most likely a bit crowded, which lead to overheating when the power went and lost cooling.Plants #1 to #3 all had hydrogen explosions due to core pressure venting, and while the damage -looks- extensive, it is limited to the outer building. Except for #2 where it originated in the torus. (still outside the actual reactor vessel, but inside the containment)

Thanks !

Seems incredible that the tanks on the roof of the two explosion damaged buildings may have contained rods that would have been scattered across the landscape by the blasts. The last explosion seemed to have heavy debris going very high... What a nightmare to clean up.

Pete

It seems to depend on who's talking and when...

Sometimes it's Reactor 3 because of its plutonium fuel component...

Sometimes it's Reactor 2 because it's apparently had the greatest actual reactor/core damage.

Sometimes it's Reactor 4 because of fears about the large pool of nuclear fuel rods stored and overheating on its roof area.Take your pick...

Hello, First post here, this forum thread has been very useful to follow the disaster, thankyou.

Did either of the reactor buildings that lost their roof also have the pool with 'depleted' rods as part of the structure ?

cheers

Pete in NZ