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Reactor meltdown possible in Japan.


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thank goodness, finally some good news out of such dispair. Hopefully they can contain it

yeah, but I don't know if they have actually been there to inspect it or if they are just saying that to not panic people.

I mean, the roof did not 'collapse' it was blown off.

Reuters just reported this:

Communications director at the World Nuclear Association, Ian Hore-Lacy, says he believes the blast at the power plant was due to hydrogen igniting, and that it may not necessarily have caused radiation leakage, and adds that if the hydrogen has ignited, then it is gone, and doesn't pose any further threat.

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1045: BBC environment correspondent Roger Harrabin says local officials believe the release of radiation following the nuclear plant explosion is likely to be small. He adds that nuclear incidents aren't always as serious as they may sound or appear, and actually, in terms of loss of life and destruction, accidents at hydroelectric plants are far more dangerous.

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Japan's nuclear safety agency officials said Saturday they believe there has been no serious damage to the container of the troubled No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The officials made the comment after examining the latest radiation data monitored around the facility after an explosion in the afternoon, they said.

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What we may not be able to see is a secondary shell... Have seen a schematic so I'm just reaching for positives.

256502872.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1299921510&Signature=CV1xO1XKAr7pzWhFSZGH%2Fpnnr1g%3D

http://www.reuters.c...E72B1BP20110312

"Despite the damage to the outer structure, as long as that steel inner vessel remains intact, then the vast majority of the radiation will be contained.

"If the pressure vessel, which is the thing that actually holds all the nuclear fuel ... if that was to explode -- that's basically what happened at Chernobyl -- you get an enormous release of radioactive material.

"It doesn't look from the television pictures ... as though it's the vessel itself.

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http://www.reuters.c...E72B1BP20110312

"Despite the damage to the outer structure, as long as that steel inner vessel remains intact, then the vast majority of the radiation will be contained.

"If the pressure vessel, which is the thing that actually holds all the nuclear fuel ... if that was to explode -- that's basically what happened at Chernobyl -- you get an enormous release of radioactive material.

"It doesn't look from the television pictures ... as though it's the vessel itself.

Thats what we have been saying all night long. Thank you.

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Looks like something between the best case and worst case has happened, thankfully it seems at this early stage things are going to be generally ok...

Its yet again another wait and see job.

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It makes more sense to me than hydrogen. Why would a hydrogen explosion occur in the outer building but not the inner vessel?

Makes sense also because of the lack of flames. Hydrogen would have had a fireball I assume. I remember watching the mythbusters and they overheated a hot water heater and the steam explosion from that was tremendous for such a small amount of steam.

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Makes sense also because of the lack of flames. Hydrogen would have had a fireball I assume. I remember watching the mythbusters and they overheated a hot water heater and the steam explosion from that was tremendous for such a small amount of steam.

I actually watched the video again and you can see just a bit of orange flame as the building blows.

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I actually watched the video again and you can see just a bit of orange flame as the building blows.

When I worked at Pfizer we had a over pressurization of hydrogen cylinders which resulted in auto venting of the vessels, the fireballs in the sky were very large and impressive. A hydrogen explosion would have lit up the sky. Intriguing to me what actually blew up.

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It makes more sense to me than hydrogen. Why would a hydrogen explosion occur in the outer building but not the inner vessel?

TMI had a hydrogen bubble build up. It didn't explode because there was insufficient oxygen. But it caused great concern.

An outer building with more oxygen could be an explanation.

I ran a naval nuclear reactor for four years before college, no commercial reactor experience, and I don't really have a clue what is happening now, except it looks scary.

I posted this link about 10 pages back...

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html

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TMI had a hydrogen bubble build up. It didn't explode because there was insufficient oxygen. But it caused great concern.

An outer building with more oxygen could be an explanation.

I ran a naval nuclear reactor for four years before college, no commercial reactor experience, and I don't really have a clue what is happening now, except it looks scary.

I posted this link about 10 pages back...

http://www.nrc.gov/r...3mile-isle.html

A worked at Nine Mile Point as an assistant to the meteorologist for a few months in college and I've read a lot on the chernoyble disaster...but I don't really know either. Maybe Spartalifer (forgot his name now) can shed some light.

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An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said. The effort is expected to take two days.

Radiation levels have fallen since the explosion and there is no immediate danger, Edano said. But authorities were nevertheless expanding the evacuation to include a radius of 20 kilometers (about 12.5 miles) around the plant. The evacuation previously reached out to 10 kilometers.http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.nuclear/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

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The video certainly looked like a hydrogen fireball. The fireball was short-lived, barely visible and appeared to be moving upwards at a high velocity, all of which are characteristics of hydrogen fires. With regard to the vertical velocity, hydrogen is the lightest gas at 2 g/mole, vs. air which is 79% nitrogen (N2), at 28 g/mole, and 21% oxygen (O2), at 32 g/mole; hence hydrogen is far less dense than air, so it rises very rapidly when released - even faster than helium, which is 4 g/mole of gas. Here is a link to characteristics of hydrogen fires/flames.

http://www.hysafe.org/science/eAcademy/docs/1stesshs/presentations/hyfire1.pdf

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Of 90 people from within the 10km exclusion zone around Fukushima nuclear power plant tested, three have given positive results for radiation exposure, says Japanese public broadcaster NHK. That's just over three per cent.

Some 45,000 people who live within the 10km radius were told to evacuate their homes in the early hours of this morning, when pressure inside reactors was building rapidly.

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