Earthquake/Tsunami Thread - FG Members Check In.

Have just seen Aljazeera News and they have a reporter broadcasting live from Minamisanriku. Similar to the BBC team in Sendai I mentioned earlier, it is still dark there but will be light about 21:00 GMT, when I think they will start further live reports.

If you don't get Aljazeera on your TV, try here:

Aljazeera TV News - Watch Live Linky
(It may be a bit busy / slow.)

The reporter was 3 km inland with a SAR Team and it looked a complete mess there. It was the furthest they could safely go at night.

:(
 
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Very scary.

I'm glad living in an area without such natural disaters.
 
Things in Fukushima aren't looking too good currently. Hopefully this can turn around.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/1...death-toll-rises-amid-widespread-destruction/

[5:48 p.m. ET, 7:48 a.m. Tokyo] A meltdown may be under way at one of Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear power reactors, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency told CNN Sunday.

A meltdown is a catastrophic failure of the reactor core, with a potential for widespread radiation release. However, Toshiro Bannai, director of the agency's international affairs office, expressed confidence that efforts to control the crisis would prove successful.

Meanwhile, a second reactor at the same facility failed shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said, according to TV Asahi. The power company said it was having difficulty cooling the reactor and may need to release radioactive steam in order to relieve pressure.
Click to expand...
 
WE HAVE MELTDOWN!!!

Also, a large cloud of smoke coming from the reactor (Radioactive?)

Or at least that's what CNN says. Also state of emergency on 3 other reactors
 
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gaasc said:
WE HAVE MELTDOWN!!!

Also, a large cloud of smoke coming from the reactor (Radioactive?)

Or at least that's what CNN says. Also state of emergency on 3 other reactors
Click to expand...

It seems CNN have been claiming a meltdown for sometime with no official word.

The state of nuclear emergency is there to allow certain measures to be taken, such as evacuation. From what I've heard they are doing similar pressure releases with other reactors as they did with the first.
 
Some German media has claimed the same meltdown long ago, and recently slowly walked it back and added question marks behind the headlines.

Who knows :dunno:


PS: NHK says "fuel partially melted".
 
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I'm no expert but I think they are doing everything possible to save the reactors before resorting to flooding them with seawater which would render them destroyed (or so I've read) and lead to a costly scrapping of the reactor and core and a loss of power production for the area already suffering disaster.

Using the term "meltdown" probably isn't particularly constructive, I don't think it's such a cut and dry issue if you know what I mean.

Where the explosion occurred...

115f8f6f-29e7-4632-abd5-aeefcd3566f9_500.jpg
 
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gaasc said:
WE HAVE MELTDOWN!!!

Also, a large cloud of smoke coming from the reactor (Radioactive?)

Or at least that's what CNN says. Also state of emergency on 3 other reactors
Click to expand...

Uh... that was what we were talking about this morning, welcome to 18 hours ago. :p The explosion was the outer shell of the reactor building blowing off in a hydrogen gas explosion. The containment vessel was reportedly not breached.

Keep in mind that "MELTDOWN" of a reactor core does NOT automatically mean that you have loss of containment. Consider it like this - you melt all the pistons in your engine from running it too hot. There is a chance that you will have a rod come out of the block, but it is unlikely if you have a strong block. That's the sort of thing going on here. So far, they've not had any confirmed reports of containment failure, despite what certain anti-nuclear elements are doing with fearmongering and spreading FUD.
 
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Someone elsewhere dug up an old original GE diagram of this type of reactor (which, as it turns out, was actually built by GE).

bwr%20cutaway.jpg


What's blown off is the top weather shielding of the building - consider it like an 'awning' or roof to keep water and crap off the top of the actual containment structure, as you can see in this cutaway. It isn't structural and has no effect on containment. The actual important part of the structure, made of concrete and steel, still seems to be intact in that picture. Also note the multiple internal walls and cofferdams surrounding reactor vessel and clad.

Nobody is saying this is going to be pleasant or totally safe, but we're not looking at Chernobyl here. Three Mile Island probably is closer, but despite all the screaming about TMI nobody outside the reactor complex was killed in that event.
 
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Well not much has happened since last night. I don't think there is much o report. The #1 reactor is being injected with seawater and boric acid. They are releasing, or preparing to release pressure build up on #2 and #3 (like they previously did with #1), the others are shut down.

Tepco

Unit 1(Shut down)
- Reactor has been shut down. However, the unit is under inspection due to
the explosive sound and white smoke that was confirmed after the big
quake occurred at 3:36PM.
- We have been injecting sea water and boric acid which absorbs neutron
into the reactor core.

Unit 2(Shut down)
- Reactor and Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System have been shut down.
Current reactor water level is lower than normal level, but the water
level is steady. After fully securing safety, we are preparing to
implement a measure to reduce the pressure of the reactor containment
vessels under the instruction of the national government.

Unit 3(Shut down)
- Reactor has been shut down and we continue injecting water by High
Pressure Core Injection System. After fully securing safety, we are
preparing to implement a measure to reduce the pressure of the reactor
containment vessels under the instruction of the national government.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the reactor containment vessel.

Unit 4 (shut down due to regular inspection)
- Reactor has been shut down and sufficient level of reactor coolant to
ensure safety is maintained.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage inside
the reactor containment vessel.

Unit 5 (outage due to regular inspection)
- Reactor has been shut down and sufficient level of reactor coolant to
ensure safety is maintained.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage inside
the reactor containment vessel.

