spent fuel pool now boiling!!

Bad Bad Bad,

USS G Washington detects low levels of radioactivity 175 miles from plant:

Tokyo (CNN) -- U.S. Navy personnel are taking precautionary measures after instruments aboard an aircraft carrier docked in Japan detected low levels of radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the Navy said Tuesday.
The USS George Washington was docked for maintenance in Yokosuka, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) from the plant in Okuma, when instruments detected the radiation at 7 a.m. Tuesday (6 p.m. ET Monday), the Navy said in a statement.

PRB - yes, the spent fuel pool became uncovered and caused a fire / radioactive spike.

Good stuff.

And yes people think a plant can blowup like a nuclear bomb--NOT--.

In the case of the rods used in this older plant, they are coated with an alloy call zircalloy (sp?). This coating is supposed to help scavange hydrogen. Many plants that are this type (BWR) boiling water reactors have hydrogen problems ie. keeping it as low as possible and have various systems to midigate the gas.

But now that this reactor is superheating, the coating itself is breaking down, and oxidizing. That reaction creates even more hydrogen than breakdown of the cooling water. The explosion yesterday that blew the dome off was a hydrogen gas explosion.

Modern plants are (PWRs) pressurized water reactors. Much easier to control and less chance of environmental contamination as they are two separate systems, one for the reactor, one for the turbines.

I'm not sure yet, but I think they are calling this the worst nuclear disaster in history. If not yet they will......

Verizon is letting you view the news on channel 1770, they had good illustrations of the nuclear plants. Explaining low water in the spent fuel rods storage area.

amen to that

what truly magnificent people, no rioting, no chaos, no political blame game. there is a reason a small country like Japan is a world leader in the global economy. Just 60 yrs ago they rebuilt their entire country and Im sure they will rebuild and be stronger. The world could learn a lot by watching this country.

Something to be said about being raised w/ values

Official Report fron NEI
 

After the earthquake and tsunami, there were difficulties powering the cooling system for unit 1 of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. After a buildup of hydrogen gas in the secondary containment structure at the plant, there was an explosion at that reactor on March 12.

The explosion caused a breach in the secondary containment. However, the primary containment that houses and protects the reactor vessel and fuel remains intact and is safe. This structure is made of steel and is extremely robust. The primary and secondary containment are designed to prevent radiation from being released into the environment in the case of an accident. However, TEPCO intentionally vented steam from the secondary containment building in an effort to reduce pressure in that building. For a diagram of the reactor type used at Fukushima Daiichi, click here.

It appears that as the level of coolant in the reactor vessel lowered, a portion of the top of the uranium fuel rods was exposed. This may have caused zirconium cladding of the fuel rods to react with water to create hydrogen. This hydrogen was vented, then somehow ignited, causing the explosion.

As the explosion did not occur inside the reactor core—and the primary containment was not breached—there has not been a significant public health impact from the release of radiation from the containment structure.

Reactors 2 and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi were shut down in response to the earthquake. Units 4, 5 and 6 had been shut down prior to the earthquake for inspections and scheduled outages.

NEI II
 

Starting to look better than expected.

UPDATE AS OF 10:20 A.M. EDT, TUESDAY, MARCH 15:
The level of radioactivity at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been decreasing, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. At 8 p.m. EDT March 15, a dose rate of 1,190 millirem per hour was observed. Six hours later, the dose rate was 60 millirem per hour, IAEA said. About 150 residents near the Fukushima Daiichi site have been checked for radiation and 23 have been decontaminated. Japanese authorities have distributed potassium iodide tablets to evacuation center (see this page for more information on potassium iodide). If taken within several hours of ingesting radioactive iodine, potassium iodide can protect the thyroid gland.


UPDATE AS OF 9:15 A.M. EDT, TUESDAY, MARCH 15:
Fukushima Daiichi
Units 1 and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi are stable and cooling is being maintained through seawater injection. Primary containment integrity has been maintained on both reactors. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) reported an explosion in the suppression pool at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2, at 7:14 p.m. EDT on March 14. Reactor water level was reported to be at 2.7 meters below the top of the fuel. The pressure in the suppression pool decreased from 3 atmospheres to 1 atmosphere. Radiation readings at the site increased to 96 millirem per hour. Dose rates at Fukushima Daiichi as reported at 10:22 p.m. EDT on March 14 were:

Near Unit 3 reactor building 40 rem/hr
Near Unit 4 reactor building 10 rem/hr
At site boundary 821 millirem/hr.
Kitaibaraki (200 km south of site) 0.4 millirem/hr.

We are working on getting updated information on radiation and dose rates at and near the plant. Station personnel not directly supporting reactor recovery efforts have been evacuated, leaving approximately 50 staff members at the site. Operators are no longer in the main control room due to high radiation levels. Safety relief valves were able to be re-opened and seawater injection into the reactor core was restarted around 1 a.m. EDT on March 15 and is continuing.
At Unit 4 on March 14 at approximately 8:38 p.m. EDT, a fire was reported in the reactor building. It is believed to have been from a lube oil leak in a system that drives recirculation water pumps. Fire fighting efforts extinguished the fire. The roof of the reactor building was damaged.

Fukushima Daini
All four reactors at Fukushima Daini are being maintained with normal cooling using residual heat removal systems.

Not good for Reactor 2 to be at 1 atmosphere - would indicate a leak in primary containment - no? That's bad. Explosion of R2's spent fuel pool. Bad. Real bad.

Good news on Reactor 4 not being SFP.

Good news is 3 reactors fairly cool so they are working serious problems on only 3 and not 4 as discussed last night / earlier today.

Real bad for remaining personnel onsite, real bad Control Room is too contaminated to occupy.

