Japanese nuclear plant may only have a few hours....

[Fox McCloud]

Before some of their plants meltdown:

NEW YORK - Japanese officials may only have hours to cool reactors that have been disabled by Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami or face a nuclear meltdown.

Tokyo Electric Power Co is racing to cool down the reactor core after a highly unusual "station blackout" — the total loss of power necessary to keep water circulating through the plant to prevent overheating.

Daiichi Units 1, 2 and 3 reactors shut down automatically at 2:46 p.m. local time due to the earthquake. But about an hour later, the on-site diesel back-up generators also shut, leaving the reactors without alternating current (AC) power.

source: http://www.globalmontreal.com/world/...959/story.html

let's hope they get it under control...a meltdown could, I'm guessing, cause grid problems for Japan...not to mention if it breaches the walls, it'll pollute the area for decades.

[Anti Federalist]

let's hope they get it under control...a meltdown could, I'm guessing, cause grid problems for Japan...not to mention if it breaches the walls, it'll pollute the area for decades.

A total loss of coolant failure incident coupled with a containment vessel breach (a worse case scenario) would, under the current state of confusion and infrastructure breakdown, kill tens of thousands.

[silverhandorder]

I thought we got back up generators from our army base to the reactor?

[MozoVote]

So.... Will Intrade put an "Odds of Nuclear Meltdown in Japan" contract up?

[ihsv]

I wouldn't worry about it. Hillary said the AF is flying coolant over

[KramerDSP]

Saw this tweet from 4 minutes ago. Hope it's not true.

@nat_en Looks like Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant's situation deteriorating. Now fuel rod is exposed over the water < very bad news

[ihsv]

Saw this tweet from 4 minutes ago. Hope it's not true.

@nat_en Looks like Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant's situation deteriorating. Now fuel rod is exposed over the water < very bad news

Whoa... not good

[KramerDSP]

JesseJenkins JesseJenkins
RT @touruma: Fuel rod was exposed 90cm above water inside reactor core at 11:40AM. Now water 4 fire-fighting injected @ Fukushima No. 1 NP

[KramerDSP]

I'm keeping track through http://twitter.com/#!/search/Fukushima

[Anti Federalist]

Run!

From eyewitness accounts of the firefighters involved before they died (as reported on the CBC television series Witness), one described his experience of the radiation as "tasting like metal," and feeling a sensation similar to that of pins and needles all over his face. (This is similar to the description given by Louis Slotin, a Manhattan Project physicist who died days after a fatal radiation overdose from a criticality accident.)[39]

[Fox McCloud]

A total loss of coolant failure incident coupled with a containment vessel breach (a worse case scenario) would, under the current state of confusion and infrastructure breakdown, kill tens of thousands.

OF course; if it stays contained, however, it'll just be an electrical disaster and not an environmental one...thankfully.

I hope neither happens, of course, but if one has to happen, I'd prefer it just meltdown and be contained.

So.... Will Intrade put an "Odds of Nuclear Meltdown in Japan" contract up?

I was hoping for this too; while it may seem "callous" usually, for whatever reason, intrade gets it right on a lot of stuff---it could be very useful in determining course of action (incidentally, they once wanted to do one on when the next terrorist attack would be, but the government shut them down on this project...despite the site's predictive ability i the past).

[KramerDSP]

More from the Al Jazeera English Blog:

.Live blog: Japan earthquake
Live blog: Japan earthquake
By Al Jazeera Staff in Asia
on March 11th, 2011.


Houses in Iwaki lie flattened after a huge earthquake hit Japan, triggering a devastating 10m tsunami [Picture: Reuters]
Show oldest updates on top
(All times are local in Japan GMT+9)

Timestamp:
1:52pm Scientists are warning that Japan may be facing a nuclear disaster on the scale of Chernobyl.

More on Japan's atomic emergency from Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert for the Global Security Programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists:

The events that occurred at these plants, which is the loss of both offsite power and onsite power, is one of the rarest events to happen in a nuclear power plant, and all indications are that the Japanese do not have the situation under control.

Japanese authorities are trying to avoid the cooling system failure from turning into catastrophe by venting radioactive gas and evacuating people, he explains.

The calculation at this point is that if you reduce pressure now by venting, you're reducing the risk of a catastrophic rupture, which could lead to an increase in radiation of thousands of times what it would be through the vents.

But a severe aftershock could undermine these efforts, a possibility that has laid bare a fatal flaw in readiness for the scenario that is now playing out in Japan.

I don't think any regulatory agency anywhere takes into account the possibility of repeated severe aftershocks.

.

The same guy also said aftershocks would last for 5 years, give or take.

[ihsv]

$#!+

[Fox McCloud]

Plant has a confirmed leak: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110312x3.html

[Anti Federalist]

OF course; if it stays contained, however, it'll just be an electrical disaster and not an environmental one...thankfully.

I hope neither happens, of course, but if one has to happen, I'd prefer it just meltdown and be contained.

With any luck neither will happen and they'll be able to get some power to the high pressure feed pumps and cool the pile down again.

[ihsv]

rlnicholson2 RT @reuters: FLASH: About 20,000 people are being evacuated from the vicinity of Fukushima plant - Kyodo

[Fox McCloud]

rlnicholson2 RT @reuters: FLASH: About 20,000 people are being evacuated from the vicinity of Fukushima plant - Kyodo

this is up from the 6,000 that were evacuated earlier, IIRC.

[Anti Federalist]

EDNewsfirst: RT @tokyoreporter: TBS reporter on ground in Iwaki, Fukushima: "Whole city gone."

[ihsv]

mickflipp RT @kaAYAaya: My cousin is in Fukushima. They onlybhave noodles at home and all stores are closed. Staying in the basement as there's radiation leak.

Comment: Just to punctuate the need for preparedness... particularly if you live near a nuke plant

[ihsv]

JRNHeadlines Meltdown has begun at #fukushima

RodrigoEBR Fukushima nuke plant might be experiencing nuclear meltdown - Kyodo

[Fox McCloud]

Russia Today is reporting that the 1st attempt to avoid meltdown failed as they encountered a radiation leak.

[AGRP]

RT @Reuters: FLASH: #Japan nuclear authorities say high possibility of meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 reactor - Jiji

Reports coming in: cesium detected around the nuclear reactor 1 (Fukushima), which is one of the elements that gets released in a meltdown

[ihsv]

Sounds like it's going

RT @JAPANTIMES: Core of Fukushima nuke plant might be experiencing meltdown (Kyodo)

[Fox McCloud]

sounds like it's all over: "Cs (cesium) emission has been detected at Fukushima #1 outside implying the beginning of melt down. NSIC, TVnews"

[KramerDSP]

Damn. This is scary as $#@!. Educate me. If a meltdown happens, will the containment shelter be able to contain it ?

[ihsv]

Crap... as if they haven't had their share of nuke disasters.

[Fox McCloud]

NHK is announcing that the plant is melting down....

[KramerDSP]

Touruma Shu Uechi
by _nat_en
#Nuclear plant safety committee detected cesium, a substance that is not normally detected unless, according to an expert, fuel rod melts.

[angelatc]

[ihsv]

RT @dicklp: Nuclear expert tells The Times: meltdown has technically begun at Fukushima.