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Title: You Can STOP WORRYING ABOUT A RADIATION DISASTER IN JAPAN -- Here's Why
Source:
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URL Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-reactors-pose-no-risk-2011-3-1
Published: Mar 15, 2011
Author: BI Nuclear Expert
Post Date: 2011-03-15 12:04:02 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 669
Comments: 84
This was originally posted as a comment on Japan Death Toll Climbs Astronomically As Nuclear Crisis Spreads. UPDATE: We have learned that this was written by Dr. Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT. It was originally posted here. I repeat, there was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity from the damaged Japanese reactors. By "significant" I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on - say - a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation. I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By “not free of errors” I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism – that is quite normal these days. By “not free of errors” I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error. We will have to cover some fundamentals, before we get into what is going on. The plants at Fukushima are so called Boiling Water Reactors, or BWR for short. Boiling Water Reactors are similar to a pressure cooker. The nuclear fuel heats water, the water boils and creates steam, the steam then drives turbines that create the electricity, and the steam is then cooled and condensed back to water, and the water send back to be heated by the nuclear fuel. The pressure cooker operates at about 250 °C. The nuclear fuel is uranium oxide. Uranium oxide is a ceramic with a very high melting point of about 3000 °C. The fuel is manufactured in pellets (think little cylinders the size of Lego bricks). Those pieces are then put into a long tube made of Zircaloy with a melting point of 2200 °C, and sealed tight. The assembly is called a fuel rod. These fuel rods are then put together to form larger packages, and a number of these packages are then put into the reactor. All these packages together are referred to as “the core”. The Zircaloy casing is the first containment. It separates the radioactive fuel from the rest of the world. The core is then placed in the “pressure vessels”. That is the pressure cooker we talked about before. The pressure vessels is the second containment. This is one sturdy piece of a pot, designed to safely contain the core for temperatures several hundred °C. That covers the scenarios where cooling can be restored at some point. The entire “hardware” of the nuclear reactor – the pressure vessel and all pipes, pumps, coolant (water) reserves, are then encased in the third containment. The third containment is a hermetically (air tight) sealed, very thick bubble of the strongest steel. The third containment is designed, built and tested for one single purpose: To contain, indefinitely, a complete core meltdown. For that purpose, a large and thick concrete basin is cast under the pressure vessel (the second containment), which is filled with graphite, all inside the third containment. This is the so-called "core catcher". If the core melts and the pressure vessel bursts (and eventually melts), it will catch the molten fuel and everything else. It is built in such a way that the nuclear fuel will be spread out, so it can cool down. This third containment is then surrounded by the reactor building. The reactor building is an outer shell that is supposed to keep the weather out, but nothing in. (this is the part that was damaged in the explosion, but more to that later). Fundamentals of nuclear reactions: The uranium fuel generates heat by nuclear fission. Big uranium atoms are split into smaller atoms. That generates heat plus neutrons (one of the particles that forms an atom). When the neutron hits another uranium atom, that splits, generating more neutrons and so on. That is called the nuclear chain reaction. Now, just packing a lot of fuel rods next to each other would quickly lead to overheating and after about 45 minutes to a melting of the fuel rods. It is worth mentioning at this point that the nuclear fuel in a reactor can *never* cause a nuclear explosion the type of a nuclear bomb. Building a nuclear bomb is actually quite difficult (ask Iran). In Chernobyl, the explosion was caused by excessive pressure buildup, hydrogen explosion and rupture of all containments, propelling molten core material into the environment (a “dirty bomb”). Why that did not and will not happen in Japan, further below. In order to control the nuclear chain reaction, the reactor operators use so-called “moderator rods”. The moderator rods absorb the neutrons and kill the chain reaction instantaneously. A nuclear reactor is built in such a way, that when operating normally, you take out all the moderator rods. The coolant water then takes away the heat (and converts it into steam and electricity) at the same rate as the core produces it. And you have a lot of leeway around the standard operating point of 250°C. The challenge is that after inserting the rods and stopping the chain reaction, the core still keeps producing heat. The uranium “stopped” the chain reaction. But a number