Nuclear explosion in Japan

[Ardesco]

If such explosion did not break the containment then the reactor was pretty damn well designed... apart from backup power generators!

WTF was it build so close to the shore though?!?!

Explosions like that are expected and the reactor is designed to deal with it!

The backup power generators were washed away by the tsunami.

Read the link

[BlasterBates]

Germany's had a red-green coalition before, and the SPD have governed before; the red-green coalition wasn't brilliant, but wasn't a disaster either. I don't see why that should be different this time.

You're quite right it was OK, it was pragmatic, but then that was Gerhardt Schroeder and Josker Fischer. They're gone, the party has now been "cleansed", they oppose their own reforms, you're left with the loonies. Think Labour party 1980's.

[TimberWolf]

If such explosion did not break the containment then the reactor was pretty damn well designed... apart from backup power generators!

WTF was it build so close to the shore though?!?!

Most nuclear power stations are sited near the shore, or at least near a major body of water, because they need lots of [cool] water for cooling. Most of the energy is dumped IIRC and the rest is used to generate electricity.

[AtW]

Most nuclear power stations are sited near the shore

In Japan maybe, but in other countries a lot of nuclear power generators are not on the shore and someone they get enough water. Given that Japan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes that can cause tsunamis it seems very odd to protect reactors against earthquake but lack in protection against tsunami (which is to have reactor more in land - there it's practically on the shore).

[Sysman]

On a related subject: How Japan’s Data Centers Manage Earthquakes

[Jog On]

How much is everyone on here donating? Clientco are matching donations 2:1.

[TimberWolf]

In Japan maybe, but in other countries a lot of nuclear power generators are not on the shore and someone they get enough water. Given that Japan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes that can cause tsunamis it seems very odd to protect reactors against earthquake but lack in protection against tsunami (which is to have reactor more in land - there it's practically on the shore).

Pass. But Japan is heavily in to nuclear and there are (or were) 6 reactors on that site, with two bigger ones planned, altogether generating 5 to 10 GW of electrical power. Nearly half of the energy used to create that power might need to be dumped as heat (a guess), which is probably enough to fry a few river fishies, or at least warm them up a touch.

[Mich the Tester]

Pass. But Japan is heavily in to nuclear and there are (or were) 6 reactors on that site, with two bigger ones planned, altogether generating 5 to 10 GW of electrical power. Nearly half of the energy used to create that power might need to be dumped as heat (a guess), which is probably enough to fry a few river fishies, or at least warm them up a touch.

Boil, shirley?

[TimberWolf]

Boil, shirley?

Or irradiate Incidentally, regarding our previous conversation about the time it's taking for these reactors to cool down:

When Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 7 nuclear reactor automatically shut down because of a severe earthquake in 2007, it took 16 hours for the coolant temperature to diminish from 287 to 100ºC so that it would no longer boil.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/co...ts_inf121.html

The pumps at Fukushima, I gather, were working for 24 hours, battery driven, and the backup generators were working for a while too. There's something, perhaps quite a bit, I (or we) don't know about the situation.

[VectraMan]

In Japan maybe, but in other countries a lot of nuclear power generators are not on the shore and someone they get enough water. Given that Japan is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes that can cause tsunamis it seems very odd to protect reactors against earthquake but lack in protection against tsunami (which is to have reactor more in land - there it's practically on the shore).

Did the tsunami cause this problem? The problem seems to be that the reactor shutdown automatically, taking away the power for the cooling, but the backup diesel pumps failed after an hour. And the last I read, nobody knows why the backup pumps failed. It may be nothing to do with the earthquake or tsunami, maybe the backups just weren't up to scratch.