Nuclear explosion in Japan

[OwlHoot]

Wouldn't you just know it - Just as it's vital we start building a load of new nuclear power stations in the UK, this goes and happens:

Huge explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant

Now they'll probably bottle out, and we'll be lumbered with yet more windmills, and energy rationing, just because some stupid fool couldn't design a power station properly in an area noted for its earthquakes and tsunamis !

[TimberWolf]

I was hoping it would spur research and development into their fledgling thorium reactors, as I mentioned here, because they are a bit flipped on fossil fuel resources. A bit like we will be soon. Thought they do at least have sunshine and hydrothermal.

So what has happened, has the primary coolant loop been breeched (the red one at 200 odd bar pressure), or vented?

Pressurized water reactor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[scooterscot]

This is not a nuclear explosion

[doodab]

I was hoping it would spur research and development into their fledgling thorium reactors, as I mentioned here, because they are a bit flipped on fossil fuel resources. A bit like we will be soon. Thought they do at least have sunshine and hydrothermal.

So what has happened, has the primary coolant loop been breeched (the red one at 200 odd bar pressure), or vented?

Pressurized water reactor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's not a PWR, it's a boiling water one. The primary loop is at low pressure, and boils to steam which drives turbines directly. It seems the pump on the primary circuit has failed, causing the build up of steam, so they were venting some of that at some point. Nobody knows what went bang yet though, could have been fuel. The main risk seems to be a meltdown if they can't get the cooling system working again. I expect the explosion won't have helped.



Boiling water reactor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[doodab]

This is not a nuclear explosion

The expert guy on the news reckoned it could be fuel stores or something chemical, but probably not a building collapsing due to earthquake damage. It was a pretty big bang.

[TimberWolf]

The expert guy on the news reckoned it could be fuel stores or something chemical, but probably not a building collapsing due to earthquake damage. It was a pretty big bang.

This makes pretty grim reading.

Agency officials said a team of National Institute of Radiological Sciences detected cesium, a radioactive substance contained in nuclear fuel rods, near the No. 1 reactor of the No. 1 nuclear plant, leading them to suspect nuclear fuel rods in the reactor began melting amid the high temperatures.

The nuclear safety agency said in the afternoon that the level of cooling water in the No. 1 reactor likely had dropped to 1.7 meters below the top of nuclear fuel rods, leading officials to suspect that about half of the rods' length had been exposed.

[Pickle2]

YouTube - [HD]The explosion occurs in the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant

2m 02 - you can see the whole of the containment lining is blown to the moon.

This is VERY serious incident now.

Number two reactor is due to follow suit too.

[Pickle2]

Thats what left!

[TimberWolf]

Thats what left!

I'm surprised anything is left. Looking at your first video I thought the entire structure had been vaporised. Whatever the structure was, the way it disappeared it looked like a paper house.

[Pickle2]

I'm surprised anything is left. Looking at your first video I thought the entire structure had been vaporised. Whatever the structure was, the way it disappeared it looked like a paper house.

Strange huh?

God only knows what it must be like to be one of those working onsite right now. The poor souls. I would DEFINITELY be billing at time and a half.