of intermediate radioactive elements are created by the uranium during its fission process, most notably Cesium and Iodine isotopes, i.e. radioactive versions of these elements that will eventually split up into smaller atoms and not be radioactive anymore. Those elements keep decaying and producing heat. Because they are not regenerated any longer from the uranium (the uranium stopped decaying after the moderator rods were put in), they get less and less, and so the core cools down over a matter of days, until those intermediate radioactive elements are used up. This residual heat is causing the headaches right now. So the first “type” of radioactive material is the uranium in the fuel rods, plus the intermediate radioactive elements that the uranium splits into, also inside the fuel rod (Cesium and Iodine). There is a second type of radioactive material created, outside the fuel rods. The big main difference up front: Those radioactive materials have a very short half-life, that means that they decay very fast and split into non-radioactive materials. By fast I mean seconds. So if these radioactive materials are released into the environment, yes, radioactivity was released, but no, it is not dangerous, at all. Why? By the time you spelled “R-A-D-I-O-N-U-C-L-I-D-E”, they will be harmless, because they will have split up into non radioactive elements. Those radioactive elements are N-16, the radioactive isotope (or version) of nitrogen (air). The others are noble gases such as Xenon. But where do they come from? When the uranium splits, it generates a neutron (see above). Most of these neutrons will hit other uranium atoms and keep the nuclear chain reaction going. But some will leave the fuel rod and hit the water molecules, or the air that is in the water. Then, a non-radioactive element can “capture” the neutron. It becomes radioactive. As described above, it will quickly (seconds) get rid again of the neutron to return to its former beautiful self. This second “type” of radiation is very important when we talk about the radioactivity being released into the environment later on. What happened at Fukushima I will try to summarize the main facts. The earthquake that hit Japan was 7 times more powerful than the worst earthquake the nuclear power plant was built for (the Richter scale works logarithmically; the difference between the 8.2 that the plants were built for and the 8.9 that happened is 7 times, not 0.7). So the first hooray for Japanese engineering, everything held up. When the earthquake hit with 8.9, the nuclear reactors all went into automatic shutdown. Within seconds after the earthquake started, the moderator rods had been inserted into the core and nuclear chain reaction of the uranium stopped. Now, the cooling system has to carry away the residual heat. The residual heat load is about 3% of the heat load under normal operating conditions. The earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. That is one of the most serious accidents for a nuclear power plant, and accordingly, a “plant black out” receives a lot of attention when designing backup systems. The power is needed to keep the coolant pumps working. Since the power plant had been shut down, it cannot produce any electricity by itself any more. Things were going well for an hour. One set of multiple sets of emergency Diesel power generators kicked in and provided the electricity that was needed. Then the Tsunami came, much bigger than people had expected when building the power plant (see above, factor 7). The tsunami took out all multiple sets of backup Diesel generators. When designing a nuclear power plant, engineers follow a philosophy called “Defense of Depth”. That means that you first build everything to withstand the worst catastrophe you can imagine, and then design the plant in such a way that it can still handle one system failure (that you thought could never happen) after the other. A tsunami taking out all backup power in one swift strike is such a scenario. The last line of defense is putting everything into the third containment (see above), that will keep everything, whatever the mess, moderator rods in our out, core molten or not, inside the reactor. When the diesel generators were gone, the reactor operators switched to emergency battery power. The batteries were designed as one of the backups to the backups, to provide power for cooling the core for 8 hours. And they did. Within the 8 hours, another power source had to be found and connected to the power plant. The power grid was down due to the earthquake. The diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami. So mobile diesel generators were trucked in. This is where things started to go seriously wrong. The external power generators could not be connected to the power plant (the plugs did not fit). So after the batteries ran out, the residual heat could not be carried away any more. At this point the plant operators begin to follow emergency procedures that are in place for a “loss of cooling event”. It is again a step along the “Depth of Defense” lines. The power to the cooling systems should never have failed completely, but it did, so they “retreat” to the next line of defense. All of this, however shocking it seems to us, is part of the day-to-day training you go through as