Is it time for the Chernobyl option?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

The idea of burying the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex has come up before, but theoretical physicist Michio Kaku made a strong pitch for the plan yesterday on MSNBC. He made the point that the current approach of spraying water on the reactors and fuel-rod storage pool is like using "squirt guns against a raging forest fire."

I say start the entombing now!

Watch the video here: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/17/6290171-is-it-time-for-the-chernobyl-option

[lapfog_1]

1. Before entombing the site,

you might just want to remove the fuel rods from both the storage pools and reactors first.

Right now, pouring concrete on it or putting steel around it will only create a the world's largest dirty bomb, and it will set the timer going (not being able to cool anything anymore).

After the fuel rods have been removed (and it's not clear at this point that we can), then it will need to be entombed.

Of course, Chernobyl had a very "special" way to remove the fuel from the site, one that could still happen here in Fukushima.

[Paradoxical]

5. Yeah, at Chernobyl the fuel was removed from the site by the big ass explosion.

That sent chunks of fuel and control rods raining down on Pripyat. The rest of the core melted and poured into the lower portion of the reactor vessel.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. move them to where? when? How?

[lapfog_1]

9. Primarily away from each other.

Individually they can be, more or less, safely entombed in casks of steel and concrete. Long term storage is another, as yet unsolved, problem.

Right now, there is a non zero chance that the rods (for sure the ones in reactor cores, but I understand that some of the "spent" rods in on site storage pools) could achieve fission again if left in close proximity to each other. Fission would raise the temperature to beyond the melting point of the cladding, and the containment vessel and even the earth underneath the reactors... to the point that a molten slag of uranium fuel could penetrate all the way to the water table underground, thus causing a very large and violent explosion scattering highly radioactive debris for miles and miles.

[Junkdrawer]

2. First, the explosions have to stop. There are two sources of explosions....

1.) Hydrogen from the heating of Zircaloy cladding + water.

2.) Molten fuel hitting groundwater.

[Raven]

3. I really appreciate the people here (see #1 & 2 above) who know

something about this and are willing to share their knowledge with the rest of us. It has been very helpful to me, as have Rachel M's nightly lectures, in understanding this crisis. Thanks.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. Breaking news: End in sight for Fukushima fears – as engineers ponder burying stricken plant

ENGINEERS AT THE Fukushima I nuclear power plant in northern Japan have extended a new emergency power cable to the front of the complex – hoping to create a medium-term solution to the plant’s ongoing cooling problems.

Staff at the plant have been battling to maintain cooling systems at the plant since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake a week ago – and the resulting tsunami – knocked out both the primary and backup cooling systems at each of the plant’s six nuclear reactors.

Each core reactor has faced the possibility of overheating as a result – with some of the active nuclear cores already having gone into partial meltdown.

Overnight, however, engineers finished laying a new industrial electricity supply to the plant – a move which could allow the primary cooling systems to be restored, allying any major fears of further meltdowns.

http://www.thejournal.ie/end-in-sight-for-fukushima-fears-as-engineers-ponder-burying-stricken-plant-2011-03/

~~~~~

They obviously don't "know" everything

[Paradoxical]

4. He's a theoretical physicist. His job is basically making shit up.

Kaku is entertaining if you want to hear about how it may or may not be possible to "time travel".

I'll leave the nuclear physics to the chemical engineers who actually work day in and day out on nuclear technology.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. It appears that he is pretty good at it....

LBN: Fukushima fears – as engineers ponder burying stricken plant

Overnight, however, engineers finished laying a new industrial electricity supply to the plant – a move which could allow the primary cooling systems to be restored, allying any major fears of further meltdowns.

Operations to restore power through the new facilities were underway at the time of publication, government spokesman Yukio Edano confirmed.

If the operation proves unsuccessful – or even if it is – a spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has acknowledged that it could pursue the so-called “Chernobyl solution” to stop any further radioactive emissions from the facility.



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