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8.9 Earthquake has struck Japan

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Game over, man. Game over!
 
All I know is whenever this is finished, the technical write-up detailing the emergency is going to be like a bazillion page document. Or maybe not given the way the press releases have gone ;)

And FYI, I never realized that the spent fuel rods needed to be actively cooled. I thought you just threw them in a pool and called it good.
 
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TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers ordered to leave a quake-damaged nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan were allowed back in after radiation levels fell, the Japan nuclear agency said.

Pumping of seawater at reactors at No. 1, 2 and 3 was proceeding smoothly, it said.
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Utterly unreal.

Yea, because fleeing the scene is always the 'smoothest' way to maintain an out-of-control nuclear reactor...

The Iraqi Minister of Information has nothing on these guys.
 
I don't know, don't know is there is any ways for seismologists to really know whether or not something is a foreshock. They always seem to know only after the fact.

The earth is definitely getting itself re-settled in that area, though. I'm sure they'll be seeing aftershocks for years to come; that's how it panned out with the 2004 Indian Ocean quake.
 
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it is considering spraying boracic acid by helicopter to prevent spent nuclear fuel rods from reaching criticality again, restarting a chain reaction, at the troubled No. 4 reactor of its quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

''The possibility of recriticality is not zero,'' TEPCO said as it announced the envisaged step against a possible fall in water levels in a pool storing the rods that would leave them exposed."

So the R4 spent fuel DID suffer a criticality accident? Or is this a mangled translation? (If so, it would sure explain the rad spike!)

I seem to recall that spent fuel is usually separated by boron shielding, but this may not be the case here. (??) The fact that they feel the need to dump boric acid is alarming.

Also, the R4 core is supposedly empty of fuel. Were the rods on the roof recently pulled from the core? If so, they must be sizzling, which may explain the rapid boil-off of the cooling pool.
 
The famous New Madrid earthquakes back in the early 1800s came in a series of 3-4 very powerful quakes. I'm not sure if it's the same fault type or whatever, but with such an extreme earthquake like this you have to wonder if there will be some very powerful aftershocks over coming weeks and months.
 
Ignoring the melting reactors (I can't believe I'm saying that) I'm having a hard time seeing how, once radiation levels are so high that it is effectively suicide for humans to go near the place, that ALL of those spent fuel pools aren't going to boil dry and start fires. If we need people there actively putting fresh water in all of them to keep them from boiling dry, then I don't see how that is not part of the end game here for each and every reactor in the irradiated area that does not have AC power.
 
Darren Addy said:
Ignoring the melting reactors (I can't believe I'm saying that) I'm having a hard time seeing how, once radiation levels are so high that it is effectively suicide for humans to go near the place, that ALL of those spent fuel pools aren't going to boil dry and start fires. If we need people there actively putting fresh water in all of them to keep them from boiling dry, then I don't see how that is not part of the end game here for each and every reactor in the irradiated area that does not have AC power.
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I would assume they're just trying to buy time by cooling them until the rods naturally cool below a certain level. I have no idea how long that would take, but eventually they should naturally cool to the point to where the melting threat is decreased.
 
Darren Addy said:
Ignoring the melting reactors (I can't believe I'm saying that) I'm having a hard time seeing how, once radiation levels are so high that it is effectively suicide for humans to go near the place, that ALL of those spent fuel pools aren't going to boil dry and start fires. If we need people there actively putting fresh water in all of them to keep them from boiling dry, then I don't see how that is not part of the end game here for each and every reactor in the irradiated area that does not have AC power.
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Agree.
Assuming all the spent fuel is hot enough to self ignite, walking away must (?) lead to near-worst-case fires and a massive release of aerosolized high level waste.


Here's a WAY OUT plan. Wait 'till the wind is most favorable and nuke the whole facility. That's right, nuke it from orbit. With the right sized bomb, buried at the right depth, the off-the-chart fallout will be blown some distance out to sea, settle, and then be swept away from population centers by the prevailing ocean current. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroshio_Current As godawful as that sounds, it might be preferable to 4 smoldering reactors dusting mainland Japan with high level waste for weeks....
(Yikes, am I really typing this???? :confused: )
 
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