an operator, right through to managing a core meltdown. It was at this stage that people started to talk about core meltdown. Because at the end of the day, if cooling cannot be restored, the core will eventually melt (after hours or days), and the last line of defense, the core catcher and third containment, would come into play. But the goal at this stage was to manage the core while it was heating up, and ensure that the first containment (the Zircaloy tubes that contains the nuclear fuel), as well as the second containment (our pressure cooker) remain intact and operational for as long as possible, to give the engineers time to fix the cooling systems. Because cooling the core is such a big deal, the reactor has a number of cooling systems, each in multiple versions (the reactor water cleanup system, the decay heat removal, the reactor core isolating cooling, the standby liquid cooling system, and the emergency core cooling system). Which one failed when or did not fail is not clear at this point in time. So imagine our pressure cooker on the stove, heat on low, but on. The operators use whatever cooling system capacity they have to get rid of as much heat as possible, but the pressure starts building up. The priority now is to maintain integrity of the first containment (keep temperature of the fuel rods below 2200°C), as well as the second containment, the pressure cooker. In order to maintain integrity of the pressure cooker (the second containment), the pressure has to be released from time to time. Because the ability to do that in an emergency is so important, the reactor has 11 pressure release valves. The operators now started venting steam from time to time to control the pressure. The temperature at this stage was about 550°C. This is when the reports about “radiation leakage” starting coming in. I believe I explained above why venting the steam is theoretically the same as releasing radiation into the environment, but why it was and is not dangerous. The radioactive nitrogen as well as the noble gases do not pose a threat to human health. At some stage during this venting, the explosion occurred. The explosion took place outside of the third containment (our “last line of defense”), and the reactor building. Remember that the reactor building has no function in keeping the radioactivity contained. It is not entirely clear yet what has happened, but this is the likely scenario: The operators decided to vent the steam from the pressure vessel not directly into the environment, but into the space between the third containment and the reactor building (to give the radioactivity in the steam more time to subside). The problem is that at the high temperatures that the core had reached at this stage, water molecules can “disassociate” into oxygen and hydrogen – an explosive mixture. And it did explode, outside the third containment, damaging the reactor building around. It was that sort of explosion, but inside the pressure vessel (because it was badly designed and not managed properly by the operators) that lead to the explosion of Chernobyl. This was never a risk at Fukushima. The problem of hydrogen-oxygen formation is one of the biggies when you design a power plant (if you are not Soviet, that is), so the reactor is build and operated in a way it cannot happen inside the containment. It happened outside, which was not intended but a possible scenario and OK, because it did not pose a risk for the containment. So the pressure was under control, as steam was vented. Now, if you keep boiling your pot, the problem is that the water level will keep falling and falling. The core is covered by several meters of water in order to allow for some time to pass (hours, days) before it gets exposed. Once the rods start to be exposed at the top, the exposed parts will reach the critical temperature of 2200 °C after about 45 minutes. This is when the first containment, the Zircaloy tube, would fail. And this started to happen. The cooling could not be restored before there was some (very limited, but still) damage to the casing of some of the fuel. The nuclear material itself was still intact, but the surrounding Zircaloy shell had started melting. What happened now is that some of the byproducts of the uranium decay - radioactive Cesium and Iodine - started to mix with the steam. The big problem, uranium, was still under control, because the uranium oxide rods were good until 3000 °C. It is confirmed that a very small amount of Cesium and Iodine was measured in the steam that was released into the atmosphere. It seems this was the “go signal” for a major plan B. The small amounts of Cesium that were measured told the operators that the first containment on one of the rods somewhere was about to give. The Plan A had been to restore one of the regular cooling systems to the core. Why that failed is unclear. One plausible explanation is that the tsunami also took away / polluted all the clean water needed for the regular cooling systems. The water used in the cooling system is very clean, demineralized (like distilled) water. The reason to use pure water is the above mentioned activation by the neutrons from the Uranium: Pure water does not get activated much, so stays practically radioactive-free. Dirt or salt in the water will absorb the neutrons