Explosion at Japanese nuclear plant

30 years on a BWR........Due to a thing called the "negative coefficient of reactivity"....cold water is better at moderating nuetrons from fast speeds to thermal speeds (needed for a light water reactor). Therefore, cold water tends to increase nuclear power. All this is a moot point since the control rods were inserted and the reactor is heavily negative as far as reactivity is concerned. All the heat being generated at this point is due to decay of the radioactive daughter products in the core. This heat drops exponentially with time, but it is still impressive and thus requires some forced cooling. There is no reason I can think of for the core to be uncovered based on what's been discussed so far. In our emergency plans we train for similar scenarios and at this stage we'd be maintaining the core covered and venting heat and energy from the containment to the secondary containment structure where it could be filtered and exhausted (If the building hadn't been blown apart!). On a scale of 1 to 10 from emergency planning/drill scenarios this is a 8.

 

One thing I find a little interesting in all this, is that when they brought in the mobile generators, they didn't work because the plugs didn't fit? How does that even happen at this level?

 

That is a great explanation. :up:

He is saying that the explosion was the dissassociation of water due to the heat and not from the Zirc hydriding. That would explain the large volume. That's some hardcore shit for sure.

 

Can you imagine being one of the operators over there? Everything you do just fails. Sucks but sounds like they are doing fairly well considering nothing seems to go right for them.

 

I thought you could, just that it takes some nuclear forensics (though you'd assume worst case on the ship). I remember reading something about being able to tell what reactor - and which part of that reactor, a radioisotope came from. It's all supposed to be cataloged, anyway, isn't it? Or is it only fissile materials that can be indexed and not the products of a reaction?

And about your lantern comment; my professor had just had some stress tests done on his heart and peaked his head into the lab to see how things were going and holy shit did the beta monitor go nuts.

 

You could probably used some high tech testing but just way too much trouble. The Japanese reactors and the carrier's reactors use enriched Uranium so the fission products are basically the same so hard to distinguish. I'm sure scientists could probably use forensics and get a good idea. Not really sure though. The carrier wouldn't have the technology to distinguish.

Yeah, those stress tests jack your levels up significantly for a few hours. I had to stay home after mine. Just not worth the trouble of being in the office given our work.

 

It has been about 18 years since I sat behind the control panel.. and I signed a document claiming to forget about it all... Thought I recalled talking about civilian plants operating differently from the navy reactors in the way (or was it the amount) that cold water effected them due to the enrichment percentages. I know the boat reactors were capable of going prompt just off of large enough cold water shot.

 

Volume and enrichment both are factors.

 

where is Homer Simson when you need him !

 

When I qualified, (about 25 years ago) I was given a similar scenario...It's called station blackout (ie no AC power from any of the 5 deisel generators nor the 2 offsite transmission systems) And in addition, they threw in an ATWS (ie no scram) to boot. They had me jumping backwards through my asshole on that simulator test. I eventually got it under control but the plant was ruined, fuel was damaged and we evacuated for 10 miles around....These are common training exercises. Im quite sure the Japanese go through similar training though now they're using it for real. I never want to do that for real.

 

I would suspect you are right about the training. Wouldn't be surprised if Americans were the ones that conducted the training especially since they are the GE design.

Sounds like the guys through the whole can of worms at you in your board.

 

Sadly it easily happens... not that many years ago there was a big fire in the Oakland Hills (California) the neighboring fire departments were useless because they had different fittings on their equipment... Now they have a standard... I am sure there will be more standardization in plugs in the future... You can not always predict what is needed in emergencies....

Ron

 

Third explosion.

Minister's office says 50 people are left at the site. Japan has requested the United States assistance with the plant.

 

The Japanese government has distributed 230,000 units of potassium iodine to evacuation centers in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini stations, according to officials. Ingestion of potassium iodine can help prevent the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid.

 

Hopefully they won't need it but not something that's helped by hindsite. Better to fail conservative.

 

I ain't buying it. You're at a power plant and you can't make a power connection?! Bullllshiiit. Those wires terminate somewhere on both ends.

 

Why would they lie about it?

We aren't talking Kohler portable generators here.

 

Oh I picture procedures and approvals and hand wringing while somebody who could do it stands there and shakes his head.

Rope that shit off and hook it up exposed.
:crackhead:

What's at stake?

 

Can't see that happening in a catastrophy like they are in. Does seem strange that they couldn't hardwire it but I doubt procedures and approvals are the issue.

 

Then we're back to not getting the real story..