Mar 132011
New explosion reported at nuclear plant
Reactor #3 at Fukushima has had a “hydrogen explosion.”
And, oh, yeah, who didn’t see THIS coming: Joe Lieberman blathering forth about “put the brakes on” building new nuclear powerplants in the US. Once again, remind any anti-nuclear jackasses you encounter that by slowing or stopping the building of new nuclear pwoerplants in the US, they are ensuring that the *old* plants keep chugging away, without hope for upgrading or replacing.
11 Responses to “Here we go again…”
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There’s video of it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-explosion-japan-nuclear_n_835202.html
This one makes the other one look small; really big cloud of stuff shot several hundred feet into the air.
CNN International has before and after views of the building from a distance, and it looks like the damage is a lot more severe in this case than in the first blast:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/03/13/c1main.power.plant.nhk.jpg
Better video of the Unit Three explosion here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/13/explostion-at-fukush.html
Very large objects were thrown high into the air and can be seen falling rapidly to earth, indicating that whatever they are, they are very heavy.
As I understand it, what is blowing up is basically the weather cover over the containment building, never mind the vessel itself. That isn’t good news so much, but probably the best possible bad news.
Jim
I just read the USS Ronald Reagen went thry the radiation cloud and the vrew recieved a months exposure in one day. And to top it off, theres a volcano in Southern Japan that erupted.
Looks like this was the Godzilla quake. LA’s next
Latest news is that they flooded all three reactors with seawater.
They are now at end-of-life.
The hydrogen seems to be generated by the hot zirconium fuel rods.
Also old tech I believe. Seems like modern reactors use ceramic systems
which have their own problems with refurbishment.
-gar.
And now another concern; the spent fuel rods are stored in a water tank atop the containment section in the building, and it also needs to be cooled. The question is, particularly after the second explosion, where is that tank at the moment, and is it still getting cooling water?:
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/03/14/14climatewire-desperate-attempts-to-save-3-fukushima-react-84017.html?pagewanted=1
I found a photo showing reactor building #3 after yesterday’s explosion; the damage does indeed seem to be a lot worse than building #1:
http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00502/ALBY_JAPAN_EARTHQUA_502441a.jpg
Lots of debris atop the building, and its sides partially blown out.
In the 70s and 80s I worked for the local power company. A common problem was budget allocation. The problem was caused by the CEO (or someone in his office) choosing either to spend money to do preventative maintenance or to buy and build new equipment. The reason they had to get new stuff was because there was no preventative maintenance. Things break if you keep using them for too long.
Nuclear plants are like any other generating plant: parts need to be replaced. I have no idea why this is so difficult to recognize, even by non-engineers. Toasters and microwaves have to be replaced and they’re a lot less complicated than power stations.
Good overhead photo of the reactor #3 building after the explosion here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/nuclear-power-plant-accidents-list-rank#zoomed-picture
Note that it seems to be venting steam and that unlike the reactor #1 building after its explosion, in this case the sides of the lower building are damaged.
Reactor unit #2 just suffered a hydrogen explosion:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/explosion-at-japan-nuclear-reactor/story-fn3dxity-1226021622892
Now, the Japanese are saying that one reactor has damage to its containment also.
The good news is that they got the fire in reactor unit #4 out; the bad news is what was on fire were the spent fuel rods in its cooling pool, which apparently had its water either leak out or boil dry.