quicker, becoming more radioactive. This has no effect whatsoever on the core - it does not care what it is cooled by. But it makes life more difficult for the operators and mechanics when they have to deal with activated (i.e. slightly radioactive) water. But Plan A had failed - cooling systems down or additional clean water unavailable - so Plan B came into effect. This is what it looks like happened: In order to prevent a core meltdown, the operators started to use sea water to cool the core. I am not quite sure if they flooded our pressure cooker with it (the second containment), or if they flooded the third containment, immersing the pressure cooker. But that is not relevant for us. The point is that the nuclear fuel has now been cooled down. Because the chain reaction has been stopped a long time ago, there is only very little residual heat being produced now. The large amount of cooling water that has been used is sufficient to take up that heat. Because it is a lot of water, the core does not produce sufficient heat any more to produce any significant pressure. Also, boric acid has been added to the seawater. Boric acid is "liquid control rod". Whatever decay is still going on, the Boron will capture the neutrons and further speed up the cooling down of the core. The plant came close to a core meltdown. Here is the worst-case scenario that was avoided: If the seawater could not have been used for treatment, the operators would have continued to vent the water steam to avoid pressure buildup. The third containment would then have been completely sealed to allow the core meltdown to happen without releasing radioactive material. After the meltdown, there would have been a waiting period for the intermediate radioactive materials to decay inside the reactor, and all radioactive particles to settle on a surface inside the containment. The cooling system would have been restored eventually, and the molten core cooled to a manageable temperature. The containment would have been cleaned up on the inside. Then a messy job of removing the molten core from the containment would have begun, packing the (now solid again) fuel bit by bit into transportation containers to be shipped to processing plants. Depending on the damage, the block of the plant would then either be repaired or dismantled.
Poster Comment: Another perspective~ I have to say that after all TEOTWAWKI hoopla at the time of the GOM disaster, which didn't materialize, I am a lot less concerned about this than I would have been otherwise.
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#5. To: Original_Intent (#4)
Each day he plumbs new depths of duplicity, fraud, and stupidity. At this point he has traveled far beyond being a mere embarrassment and is breaking new ground for double-dealing two-faced dishonest pomposity. Excellent smackdown on the Kenyan.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits. Albert Einstein
What was that? There have been so many scenarios that it's hard to keep them straight. .
What that puppet buffoon is doing is an embarrassment to anyone with 3 functioning brain cells.
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein
#6. To: christine, all (#0)
the GOM disaster
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#7. To: James Deffenbach (#5)
#8. To: christine (#0)
Nope, nothing to see hear Looky Lous........nothing to concern you. This is a normal aerial view of the reactor building damage.
" If you cannot govern yourself, you will be governed by assholes. " Randge, Poet de Forum, 1/11/11
#9. To: PSUSA (#6)
That's all right don't you worry your little head.
What was that? There have been so many scenarios that it's hard to keep them straight.
#10. To: abraxas (#8)
Nope, nothing to see hear Looky Lous........nothing to concern you.
EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL! "Trust me." ~ Joe Isuzu
After all, would the government lie?
#11. To: abraxas, christine (#8)
#12. To: TwentyTwelve (#11)
Now that's a reassuring photo. NOT!
#13. To: TwentyTwelve, Original Intent (#11)
Here is your public service announcement: Put your hands over your ears. Cover your eyes. Make some blathering noises. In this way you shall hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil despite any evidence to the contrary.
" If you cannot govern yourself, you will be governed by assholes. " Randge, Poet de Forum, 1/11/11
#14. To: Original_Intent, duff man does it again (#3)
"appear to". Right. "The reactor cores, it can no longer be denied, are going into melt down. " wow. Interesting conclusion! You sure are smart. You must be smarter than the MIT research scientist! " The pools filled with thousands of plutonium rich spent fuel rods will continue to heat and irradiate the area. Deadly particles will continue to be emitted and disbursed. " RUN FOR THE HILLS! AAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhh! "That is not a certainty but it cannot, at this time, be ruled out. " You said that a meltdown "can no longer be denied, are going into melt down". That is a conclusion, AND a "certainty". Duff Man, you are one fucked up dude. Here we have someone that really does know what he is talking about, and you come along and try to make yourself out to be smarter than the REAL scientist is. Talk about fail, you fail big time. .
