....and now I'm worried about summer.That guy is an idiot. Well, at least in that blog post. He seems to think the Japanese don't have enough backup power generation capability to handle the loss of Fukushima #1. that's ridiculous. The Japanese shut down ALL of TEPCO's boiling water reactors a few years ago over fraudulent safety reports and no one ran out of electricity.
Funny, I don't remember them scramming all the reactors at the same time, with no warning, to redo the safety inspections. Cite plz?here's what Wikipedia says:
On August 29, 2002, the government of Japan revealed that TEPCO was guilty of false reporting in routine governmental inspection of its nuclear plants and systematic concealment of plant safety incidents. All seventeen of its boiling-water reactors were shut down for inspection as a result.I did say boiling water reactors in my comment.
If you're aware that there are problems with electrical supply, then why did you say it was ridiculous to believe that there isn't enough backup power generation capabilities to handle summer demand?This is the first paragraph in the post:
Unfortunately I was wrong about the likely death toll from the reactor outage at Fukushima Daiichi.That doesn't seem hyperbolic to you? That thousands of people, more then killed by the Tsunami are going to die due to brownouts, despite the fact that shutting down the larger reactor in 07 and 08 didn't result in any deaths (as far as I know)?
There's a very good chance that it's going to kill thousands of people — possibly more than the earthquake and tsunami combined.
That guy is an idiot. Well, at least in that blog post. He seems to think the Japanese don't have enough backup power generation capability to handle the loss of Fukushima #1. that's ridiculous.I guess it comes down to what you think I meant by "handle". I didn't mean "not be inconvenienced by" I meant "Not have result in mass death".
NRC report leaked to the NYT on April 4 mentions that due to an explosion way back at the beginning of the crisis, fuel rod fragments were ejected up to a kilometer from Daiichi, as well as between to reactor buildings on site.Back when there were so many of us taking comfort (or at least, advising others to take comfort) that, at least for now, reactor containment had been maintained, those claims were (as we now know) completely inaccurate if not fraudulent.
Regulators are also making informal queries to determine whether the government of China or any other country might have used its sovereign wealth fund to finance the purchases, although they could have been made by hedge funds, the senior executive said.posted by saulgoodman at 12:47 PM on April 18, 2011
The construction costs for reactors after Three Mile Island (1979), but before Chernobyl (1986) were 95 percent higher than those completed before Three Mile Island. That resulted in electricity costs that were 40 percent higher. The construction costs of the reactors constructed after Chernobyl were 89 percent higher than those completed between Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, which delivered electricity costs 42 percent higher. It’s not rocket science to realize that major disasters would cause extra safety costs, but that’s a massive leap.. the cause was a continued extension of the construction period and new design changes required by safety concerns.In other words, every major disaster has ushered in new design safety measures, which has significantly increased the cost. We can expect the same after Japan, and most likely it will kill the economic viability of nuclear power in the near term: Nuclear Costs to Soar Post Japan Disaster.
"Unit 2 shows 300 degrees Fahrenheit or about 150 on the Centigrade scale inside Unit 2. That can't happen if it's water. In thermodynamics there's this thing called the steam tables and water at room pressure which is zero on these charts boils at 212. You can't have water or steam at 300 degrees when there's no extra pressure put on it.He's right about the water but steam does exist at 150C and 100kPa (Wolfram Alpha). And steam at 150C will cool anything at 151C or above.
Well what does that tell me? That tells me that what they're measuring at unit 2 is not water or steam at all, it's hot air or hot hydrogen and that's a problem. That tells me that unit 2 is not being cooled."
Thyroid cancer only comes from different types of radiation, not only ionizing radiation. The only proven cause of thyroid cancer is radiation during childhood. But I'd say that child is already by now doomed to thyroid issues their whole life, even if not cancer and the thyroid impacts every aspect of life.There's a lot packed into that paragraph. First of all, you can split radiation (which is far too broad a word imho) into two types: ionizing, and non-ionizing. Non-ionizing radiation (think radio waves) does not damage molecules and does not cause cancer by definition.
(Huh, whoda thunkYep. There's an interesting karma that ionizing radiation is used to treat cancer when it's known to increase the risk of cancer.
