Just how long does it take to cool a reactor?

[BigDogStudioX]

Tbh it does seems like pure desperation on their part. Save face and all that doing them harm I think

[EternalOptimist]

why are they using seawater ?

[VectraMan]

If only they'd built a great big wall around the reactor in the first place.

They keep saying you can't make things tsunami proof, but putting the reactor, or just the backup diesel pumps on a small artificial hill would have done it.

[MarillionFan]

They keep saying you can't make things tsunami proof, but putting the reactor, or just the backup diesel pumps on a small artificial hill would have done it.

Then it would have fallen down the hill into the sea.

[VectraMan]

I think they've run out of Evian.

You'll know they're really desperate when they start sending people down the local petrol station to buy all the supplies of bottled water and smoothies.

[doodab]

They keep saying you can't make things tsunami proof, but putting the reactor, or just the backup diesel pumps on a small artificial hill would have done it.

I suspect they would need to be anchored to the bedrock to avoid being washed away. Building them on higher ground a bit further away from the sea might have made sense though.

Is there any footage of the tsunami hitting the plant?

[TimberWolf]

Not nearly as dirty as a nuclear reactor going off.

I guess this depends on whether Fukushima results in an explosion as with Chernobyl or more localised event. Chernobyl was a meltdown and a dirty bomb, which made it particularly nasty and hopefully not a model for all meltdowns.

Strontium 90 was the isotope of choice back in the 50s & 60s.

Which is produced by nuclear fission in both nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors.

[doodab]

I'm particularly impressed by the way the spent fuel pond has boil itself dry.

Has it though, or have they used the water from it? Or has it leaked out because the spent fuel pond is cracked or something?

[OwlHoot]

If only they'd built a great big wall around the reactor in the first place.

If only they had built it a couple of miles underground, as I've been suggesting for years.

One of these days it won't just be earthquakes and tsunamis but bombs being used against nuclear power stations, and a fat lot of use a 20 foot wall will be then, or blow out walls, or even three foot thick containment vesssels.

And when the power station came to the end of its life, you wouldn't even need to dismantle it at vast expense, just seal off that branch of the tunnel and start a new power station in a parallel tunnel.

[eek]

If only they had built it a couple of miles underground, as I've been suggesting for years.

Sadly that is toshiba's plan for their small 4S reactors. Toshiba 4S - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia