Huge tsunami slams Japan after 8.9 quake, at least 5 dead

[ytsejam]

I'm less than 15 miles from LaSalle County nuke plant.

- In February 2006, the LaSalle plant declared a site area emergency, the second highest of the NRC's alerts, when indicators registered the incomplete insertion of three control rods in the reactor. The indicator was found to be false, and the reactor was under control.

from - http://www.neis.org/Nuke News/Clipp...060217/NEWS/602170330&SearchID=73236151832506



Here's from Braidwood:

- In multiple instances between 1996 and 2005, the plant at Braidwood released large amounts of low-level radioactive water from a leaky valve. The water, on its way to the Kankakee River, where it periodically is released and diluted, contained levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Exelon and the NRC have said the amount of tritium in the ground was not considered harmful, and while some drinking water was affected, it remained safe for consumption. The spills, which were kept quiet from the public for years, resulted in allegations of incompetence and lawsuits were brought forward against Exelon. Tritium leakage also occurred in recent years at the Byron Nuclear Power Station in Ogle County and the Dresden Nuclear Power Station in Grundy County.

At least we don't have tsunamis here.

 

[phranchk]

That depends on how many of their reactors melt down. They are saying 3 differenct facilities are now having issues. With one already assumed to have partial melt down. The Japanese Government is being very tight lipped about any of this, even with the US Government.



They are talking about the two plates in the NW corner of the US. It's been 300 years and over due.



The New Madrid runs up into IL. A major quake there would effect the entire midwest. Il houses SIX Nuclear plants alone.



Moving the entire Island of Japan 8ft is unreal!

I'm speaking more of the economic, technological impact on the world.

 

[R K]

The controversy of Nuclear Power no doubt.

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

That depends on how many of their reactors melt down. They are saying 3 differenct facilities are now having issues. With one already assumed to have partial melt down. The Japanese Government is being very tight lipped about any of this, even with the US Government.



They are talking about the two plates in the NW corner of the US. It's been 300 years and over due.



The New Madrid runs up into IL. A major quake there would effect the entire midwest. Il houses SIX Nuclear plants alone.



Moving the entire Island of Japan 8ft is unreal!

With reactor meltdowns it depends on how well the core housing can handle the melting. Just about all of the Japanese reactors were contracted by GE and have melt safety features that exceed 3 mile island. Which means the melt should remain within the housing. The bigger issue, and most likely the cause of much of the rad level increase, is from the waste that has become exposed.



Was chatting with a buddy of mine that is in this industry about this. He is one of the designers of the IFR reactors (at Aragon back in the early 90's) which esentially reuses the depleted rods by first putting them into another reactor to further deplete and then re-energize to use in the initial reactor (Mr Environmental VP Gore recommended killing the project and it was...which sent all of those engineers to work outside of the US). Anyway, he is currently doing safety evals and design adjustments for updated safety. He mentioned that those GE reactors are pretty safe, but the biggest issue is if the housing has a crack. Because they would need to clear the core or try to cover the crack.

 

[Sir Mike of Burbs]

I read somewhere a while ago that the biggest quake that the Illinois could get would be registered around a 6. But I'm no expert.

 

[R K]

It would effect Southern IL and St. Louis far more than chicago.



About every 200-300 years it's over 7.5...



New Madrid

 

[phranchk]

I read somewhere a while ago that the biggest quake that the Illinois could get would be registered around a 6. But I'm no expert.

I believe that's false. We sit near the New Madrid fault line and that fault line had some huge earthquakes in the 1800s. There were 4 in the period of 2 years. The weakest around 7 and the largest estimated at 8.1

 

[R K]

With reactor meltdowns it depends on how well the core housing can handle the melting. Just about all of the Japanese reactors were contracted by GE and have melt safety features that exceed 3 mile island. Which means the melt should remain within the housing. The bigger issue, and most likely the cause of much of the rad level increase, is from the waste that has become exposed.



Was chatting with a buddy of mine that is in this industry about this. He is one of the designers of the IFR reactors (at Aragon back in the early 90's) which esentially reuses the depleted rods by first putting them into another reactor to further deplete and then re-energize to use in the initial reactor (Mr Environmental VP Gore recommended killing the project and it was...which sent all of those engineers to work outside of the US). Anyway, he is currently doing safety evals and design adjustments for updated safety. He mentioned that those GE reactors are pretty safe, but the biggest issue is if the housing has a crack. Because they would need to clear the core or try to cover the crack.