If things go SWIMMINGLY well, they will be cooling those reactors for a long time to come. I've read that weeks / months of dealing with "Decay Heat" will be in the cards even though no fission is occurring.

John, how do you d/l the KMZ? Can't figure it out. Clicking on the icon just gives me a USGS popup.

Also no looting, no crime, no complaining as they wait hours in line for water that runs out before they can get any.... Can you imagine what it would be like if it were here?

Wonder what will happen to the tuna fishery? Radioactive effect on the local tuna grounds? Effect on prices this summer at the Tokyo fish markets. How could this effect the tuna fishing here on our east coast?

Click on quake icon east of Sendai 38D 19' N // 142D 21' E - click on Japan Earthquake - even more links added since yesterday.

I meant KML: http://google-earth-fake-url-for-lin...ake2011_nl.kml

I've been over there and I can tell you they are the nicest, most respectful, polite and cleanest culture I’ve ever seen. You could eat off the floor of the subway stations. No graffiti, no trash, no disrespect, just all out good people.
It shows a lot about a culture with all the adversity there is still some sense of order. I wouldn’t want to think what some of the animals in this country would do if faced with the same disasters. Just think back to Katrina and what happened, people had no respect……………a city here can’t even win a sports title without a riot. I think we can all learn a lot as a counrty from them.

They are going to rebuild and will do a lot of it themselves. I saw today the damage estimates are $180 Billion. Crazy numbers......

The fuel is not like just molten metal that cools and that's it. The nuclear activity keeps going on. Almost never stops without some absorbers (like the boron control rods) to soak up excess nuetrons , tec. because it keeps having nuclear activity , it needs to be continuously cooled. There is going to be ups and downs at all the reactors as things cool , melt , move , etc. They will need to watch this for a long time.

As far as I know , there has not been a leak from a primary containment vessel. There is almost certainly a leak from the secondary containment vessel of one of them. That is not good!. Think of a big steel ball inside a big concrete casket (I use that word purposely). The primary vessel as has been posted , is very thick steel. It sometimes has steel cable wrapped around the thick steel for further reinforcement. Hopefully that stays sealed and the really Hot (as in radioactively hot , not just temperature) stuff stays inside. Now by necessity there are pipes and other I?O areas so these are weak points and they could leak.

The secondary containment vessel is essentially a big concrete ball sitting in a concrete bathtub. Its usually the bottom of these seconday vessals that you need to worry about. The heat , the shaking and moving during the quakes , shock from hot to cold as coolant is there and then not , can lead to the concrete cracking or breaking open in areas. Obviously this is not good. I believe there is no doubt at all that one of the secondary containment structures has failed.

I have been to japan many times. The big difference there is that people believe in individual honor and they believe that others should be treated with respect. Those of course are values we hope to impart to children at home , in schools , in sports , etc. We could do a better job but most people do at least see the value in honor and respect and try to impart those ideals to their children. I think it must be taught and become part of a value system while young. Few people suddenly become "noble" . You need to grow that in them over a long period of time.

another article with some pics....graphic

Japan tsunami and earthquake: Haunting mages as 450 Britons feared missing | Mail Online

COMPLETE PULL OUT IN THE NUKE COMPLEX. They're in serious trouble now. Much worse than anything in the last few days. :(

"It's not like you wait 10 days and the radiation goes away. In that 10 days things are going to get worse."

"It's basically a sign that there's nothing left to do but throw in the towel,"

Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant - Yahoo! News



Meanwhile, the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No. 4 unit erupted in flames early Wednesday, said Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.

I would tend to think this VERY bad...Possible rupture of the vessel already?

Channel 7 news this am.....top story...."T employee polishing nails while on duty"........then the nuclear disaster in Japan??? Nails? Radioactivity? Nails? Nuclear Meltdown?? Hmmmmm......which story should top the news???:smash:

no worries
 

they'll just come here to eat all the tuna sushi instead.

if i had the capital i'd be investing into the company that sells the radio active detection equipment because everyone in the food industry is gonna want one. :uhuh:

Last week i stopped into the health food store and there was a little old lady standing in line who was severely bent over "permanently"
who had to almost be 100 .....i'd wager...

She dropped her envelope and was reaching for it but it was just impossible for her to stretch any further to grab it off the floor.
i extended her every courtesy and lifted it up to her hand....

she wanted to buy iodine at the counter

Obama will fix it. He can fix anything.

Probably nothing, sometimes times tuna (and other fish) are radiated to kill off parasites and bacteria living in the flesh. Most of the time they are just deeply frozen solid. As far as radiation effecting the fish in the sea...I would not worry about that. It will just make fish caught off cape cod more valuable...(and per the news) until the plant in Plymouth melts down and then its game over. We better be taking Potassium iodide pills just in case:jump1:

Yea but there's a difference between irridiating with something that has a half life of a few days and something with a half life of 200 years...

Salty you're always looking at the dark side...think of the added shelf life!

And it glows too :devil2:

CNBC just posted a list of the most dangerous nuke plants in the US that could have have problems like Japan.


number 2 on the list was Plymouth Ma, they mentioned odds of 1 in 75000 chance on any given day of a meltdown. This is bad news because it means that this nuke plant will melt down about 4000 times BEFORE I win powerball!

Better get the pills out.

Bay Area Sushi Bars Face Daunting Supply Shortages CBS San Francisco

They're out of sushi. OMG what are they gonna do now

Newly Released Images Show Devastated Nuclear Reactors

"UPDATE: It is important to stress that 40 years’ worth of deadly spent fuel rods that would have been blown sky high by the blasts were stored in the roof of the facilities you see devastated in these images. "

If this is true this extremely serious. More than they are letting on..That's alot of radiation.

They are basically evacuating the facility.

GAME OVER MAN.......:shocked: