8.9 Earthquake has struck Japan

[Mike Deep]

Clearer MODIS imagery on Earth Observatory now:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=49630

 

[David Wolfson]

They are pretty much admitting that the explosion was from generated hydrogen. Hydrogen is produced due to the reaction of (greatly) over-heated steam with the zirconium sheathing the nuclear fuel in the core AFAIK. It was a massive detonation relative to the "little" one that occurred during the TMI incident. Contrary to the minimizing reports being issued, I don't think this is a small thing. The fact that the reactor vessel pressure apparently dropped suggests that the reactor vessel was breached. Also not good news, but hardly surprising considering an explosion that looks like it was equivalent to hundreds of pounds of TNT.

I also regret the likely effect of this on the future of nuclear power. Unfortunately these events are going to be hard for the industry to get away from. With respect to thorium or other fast-breeder technologies, while they are more efficient, they are more dangerous and hard to control at commercial power scale. That's why you don't see many of them. So.... fuggetabout it, if conventional hot-water technologies go out of favor, IMO.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Originally Posted by Greg Campbell View Post
W/o getting too political, this must be a stake through the heart for Nuclear Power.
A thorium-breeder economy could have powered the US for centuries....

Missed and cannot find that post but there is a lot of speculation that this is the reason that they are covering up the truth so much in this case. To try to keep another moratorium from happening that shuts down the future nuke industry.

 

[Darren Addy]

Explosion did not occur at reactor: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77204.html

Sea water is going to be used for cooling, meaning the reactor is probably DONE from ever being used to produce power again.

Due to failure to cool down the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, radioactive cesium and iodine were detected near the facility Saturday.
The detection of the materials, which are created following atomic fission, led Japan's nuclear safety agency to admit the reactor had partially melted -- the first such case in Japan.

Looks like you were right, Jim.

OK. I'm confused. How do you go from:

authorities have confirmed there was an explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Saturday afternoon but said it did not occur at its troubled No. 1 reactor

to

has confirmed there is no damage to the steel container housing the reactor, although the 3:36 p.m. explosion resulted in the roof and the walls of the building housing the reactor's container being blown away.

I guess it depends upon what you mean by "reactor". Sure sounds like it was the No. 1 reactor (facility) that had the explosion, but that the reactor (rods, etc.) are still within an undamaged steel container.

That still sounds like an ominous development to me. The war hasn't been totally lost yet, but one battle has ended rather poorly.

Don't know if anyone has linked to this article yet, but it is a good one from the BBC:

Parallels with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl suggest that while some answers will materialise soon, it may takes months, even years, for the full picture to emerge.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Not to completely derail the thread....
Thorium can be bred using 'slow' neutrons in a fairly safe low pressure reactor.
Here's a LONG lecture on the tech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHs2Ugxo7-8
Abridged: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk

 

[Jim Saueressig]

Explosion did not occur at reactor: http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/77204.html

But that same article denies then confirms that it did happen at the reactor:

Chief Cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told an urgent press conference that the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has confirmed there is no damage to the steel container housing the reactor, although the 3:36 p.m. explosion resulted in the roof and the walls of the building housing the reactor's container being blown away.

I am convinced they are hiding a reactor breach. (understandably as far as panic and the industry are concerned but...)

 

[Darren Addy]

But that same article denies then confirms that it did happen at the reactor:



I am convinced they are hiding a reactor breach. (understandably as far as panic and the industry are concerned but...)

I'm with ya, Jim. (See the edit I made on that post.)

 

[Greg Neuman]

But that same article denies then confirms that it did happen at the reactor:



I am convinced they are hiding a reactor breach. (understandably as far as panic and the industry are concerned but...)

or it depends on what you define as an explosion...or if it the "explosion" happened to the building or to the reactor itself...and then there is the language differences...

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

this whole disaster is like a real life version of the movie 2012.

you can bet someone will now have a made for television movie called Nuclear Earthquake or Nuclear Tsunami out in no time. it'll probably be by the same knucklehead who made the movie "Atomic Twister" (i find it incredibly hard to believe though, we've never had a large tornado hit and destroy a nuclear power plant in this country..........especially considering there is the Wolf Creek Plant in Kansas...maybe we've just been lucky.)

