Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 95

@Salvador one to back/left is lighter. one two front/right is heavier and whiter
by marie rich 3/27/2011 4:23:24 PM

@Salvador the one to the right might be the spent fuel cladding vaporizing. to left, core water boiling
by marie rich 3/27/2011 4:24:53 PM

@Jim Carver: TEMPCO has a documented history of "false reporting in routine governmental inspection of its nuclear plants and systematic concealment of plant safety incidents. All 17 of its boiling-water reactors were shut down for inspection as a result". Wikipeda TEMPCO - Scandal en.wikipedia.org @James Ward: I agree
by Tenzing 3/27/2011 4:25:33 PM

@borrrden Bingo. Exactly my point. And the Japanese people are starting to get angry about it.
by James Ward 3/27/2011 4:25:40 PM

@Vasra: I agree with you. Politicians & TEPCO continue to use words like "maybe" when mentioning containment breach, even as scientists are using "almost certainly". The nuclear insider in my family (DOE & Lawrence Livermore) has been climbing the walls (anxiety) for two weeks now. Multiple reactor failures with explosions + massive on-site waste + 6 reactors jammed into a ridiculously small space equaled the need for a massive mobilization of international resources 2.5 weeks ago. The measured, gradually increasing responses by TEPCO & the authorities represents a dance with death. The situation is not in control.
by Apollo 3/27/2011 4:25:40 PM

[Total speculation] Could this structure be the upper tip of the containment? Because I have no idea what else it could be at that position. And with all the steam coming from arund it. On the other hand, it seems to be a bit much on the eastern side of the building. Comments?
by Salvador 3/27/2011 4:26:35 PM

I do believe we're seeing some sophisticated disaster management at play. Without doubt they have all the data they need but it's likely they need to buy time - this is an unprecedented disaster and there are many factors at play here.
by es 3/27/2011 4:27:35 PM

@all does this look familiar? www.nucleartourist.com
by Tenzing via Nucleartourist 3/27/2011 4:29:26 PM

@es I agree - we're just seeing the visual effects and are piecing things together. Many engineers are working step by step to contain this.
by George Gibb 3/27/2011 4:30:25 PM

little ot-notice from germany, landslide-victory in regional-elections in south-west germany. green party wins +13%. next premier in baden-würtemberg will be from the green party. after 58 years of conservatives the people say no to nuclear power
by Ben 3/27/2011 4:30:56 PM

@George Gibb And we must continue to do so. Keep up the great work.
by es 3/27/2011 4:31:21 PM

I think we saw this PR template from BP last year.
by radioguy 3/27/2011 4:31:31 PM

@Ben Thanks Ben we forget to look around sometimes.
by George Gibb 3/27/2011 4:31:35 PM

@Ben yes. One more indication that the global effects of this is not just rad fallout
by marie rich 3/27/2011 4:32:16 PM

@Tenzing Yes, obviously. Since the reactor was defueled, it stands to reason that the lid was on the crane when explosions occured and knocked it off the crane.
by Dennis Tucker Jr 3/27/2011 4:32:35 PM

@Tenzing - Thank you! That helps have a better perspective on things.
by Stormy 3/27/2011 4:33:06 PM

@Tenzing. I was just going to post that exact same picture of the Reactor Vessel Head being lifted seen during refuelling activities, from the nucleartourist site. Yes I agree that corresponds to the "yellow thing" you folks started discussing 1 hour ago. (I'm still catching up with all the overnight posts.)
by Sky 3/27/2011 4:33:07 PM

@Dennis Tucker they had already finished removing spent fuel. Lid would be replaced SOP
by marie rich 3/27/2011 4:34:05 PM

@all What is the weight of a Reactor Vessel Head?
by Tenzing 3/27/2011 4:34:06 PM

@radioguy oh the spin doctors from BP would have put a lid on this and have us believe radiation is good for the world
by George Gibb 3/27/2011 4:34:31 PM

all - this is the webpage where you can click on various parts of the reactor and see a photograph of the real thing, to learn more about what these parts look like. www.nucleartourist.com
by Sky 3/27/2011 4:34:31 PM

I read that the RPV is about 60 feet long... ~20 meters long. Apart from the suppression torus? So it seems it would extend up beside the SFP if that reaches down almost to the floor.
by radioguy 3/27/2011 4:34:52 PM

And now...low levels of Iodine 131 found in Florida and South Carolina:
by KT39 3/27/2011 4:35:11 PM

Source:http://www2.nbc17.com/news/wake-county/2011/mar/26/progress-energy-confirms-radiation-japan-detected--ar-894755/
by KT39 3/27/2011 4:35:18 PM

@George Gibb Wasn't that what yesterday's BBC article was trying to do?
by es 3/27/2011 4:35:36 PM

Well, once again I must hope for some good news tomorrow :(. It's late and I will start getting cranky soon (that won't be good at all for my interactions here). I'll take my leave now while I still (hopefully ^^) haven't insulted anyone or made an ass of myself.
by borrrden 3/27/2011 4:35:40 PM

@marie rich They removed all of the fuel from #4. #4's SFP contains the still good fuel. SOP or not, they defueled it for [most likely] maintenance so it is quite possible that the lid was already off for said maintenance. Only TEPCO knows the true answer- good luck there.
by Dennis Tucker Jr 3/27/2011 4:36:00 PM

@es yep - seemed like several articles came out along those lines
by George Gibb 3/27/2011 4:36:28 PM

@Dennis Tucker: where is this dome on unit #3? Speculation may be needed. Look at the explosion video of reactor 3 very closely.
by Lethbridgean 3/27/2011 4:37:09 PM

@Tenzing : i don't want to disturb the discussion, but this cannot be the steel vessel head. i estimate it is the refueling head of the drywell. the vessel head is beneath that.
by Matsuoko 3/27/2011 4:37:18 PM

So was the yellow dome we see in pics/videos in #3 or #4?
by Stormy 3/27/2011 4:39:12 PM

@Lethbridgean I think that event correlated with a few ufo reports of a glowing dome like saucer (j/k)
by George Gibb 3/27/2011 4:39:38 PM

@Matsuoko Not the reactor vessel head, but the containment vessel head above it
by marie rich 3/27/2011 4:39:49 PM

@KT39 I'm just getting here. Would you mind posting your source on iodine being detected in SC and Florida. I'm in SC and family in Fl. Thanks and good morning all.
by Janis Moulton 3/27/2011 4:40:13 PM

I'm with matsuko here, the head of the dry well is just too huge to be that yellow sphere from the video. Impossible.
by Salvador 3/27/2011 4:40:27 PM

@Matsuoko Refueling activities www.nucleartourist.com

Fuel handling activities during outage (23K); BWR core during refueling showing blue glow from Cerenkov radiation (79K); Typical Reactor Building layout (106K); Reactor vessel head being lifted (85K); Refueling floor during outage after reactor vessel head has been removed . Note boundary between areas (85K); Refueling floor during operation (120K) www.nucleartourist.com

by Tenzing via Nucleartourist 3/27/2011 4:40:38 PM

@Lethbridgean Deepest speculation would be that #3's containment head got launched into #4's building since we do know for sure what #3's explosion looked like from the video. As violent (and the color bothered me also) as it was, I'd say 30% chance that it's #3's. But this is indeed pure pure speculation now. Something to avoid too much of right now.
by Dennis Tucker Jr 3/27/2011 4:40:39 PM