Attn: Fukushima... It rains occasionally!

This isn't embarrassing anymore, it's pathetic. It's pathetic on every level and in every way. I'll come right out and say what I think too. Fukushima isn't pathetic. How can a physical set of buildings be good or bad? The reactors aren't pathetic. They're doing precisely what they're supposed to do. Physics and math say so and should have, well in advance to anticipate.

No, what is pathetic are the PEOPLE at Fukushima. The management and the decision makers. Absolutely, without question or mitigation ...PATHETIC!!

Now lets take a look here at just what is so outrageous, I might be overstating matters, after all. Say....if something beyond their control went wrong? Well... That isn't the case.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Highly radioactive water overflowed barriers into Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its operating utility said on Monday, after it underestimated how much rain would fall at the plant and failed to pump it out quickly enough.

Underestimated..... Hmmm.. Yes.... That would be accurate. As far as it goes.

They had a plan!

Tepco said it had planned to pump out the accumulating rainwater into empty tanks, check it for radioactivity, and if it was uncontaminated, release into the sea. But the company was overwhelmed by the amount of rainwater.

and their plan?

"Our pumps could not keep up with the rainwater. As a result, it flowed over some containment areas," said Tepco spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai. The company had planned for 30 to 40 millimeters of rainfall on Sunday, but by late afternoon the rainfall already stood at around 100 millimeters, he said.

Source

Their plan seems simple and that's the problem. They've learned absolutely, 100% NOTHING. They're obviously still planning, building and equipping that site to the level REQUIRED and not much, if anything more. That line of math someone comes up with to say 'we're covered if we do this much' ....and then say OOOPS when it wasn't enough? That's what we'd call bare minimums....and that situation doesn't lend itself to minimum anything.

I have an idea here... How about, when we're dealing with the most dangerous material in the world, in a state of chaotic lack of containment? EVERYTHING be OVER engineered. If they expect 40mil of water to fall? Set pumps for 120mil. If they expect 150kmph winds? Set preparation for 200.

Is this so hard to grasp? When there IS no margin for error in consequence, there should NEVER be an Oops. Margins should be planned in, sufficient to absorb all but the most unforeseeable and extreme situation. Heavy rain, during the rainy season and a major storm? What the heck is so unforeseeable about that??

Hey, you can't expect wonders of them!

They planned for 30-40mm of rain.

It rained 100mm that day.

That is about 10cms! Of course, that would swash over the walls of the confiments! Those were about 4 cms high!

Why would there ever be demand for a greater height for a confinement of radioactively-polluted water in mankinds history!

*crap* we are doomed.. Godspeed to everyone living at the Pacific's shore and on its islands - you will be the first. The rest of humanity will follow soon after, no worries..

have they come up with any kind of real plan to solve this problem? or is it truly unsolvable?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Wrabbit, Tepco was way out of their league the second they built the facility where they did. Japan is like a bowl of jello it has more wiggle in it than Elvis did. Then on top of that placing the structure next to the ocean was not asking for trouble but begging for it.

Tepco wonders how thing could get so bad so fast, well they need to look at their comedy of errors right from the get go for a clue. The Japanese are extremely innovative but it looks like Tepco is run by kindergarten dropouts. They lost face the second they realized they couldn't handle it and did not ask for help but tried to cover it up.

Pipifax!

The amount of leaked Water is sooooo small and you may overestimate the Impact!

The Size of Daiichi is immense and i am not surprised that they face logistic
Problems like the surveillance of every single Tank!

The Soil of the whole Area need to get Stored until Eternity
and a bit of Contamination is not a problem at all!

Again you fall for the Headlines but not for the core of the Problem
(Old nuclear Power Plants)

pstrron
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Wrabbit, Tepco was way out of their league the second they built the facility where they did. Japan is like a bowl of jello it has more wiggle in it than Elvis did. Then on top of that placing the structure next to the ocean was not asking for trouble but begging for it.

Tepco wonders how thing could get so bad so fast, well they need to look at their comedy of errors right from the get go for a clue. The Japanese are extremely innovative but it looks like Tepco is run by kindergarten dropouts. They lost face the second they realized they couldn't handle it and did not ask for help but tried to cover it up.

Good post.
I am reminded of the character played Jeff Goldblum in the movie 'Jurassic Park', explaining how the chaos theory demands that things like the Fukushima disaster will happen.

Why tempt fate and put a reactor on a fault line on the shore of the Pacific Ocean?

reply to post by pstrron


I agree with you, that these facilities should not be at water's edge, despite how many of them are. However, I do want to note something that I think is critically important here.

The Earthquake didn't cause Fukushima to go critical.

