Splicetoday

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Mar 24, 2017, 05:57AM

Spewing Fukushima

Humanity is busy with other things.

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If you’re more concerned about “climate change” than Fukushima, you might be too stupid to live. It’s been six years since Murphy’s Law went into full effect at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan. Three nuclear reactor cores have melted down entirely, and no one knows exactly where they are. One may have exploded into the atmosphere.

Japan has been less than forthcoming on this matter. Some 1500 highly volatile spent fuel rods still have to be dealt with. The removal of those rods is the most delicate industrial effort ever undertaken. If the rods touch each other, it could trigger an uncontrollable and unpredictable fission reaction. This is the most catastrophic man-made disaster in history, potentially an extinction-level event. The radioisotopes spewing uncontrolled into the atmosphere and Pacific Ocean are a direct threat to every DNA-based life form on this planet, with the possible exception of the indomitable tardigrades.

A reasonable advanced technological species would’ve responded to the crisis immediately, mobilizing all available resources and personnel to resolve the crisis, but we’re not a reasonable species. Humans have serious problems with impulse control, particularly with regard to deploying new technologies before they’re fully mature. We’re inclined to do things simply because we can, without sufficient thought to consequences. There are some 450 boiling or pressurized water nuclear reactors in operation worldwide, providing a mere 10.9 percent of humanity’s energy needs. The boiling water reactor is the earliest and crudest of nuclear power sources. Most of the ones in operation were constructed in the 1950s and 60s and are well past their appointed decommission dates. A number of them are leaking. Decommissioning them is a great deal more complicated than building them. The first impediment is shareholder value; in the rare cases where the reactor is owned by the state, national pride.

The second impediment is the hard fact that the technology of dismantling a nuclear reactor is exponentially more complex and challenging than the technology of building one. Disposal of the waste material remains an unresolved issue. It requires a storage facility capable of keeping the material secure and isolated for 24,000 years. That’d be a good trick. How old is the Sphinx? Wouldn’t you like to know what’s inside it?

The most impressively stupid thing about these primitive reactors is that the geniuses who designed them never came up with a Plan B, a comprehensive strategy to deal with the worst-case scenario. The best they’ve got is a technique known as SCRAM, an acronym standing for Safety Control Rod Axe Man or Safety Control Rods Activation Mechanism, depending on whose account you believe. It dates back to the world’s first nuclear reactor, which was built in 1942 in support of the WW2 Manhattan Project under the spectator seats at Chicago’s Stagg Field. There have been no effective improvements in reactor shutdown technology since. I see no celebrations or commemorations of the 75th anniversary of nuclear power.

Fukushima isn’t even big news. Humanity is busy with other things, like pointless wars and quibbling over trivialities like race, religion, and gender. Globalists and nationalists are battling it out like it’s 1939 all over again. Mom and Dad are shrieking, cursing and throwing plates at each other in a domestic dispute about the curtains while the house is burning down. The tweakers are too absorbed in their endless Risk game to notice that there’s a leak in the lab about to send the whole damned double-wide up with a bang.

It was Enrico Fermi who came up with the SCRAM strategy. He also had an idea called “the Fermi Limit,” in an attempt to figure out why we haven’t yet been contacted by an advanced alien civilization. Google it sometime if you’d like to know where we are. Perhaps the tardigrades will do better, when their day arrives.

Discussion
  • Three nuclear reactor cores have melted down entirely, and no one knows exactly where they are. Maybe they found there way to the earth's centre and got absorbed by the inner core's melting temparature 5400 °C. Earth's core mainly made of iron and nickel also contains uranium-238, thorium-232 and potassium-40, which have half-lives of 4.47 billion years, 14.05 billion years and 1.25 billion years respectively. SORRY I AM ONLY MAKING A SARCASTIC REMARK... In reality, under a complete loss of coolant scenario, the fast erosion phase of the concrete basement lasts for about an hour and progresses into about one meter depth, then slows to several centimetres per hour, and stops completely when the corium melt cools below the decomposition temperature of concrete (about 1100 °C). Complete melt-through can occur in several days, even through several meters of concrete; the corium then penetrates several meters into the underlying soil, spreads around, cools, and solidifies. On reaching ground water, there will be contamination but this can be contained. Nuclear reactors can't blow up like as the result of a chain reaction like an atom bomb because the enrichment of the fuel is FAR below weapons grade. The conditions for an atomic explosion are actually very specific and difficult to create. The real danger at Fukushima is that the fuel bundles will be exposed to air and start to burn. You could still have pockets of hydrogen gas that could blow things apart, but the concern here is a nuclear fire that just releases radioactive particles into the air.

