LovintheWhiteFluff Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Power cables have now been connected to all six nuclear reactors at Japan's tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power said on Monday. The last two reactors to be hooked up to power from the main grid on Monday were reactors No.3 and No.4, the two most badly damaged units, company officials told a briefing. The company, though, is checking for damage to the plant's reactor cooling systems and other plant machinery before attempting to power them up. It is operating equipment using grid power at reactor No.5 only, one of the least damaged reactors, the officials said. http://uk.reuters.co...E72K18120110321 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovintheWhiteFluff Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 NHK TV now reporting Reactor #3 is the reactor with black smoke rising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovintheWhiteFluff Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 NHK - Workers evacuated from the plant due to snow. TEPCO unsure how many have been evacuated. NHK - Reporting the smoke is coming from where the spent fuel rod pool is located. Seems to me that the pool has a hole in it given the couple thousand tons of water they put into it the last couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovintheWhiteFluff Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 After more than a week of blowing from the northwest, winds in and around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan have now shifted - threatening to blow more radioactive emissions over more populated areas to the south. The current pattern, with winds blowing from north/northeast through much of Japan, is expected to continue through Tuesday, according to CNN meteorologist Jennifer Delgado. That could carry more radioactive material onshore from the facility, which is 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hailstorm Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 At a live news conference now with Nishiyama (head of Japan Nuclear Safety Agency) on NHK, he says that radiation levels are up to 2 mSv an hour; and the cause of the smoke remains unknown. Reactors #3 and #4 have yet been supplied with backup power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperNET Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 #3 reactor and spent fuel rod pools have some of the worst material (plutonium) which is much more toxic and radioactive than uranium. This is what I believe they called MOX (mixed oxides) fuel. All hands on deck need to be focused on #3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkman Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 #3 reactor and spent fuel rod pools have some of the worst material (plutonium) which is much more toxic and radioactive than uranium. This is what I believe they called MOX (mixed oxides) fuel. All hands on deck need to be focused on #3. I had read that they just switched #3 to MOX fuel a few weeks ago and there should not be any in the spent fuel rod pool, although I don't remember where I saw it so I can't say for sure it's true. Either way that's nasty stuff and they definitely need to get on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhineasC Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 What the hell is going on in this forum? Moderators!!!!! Someone here just posted that they know half of Japan will be uninhabitable. Moderators!!!! Please. Is there no quality control here? You are insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plokoon111 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 So what is this black smoke, they are talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterymix Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 You are insane. You interrupted your critical job responsibilities to make a medical diagnosis? What is the evidence for the diagnosis? Are you licensed to practice medicine or psychology? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozart Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 You are insane. You interrupted your critical job responsibilities to make a medical diagnosis? What is the evidence for the diagnosis? Are you licensed to practice medicine or psychology? All right, boys, we saw this movie last night. No need for a remake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isopycnic Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 http://www.xkcd.com/radiation/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkman Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Few updates from Kyodo: NEWS ADVISORY: Radioactive cesium 24.8 times higher detected in seawater near nuke plant (01:37) NEWS ADVISORY: Radioactive iodine 126.7 times higher detected in seawater near nuke plant (01:35) The following is the known status as of Monday night of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture, which were crippled by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11. Fukushima Daiichi plant -- Reactor No. 1 (Operation suspended after quake) Partial melting of core, cooling failure, vapor vented, building housing containment of reactor damaged by hydrogen explosion, roof blown off, seawater being pumped in. -- Reactor No. 2 (Operation suspended after quake) Damage to reactor containment structure feared, cooling failure, seawater being pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, building housing containment of reactor damaged by blast at adjacent reactor No. 3, blast heard near suppression chamber of containment vessel, seawater pumped into pool holding spent-fuel rods on Sunday, access to external power restored Sunday, steam seen rising Monday. -- Reactor No. 3 (Operation suspended after quake) Partial melting of core feared, cooling failure, vapor vented, seawater being pumped in, building housing containment of reactor badly damaged by hydrogen explosion, seawater dumped over spent-fuel storage pool by helicopter Thursday, water sprayed at it from ground for five days in a row through Monday, workers forced to evacuate on Monday due to grayish smoke seen billowing from roof. -- Reactor No. 4 (Under maintenance when quake struck) Renewed nuclear chain reaction feared at spent-fuel storage pool, fire at building housing containment of reactor Tuesday and Wednesday, only frame remains of reactor building roof, temperature in the pool reached 84 C on March 14, water sprayed at pool again on Monday. -- Reactor No. 5 (Under maintenance when quake struck) Some fuel rods left in reactor core, cooling in spent-fuel storage pool resumed Saturday, cold shutdown at reactor on Sunday, access to external power restored, power source switched to external power from emergency power on Monday. -- Reactor No. 6 (Under maintenance when quake struck) Some fuel rods left in reactor core, emergency power generator and cooling functions restored Saturday, cold shutdown at reactor on Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I operated a nuclear reactor for four years, but news coverage has left me pretty clueless, which doesn't usually stop me from posting, but in this case, what we don't know that we don't know, we don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaoPos Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 So what is this black smoke, they are talking about? Not sure. Black smoke is usually indicitive of Carbon burning though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clinch Leatherwood Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I think they've started to gain control. Let's hope for no setbacks. Pretty amazing work by these guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacindc Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 