(Japanese engineers conceded on Friday) Japan may have to bury nuclear plant as last resort

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Japan+hopes+restore+power+crippled+reactors/4452878/story.html

Japan may have to bury nuclear plant as last resort

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Mayumi Negishi, Reuters March 18, 2011 5:27

TOKYO - Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986.

But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by Saturday to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant's six.

It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work.

"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

…

[liberal N proud]

1. That should have been the first plan of action

These things need to be designed such that at the instant a melt down is happening, the reactor would be buried.

Maybe as part of the design, they need to have material necessary to bury it stored in a delivery system that could instantly cover the entire reactor, thus preventing radiation from spreading to the atmosphere.

[Statistical]

4. That would be the worst plan ever.

Most accidental don't result in full meltdown. Very few actually do.

By burying the reactor (or more likely in this case spent fuel) you reduce the worst case scenario but at the same time GUARANTEE massive radiation release.

Once buried the fuel rods will continue to heat up, eventually they will melt and radioactive material will be dispersed into ground and water.

Burial should only be an extreme last resort and used like in Chernobyl to avoid an even worse disaster by not burying.

[Old and In the Way]

2. In a 1000 years, this will serve as a monument to man's stupidity.

Sorta like the great pyramids, except we'll be having engineers for generations employed in maintaining them.

[GliderGuider]

3. Will we still have nuclear engineers for generations?

I doubt it, somehow.

The events in Japan are the early signal that global industrial civilization has peaked and is on the brink of decline. Having nuclear power plants that need constant monitoring and maintenance littering the landscape as our declining civilization loses its technological capacity is like giving an old lady with progressive dementia a running chainsaw.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. I guess we read the same books growing up

I keep thinking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano">Player Piano.

[GliderGuider]

7. Pretty much.

I loved Player Piano too.

I wonder if there's a version of "Godwin's Law" that applies to discussions like this:

"As an online discussion about the dangers of technology grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Ted Kaczynski approaches 1."

[subterranean]

6. They should be getting the sand and concrete ready now.

It seems inevitable that they'll have to bury at least some of those reactors, and it will leave the surrounding area permanently uninhabitable, in a country with precious little available land.