Power company reports rising pressure inside core of stricken plant

[FourScore]

US Air Force rushes coolant to nuclear reactor hit by giant Japan earthquake
Power company reports rising pressure inside core of stricken plant
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 30 minutes ago 2011-03-11T17:23:10

Key details

* U.S. Air Force delivers coolant to stricken nuclear plant
* Cooling system fails at Fukushima No. 1 plant after quake
* Fire reported at Onagawa nuclear facility

The United States has transported coolant to a Japanese nuclear plant hit by the massive Friday earthquake, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

"We just had our Air Force assets in Japan transport some really important coolant to one of the nuclear plants," Clinton said at a meeting of the President's Export Council.


"Japan is very reliant on nuclear power and they have very high engineering standards but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," Clinton said.

In addition, the Japanese defense ministry said it had dispatched dozens of troops trained to deal with chemical disaster to the plant in case of a radiation leak...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

[Junkdrawer]

1. Anyone know what kind of reactor this is? Light Water? Heavy Water? Sodium Cooled?

Why does the US Air Force need to supply cooling water? :shrug:

[Junkdrawer]

4. To answer my own question: Looks like a BWR (Boiling Water Reactor)....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Still wondering why the Air Force is needed to supply emergency cooling water.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The generator that supplies the water to cool it failed

per MSNBC on my emergency tweet.

[Junkdrawer]

10. So the Air Force supplied power or emergency water?

The link says they supplied coolant. Emergency power I could see....

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Coolant

emergency coolant. power, I can see if they can get an offshore and mobile Naval Reactor. This is serious shit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Here a little more info from the FT

Japanese government officials and Tokyo Electric Power, the plant’s operator, said all Fukushimi Daiichi’s reactors had shut down automatically as designed during the quake. But coolant water for one reactor was running low after its water pump’s diesel generator failed.


It is in Tokyo, so yes, the alternate electrical source will have to be either a naval reactor, or a bunch of diesel generators, Something is telling me they are moving those into position

[Hannah Bell]

25. no, it's NOT in tokyo. it's about 200 miles away.

[formercia]

26. Heavy Water?

That's all I can think of.

[FLPanhandle]

2. It's a little concerning that they've had to reach out to the US for help already

And that the coolant is already on it's way. Sounds like it's pretty serious and people have scrambled fast.

[IScreamSundays]

3. They will wait till after the markets close to tell us about

the radiation leak. I think it is very serious.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. I'm inclined to agree.

[Junkdrawer]

8. It took years before we found out how serious Three Mile Island actually was....

Events like this are kept secret so that "an uninformed public" doesn't panic (and demand better safety).

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Japan is especially sensitive to this due to two events

we are all familiar with

[FourScore]

21. I also believe that there is a high likelihood that it is leaking radiation.

I read a fascinating book by the nuclear scientist that led the cleanup of Tchernobyl. He is dead now, he died from the radiation poisoning. He wrote his book to warn the world about the dangers of nuclear energy before he died. (He was an advocate of nuclear energy until it took his life.) In his book he states that it is standard operating procedure of all countries and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to deny the true risk of any accident and to downplay the severity for as long as possible. Then slowly the truth seeps out. My guess: We'll first hear about radiation from independent sources, most likely from neighboring countries.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. They have issued evac orders for 200,000 people too

per my tweet on MSNBC...

And this is why kiddies reactors on fault zones are NOT a good idea *COUGH SAN ONOFRE COUGH*

If it is near water, they may have to use a secondary reactor to feed the coolant until they can fix the problem...

Ronald Reagan comes to mind, if it is nearby and I got no idea if this is even possible.

[Raster]

11. Yes, but those mussels the size of dinner plates just offshore from San Onofre are mighty tasty

[truebrit71]

23. ..and they glow in the dark too...makes them easier to find...

...:yikes:

[FLPanhandle]

12. Shit.

I hope this gets contained. I assume Japanese reactors have full containment vessels and aren't like the old USSR Chernobyl plants.

Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident all at the same time would be devastating to a country. Plus, the US would be in the jet stream path of any high altitude radioactive leak.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. They are extremely well engineered

and no do not use the same tech Chernobyl did. This was an 8.9 though... this is why reactors and faults don't mix...

[truebrit71]

22. Holy moly.....

...

[Raster]

9. "...some really important coolant..."

:rofl:

[sixmile]

13. Now venting gas

and declaring a SOE per ABC TV Santa Cruz

[IScreamSundays]

17. what does that mean?

"venting gas"

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. relieving internal pressure...

think of a reactor like this, a really big espresso machine... you boil water right? Water can get under pressure. What do you do when pressure gets too high? You release some using a side vent, or the vessel could fail...

[FLPanhandle]

20. Except this venting is radioactive

Not good.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. No, not all the time

and that is the tricky part.

If the nuclear vessel has integrity...

[formercia]

27. If the pressure vessel had lost integrity, it would not be building up pressure.

The coolant is just boiling off, since there is no way to rout it to the heat exchangers.