Fukushima one year on

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Dec 02, 2016 6:41 am

This little problem of theirs will be with them for the next 50 years (perhaps more), and it will cost them 200 billion per year (perhaps more) before it's done. And that's what makes our current (outdated) notions of how to do nuclear power far too expensive to pursue. That's also why, I suspect, there are damn few new license apps on the table for new plants. Power companies are greedy, not stupid...(usually).

Solid fuel and pressure vessels my non-existent Irish ass!!!

Oh, and fuck.

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col.html

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Feb 11, 2017 12:47 am

Abdul Alhazred wrote:Let that sink in.

On the same page there is a link to:

Japan Is Scrapping Its $9 Billion Experimental Reactor

The reactor has been plagued by malfunctions, incidents, and corruption since it went online.

I side with sparks on all that.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:32 pm

Solid fuel reactors were our first attempt. Because we didn't know better. Just like religion.

Now we know better and it's time to move on.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:17 pm

Here's a big mess of shitty reporting: http://www.livescience.com/58216-radioa ... 0170313-ls

They either are or are not radioactive, and if so, just how radioactive are they? No love in this article, which is what makes it bullshit.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:49 pm

Not to worry you but yes, they are radioactive. Then again so are you. The existence makes only the politics. Dose makes the poison. Interesting that other than the title, the article was devoid of mention of radioactivity. Clickbait.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 9:14 pm

Yep.

Besides, pepper cured bacon is better IMHO if it's cured a bit from within.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:22 pm

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/worl ... .html?_r=0

They descend on towns and villages, plundering crops and rampaging through homes. They occasionally attack humans. But perhaps most dangerous of all, the marauders carry with them highly radioactive material.

Hundreds of toxic wild boars have been roaming across northern Japan, where the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant six years ago forced thousands of residents to desert their homes, pets and livestock. Some animals, like cattle, were left to rot in their pens.

As Japan prepares to lift some evacuation orders on four towns within the more than 12-mile exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant later this month, officials are struggling to clear out the contaminated boars.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:39 pm

"the marauders carry with them highly radioactive material."

That should be easy to quantify and specify. How much of what material? You'd think the NYT would provide that metric.

"But perhaps most dangerous of all"

And perhaps not dangerous at all.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:48 pm

When are they going to address all of the children who gained magical telekinetic powers along with megalomania?

--J.D.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:54 pm

"Mad Max: Porky's Revenge"

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:23 am

sparks wrote:"Mad Max: Porky's Revenge"

Ouch!

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 5:27 am

That's one pissed off pound of bacon!

Brick Top · Post by **Brick Top** » Wed Mar 15, 2017 6:57 am

Fuckin' amateurs!

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:27 am

Protective clothing no longer needed to walk near Fukushima plant

In the facility on the blue Pacific Coast, people wearing casual clothes and no dust masks walk under cherry trees in full bloom.

All hot meals made with local ingredients are served at 380 yen at a cafeteria. Cold drinks, snacks, sweets, and other amenities are available at a convenience store.

The scene is not of a popular tourist site, but the location of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, hit hard by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011.

Accompanied by officials of its operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., a group of Kyodo News reporters were permitted to visit the power station earlier this month.

Six years have passed since the world's worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl crisis.

Efforts to remove debris tainted by radioactive substances and cover soil with construction materials such as mortar have helped decrease the radiation level in the Fukushima plant, allowing workers to wear regular uniforms at around 95 percent of the site.

Contaminated water in the facility has been recently stored in more watertight welded tanks in replacement of flange-type tanks made of steel sheets joined by bolts. The measure has reduced the possibility of water leakage.

Visitors can overlook the Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings from a hill about 80 meters away from the No. 1 unit. The Nos. 1 to 3 reactors suffered fuel meltdowns. Hydrogen explosions damaged the buildings housing the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 units.

On the hill, the radiation level in the air was 150 microsieverts per hour, less than the amount of radiation received during a round flight between Tokyo and New York. As long as people stand on the hill for 10 minutes with a helmet and a dust mask, there are no health effects, the operator said.

(snip)

After the two-hour tour, a radiation dosimeter carried by a reporter showed she was exposed to only 40 microsieverts, less than the amount of radiation from a chest X-ray.

Although the working environment has certainly improved, the fate of the Fukushima nuclear power plant is tenuous.

Decommissioning the crippled reactors is expected to take 30 to 40 years. The utility is aiming to begin taking out fuel debris from a first reactor by the end of 2021, but so far it has failed to even ascertain the condition inside the reactors.

FWIW, a "round [trip] flight between Tokyo and New York" would be about 26-27 hours in the air, so I guess what they are saying is that the radiation there is 26-27 times higher (per hour) than what you get in a commercial airplane.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:41 am

"The utility is aiming to begin taking out fuel debris from a first reactor by the end of 2021, but so far it has failed to even ascertain the condition inside the reactors."

Except that they are devoid of nuclear fuel...

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:08 am

What's this now?

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:29 am

They did some funky muon graphs of the reactors that melted through. Conclusion was that all the fuel melted and is no longer in the reactors. Most likely in the concrete of the floors of the containment buildings.

Here's a linky, but I can't locate anything that mentions the way they 'graphed' the reactor vessels, so consider that nonsense unless/until I can produce some info on it. http://enenews.com/breaking-nuclear-fue ... f-reactors

Here's something on the muon graphs: http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=8017

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 10:45 am

They could just look.

