BarefeetChaser said: Then please bring luck to the Japanese people and stop the nuclear power plant from melting down...
I should say, a meltdown isn't the doomsday scenario its presented as. I've been following the disaster, since I happen to have an interest in nuclear power, and I can say its nowhere near Chernobyl.
Things aren't good, but I don't think a total meltdown is even possible.
Anelaid said: I should say, a meltdown isn't the doomsday scenario its presented as. I've been following the disaster, since I happen to have an interest in nuclear power, and I can say its nowhere near Chernobyl.
Things aren't good, but I don't think a total meltdown is even possible.
Then what about the leaking radiation? I am an idiot to science so could you give me some details about that?
lookingfrank said: Then what about the leaking radiation? I am an idiot to science so could you give me some details about that?
The radiation leak first began as an attempt to ease pressure off the reactor.
Given how fast the information is being updated, I haven't paid attention for 2 hours. There have been multiple hydrogen explosions, which appear to be due to the storage of spent fuel rods on site and within the reactor complex (A really bad idea) and cooling issues.
Radiation leakage is currently at a rate less than an intercontinental flight between the Japan and the US.
lookingfrank said: Then what about the leaking radiation? I am an idiot to science so could you give me some details about that?
Short form as I understand it: The reactor uses water for coolant. They have to keep the steam pressure low so the cooling stays effective and nothing important blows up. To keep pressure low, they had to vent steam occasionally.
Unfortunately, enough water boiled off at one point to expose the fuel container to steam. This produces hydrogen, which was vented with the steam. It also allows a few fission products to escape with the steam, mainly the noble gases Xenon and Krypton, with a bit of other stuff.
That hydrogen/steam/noble gas mix built up in the structure surrounding the concrete containment buildings, mixing with the air there. Add a spark and you get a hydrogen-oxygen explosion. Knocked part of the outer structure (which is NOT part of the containment), and that vented the radionuclide noble gases into the atmosphere. The containment structure itself wasn't damaged, those things are built tough.
The escaping gases explain most of the leaked radiation. Fortunately, noble gases don't bind to anything, so they float away and disperse to background levels within hours. The other byproducts are at low enough concentrations that as Anelaid said you'd pick up radiation faster on an airplane.
The bad news, I don't think that reactor is ever coming back online. That's a whole lot of power that needs to come from somewhere else now.
Okay thanks Anenaid and PK678353, anyway I heard about news which said about 50 workers decided to sacrificed themselves to save the reactor, it makes me feel sad, I respect them.
PK678353 said: Short form as I understand it: The reactor uses water for coolant. They have to keep the steam pressure low so the cooling stays effective and nothing important blows up. To keep pressure low, they had to vent steam occasionally.
Unfortunately, enough water boiled off at one point to expose the fuel container to steam. This produces hydrogen, which was vented with the steam. It also allows a few fission products to escape with the steam, mainly the noble gases Xenon and Krypton, with a bit of other stuff.
That hydrogen/steam/noble gas mix built up in the structure surrounding the concrete containment buildings, mixing with the air there. Add a spark and you get a hydrogen-oxygen explosion. Knocked part of the outer structure (which is NOT part of the containment), and that vented the radionuclide noble gases into the atmosphere. The containment structure itself wasn't damaged, those things are built tough.
The escaping gases explain most of the leaked radiation. Fortunately, noble gases don't bind to anything, so they float away and disperse to background levels within hours. The other byproducts are at low enough concentrations that as Anelaid said you'd pick up radiation faster on an airplane.
The bad news, I don't think that reactor is ever coming back online. That's a whole lot of power that needs to come from somewhere else now.
EDIT: If you want more, look at mitnse.com
The loss of the reactor is inconsequential, it was being retired in two weeks anyway.
Wouldn't the overheating problem have been resolved sooner had the reactor ceased working, like removing the fissile material or inserting a reaction inhibitor? Or is it that that had already been done, and residual heat still takes this long to dissipate?
Hyokai said: Or is it that that had already been done, and residual heat still takes this long to dissipate?
That's it exactly. According to the article on the MIT NSE site, residual heat from a fully shut down reactor is about 7% of the heat during normal operation, and the issue at hand is that the earthquake knocked out offsite power while the tsunami flooded the onsite diesel generators, leaving no way to power the cooling system except the emergency power within the containment structure itself (which only lasted for 8 hours due to space constraints).
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