Unit 6 (outage due to regular inspection)
- Reactor has been shut down and sufficient level of reactor coolant to
ensure safety is maintained.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the reactor containment vessel.
Click to expand...
 
Spectre said:
*stuff
Click to expand...

Good to know. Since I'm on the ignorant side regarding nuclear energy or rather anything nuclear I associated meltdown with "OMG NUCLEAR WASTE LEAK WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!" The fact that I'm watching C?? (I'm not joking with the ? bit, that's how spanish CNN brands itself) doesn't help. Now they've just pulled the "Chernobyl" card. I'll go stalk bbc.co.uk now.
 
hansvonaxion said:
Well not much has happened since last night. I don't think there is much o report. The #1 reactor is being injected with seawater and boric acid. They are releasing, or preparing to release pressure build up on #2 and #3 (like they previously did with #1), the others are shut down.

Tepco
Click to expand...

Per that press release, number 3 is likely also going to be unsalvagable and unreusable, though it looks like it's only on the second of the 'emergency reactor cooling' steps, as mentioned in the summary from here. Step 1 is the RCIC steam turbine, which is the normal method of pouring water into the reactor to cool it. That appears to either have failed or been insufficient; they are now at step 2, the High Pressure Core Injection steam turbine, which is intended to pour in a LOT more water to keep the reactor from melting down if there's a pipe rupture between the reactor and the generator turbines. If you have to do that without a pipe rupture, it's going to be hard to get it recertified for operation. I don't see it being economic to make the attempt so they will probably scrap it.

There's probably going to be a couple of additional steam releases from unit 2 and 3 and it's possible that 2 or 3 will also have hydrogen explosions that blow their weather shields off. Still not seeing any signs of containment failure or anything that poses a long-term environmental risk.

Of course, unit 1 is dead; it will never be reusable - if you have to pump seawater into it, it's done. No nuclear regulatory body outside of Russia will ever allow you to put a seawater-contaminated unit back into service no matter how much you rebuild it. Pumping seawater into it (especially boron laced seawater) will solve the problem but you're writing off the reactor. Probably not a huge concern since they were going to shut it down permanently later this month anyway.
 
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hansvonaxion said:
I think the just said levels of radiation recorded 1204.2microsievert/hours, higher than before, probably due to the pressure releases taking place.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right, as they're venting slightly radioactive steam from two reactors. Should dissipate (relatively) fast.

Edit: Latest dozen from USGS. What the HELL is going on out there in the ocean?!

MAP 5.5 2011/03/13 01:42:54 36.942 142.907 25.2 OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 6.2 2011/03/13 01:26:07 35.742 141.731 24.5 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.2 2011/03/13 00:47:05 39.102 143.311 24.9 OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.0 2011/03/13 00:43:17 38.072 142.700 26.4 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.0 2011/03/12 23:51:24 37.096 143.432 25.0 OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.2 2011/03/12 23:40:49 36.651 141.704 25.3 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.1 2011/03/12 23:37:24 36.758 142.323 25.0 OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 6.1 2011/03/12 23:24:50 37.981 141.849 24.8 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.4 2011/03/12 23:20:42 38.004 142.398 26.1 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.6 2011/03/12 22:31:27 39.225 142.333 25.8 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 6.3 2011/03/12 22:12:46 37.662 141.959 14.3 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
MAP 5.3 2011/03/12 21:58:17 39.055 142.319 25.9 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
 
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Sorry for the double post, but as this is essentially a 'breaking news live' thread, NISA (the Japanese nuclear regulatory agency) has released current dosimetry for the now-being-drowned unit 1:

MP4(Moitoring car data at the site boundary, North-west of Unit1):
40microSv/h(03:08, March13)
MP6 (at the main gate) 0.07microSv/h ->3.1 micro Sv/h
(04:00, March12->02:50, March 13)
MP8 (at the observation platform) 0.07microSv/h ->4.5 micro Sv/h
(04:00, March 12->02:50, March 13)
Click to expand...

TEPCO has also issued a new release. Here is the pertinent part:
High Pressure Coolant Injection System of Unit 3 automatically stopped.
We endeavored to restart the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System but
failed. Also, we could not confirm the water inflow of Emergency Core
Cooling System. As such, we decided at 5.10AM, Mar 12, and we reported
and/or noticed the government agencies concerned to apply the clause 1 of
the Article 15 of the Radiation Disaster Measure at 5:58AM, Mar 13.
In order to fully secure safety, we operated the vent valve to reduce the
pressure of the reactor containment vessels (partial release of air
containing radioactive materials) and completed the procedure at 8:41AM,
Mar 13,
Click to expand...

At a guess, they're now agonizing over whether to kill unit 3 with seawater or not. Unit 3 was not scheduled for decommissioning in the near future. They currently have many geothermal plants offline due to the earthquake, and about 310,000 households are without power right now.

On the other hand, according to the media, as many as 12 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi are melting down. The problem with this is that there are only six units at the installation, and of those six only three were operating at the time of the earthquake and tsunami. :rolleyes:

TEPCO has confirmed the death of one operator at the nearby but separate Fukushima Daini station; the operator was trapped in the crane operating room at the exhaust stack, apparently by a falling console or something, and subsequently died. The press release isn't real clear, but there's no 'exhaust stack' in the reactor design of a BWR unit, so it is unlikely that the death was due to radiation. Especially since NISA says there have been zero releases at the facility.
 
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