What?

--J.D.

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:05 am

sparks wrote:They did some funky muon graphs of the reactors that melted through. Conclusion was that all the fuel melted and is no longer in the reactors. Most likely in the concrete of the floors of the containment buildings.

Here's a linky, but I can't locate anything that mentions the way they 'graphed' the reactor vessels, so consider that nonsense unless/until I can produce some info on it. http://enenews.com/breaking-nuclear-fue ... f-reactors

Here's something on the muon graphs: http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=8017

Oh, well the article is from the lay media for laypeople so when they say "reactors" I figured that also includes the containment structures. The fuel melted through the pressure vessel out onto the ground, inside the building of course, and probably melted the floor to some extent. I don't know if removing it will ever be a realistic option in the near term. Maybe the best thing to do is just cover it up with concrete and hope for the best. Keep testing the waters in the area for any sign that it's leaking into the ground water. Inside the containment structure is just so hot that nobody can go near it safely and even robots get fried.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:23 pm

Indeed. It's an interesting problem.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:30 pm

If we do not break up the rods and destroy the mass, an explosion could hurl the Earth out of the Moon's orbit.

Damn! That not coffee but the bong water again. . . .

--J.D.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:44 pm

Cue Space 1999 theme! (Second one, not the first lame ass piece of shit...)

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 10:15 pm

Bah! I preferred the first one! Had better guest stars as well!

ITV discovered the electric guitar . . . or stole it from Doctor Who.

--J.D.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:10 am

I was referring to the theme music only. Just want to make that clear.

It's important!

Teddy Bass · Post by **Teddy Bass** » Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:42 am

If I cared . . . if I fucking cared. . . .

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:45 am

Sir Christopher "That's Not the Sound a Man Makes When You Stab Him in the Chest" Lee

Brian "I Punch Bears in the Face" Fucking Blessed.

Brian Fucking Blessed appeared twice.

I win.

--J.D.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue May 02, 2017 7:26 pm

FAQ: Radiation from Fukushima, by an oceanographer from the Woods Hole Institution (March 2016).

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Wed May 03, 2017 2:25 am

Interesting read Witness. Thanks!

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed May 03, 2017 12:03 pm

You're welcome. Just don't glow too much in the dark…

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Wed May 03, 2017 12:59 pm

Witness wrote:FAQ: Radiation from Fukushima, by an oceanographer from the Woods Hole Institution (March 2016).

Is radiation exposure from the ocean and beach a concern?
I stood on the deck of a ship l2 miles from the Fukushima reactors in June 2011 and was about one-half mile away as recently as October 2015 and the radiation detectors I was carrying showed little or no increase above background levels. Even the samples I collected (water, sediment, plants, and animals) from these locations are safe to handle without any precautions. In fact, our biggest problem is blocking interference from background radiation in our samples so we can isolate the trace levels of cesium and other radionuclides that we know came from Fukushima.

If the biggest problem is trying to distinguish it from the natural background radiation, I'd say that there's not much concern as long as you stay a couple hundred meters or more away from it.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed May 03, 2017 1:13 pm

Anaxagoras wrote:If the biggest problem is trying to distinguish it from the natural background radiation, I'd say that there's not much concern as long as you stay a couple hundred meters or more away from it.

And there goes my fashion project!

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 3:34 pm

Images of melted fuel

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... d0fb7d2107

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:06 pm

Fascinating. Just like the Carlsbad Caverns. Only a bit warmer.

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:41 pm

sparks wrote:Fascinating. Just like the Carlsbad Caverns. Only a bit warmer.

So you must be fucking jubilant. You've asked at least 36.4 times in this fucking thread where the core is. Now you fucking know: Right below, like we said 36.4 times.

You should go celebrate.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:56 pm

It might just as easily be in the concrete below or the dirt below that Rob. Besides, those dribbles of corium hardly represent all of the core material.

Oh, and fuck you!

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:48 pm

sparks wrote:It might just as easily be in the concrete below or the dirt below that Rob. Besides, those dribbles of corium hardly represent all of the core material.

Wherever it is it is under the reactor.

Oh, and fuck you!

That's a $1.05.

sparks · Post by **sparks** » Fri Jul 28, 2017 5:42 am

BWAHAHA...

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:18 pm

Well, it took almost four years to figure out and photograph Three Mile island, and that was a partial meltdown (not melt through like the three Fukushima reactors), with all the fuel still in the reactor. So 6 years to get a video of reactor 3 fuel is pretty good.

robinson · Post by **robinson** » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:19 pm

Unlike Chernobyl, at least they are planning on doing something about it.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:28 pm

Japan Government Not Responsible For Fukushima: Court

Tokyo: A Japanese court ruled Friday that the plant operator not the government was responsible for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, ordering the former to pay damages.

The district court in Chiba near Tokyo said the government "was able to foresee" but "may not have been able to avoid the accident" caused by the tsunami that smashed into the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
[…]
Chiba court judge Masaru Sakamoto turned down the demand of 42 plaintiffs for the government to pay compensation.

However, the court ordered operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to pay a total of 376 million yen ($3.3 million), much less than the the 2.8 billion yen plaintiffs had sought.

Around 12,000 people who fled over radiation fears have filed various group lawsuits against the government and TEPCO.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/japan-g ... rt-1753740

Peanuts (for now).