Japan Asks U.S For Help In Cooling Nuclear Reactors.

[Stuart G]

Source: TPM ,REUTERS

REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report Politics News

Mar 14, 2011 13:55 EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Japanese government has formally asked the United States for help in cooling the nuclear reactors damaged by a major earthquake last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Monday.

The commission said it is responding to the request and may provide Japan with technical advice.



Read more: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2011/03/japan_asks_us_for_help_cooling_nuclear_reactors.php?ref=fpa

[snagglepuss]

1. May provide? What the hell is that about? Why aren't they there already since

the Pacific Coast could potentially be hit with fallout?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Two people were already there

but as somebody who knows how hard it is to walk on eggshells of actually officially asking, may is to save face for Japan

That is the angle that media really sucks at covering

[snagglepuss]

7. Point taken. The Japanese who are handling this are probably

already stressed to the breaking point so helping them save face is probably an excellent idea.

[suffragette]

2. I saw that earlier on France24's live blog

Surprising to me that it has taken them until today to make that formal request.

[msongs]

4. lol we have experts right here on DU that could go over there and tell them nuke power is safe :-)

[Stuart G]

5. Wasn't Safe Then, Not Safe Now...Never Will Be... IF..

it was/is.. so safe, then why all these accidents?..
.every few years..??

[Rebubula]

17. Which Accidents do you refer to?

Please - name all the ones that happen every few years and how many people died?




Just a couple of deaths....one, maybe?


Hmmmm....

[mrfrapp]

21. Sellafield

The Sellafield site (Windscale, Calder Hall, THORPE, etc.) in the North west of England had 21 nuclear accidents between 1950 and 2000. That's one every three years at that site alone.

Not that I'm not against nuclear power per se, but we do need to get it right. Hopefully, we can learn some important lessons from the Japanese once all this has concluded.

[christx30]

6. This might be a stupid question..

but what about a metric buttload of liquid nitrogen? it would cool the exposed fuel rods in almost no time. And when it goes away, it is just nitrogen, which occurs naturally in the atmosphere. I'm sure the experts have looked at it and have discounted it for one reason or another. But I'd like to know what the objections would be to that plan.

[buddysmellgood]

8. I would guess that you can't cool it too fast or risk breaking it, like pouring cold water on a hot

glass.

[Kennah]

11. And probably created highly radioactive steam

[christx30]

16. I would imagine that even having

the stuff in the room might not be a bad idea to act as a heat sink. Let the heat go into it to relieve some of the heat that is on the rods and lower the temp in the room.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. There's no feasible way to transport that much liquid nitrogen.

Think of it like this, if you had a vat of boiling water how many ice cubes would it take to cool it? Now imagine that those ice cubes has to be shipped in small quantities from all over the world.

The seawater is there and in an in an exhaustible supply.

[Confusious]

15. As someone who has worked with liquid nitrogen

In normal tempatures, liquid nitrogen warming up to room tempature can expand exponentially, causing and explosion.

putting it on something this hot would cause the entire containment vessel to ripp into to tiny little shreds, making this worse then a chernobyl.

[christx30]

24. See?

That's why I don't do nuke stuff. I do DSL tech support. I don't do my job well and the customer has to wait 48 hours to get online. lol

[Confusious]

25. well, it can be fun

We would throw 1 liter bottles up with a little liquid nitrogen in the air and watch them pop,, until one popped the wrong way and came down on the managers windshield.

oops.

[cui bono]

29. Yeah but then at least you had something to post on youtube. n/t

[salib]

20. Not a stupid question at all.

However, it does point out the limited vocabulary people use to make this situation "understandable". When they talk about "cooling down" a reactor, it not so much about lowering temperature. The core produces its own heat (as it should in a functioning reactor). This heat is controlled by adjusting the ability of the core to continue a nuclear reaction (generally by introducing material, think "control rods", into the core to "absorb" nuclear particles which cause further nuclear reactions).

Thus, "cooling down" the reactor has little to do with changing the temp, though that can be important as a short term issue to prevent the core from "melting" and thus unable to introduce that absorbing material. Instead, it is mostly about how to introduce sufficient absorbing material (say as a liquid or perhaps penetrating it in some non destructive way and introducing it that way).

In the end, simply dousing it with liquid nitrogen would most likely damage the core and make it even harder to "cool down", i.e. dampen the nuclear reactions.

[1776Forever]

9. Japan Times on Twitter just now: U.N. nuclear watchdog to send team of experts to Japan - Kyodo n/t

[DirkGently]

12. I would hope we're doing anything and everyting we can, on all fronts. This is horrific.

[buddysmellgood]

13. Where's Brownie?

[DirkGently]

22. 8)

[Liberty Belle]

14. Radiation cloud? Weather Service has been muzzled, I just learned.

A source inside the U.S. National Weather Service tells me they have all been prohibited from talking to media about the potential for a radiation cloud to reach the the U.S., not even to comment on how fast such a cloud could reach here (without commenting on how dangerous it might be) Instead they have been directed to refer all calls on this topic to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the US Dept. of Energy!

I hope the NRC isn't stacked with pro-nuclear industry insiders who might hide the truth, but suspect that it is. Does anybody know?

Does anyone know of an unbiased source (not a pro- or anti-nuke group) that I could interview? I publish a major publication on the West Coast, and my readers are concerned that we may not be being told the truth.

Please PM me if you or someone you know has expertise on this issue and is willing to comment.

[bananas]

23. You should post this in the Environment/Energy, California, and Science forums.

[cui bono]

26. Thom Hartmann said the NRC has been sort of co-opted by the industry.

That's not the exact term he used but that's the gist of it.

[villager]

27. government itself has been co-opted by industry -- including the current Oval Office occupant

n/t

[cui bono]

28. True dat! n/t

[OneBlueSky]

18. "It's the end of the world as we know it . . . and I feel fine" . . . n/t

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Stuart G.

[zaqwsx]

30. The reality about Japan radiations

For people who want informations about the real situation of radiations from Japan they can contact me at [e-mail] or mesenger yahoo id mihaela_irina20.