  • Yawn. Just another factless, lying lair piece about nuclear power and about Fukushima. A dime a dozen among the unfathomably untruthful anti-nuclear contingent. I debunk nuclear lies as hobby. I'm the terminator. I never get tired of it. I never stop. I never will give up. But this collection of BS has me stumped. I have no idea where to begin.

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  • I'm not at all "anti-nuclear." There are some terrific thorium reactor designs. I'm anti- obsolete and decrepit technology.

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  • The most catastrophic man made disaster since WW11 are the energy wars that started with the invasion of Kuwait by Bush and continued with the Bush Blair team when they expanded into Iraq and Libya. They still rave on today. Over a million died and millions are displaced today.

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  • Well, you are certainly anti-fact about nuclear and about Fukushima. That's about the same thing.

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  • Harry, stop thinking something's gone wrong inside of you.

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  • We don't need sarcasm. It's bad enough we have to slog through the BS lies of anti-nuclear fools.

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  • Disposal of the waste material remains an unresolved issue. This again is misinformation - Dr. Gregory Jaczko during his tenure as US NRC chairman was regarded with deep suspicion by the nuclear industry. A report by NRC Inspector General Hubert Bell accused Jaczko of withholding information from his colleagues in an effort to keep plans for the the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository from advancing. Dr. Greg Jaczko spent at least a decade misusing his impressive brain power in destructive ways by focusing it on halting the beneficial use of nuclear energy. He personally threw a huge wrench into the process of renewing licenses for existing reactors and for awarding licenses for new reactors. He was the driving force behind the aircraft impact rule for new reactors; he pushed as hard as he could to add more requirements for design changes as a way to significantly delay the the four new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors that are still under construction. Every day of delay at the NRC in producing the final COLA approvals for Vogtle and VC Summer after the staff had completed its review added at least a million dollars to the cost of each approved unit. Ironically; Jackzo was an antinuclear campaigner while he was a student at the University of Wisconsin. As described in Mark Leibovich’s “This Town”, Senator Reid played an important role in President Obama’s early decision to run for office. He pushed a lot of support to Obama from his position as Senate majority leader. After he became president, Obama made a payment on his political debt by firing Dale Klein as the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and promoted Dr. Jaczko 2009 into the position. In October 2011, all the other four NRC commissioners, two Democrats and two Republicans, sent a letter to the White House expressing "grave concern" about Jaczko's actions at the NRC. He resigned as chairman (2012) after months of conflict with his four colleagues on the NRC commission. I am surprised that he never got prosecuted for grand scale industrial sabotage, but what can you expect when even the criminals in Wall Street get away with their dirty business,

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  • There have been no effective improvements in reactor shutdown technology since WWII - Again misinformation - The new Generation III and IV reactors have new designs that incorporate enhanced safety features that build on lessons learned from the current generation of commercial power reactors. In new Generation III and Generation III+ designs, passive safety, also known as passive cooling, requires no sustained operator action or electronic feedback to shut down the plant safely in the event of an emergency. The Westinghouse Generation III AP1000 is equipped with water tanks, which can be emptied into the reactor vessel itself if necessary or into containment to flood in and around the reactor vessel. Instead of relying on pumps, the operator can rely on gravity once the fail-safe valve is opened. With Generation IV Reactors, new safety designs allow reactors to avoid pressurised operations, and have automatic reactor shutdowns in the case of emergency. Many designs also seek to avoid the usage of water to cool the reactor, which would reduce the risks in the situation where water is lost through leaks or heat. Furthermore, no safety-related pumps or ventilation systems are needed, they function without operator control and despite any loss of auxiliary power.

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  • So everything is fine at Fukushima? Is that what you're saying?

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