TOKYO — Emergency workers lost precious hours Monday in their fight to prevent a full-scale meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after mysterious gray smoke seen emanating from the facility prompted a mass evacuation. The smoke was spotted just before 4 p.m. coming out of the building that houses the No. 3 reactor, the most badly damaged of the plant’s half-dozen reactors. It tapered off after two hours, but more smoke was seen near reactor No. 2 about 20 minutes later, according to officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Though authorities concluded the smoke was steam and not coming from the overheated spent fuel pool, they acknowledged that radiation spiked one kilometer west of the facility, rising from 494 microsieverts at 5:40 p.m. to 1,932 at 6:30 p.m. The level dropped to 442 at 8:30 p.m., but officials suspended operations for the day until further notice and the 700 employees who had been working to restore electrical power at the plant were evacuated. “If we find the levels of radioactivity go down, we’ll go back to work,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a news conference Monday night at the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-nuclear-plant-emergency-effort-delayed-by-worker-evacuation/2011/03/21/ABh1Vv6_story.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clinch Leatherwood Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 TOKYO — Emergency workers lost precious hours Monday in their fight to prevent a full-scale meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after mysterious gray smoke seen emanating from the facility prompted a mass evacuation. The smoke was spotted just before 4 p.m. coming out of the building that houses the No. 3 reactor, the most badly damaged of the plant’s half-dozen reactors. It tapered off after two hours, but more smoke was seen near reactor No. 2 about 20 minutes later, according to officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Though authorities concluded the smoke was steam and not coming from the overheated spent fuel pool, they acknowledged that radiation spiked one kilometer west of the facility, rising from 494 microsieverts at 5:40 p.m. to 1,932 at 6:30 p.m. The level dropped to 442 at 8:30 p.m., but officials suspended operations for the day until further notice and the 700 employees who had been working to restore electrical power at the plant were evacuated. “If we find the levels of radioactivity go down, we’ll go back to work,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a news conference Monday night at the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo. http://www.washingto...1Vv6_story.html they still need to figure out what is the status. IE, sure it's no chernoybl but a ten year fix will be just as damaging in some sense. They need to get this figured out now, figure out whether the cores are breached, whether the spent pools are leaking etc and then figure out what the end game is. Even these lower releases over many weeks and months are incredibly disruptive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 So what are you trying to say? Losing 1000sq km to radiation is no big deal? No I'm not saying that at all. I'm just pointing out that we have done much worse on our own without the help of radiation. Air pollution is just one of our many abuses of the Earth. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkman Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 If the levels are fluctuating between .4-.5 mSv up to 2mSV when there's smoke/steam 1km west of the facility I shutter to think what levels the workers are dealing with day after day as they work near the reactors spraying water and trying to reconnect power. They are true heroes and I hope they can bring the situation under control soon. I may be a bit of a pessimist, but I'm not so sure they're in the clear just yet. I do think they have managed to stabilize the situation somewhat, but I also don't think that conditions there have improved. TEPCO and the government seem to have decided to just stop talking about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isopycnic Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 TOKYO — Emergency workers lost precious hours Monday in their fight to prevent a full-scale meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after mysterious gray smoke seen emanating from the facility prompted a mass evacuation. The smoke was spotted just before 4 p.m. coming out of the building that houses the No. 3 reactor, the most badly damaged of the plant’s half-dozen reactors. It tapered off after two hours, but more smoke was seen near reactor No. 2 about 20 minutes later, according to officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Though authorities concluded the smoke was steam and not coming from the overheated spent fuel pool, they acknowledged that radiation spiked one kilometer west of the facility, rising from 494 microsieverts at 5:40 p.m. to 1,932 at 6:30 p.m. The level dropped to 442 at 8:30 p.m., but officials suspended operations for the day until further notice and the 700 employees who had been working to restore electrical power at the plant were evacuated. “If we find the levels of radioactivity go down, we’ll go back to work,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a news conference Monday night at the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo. http://www.washingto...1Vv6_story.html 1,932 mSv is pretty dangerous, no? Even 494mSv is really high for 1km away WEST of the plant. From the image I posted earlier: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plokoon111 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Thats almost 2 Sv (edit, face palm you jsut posted a pic.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkman Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 That's microsieverts, not milli. It's 2 millisieverts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isopycnic Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 1,932 mSv is pretty dangerous, no? Even 494mSv is really high for 1km away WEST of the plant. From the image I posted earlier: So, ~1.9mSv then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovintheWhiteFluff Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/4008511524/more-on-spent-fuel-pools-at-fukushima Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 nothing much to talk about on the 7am news i guess the focus right now is getting the power cables installed. i don't know if they have any backup plans if that doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 So that we can keep our numbers straight between micro and milli I suggest using the ALT230 on the numberpad in Num Lock to get the µ for micro and the standard m for milli. After all we're only talking about 3 orders of magnitude here between the two (and a possible difference between life and death). Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I'm so glad I'm canceling my cable tomorrow. I can't believe I'm paying for this. http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2011/03/21/ng.japan.radiation.hln Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovintheWhiteFluff Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I'm so glad I'm canceling my cable tomorrow. I can't believe I'm paying for this. http://cnn.com/video...n.radiation.hln She drives me nuts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozart Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I'm so glad I'm canceling my cable tomorrow. I can't believe I'm paying for this. http://cnn.com/video...n.radiation.hln I miss Ted Turner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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