While I am not quaking in my boots this article is underselling the dangers. The exposed racks of fuel rods that are NOT inside the reactor containment appear to
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#15. To: christine (#0)
Here's a link to the same website that indicates all should be worried, very worried: www.businessinsider.com/fukushima-nuclear-plant-2011-3
" If you cannot govern yourself, you will be governed by assholes. " Randge, Poet de Forum, 1/11/11
#16. To: Original_Intent (#9)
One thing is for sure, Duff Man, and that is that I will not worry about anything that you claim is happening, is about to happen, or might happen. I got you pegged, duff man. It's your own words that hang you. You sell nothing but fear. Only fools buy what you are selling. .
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#17. To: TwentyTwelve, Original Intentl, Christine (#11)
Aarrrrggghhh........here's a few tidbits from that link to another article from the same source: Update 10:45: According to Reuters, TEPCO's new plan is to dump water by helicopter, which sounds incredibly desperate. And some minor good news: All of the TEPCO power plants OTHER than the main one are fine, according to the IAEA. Update 9:36: To add insult to injury, Japan was just hit with another 6.2 earthquake, and buildings in Tokyo are said to be shaking. Update 9:14: Another horrible headline from Kyodo Wire: TEPCO unable to pour water into No. 4 reactor's storage pool for spent fuel Update 8:35: Via ForexLive, TEPCO is saying that spent fuel rods in reactor #4 are exposed to the air. That sounds horrible. Update 8:16: The radiation is too high for TEPCO workers to stay in the control room says KYODO WIRE. Update 7:47 AM: France: The nuclear crisis is now a level-6 crisis on a scale of 7. Update 7:10 3/15: According to reports, a frustrated Naoto Kan asked TEPCO execs "What the hell is going on?" Read more: www.businessinsider.com/f...lant-2011-3#ixzz1GgfytV22
" If you cannot govern yourself, you will be governed by assholes. " Randge, Poet de Forum, 1/11/11
#18. To: abraxas, TwentyTwelve (#13)
Put your hands over your ears. Cover your eyes. Make some blathering noises. In this way you shall hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil despite any evidence to the contrary. I see you've been watching the paid spokesliars on TV again. Verrrrrrrry gut sssssssitizzen. You may haf an extra helpink uff Soylent Green. ;-)
Here is your public service announcement:
#19. To: Original_Intent (#12)
#20. To: PSUSA (#6)
the Gulf of Mexico oil "spill."
#21. To: TwentyTwelve (#19)
And of course all of the radionuclide particulates ejected in that explosion are like a breath of fresh mountain air - after a nuclear exchange.
#22. To: christine, BSUSA (#20)
Don't vurry hour resident representiteef uff der guffermint is here to set us straight. Would he lie?
the Gulf of Mexico oil "spill."
#23. To: Original_Intent (#21)
Bangkok Post : Blasts, fire escalate Japan's nuclear fears
#24. To: PSUSA, Original_Intent (#14) (Edited)
Many REAL scientists lie, especially when their income flows from the US government. This guy didn't even know that they use MOX fuel (mixed oxides, ie. plutonium and uranium oxides). And of course, those government scientists who insist that the WTC towers fell down because of the "heat" and just "pancaked" down at virtual free fall speed are all telling the truth, right?
Here we have someone that really does know what he is talking about, and you come along and try to make yourself out to be smarter than the REAL scientist is.
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#25. To: Original_Intent (#22)
Would he lie? Ah, yes. The gulf oil spill. Why didn't Corexit kill us all, Duff Man? lol. You just love to put people into a panic. You tried with the spill, and you are trying it now. With you, death is always right around the corner. And the funny thing is that you think you are smarter than the real experts that actually know what they are talking about. Point out one lie that I have ever made, Duff Man. Just one. .
