Useful links about the situation in Japan

[beth_leonard]

Here's a link Jon sent me about Japan's geography which may be useful. i.e. Don't call up the mayor of Chicago and say, "YIKES!!! Are you OK!?!!! I heard you have a BIG HURRICANE to deal with over there!!!"

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake/

And here's another blog I've found has some fascinating explanations for what's going on at the various reactors. In short, as of 2pm Pacific on March 15th, most of the reactors have gone all the way cool, and one is still having issues.

When the quake hit, the control rods which usually control the nuclear reaction to produce more or less power were instantly inserted, taking the plant down from producing 100% power to 7% power right away. That remaining 7% generation power still needs to be cooled and slowly bled away over the course of several days. In some of the plants, the cooling systems were knocked out by the Tsunami, and the backup batteries ran out of power, and and and, you can read the post for details, but it looks like things will be brought under control they just haven't been yet. Some material was released into the environment, but nothing people who don't work at the plant need to worry about.

If you want to know all the details, start here and click forwards: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-simple-explanation/. I find it all fascinating.

The other part I liked is that in the article from Jon, the guy made a comment about the worst thing to happen will be that someone gets a cleanup bill with lots of zeros. It turns out that these plants were scheduled to be decommissioned in a few years anyway, so while yes, there will be lots of zeros involved, less than there could have been.

The missing train and missing people and general rebuilding are still a far greater worry than the power plant.
--Beth

Comments

[helencoleman.livejournal.com]

YOur dad has been telling me all about BWR's and how they work. He actually saw one of the GE reactors scheduled to go to Japan when he worked nuclear in 1978 for 6 months. You should call and talk to him about them. You've essentially got the story right. They shut down perfectly. The problem is the tsunami wiped out the backup electricity needed for cooling.