Uses of Cesium-137:
Uses of Cobalt-60:
That's not quite correct. Although the risk of cancer from radiation damage increases more or less linearly with dose over short time scales, the time between exposures does matter. Your body has mechanisms for repairing DNA and killing off cancerous cells (remember, we're exposed to background radiation every day) if the damage is small and you give it time to heal. That's why Nuclear Energy Workers (NEWs) are given different safe limits for 1 year and 5 year exposures.
2. Small doses of radiation are accumulative in terms of the effect on the body. So even if the dose is not enormous but small and repeated, a small dose repeated over time can have the same effect as a very large single dose.
About an hour later, however, the facility was struck by a tsunami with waves up to 5 meters in height.If it was really 'only' 5 meters high there, well... The highest waves on the day are said to be in the 10-20m range (well, a lot more complicated than that), if they got away with only 5m and still had these problems, that must be a colossal screw up somewhere in the system.
May 16, 2011posted by Bugbread at 12:53 PM on May 16, 2011
This Travel Alert replaces the Travel Alert for Japan dated April 14, 2011. The U.S. Government is updating its recommendation on the safe use of the Tohoku Expressway and the Tohoku Shinkansen Railway through the 50-mile evacuation area. Using the same analysis we would use in a similar situation in the United States, the U.S. Government believes it is safe for U.S. citizens to use the railway and expressway for transit through the area. Other portions of this Travel Alert remain unchanged from the Alert published on April 14. This Travel Alert expires on July 15, 2011.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
The assessment of technical and subject matter experts across United States Government agencies is that while the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains serious and dynamic, the health and safety risks to areas beyond the 50-mile evacuation zone, and particularly to Tokyo, Nagoya (Aichi Prefecture), Yokohama (Kanagawa Prefecture), nearby U.S. military facilities, and the prefectures of Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Gunma, Iwate, Nagano, Niigata, Saitama, Shizuoka, Tochigi, and Yamanashi, and those portions of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi and Yamagata prefectures which are outside a 50-mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant are low and do not pose significant risks to U.S. citizens.
This analysis takes into consideration both various age groups and the classification of the severity of the situation at Fukushima Daiichi as a Level 7 event by the Government of Japan, which reflects what has transpired since the initial incident and the potential long-term effects in the area surrounding the plant.
This assessment reflects inputs from our national laboratories as well as the unanimous opinion of the U.S. scientific experts on the ground in Japan. Furthermore, they are consistent with practices that would be taken in the United States in such a situation. Based on the much reduced rate of heat generation in the reactor fuel after one month of cooling and the corresponding decay of short-lived radioactive isotopes, even in the event of an unexpected disruption at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, harmful exposures to people beyond the 50-mile evacuation zone are highly unlikely, and there would be a significant amount of time to best assess any steps that might have to be taken.
The situation at the plant is dramatically different today than it was on March 16, when we saw significant ongoing releases of radioactivity, the loss of effective means to cool the reactor cores and spent fuel, the absence of outside power or fresh water supply for emergency management, and considerable uncertainty about the condition of the site. Today, while the situation remains serious, and there is still a possibility of unanticipated developments, cooling efforts are ongoing and successful, power, water supply, and back-up services have been partially or fully restored, and planning has begun to control radioactive contamination and mitigate future dangers. Our coordination with the Japanese is regular and productive, and we have a greatly increased capacity to measure and analyze risks.
On April 14, 2011, the Department of State lifted Voluntary Authorized Departure, allowing dependents of U.S. government employees to return to Japan.
Out of an abundance of caution, we continue to recommend that U.S. citizens avoid travel within the 50-mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. U.S. citizens who are still within this radius should evacuate or shelter in place.
Though the U.S. Government is not currently making changes to its recommendation to avoid travel to the 50-mile radius, we are updating the recommendation on the safe use of the Tohoku Expressway and the Tohoku Shinkansen Railway through the 50-mile evacuation area. These transport routes are currently open to public use. The U.S. Government believes it is safe for U.S. citizens to use the railway and expressway to transit through the area. This updated decision is based on measurements taken by U.S. Government scientists; more information may be found at the Department of Energy website, http://blog.energy.gov/content/situation-japan/.
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posted by KokuRyu at 8:33 PM on April 17, 2011 [26 favorites]