Radiation at Fukushima nuclear plant at unimaginable levels

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: Reverbs

Maybe they can slather the robot in this stuff...

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Italy’s Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) have developed a nanoceramic material made from an aluminium oxide that has the potential of producing nuclear energy more efficiently and economically.

Researchers say the substance can operate at higher temperatures and stronger radiation fields. In addition to its higher tolerances, they say that the material becomes more resilient when exposed to radiation.

aluminiuminsider.com - Researchers Develop More Efficient Nanoceramic Material of Aluminium Oxide for Nuclear Reactors

Because, yeah, 40 seems really optimistic! In the future, that nanoceramic will be used inside reactors where they can use something other than water to cool the core without causing corrosion. It would be useful for fast neutron reactors too. But first we need to clean up our messes.

nice. Hey if anything good can come from this, we must be learning a lot of lessons..
And it's quite the motivation for new technologies.

a reply to: Reverbs

Would be pretty cool to find something that drops temp and freezes in the presence of high level radiation. Make it into a gel and pump a # load into the reactors.

a reply to: Phage

Reading comprehension was set on "low" as I was running out the door!

Thanks for the clarity!

The fact that this hit MSM is what is interesting. I just hope they do a decent job delineating between inside and outside readings. The headlines will be "fear and doom" which will only confuse those afraid of radioactive bananas!

Should now be :goMSM:??!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Well, it is pretty damned scary.

a reply to: OneGoal

Be more creative!!

"Anti-microwaves" would be cool! Aim a cheap radio source at something to freeze it... what's not to love?!!



PS - They have a design for a reactor that dumps the fissile material into a spread out tray that they douse with other material to stop reaction. The reactors are modular so if you need more power add another one!

a reply to: Phage

Bananas or MSM???

I already know your reply...

Unless they find substitute for "Heavy water"
we are stuck with it.

Imagine if Hitler got his shipment, instead of being
sunk to the bottom of a river, by 2 citizens that needed
to change the course of history.

We might not be here having this discussion.

Ponder that.

Peace

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Well, it is pretty damned scary.

I wish you would comment on this in more detail. ( I usually rely on you to make me feel better about things.)
Is the Pacific going to continue to be poisoned? Is the worse-case scenario past us?

a reply to: angeldoll

So far... the ocean is not being killed by radiation.

Part of my quip is that MSM gets facts wrong and the headlines cause panic at the disco (stoopid autocorrect).

Yes, the levels of radiation INSIDE the building can kill you and lots of people. So far it has been localized. A true China Syndrome never stops. We are not there.

I hope we never get there! Besides, this mess we need to tackle that plastic island it needs to be addressed too.

a reply to: angeldoll

It could still be worse.

If they lost offsite power and the ability to maintain operation of the coolant pumps for the spent fuel pools, there'd be a really nasty bonfire that would probaby make things very, very bad for biological life.

There's tons of spent fuel still there, that needs continual cooling for decades. And then it's eventually buried in huge cement casks for hundreds of thousands of years.

a reply to: loam


Two old articles for review to make a point.

5 years ago:
Nuclear radiation seeps into Japanese groundwater

Same crap last year:
Nuclear water: Fukushima still faces contamination crisis

And yet...

TEPCO have said they are taking measures to stop water flowing into the site, including building an underground wall, freezing the land itself and syphoning underground water.

The government too insist the situation is under control.

"The impact of the contaminated water is completely contained inside the port of the Fukushima plant," Tsuyoshi Takagi, the Cabinet minister in charge of disaster reconstruction, told reporters on Tuesday.

What a fine deception our gubbermint sponsored Tep#s pulled off there! Under control my ass. Where is the chinese invasion when you need one?
This pretty much sums it up:

The world’s largest “dirty bomb” just waiting to explode

In effect, Fukushima has become the world’s largest dirty bomb, and the remaining fuel rods could explode (achieve criticality) at any moment. Even right now, the radiation is so intense that robots built to explore the wreckage can only survive for a few hours before their circuits are destroyed. Thus, there’s almost no scenario in which Japan, Tepco or anybody in the world figures out how to clean up the wreckage, reclaim the melting fuel rods and reestablish control over the nuclear reactions that are still ongoing.

You can’t even successfully build a containment vessel on top of it all because the melting nuclear fuel has already burned a massive hole in the floor and is melting its way into the ground water.

“Tepco also said image analysis had revealed a hole in metal grating beneath the same reactor’s pressure vessel,” reports The Guardian. “The one-metre-wide hole was probably created by nuclear fuel that melted and then penetrated the vessel after the tsunami knocked out Fukushima Daiichi’s back-up cooling system.”

Media Blackout Over “Unimaginable” Radiation Levels Detected At Fukushima… MOX Fuel Melts Through Reactor Floor… Half Life Of 24,000 Years

originally posted by: angeldoll

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Well, it is pretty damned scary.

I wish you would comment on this in more detail. ( I usually rely on you to make me feel better about things.)
Is the Pacific going to continue to be poisoned? Is the worse-case scenario past us?

The seafloor in the Fukushima region will be in a bad way for along time. Beyond that, I'm still catching and eating local fish without concern.

originally posted by: angeldoll

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Well, it is pretty damned scary.

I wish you would comment on this in more detail. ( I usually rely on you to make me feel better about things.)
Is the Pacific going to continue to be poisoned? Is the worse-case scenario past us?

nuclear meltdown.. It's not ok.. But it is sort of localized ya know? It's not getting into the air, and only some into the water. Wouldn't eat fish from japan.

As long as they can keep it cooled we should be ok ish. It's just there is no off button..

Feel any better?

They could always try to cap it.

a reply to: Groot

you could cap that one because it wasn't hot..
this time there is way more fuel in one spot that needs to stay cooled..
the other one was spread all over the damn place..
And it wasn't like IN the ocean either.

they may find a way to do that down the line.

a reply to: Reverbs

Thanks guys. All of you. I guess I feel better, about myself and my own circumstances; my countries' circumstances. But the big picture,,, I see the Earth as a living entity. I hate when we do things to make it sick. Blow upon blow, insult after insult.
How much can it take. We don't respect it enough. That's what worries and depresses me.

But your comments were all helpful. Thanks.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF


Huh, China syndrome?

Would you please cite if the mass of nuclear material is still critical or supercritical? Creating uncontrollably energy through a chain reaction of fissions initiated by neutrons.....

Versus the release of radiation by spent fuel and fission products undergoing radioactive decay?

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: crappiekat

Well who knows maybe they can make better robots?

That would be a good development in general for all nuclear power in the future. And even space travel.

I was wondering the same thing, and hoping it is being worked on. I wonder if a lead shielded robot would be helpful?

a reply to: Phage

I'm concerned as hell, Phage. Alaska's king and silver salmon spend part of their lives off the coast of Japan before returning to AK for the spawn. Those fish then swim up our rivers and streams, spawn, die, and their carcasses (as with our pink, red, and chum salmon) are the building block of the local aquatic food chains. That fact alone makes Japan's crisis very much a potential Alaska crisis. The past 2 years I have seen a definite increase in Kings and silvers with parasite infestations that were impacting their overall health, as well as wonky run timing. The weather may play some role there, I wouldn't rule it out, but I also admit it worries the h'll out of me that the radiation near their feeding grounds is impacting them.

To give you some idea of what's at stake for me, personally, my family lives on about 1/3rd to 1/2 of our meat coming from sport and subsistence catches of salmon, rockfish, halibut, and fresh water fish. By late August I usually have several hundred lbs of salmon in my deep freeze plus another hundred lbs plus smoked and canned. Losing the health of that resource would be devastating to many Alaskans.