Japan Nuke Plant

[Tubthumper]

Good luck to the guys dealing with the Japanese power plant - with you in spirit.

[Shabbychic]

The silence on here is deafening regarding this potential nuclear crisis.

We are always told that this kind of thing cannot happen with modern reactors, and I sincerely hope they are right. Mother nature has not read these rule books though. With the instability of the the weather and planet at the moment, lets hope more safety measures and emergency plans are being looked at seriously, throughout the nuclear industry.

[ducati]

Sadly I think this is the least of Japan's problems, I think the casualty figures from the tsunami are going to be far far higher than the news coverage is talking about.

There will have been very few suvivors of the wave that crossed 10 kilometers inland at 60 mph or more with little or no warning. Imagine the same thing happening on the south cost of England or between say Frazerburgh and Dundee.

As usual the news coverage is concentrating on the thing that will scare the most people.

[bekisman]

Sadly I think this is the least of Japan's problems, I think the casualty figures from the tsunami are going to be far far higher than the news coverage is talking about.

There will have been very few suvivors of the wave that crossed 10 kilometers inland at 60 mph or more with little or no warning. Imagine the same thing happening on the south cost of England or between say Frazerburgh and Dundee.

As usual the news coverage is concentrating on the thing that will scare the most people.

You're right, 8-10,000 people missing in one area, and yet 'nuclear disaster' is pole position.. Been listening to a nuclear expert who tells us it's nothing like Chernobyl - although listening to the Greenpiece bloke, it's the end of civilisation..

Concentrate on the rescue, and find out later why the diesel generators/pumps failed at Fukushima.

At least France and 'us' don't have shindo 7 (max)

[Garnet]

I'm just watching this on the news, what a mess and now some have been contaminated so everyone's being checked.
what devistation those poor souls, new footage has been shown and it's horrific, meantime another 'quake is expected within 72 hours, heaven help them.

[sids]

why the diesel generators/pumps failed at Fukushima.



Because such standby systems always fail, when you need them most. You need designs which fail to safe when everything goes wrong.

[Tubthumper]

Be fair now Sids, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by massive tsunami. Hard to imagine how any design could withstand such as that.

The Japanese know that their incredible economic performance since the last war has depended on having lots of power available, their nuclear stations have been key. Big population, little natural resource. It's a question of balancing risk against benefits.

There seem to have been no immediate deaths caused by the failure of the cooling pumps or even the spectacular hydrogen explosion that took Fukushima R1's roof off. Balance that against the possible 100 000 deaths the earthquake and tsunami have caused and the urgent need for getting power back online and I reckon the surviving nuclear stations will be pumping out the gigawatts just as soon as they can be.

[theone]

The silence on here is deafening regarding this potential nuclear crisis.

We are always told that this kind of thing cannot happen with modern reactors, and I sincerely hope they are right..

Not enough info yet for too much discussion.

Let's see if the reactor melts first, then, if it does, the containment measures do their job.

[gollach]

I found this article today.

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

[bekisman]

Quite a good graphic here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12726591

[John Little]

Good articles - thankyou both.

[theone]

I found this article today.

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

That's a great article Gollach.

And, I suspect, not too far from the truth.

Core damage might occur, there may even be some melting, but to even start making comparisons with chernobyl is way wide of the mark.

[oldmarine]

This disaster in Japan appears to be very serious. I worry about the other islands in the Pacific and the Tsunomi that has been caused by the Japanese earthquake.
I visited many of those islands during WW2 and I worry about the many friends I had made during that time.

[Tubthumper]

Oldmarine, I heard the waves peaked at 6 feet or so in Hawaii, haven't heard about other wee islands. I hope they haven't suffered and been forgotten in the Japanese drama.