Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 2224

@elainekirk grabbed the link. A bit concerned what the first direct water injection might look like. Wish they gave a start time.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 12:29:49 AM

Oh I forgot the one in the Alsace, Fessenheim is not it? That one is even closer.
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 12:29:56 AM

@RadioGuy want to make sure I grab screen shots when they do.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 12:31:13 AM

hint: VLC (VideoLANClient) can take the stream address, play it and at the same time save it to disk in a file.
by RadioGuy edited by lillymunster 8/24/2011 12:34:34 AM

As to the North Anna shutdown, on local NPR news they made it sound like a seismic trip. In this CNN interview, the interviewee makes it sound like the loss of offside power tripped the reactor. Aren't npps supposed to be fed by multiple lines from the outside? How come they all simultaneously failed? cnn.com
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 1:03:16 AM

@Peter Melzer I dont think the US are Japan now insists that the have to have more but not sure it compulsory ...yet
by elainekirk 8/24/2011 1:04:35 AM

@Peter Melzer Not sure if 2 sources are mandatory in US or not. Ft. Calhoun was bragging about their additional grid connections they put in place before the flood. Just really glad they had 2 diesel generators per unit at North Anna.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:08:31 AM

@lillymunster, should have said tripped the reactorS, since there are two. Any idea whether offside power has been restored by now?
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 1:17:09 AM

the crane at #3 is it doing something in preperation for them tipping water in the reactor in the hope it follows the path the fuel took and locates it for them ?
by elainekirk 8/24/2011 1:19:40 AM

@Peter...this article says something about the switchboard in the yard ansnuclearcafe.org
by wrshpr 8/24/2011 1:20:30 AM

@Peter Melzer so far not word that I have seen
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:25:44 AM

@wrshpr , thanks, that gives more detail. According to that report, there was no seismic trip!
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 1:29:34 AM

From the nuclearcafe link:
Plants declaring Unusual Events, which indicate a potential decrease in plant safety, include Peach Bottom, Three Mile Island, Susquehanna and Limerick in Pennsylvania; Salem, Hope Creek and Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Surry in Virginia, Shearon Harris in North Carolina and D.C. Cook and Palisades in Michigan. All these plants continue to operate while plant personnel examine their sites.

What if this had been a more intense quake? I can't even imagine having issues at all these plants at the same time.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:33:29 AM

@Peter Melzer I don't know if this is just general scientific seismic gear or the actual trip system www.rawstory.com
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:34:04 AM

Update on Anna: DomVAPower Dominion VA Power
Although crews are currently working to restore normal power to North Anna, we do not have a restoration estimate yet. #VAquake #nuclear
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:34:42 AM

Interesting. I am not a Virginian, so do not have these locations right in my head. Culpeper, where a state of emergency was declared today because of quake damage to structures, is 36 miles away from Mineral, where the npp is located, and the same EQ did not trigger a seismic trip at the plant.
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 1:37:09 AM

"As of right now there have been three buildings condemned in the Town of Culpeper. One building on the 100 block of North East St. collapsed; one individual was injured and taken to Culpeper Regional Hospital for treatment." www.nbc29.com
by Ian 8/24/2011 1:40:10 AM

Irene might hit VA about Friday. I sure hope they have North Anna back to normal mode by then.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:41:33 AM

@Peter Melzer aren't there a lot of brick homes/buildings etc in VA. none of this is designed with EQ in mind
by RonD 8/24/2011 1:41:40 AM

One cannot help the impression that we may be worse prepared than Tepco for beyond design basis events.
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 1:41:47 AM

@Peter Melzer We are told US has superior safety, could never happen here, now go watch TV. :-( Then we start finding out little things like hardened vents were not truly mandatory, Ft. Calhoun had no flood plan. It would not surprise me if the "no seismic" included the trip system.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:43:58 AM

Unconfirmed. N. Anna overloaded with spent fuel
EXSKF EX-SKF
Virginia's North Anna nuclear power plant, one unit of the machine is very immobile four diesel generators. In addition, information that contains four times the design of fuel spent fuel storage pool (unconfirmed). The Westinghouse PWR reactor.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 1:47:49 AM

@RonD , the county jail needed evacuation. Should be a sturdy building, no? I do not know, but believe reactor buildings should be equipped with seismic sensors just for the sake of documentation.
by Peter Melzer 8/24/2011 1:48:43 AM

It's in the area that the building in Culpeper VA collapsed : maps.google.com Hard to believe that this quake happend early afternoon and no news crews got there to take photos, at least I assume that given I can't find any via goolge news. Maybe it collapsed some time afterwards.
by Ian 8/24/2011 2:04:44 AM

Culpeper, VA quake damage www.examiner.com
by Ian via Examiner 8/24/2011 2:09:03 AM

@Lilly re:N. Anna fuel, Edano posted another source for that earlier... Will try to find
by Panserbjorne9 8/24/2011 2:33:54 AM

@Peter Melzer seismic sensors were removed near the plant due to budget cuts in the 1990s.
by Panserbjorne9 8/24/2011 2:35:14 AM

@Panserbjorne9 PR guy for the power company claims they have 3 days worth of fuel. Not sure if that is accurate. I have come to not trust anything a power utility tells me. :-)
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 2:44:46 AM

The geologist in the video below makes some important meta points, like that east-coast quakes are little understood and lack much historic data from which to make predictions. She also describes how east-coast quakes affect very broad areas because the underlying surface is one big solid rock, whereas the west coast geological structure is very fragmented, so waves don't carry very far.

For nuclear energy, this means a major east-coast quake might cause meltdowns over many states at once. The poorly charted territory of east-coast seismic behavior really cries out for a revaluation of seismic risk.
by Ian 8/24/2011 2:45:20 AM

@lillymunster agreed. Here's the link that mentions they have 4-5 times the fuel in spent ponds that they're supposed to. pogoblog.typepad.com
by Panserbjorne9 8/24/2011 2:55:32 AM

@Ian The number of old NPPs and the population concentrations out east is even more concerning in light of the obvious potential for wide area quakes.
by lillymunster 8/24/2011 2:55:43 AM

he's tying something on at various points on left side of catwalk with nylon rope, possible plastic bag at place closest to the end...
by M.I.A. 8/24/2011 3:13:35 AM

@Ian the metaphors I grew up with were: east coast EQs are like hitting a bell with a hammer, west coast like hitting a bowl of sand with a hammer. I remember a school lesson about a New Madrid EQ in 1800s/early 1900s- EQ in Missouri rang church bells in Maine
by Panserbjorne9 8/24/2011 3:16:21 AM