Remember that Chernobyl did not have a protective containment layer like Japan/US facilities.  It was a partial meltdown that went straight from reactor to atmosphere after the meltdown/explosion. 

There are so many news articles flooding the net and the newspapers I can't sort reality from rumour. Here is my take on the actual cause. Yes a tsunomi hit the reactors and the end result was that nine backup generators were flooded and rendered useless. The backup generators are there to provide cooling during an emergency shutdown. If these generators had been built uphill or on towers we would not be having these discussions. I really feel bad for the people within the area, but I feel the reactor failures were human error in the planning and budgeting stages. A lesson can be learned here, I suppose.

Becasue of my intimate involvement with Japan, I have been spending a lot of time talking to friends and checking into what the JAPANESE are discussing and feeling and what is really happening over there. 

I'm listening/reading in Japanese too.  It is very interesting when you speak the language a bit to listen to the English news voice overs ... and hear what is ACTUALLY being said in the background.  And what is NOT being translated.  Or accurately translated.

Don't believe everything that you are seeing in the western press; they are LOVING this disaster. 

Remember........



best,

..............john

A couple of points:

1) One thing to keep in mind is that the earthquake and resulting tsunami was an unprecedented event; the 4th strongest earthquake ever recorded. I think the Japanese took every precaution about earthquake proof construction that they could when they built Fukushima; it was just the intensity of the earthquake and the tsunami was above expectations. How to handle and contain something this severe, and not having any historical reference to work from, makes this a learning process for everyone handling this crisis.

2) JBaymore makes a good point; when the translator's voice seems to hesitate for a second, or the inflection of the words being translated sounds unsure, it may look as if what's being translated isn't really what's being said. People watching the NHK World feed and listening to all of the sound bytes from the "Talking Heads" can get the feeling that the Japanese Gov't. and TEPCO are not being forthcoming about what's really happening.
Of course, this story is a gold mine to the Media!

I just hope they can get supplies, mainly kerosene, gasoline, food and medical supplies to the smaller, rural areas SOON; those elderly folks really need the assistance! 

Alan 

JBaymore wrote on Mar 18^th, 2011 at 5:57am:


Well said John, I have an uncle in Japan and don't know what happened to him. The news people are truely loving this disaster. They just keep broadcasting even when there is nothing new or factual to report.

JBaymore wrote on Mar 18^th, 2011 at 5:57am:


LOL that is SO classic! I had to go find the song and add your "lyric"...

Alan 

Steve M wrote on Mar 18^th, 2011 at 4:49pm:



Steve,

There was an experience I had when I went to Japan that cemented my faith in the Japanese people....


I was walking along a street in Downtown Tokyo right in the middle of the Ginza, the huge shopping district. I had walked past a bicycle parked on the sidewalk (not locked) with a basket on the handlebars. Inside the basket were two very large bottles of Chanel # 5 Women's perfume, a box marked "Mikimoto" which had to contain pearl jewelry of some sort, and a Women's handbag. Now judging by the size of the bottles and the box, this was a basket that had to contain at least $3,000.00 in merchandise. Three hours later, I walked down that same street and past that same bicycle... everything was left just as it was when I had passed by earlier. If it were anywhere else in the World other than Japan, that bike and its contents would have been stolen and never recovered. 

It all comes down to the basic respect, kindness and ethics the Japanese people exhibit... I would hope that people around the world follow that same ideal when faced with a similar catastrophe.

Alan

The plant was designed for a specific amount of actual acceleration. According to world-nuclear it was 0.6g (or 600gal). The amount of shaking that actually occurs depends on how far the epicenter was away from the plant, and the depth etc. From what I've heard, the plant survived the earthquake and the reactor was shut down.

All sources of power (except battery) were lost after the tsunami that was apparently >10 meters high whereas the plant was designed for a 5.7 meter tsunami. The batteries ran out. All systems that were designed to take away decay heat were without power. Then the fuel rods got hot, evolved hydrogen gas that later exploded. Apparently the inner containment is intact or partially intact, whereas the secondary containment is destroyed as shown in the photos. They're still pumping sea-water into the reactors.

Chernobyl was somewhat different, as the reactor design allowed the reaction to go out of control during certain situations, which lead to a steam explosion and then a criticality incident, and had no containment during all of this. A large portion of the core was then scattered around the landscape, and the graphite moderator burned for days.






Steve M wrote on Mar 18^th, 2011 at 4:12pm:


AP1000 is very similar to existing PWR plants. It uses lightly enriched (approx 5%, but it varies) uranium dioxide pellets cladded with zircalloy.