Earthquake hits Japan

[Siemens]

They had to abandon the control room at fukushima. Experts say it's one level away from becoming another chernobyl.
Live blog link http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/ja ... ed/?hpt=T1

[StarBound]

So then nothing more they can do? Sea water not working?

[Siemens]

Either that or the pumps aren't working. They did state that they were busy pumping in sea water.
Also when you think about those hydrogen explosions. If it is so hot that water decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen then sea water wouldve probably had the same effect. I dont know.

[Siemens]

To make things worse. Another earthquake was just experience which isnt an aftershock.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/16_02.html
Someone commented that it is near Mount Fuji which is actually a volcano?????

[Prime]

Either that or the pumps aren't working. They did state that they were busy pumping in sea water.
Also when you think about those hydrogen explosions. If it is so hot that water decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen then sea water wouldve probably had the same effect. I dont know.

No, the hydrogen is a result the caesium and iodine as far as I understand. And It can only explode in the presence of oxygen, the by product of which is water again.

The only way to decompose water is a chemical reaction or high vltage electricity. heating it won't break those bonds.

[Stuart]

So then nothing more they can do? Sea water not working?

News24 reported that things are beginning to cool down a little.

[RuadRauFlessa]

Stuart.... obviously it is cooling down... we are heading for a winter...

[Stuart]

Stuart.... obviously it is cooling down... we are heading for a winter...

[Siemens]

No, the hydrogen is a result the caesium and iodine as far as I understand. And It can only explode in the presence of oxygen, the by product of which is water again.

The only way to decompose water is a chemical reaction or high vltage electricity. heating it won't break those bonds.

Yeah as I said before this is just stuff that I'm hearing from the news channels.

Here is one of their theories

Grimston said a build-up of pressure inside the inner containment of the reactors was the likely cause. "My suspicion is that as the temperature inside the reactor was rising, some of the metal cans that surround the fuel may have burst and at high temperature, that fuel cladding can react with water to produce zirconium oxide and hydrogen.

"That hydrogen then will be part of the gases that need to be vented. That hydrogen then mixes with the surrounding air. Hydrogen and oxygen can then recombine explosively."

(some useless info: heat can split water molecules however not at large scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_spli ... n_of_water )

[lancelot]

The hydrogen is produced on site, just as with Koeberg, it is very pure and part of the process. Copious amounts are fed into the system, a rupture would release vast amounts of hydrogen into the air.

[StarBound]

Well.... they never had the oppertunity to test a hydrogen nuke on anything else than Bekini Atol. Then again wasnt a hydrogen nuke the next step closer to igniting the atmosphere?

[jee]

do read that nuke plant 101 i posted. It actually explains in laymans terms how everything works...

[Stuart]

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/76336,lif ... =NLC-daily

On the scene footage.

[hamin_aus]

Well.... they never had the oppertunity to test a hydrogen nuke on anything else than Bekini Atol. Then again wasnt a hydrogen nuke the next step closer to igniting the atmosphere?

There is a theory that a sufficiently large thermonuclear explosion could ignite the atmosphere - but it's a fringe theory that no-one has entertained since the 1950's.
I think in the end most physicists agreed we could never make thermonuclear reaction big enough to begin an escalating chain of other fusion reactions.

[ryanrich]

I must say the fact that Koeberg is built right near a big fault line doesn't fill me with confidence. It was built pretty well, and can apparently withstand up to a 7.0 earthquake (the highest SA has had was a 6.3), but what worries me is the kind of people currently in charge of it if it look at the skills shortages in Eskom and previous accidents that have happened at Koeberg.

[hamin_aus]

Yeah, I'd also say Koebergs biggest threat is human error, rather than a natural disaster

[Ron2K]

Not concerned. From what I understand, Koeberg had a team of IAEA monitors permanently stationed there that submit a weekly report to the IAEA. If there were serious maintenance concerns, you can bet that they would have raised a massive fuss by now.

[ryanrich]

Not concerned. From what I understand, Koeberg had a team of IAEA monitors permanently stationed there that submit a weekly report to the IAEA. If there were serious maintenance concerns, you can bet that they would have raised a massive fuss by now.

Haha, don't you remember this little incident in 2005 where a bolt was forgotten inside the generator that resulted in the frying of a rotor? From that alone I would say there are maintenance concerns...

Granted I haven't seen much recently, but still interesting:

At the end of 2005, Koeberg started experiencing numerous technical difficulties. On 11 November 2005, a fault on a transmission busbar caused the reactor to go into safe mode, cutting supply to most of the Western Cape for about two hours. On 16 November a fire under a 400kV transmission line caused the line to trip, causing severe voltage dips which resulted in Koeberg once again shutting down. Various parts of the Cape were left without electricity for hours at a time. On the evening of 23 November 2005, a routine inspection of the backup safety system revealed a below-spec concentration of an important chemical, resulting in a controlled shutdown of the reactor. Major power cuts were not experienced until Friday 25 November, when the backup capacity began running out. At this point, rotational load shedding was employed, with customers being switched off in stages for most of the day. Koeberg was re-synchronised to the national grid on Saturday 26 November.

On Sunday 25 December 2005, the generator of Unit 1 was damaged by a worker dropping a spanner into it. While the generator was being powered up after scheduled refuelling and maintenance, a loose bolt, which was left inside the generator caused more severe damage, forcing it to be shut down. Subsequent to the unexpected unavailability of Unit 1, Unit 2 was also brought down for scheduled refuelling, resulting in a severe shortage of supply to the Western Cape. This resulted in widespread load shedding in order to maintain the stability of the network. A replacement rotor for Unit 1 was shipped in from France and the unit was brought back into operation in May 2006.

On 18 and 19 February 2006 large parts of the Western Cape again experienced blackouts due to a "ccontrolled shutdown" of Koeberg. According to Eskom and the City of Cape Town, power cuts were to continue until 26 February 2006, however power supply problems continued beyond this date. The estimated economic losses due to the power cuts was over R500 M as at February 2007, and was estimated to rise to possibly as high as R2 billion.

Koeberg Info and Pics

[Ron2K]

I do remember that, and view it as an isolated minor incident.

[ryanrich]

When dealing with huge nuclear reactors I don't see any incident as minor...

[StarBound]

2 Days in the dark isnt minor. Infact I start jumping if the power flicks off already. Anything more than a nanosecond of power loss = a nanosecond too long. If you like the dark, go camping. I will stick to my digital lifestyle thank you very much.

[Siemens]

http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/03/17/u- ... tokyo-now/

Why people still bother to read The Sun is beyond me.

[StarBound]

Want die Son skyn uit die man se ho....

[Ron2K]

2 Days in the dark isnt minor. Infact I start jumping if the power flicks off already. Anything more than a nanosecond of power loss = a nanosecond too long. If you like the dark, go camping. I will stick to my digital lifestyle thank you very much.

I'm not having you in my team when the zombie apocalypse hits...

[Siemens]

http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-fox- ... wer-plant/