Don't vurry hour resident representiteef uff der guffermint is here to set us straight.
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#26. To: FormerLurker, BSUSA (#24)
Many REAL scientists lie, especially when their income flows from the US government. This guy didn't even know that they use MOX fuel (mixed oxides, ie. plutonium and uranium oxides). And of course, those government scientists who insist that the WTC towers fell down because of the "heat" and just "pancaked" down at virtual free fall speed are all telling the truth, right? Not to worry. You can always count on BSUSA for the official shit. After all Centcom/FBI/ADL wouldn't lie and spread disinformation would they?
Here we have someone that really does know what he is talking about, and you come along and try to make yourself out to be smarter than the REAL scientist is.
#27. To: christine (#0)
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
#28. To: christine (#0)
================================================= Not buying it.
I have to say that after all TEOTWAWKI hoopla at the time of the GOM disaster, which didn't materialize, I am a lot less concerned about this than I would have been otherwise.
U.S. Constitution - Article IV, Section 4: NO BORDERS + NO LAWS = NO COUNTRY
#29. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM (#28)
I'll scratch you off my "possible Agent Orange sales" list......
Not buying it.
" If you cannot govern yourself, you will be governed by assholes. " Randge, Poet de Forum, 1/11/11
#30. To: PSUSA (#14)
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
#31. To: All (#14)
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
#32. To: Eric Stratton (#30)
I'll take the word of someone with real credentials over someone posting on a forum that doesn't know what the fuck he is babbling about, or some reporter that doesn't check his facts, or an editor that picks a sexy headline in order to sell papers or fill up airtime. The post facto inconsistencies get swept under the rug with the utmost of inconspicuousness as the sheople return to their regularly scheduled programming immediately after the high-profile parts of their indoctrination classes. A part of that problem is that it is hard to keep up with it all, even for those of us that have been in this for a while. And there are some people that will take advantage of that fact. .
such academic credentials are meaningless to me in this ZOG driven world.
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#33. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM, christine (#28)
================================================= Not buying it. www.insurancejournal.com/...nal/2011/03/15/190208.htm All Eyes on Reactor Vessel as Japanese Nuclear Crisis Worsens By Elaine Lies | March 15, 2011 Fears of a nuclear disaster in Japan heightened on Tuesday after radiation levels around its quake-stricken power plant soared following two separate explosions at the complex. Many of the worrying milestones mapped out by experts have now been passed, with some workers having left the complex and people living within 30 km [18.75 miles] of the site to stay indoors. Now there is a real possibility of a leak in the reactor container, which houses the nuclear fuel rods, according to Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California. Concerns center on damage to a part of the reactor core known as the suppression pool, which helps to cool and trap the majority of cesium, iodine, strontium in its water. It is unclear what is the nature of the damage and its impact on the integrity of the containment structure, a thick steel vessel that surrounds the core. It is possible that the containment structure is not damaged, but any damage to the suppression pool could affect the ability to mitigate pressure inside. Jennex suspects two possible problems: a water leak or perhaps a valve leak. “A valve leak would be better because that would be less difficult to fix than a water leak,” he said. Japan’s nuclear crisis now appears worse than the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 but still nowhere near as bad as the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986. Neighboring countries could be the first to sound the wider alarm about a major radioactive leak, as happened with Chernobyl. In Japan’s case, that would most likely be South Korea, China or Russia. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Mark Bendeich Copyright 2011 Reuters.
I have to say that after all TEOTWAWKI hoopla at the time of the GOM disaster, which didn't materialize, I am a lot less concerned about this than I would have been otherwise.
#34. To: Original_Intent, James Deffenbach (#7)
Chaucer Holdings Plc, one of the world’s biggest insurers of nuclear risk, said it did not expect any big claims because the Japanese Nuclear Act of 1961 absolves nuclear plant operators of liability from damage caused by major natural disasters.
