Earthquake/Tsunami in Japan

Yeah, saw the animated gif thing...would like an explanation.

back tracked the gif location and ran it through google translate

According to the current model calculations of the ZAMG revolves currently a low pressure area over Japan, which could transport possible radiation clouds to the south and thus towards Tokyo. At the same time are possible in the next few hours, light rain on the east coast of Japan. In rainfall areas, it could lead to increased radiation coming on the ground. The latest forecasts show that today at 20:00 UTC the large-scale flow again turns to West. Currently, the wind is blowing slightly in Tokyo from the east and so far today it was dry in the Japanese capital.
 
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Tried, but KLM showed not flights...finally got one through Seattle which I figure should be relatively clear of the plume for a while.

Are there models somewhere? I saw you mentioned one but didn't find it.

Why would a low density plume like that at low altitude effect air travel?
 
Spent fuel is incapable of doing "meltdown", only active fuel rods do it.

A meltdown is normally understood to be a run away nuclear excursion where the heat production overwhelms the cooling system and core structures actually melt.

In this case the heat production is very low compared to normal operation but the cooling systems appear to be completely knocked out. So techically we have a situation where meltdown can occur, - in slow motion.

Modern designs are made so that they don't need any kind of passive cooling systems. If anything happens they simply shut down automatically. Check out pebblebed and liquid salt reactors for more information.

The reactors shut down automatically as they should in Fukushima, you'll have residual heat production in a pebble bed or molten salt reactor as well. In all cases active cooling is required if damage to the reactor is to be avoided.

Cheers
 
The reactors shut down automatically as they should in Fukushima, you'll have residual heat production in a pebble bed or molten salt reactor as well. In all cases active cooling is required if damage to the reactor is to be avoided.
Yes, but the point is that that cooling happens automatically in third-generation reactors, requiring nothing like external pumps, for instance.
 
The latest development is that they have evacuated the rest of the workers temporarily to safer places. So it would seem like to me that they´ve given up. Those reactors won´t cool themselves.

I suspect that the water pumps they have been using aren't hand pumps.
 
Yes, but the point is that that cooling happens automatically in third-generation reactors, requiring nothing like external pumps, for instance.

How ? Convective circulation in the primary cooling loop ? They cannot do without active cooling indefinitely.

GE's and Westinghouse's Gen 3 reactors can handle 72 hours without active cooling. This is only slightly longer than it took Fukushima to go pear shaped.

Most of the safety measures in Gen 3 and 3+ seems to revolve around two things:
1. (More) redundant cooling systems.
2. Negative void and heat coefficients.

The added redudancy is worthless if you can't power it. The negative reaction coefficients only matter for safety under normal operation.

Cheers
 
Here

Edit: This brochure for Westinghouse's AP1000 has a fair amount of info on the safety measures incorporated (non-technical though).

Cheers
Okay, fair enough, but this just requires that the water tank be topped up after that time. That, to me, seems like an exceptional safety margin.

Of course, this does rely upon it being built and maintained properly, which does require significant oversight to ensure.
 
Just Finland? I would have thought he would want to restore the USSR in it's previous glory thus occupying most of Eastern Europe.
"Practically any earthquake" was supposed to be around 7.2 magnitudes, they got hit by around 4-7x bigger quake and a tsunami. That's quite a bit more than they were supposed to withstand.

I just checked the numbers, the plant was according to some reports found/tested/something to withstand 7.75 apparently, and got hit by magnitude 9 earthquake, which is 17 times as powerful as magnitude 7.75 would be
 
If there is no strikes... :arrow:

IMHO, CDG is a clusterfuck with or without strikes. Changing planes with less than 2 hours between? You will miss that connection every time. Granted the worst baguette shop in CDG has better food than 100% of US airports, but what a mess of an airport.
 
Using helicopters to drop water cannot be a good sign, reminds me of "that" level 7 accident. They are also cooling reactors 5 and 6 now which is the first time I have heard of them being mentioned. I assume they are just being over cautious as so much time has passed. It must be bad enough trying to mentally cope with 4 of them rather than 6, the workload must be intense.


The main issue is still the affects of the tsunami of course. Some communities are still cut off, it must be dreadful up there.
 
Using helicopters to drop water cannot be a good sign, reminds me of "that" level 7 accident. They are also cooling reactors 5 and 6 now which is the first time I have heard of them being mentioned. I assume they are just being over cautious as so much time has passed. It must be bad enough trying to mentally cope with 4 of them rather than 6, the workload must be intense.


The main issue is still the affects of the tsunami of course. Some communities are still cut off, it must be dreadful up there.

5 and 6 were offline at the time of the earthquake / tsunami (as was 4). They are trying to keep the spent fuel rods cool, which are just sitting in pools of water at the moment. I think they are just trying to pre-empt any problems that might occur like at reactor 4.
 
IMHO, CDG is a clusterfuck with or without strikes. Changing planes with less than 2 hours between? You will miss that connection every time.
Went through the older terminal of CDG (you know the one that looks like some kind of concrete octopus/boss hideout from a 60s James Bond movie? :LOL:) back in the 90s on a flight to Boston, USA. We were there in plenty time, there was ONE person printing out boarding passes for a line that had to have consisted of like the entire airplane's worth of to-be passengers, and she was constantly on the phone as well talking to whom-the-fuck ever and jawing with some guy hanging over her shoulder constantly, doing sweet fanny adams himself to help out. We were on the last friggin' call before the queue finally was processed, what a country France is... Sheesh!

Not to mention that time me and the family went to Paris for a week's vacation, and the unions picked the same weekend we were flying home to have all the staff at the trains out to the airport go on strike. So much malcontent, and they can retire at 60 for chrissakes, what's there to complain about?
 
Went through the older terminal of CDG (you know the one that looks like some kind of concrete octopus/boss hideout from a 60s James Bond movie? :LOL:) back in the 90s on a flight to Boston, USA. We were there in plenty time, there was ONE person printing out boarding passes for a line that had to have consisted of like the entire airplane's worth of to-be passengers, and she was constantly on the phone as well talking to whom-the-fuck ever and jawing with some guy hanging over her shoulder constantly, doing sweet fanny adams himself to help out. We were on the last friggin' call before the queue finally was processed, what a country France is... Sheesh!

Not to mention that time me and the family went to Paris for a week's vacation, and the unions picked the same weekend we were flying home to have all the staff at the trains out to the airport go on strike. So much malcontent, and they can retire at 60 for chrissakes, what's there to complain about?
I approve that one, some stuffs have really gone down the road, from ruled by state with proper financial funding, next step ruled by the state by insuffisant funding to end as a blend I believe of state and private insterests with still not enough funding. In the mean time organisation became horrendous and employes motivation... is let say low... Even new comers are quickly conforming to the mold... That's the same thing with mail/postal services, if some users try international shipment I'm sure they will have to complain.

Just an addition we now leave @62 (some state workers aside not all of them), retirement are now tougher in France than say in Germany or Spain.
 
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