This cant be good. Look at this liquefaction on video. Wild shots.

now that is some creepy schnoz. i learned about that in my geology class fall 2009 semester, but I've never seen a live video of it actually happening.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

or it depends on what you define as an explosion...or if it the "explosion" happened to the building or to the reactor itself...and then there is the language differences...

The reactor is in the building, the explosion was the hydrogen oxygen explosion (not nuclear as some are reporting) as something went wrong releasing a load of steam pressure all at once. The only thing that would have had that much pressure would have been attached to directly or be the reactor itself which was over pressurized and already being poorly controlled if it was being controlled at that point at all. They had already reported failings in being able to reach pressure relief valves due to radiation at 1000 times normal in even the control room.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

And too compound the situation.

URGENT: Cooling system fails at Fukushima No. 2 plant

TOKYO, March 12, Kyodo

The cooling system failed at three reactors of the quake-hit Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power plant Saturday, the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The company, which has already scrambled to deal with radiation leaks at its Fukushima No. 1 plant, notified the industry ministry that the failsafe system at the No. 2 plant stopped functioning as the temperature of coolant water has topped 100 C.

==Kyodo

 

[Darren Addy]

Wow. All the way in Peru:

In Peru, the mayor of the town of Pisco says tsunami waves destroyed about 300 houses

<obvious>That was one heck of a tsunami.</obvious>

My feeling is that Japan wants to underplay this whole thing because they feel they have no option but to go forward with nuclear power. They don't want the populace to turn against the technology.

I'm a bit confused on which reactor is which, but apparently we have one reactor with a 10km evacuation radius and we now have another reactor that has been given a 20 km evacuation radius. This is a Google translation from Japanese, so the grammer is a bit difficult to parse:

Fukushima, before 6:30 pm July 12, under the direction of the Prime Minister official residence, decided to target a 20 km radius of the evacuation instruction Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, both the second nuclear power plant, has been finished and 10 km radius in the range of evacuation instructions so far. The evacuation instructions to be two primary areas are the following 10 municipalities.Futabachō ▽, town Ookuma ▽, the entire town of Tomioka ▽, ▽ Naraha towns and towns across much of Namie ▽, and Haramachiku Minami Souma City Odakaku ▽, Tamura City Miyakozi ▽, Hirono town ▽, ▽ Katsurao Village is part of the village Kawauti ▽. On the subject of a second nuclear plant evacuation instruction is still 10 km.​

​

 

[B Ozanne]

I think I saw footage of a house being swept away in Hawaii. They said Kona, can anybody confirm?

 

[Jim Saueressig]

I'm a bit confused on which reactor is which, but apparently we have one reactor with a 10km evacuation radius and we now have another reactor that has been given a 20 km evacuation radius.

Plant #1, the one that exploded is 20 KM and plant #2 which they are losing control of is 10km

 

[Jeff Snyder]

The from latest IAEA Alert Log:

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the explosion at Unit 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred outside the primary containment vessel (PCV), not inside. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), has confirmed that the integrity of the primary containment vessel remains intact.

As a countermeasure to limit damage to the reactor core, TEPCO proposed that sea water mixed with boron be injected into the primary containment vessel. This measure was approved by Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the injection procedure began at 20:20 local Japan time.

Japan has reported that four workers at Fukushima Daiichi were injured by the explosion.

NISA have confirmed the presence of caesium-137 and iodine-131 in the vicinity of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1. NISA reported an initial increase in levels of radioactivity around the plant earlier today, but these levels have been observed to lessen in recent hours.
Containment remains intact at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1, 2 and 3.

Evacuations around both affected nuclear plants have begun. In the 20-kilometre radius around Fukushima Daiichi an estimated 110000 people have been evacuated. In the 10-kilometre radius around Fukushima Daini an estimated 30000 people have been evacuated. Full evacuation measures have not been completed.
The Japanese authorities have classified the event at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 as a level 4 ‘Accident with Local Consequences’ on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES). The INES scale is used to promptly and consistently communicate to the public the safety significance of events associated with sources of radiation. The scale runs from 0 (deviation) to 7 (major accident).

--> Japan Earthquake Update (12 March 2011 2110 CET): IAEA Alert Log