Yea that's the steel housing within the Concrete building. I'm not sure from listening to reports they know either way if it's been breached. It's all about the heat. The salt water they are using now has never been attempted before.



And that's just one of the three that are having issues. It's already clear material has escaped. How much and will there be more are the questions.

 

[MassHavoc]

I think the earth tilt stuff and the japan moving 8 feet stuff in this thread to me is the most incredible interesting stuff. I mean.... just wow. The sheer raw power that would be needed to do that sort of thing. I mean, can you imagine shocks like that around the world almost simultaneously... it's the think that scifi movies are made of.. satilites lose orbit, earth splits in half, crazyness. You can have california.

 

[roshinaya]

Media has sure loved to sensationalize and spew alarmist crap about the nuclear plant, further feeding the irrational fear of nuclear power the public seems to have. So far there have been surprisingly little radiation contamination considering these plants have been through earthquakes and tsunamis.

 

[phranchk]

A volcano erupted in Japan today. I don't think it was completely unexpected though. They don't know if there's any relation to the earthquake since it was an active volcano.

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

A volcano erupted in Japan today. I don't think it was completely unexpected though. They don't know if there's any relation to the earthquake since it was an active volcano.

Subduction is the primary factor in volcanic activity. Since that is a subduction region the quake could have a high relation to the eruption.

 

[Spunky Porkstacker]

There is a danger rating scale they use to rate the level of danger for a nuclear reactor. Chernoble in 89 was the worst nuclear disaster ever was rated a 7 and had no protective encasement. the 3 Japanese reactors are rated a 4 have a protective shell that will contain a total meltdown, supposedly. The worst of the 3 Japanese reactors is in a partial meltdown and it won't be known for days if that will develop into total meltdown

 

[LordKOTL]

The new madrid fault zone is...interesting. On one hand, due to it's nature, it's upper-limit of power is right around an 8. But on the other hand, because it's right in the middle of the North American plate, and mosty of the faults between it and the Rocky mountains to the west, the Mid-atlantic/arctic to the east and north, and the carribean to the south are pretty much fused and welded together, the distance a quake can be felt is much greater than anything out west.



So, yeah, an 8 there would be devastating primarily to Kansas City and St. Louis, and the damage would be massively widespread--I'd be guessing based on the dissipation factor I saw in the 6.8 Nisqually quake of 2001, Chicago would be looking at a 6.8-7 force, and something tells me most of the city was not built with that level of an earthquake in mind.



Meanwhile, the Cascadia subduction zone could easily put out a 9 (like Prince William sound), but the power would be localized because many of the faults out west are active and not hard-welded through hundreds of millions of years of time. That being said, Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland would bear the brunt of it but likely San Fransisco would barely register a 3.

 

[R K]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rqPPJPwLg[/media]





Wow.

 

[jakobeast]

If I am not mistaken, the info I have heard is that the nuke plants in Japan weren't hurt too bad by the earthquake, it was the ensuing tsunami that is causing these reactors to go nuts.

 

[R K]

If I am not mistaken, the info I have heard is that the nuke plants in Japan weren't hurt too bad by the earthquake, it was the ensuing tsunami that is causing these reactors to go nuts.

It was the fact they lost power. With no generator to power the cool down on the reactors, they over heated.



The Earthquake caused everything.

 

[bubbleheadchief]

It was the fact they lost power. With no generator to power the cool down on the reactors, they over heated.



The Earthquake caused everything.

ding ding ding, we have a winner here. There was minimal damage to the plants themselves. It was the loss of electricity and all back-ups to the cooling systems which has caused this other mayhem, steam pressure to build so on and so forth.



The thing that all these news reports are not saying is the type of radiation that has been released into the air. High levels/low levels of the different types of isotopes mean different things.

 

[genefoley]

I can't find the article but I read one that had a physicist explain what happened and he said the heat build up caused the steam to break down into hydrogen and oxygen and the hydrogen build-up caused the explosion.



edit: here it is... http://www.rferl.org/content/japan_nuclear_power_plant_crisis_explainer_whats_happening/2337692.html

 

[jakobeast]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rqPPJPwLg[/media]





Wow.

Whats scary about this is that it starts off as just a little stream, and it just keeps getting deeper and faster.