The Tsunami didn't cause Fukushima to go critical.

The loss of generators after land line power was lost, is what caused Fukushima to go critical. If one looks closely at the timeline and readings of the reactor units as the disaster was happening (all that was released in the beginning) then you can see the units and plant over all, funcitoned normally abeit under alerts, until the literal second the generators (placed outside and at ground level) were washed away ....taking with them, any hope of avoiding what necessarily came next. Daichi's Sister plant, located a few kilometers down the coast, was not destroyed. Fukushima Units #5 and #6 were not destroyed. They sat a little higher on a bluff, on the north end of the complex. ....just high enough.

So from the start, this has been a calamity of bad planning, working to min. requirements and 'Doh! That's good 'nough to work!" attitudes, IMO. This stupidity with planning for one rainfall amount with NO way to accomodate more, and within what could be possible ...is criminally stupid. It's a sign that nothing there has improved, as I see it.

Strange thing to think about- this 'radioactivity' existed on / in Earth before this 'disaster' occurred.

The only difference between now and then, is the quantity involved wasn't concentrated in one place.

reply to post by pstrron


the type of reactor they built requires it to be built near the ocean. they should have used a different design. however, with nuclear power it doesn't matter what design is used...... at some point one of the plants will blow. they should have been prepared from the beginning for an accident since typhoons hit the island often AND there are earthquakes. or.... they should have used solar and wind power.

what's done is done. now they are just putting scotch tape over the cracks and saying "oops".

Human0815
Pipifax!

The amount of leaked Water is sooooo small and you may overestimate the Impact!

it may have been small but the latest news is that there has been a MASSIVE spike in radiation leakage. and by massive i mean 6,000 times the limit.

blogs.wsj.com...

reply to post by abecedarian


Some of what was stored and being used at Fukushima is comparable to what is in the environement ..kinda..in more concentrated forms.

Then again, and here is the important part IMO, some of what they had/have there never existed in nature before nuclear reactions were used to create it. Those materials are among the most dangerous ever invented or handled by man.

MOX or Mixed Oxide Fuel is one such material they have there in quantity. It's not the only one, but I'd call it the worst of the variety pack they were using.

There are still questions from day 1 about why some of that was ever there, let alone in those quantities. So... They made their own calamity where only a disaster might have otherwise existed, IMO.

When you think about it, we will invade countries because we don't like their political systems, but if they do something as dangerous and irresponsible as what we see going on in Fukushima, we have to "respect" their authority? So their egos ain't bruised?

I say the Japanese people in charge at Fukushima have NO HONOR! They are a shame for the Japanese people.

If they can't make good decisions, they should at least step down.

This is a real shame.

At least, Russians did what had to be done, when Chernobyl happened. And I'll always respect them for that.

reply to post by NowanKenubi


It seams like you really think that they done good things in Soviet Russia?

If so i think your Brain-Os need a System Check because your Program Files
are corrupted with inhuman Behavior!

They risked the Life of more than 500.000 "Liquidators" and done nothing,
all the Fuel that was not Air-born in the first 10 Days is still there,
they do not clean up anything and their whole highly radiated Tools,
Caterpillars, Helicopter, Cars, Trucks, etc. are still in the open.

Russia do not supported the Ukraine with Money to rebuild the Sarcophagus
and i could go on and on but it is up to you, you need to read that Chapter
one more Time because what's happened in Chernobyl is really bad!

reply to post by Human0815


Well, thanks for that. I'll look more into it. Though I remember the Russians did sacrifice lots of young men.

But I was under the impression that they had it under control.

sigh...

reply to post by NowanKenubi


Only the English Language?

reply to post by Human0815


For those old enough to remember Chernobyl knew how very bad this was.

I'm not talking about those who read about it, studied it, but those old enough to remember it live. Remember all of the "we have this under control" stories? Even then as a teen, I knew it was a million times worse.

And then 20 some odd years, facts actually started coming out.

So like I said, those old enough to remember, we wait. Because we know the real horror story hasn't even begun to come out.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


yet, another one is coming... Francisco.. take a look

What amazes me about this whole debacle is that the Japanese are normally much smarter than this. They plan ahead. Their designs are innovative.

They've really really dropped the ball on this disaster and they don't seem to be learning from it at all. Maybe they need some fresh thinkers on the scene.

I wonder.....so much storage tanks for radio active water....even moore to need build..
wat they gonna do with it where will it be dumped in time??????????
other hand ..one big EQ will crack the tanks and million of gallons contaminated water floods into the sea...

reply to post by pstrron


I believe the US oversaw Japan's nuclear power program.....

One wonders....is this catastrophe by design?