#35. To: christine (#0)
ummm.. Someone did inform this MIT dude that containment was lost on at least one of the reactors with major concerns regarding the containment of three more...To say nothing about the cascade effect we are all watching in real time...
#36. To: Original_Intent, James Deffenbach (#7)
Estimates of the overall cost of the multiple disasters exceeded $170 billion on Monday, and there are still questions about how the ongoing nuclear accident at the Fukushima reactors will affect losses. Property insurance in Japan generally carries a nuclear exclusion, but it is not clear if Japanese life insurance policies do the same.
#37. To: Original_Intent, James Deffenbach (#7)
A person familiar with the situation said nuclear plants in Japan are covered by a domestic insurance pool that excludes both earthquakes and tsunamis from its property and liability policies. That would suggest Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) may not be covered for the results of the accident.
#38. To: TwentyTwelve (#34)
================================== THAT lets GE off the hook also. There must be similar red tape in the US also.
Chaucer Holdings Plc, one of the world’s biggest insurers of nuclear risk, said it did not expect any big claims because the Japanese Nuclear Act of 1961 absolves nuclear plant operators of liability from damage caused by major natural disasters.
U.S. Constitution - Article IV, Section 4: NO BORDERS + NO LAWS = NO COUNTRY
#39. To: Original_Intent, James Deffenbach (#7)
Japan Recovery and Reconstruction Cost ‘at Least $180 Billion’ By Natsuko Waki | March 15, 2011 Quake-hit Japan faces a recovery and reconstruction bill of at least $180 billion, or 3 percent of its annual economic output and more than 50 percent higher than the total cost of 199582;s earthquake in Kobe. Even though some extreme projections of the longer-term cost look at figures closer to $1 trillion over several years, more standard tallies akin to those used after the Kobe quake hover around this level. The world’s third-largest economy, already saddled with public debt double the size of its $5 trillion output, must rebuild its infrastructure, including roads and rail to power and ports — in a scale not seen since World War Two. Copyright 2011 Reuters. http://www.insurancejournal.com/news
#40. To: Original_Intent, James Deffenbach (#7)
Earthquake insurance is offered as an optional rider to homeowners’ property policies and it is estimated that only 14 percent to 17 percent of homes in Japan are covered for earthquake risk.
#41. To: Eric Stratton (#31)
#42. To: TwentyTwelve (#40)
I'm sure that a lot of the survivors were wiped out. Insurance Premiums for an earthquake rider in a major subduction zone are likely verrrrrry high.
#43. To: TwentyTwelve (#41)
It is traditional in Japan, if one can do it, to watch the New Year's Sunrise from Fujisan. I was so privileged once when I was able to ride up with a friend and his girl. I still have the picture of me somewhere with sweatever, down vest, and chair leg sized cigar.
#44. To: FormerLurker (#24)
Nuclear Officials May Spray Japanese Power Plant With Water by Helicopter - FoxNews.com Nuclear officials say they may seek U.S. and Japanese military help to spray water from helicopters into an overheating spent fuel storage pool at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Tokyo Electric Power says it may use helicopters because of the risk of radiation contamination from approaching the pool directly. Air drops may also be more effective. Japanese officials told the IAEA that the reactor fire was in a storage pond and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." Long after the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool, where used nuclear fuel is kept cool, might be boiling. "We cannot deny the possibility of water boiling" in the pool, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official with the economy ministry, which oversees nuclear safety.
#45. To: Original_Intent (#26)
U.S. Drug Stores Report Sudden Increase in Potassium Iodide Sales - FoxNews.com One drug supplier says it has sold 250,000 anti-radiation pills to people in the U.S. concerned about possible exposure from Japanese nuclear reactors. Troy Jones, president of Nukepills.com, said his company sold out over the weekend of potassium iodide pills, which prevent against radiation poisoning of the thyroid gland. Jones, in an interview with FoxNews.com, said that the pills were sold to dozens of U.S. pharmacies, corporations, hospitals and nuclear labs.
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