Japan Nuclear Coverage

[Warren Dew]

Unless I read the media reports completelywrong, the actual amount of earth movement on land during this quake was not nearly as severe as some previous quakes with shallower epicentres closer to the locale. Sure, the building design is important, but it was not fully tested by this event.

I think it's likely at least as much media oversimplification or inaccuracy any misreading on your part.

It's just that your extremely witty post seemed to suggest that graphite had nothing to do with Chernobyl. Of course, it was not an ultimate cause, but the combustion of the graphite was responsible for the explosive release of a large amount of highly radioactive material. That particular possibility is absent from Fukishima...

Or more precisely, at Chernobyl there was a prompt criticality - a very small nuclear explosion - that broke containment, but it was the nonexplosive but very large graphite fire that spread the resulting radioactives out of the plant site and into the higher atmosphere, where substantial amounts could then be dispersed by winds across much of Europe.

[egbert]

Or more precisely, at Chernobyl there was a prompt criticality - a very small nuclear explosion - that broke containment,

Do you have something against factuality?

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

The 16 RBMK reactors, of which the Chernobyl plant was one, are built without containment shells

RBMK reactors were intended to produce power and also to produce plutonium for military use. This required that it be possible to remove fuel rods for reprocessing by means of a crane on top of the reactor at short intervals in order to get Pu-239 without substantial admixture of Pu-240. These facilities made the reactor too tall for a containment structure used in Western and other Soviet reactors.

http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/prog ... nobyl.html

[Warren Dew]

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

So you contend that the Chernobyl plant had been spewing fission products directly into the atmosphere all along, and it took an explosion for people in scandinavia to notice that their food was getting radioactively contaminated?

Sorry, but you're wrong. Primary containment in the Chernobyl reactor consisted of pressure channels around the fuel rods and coolant. It wasn't until the explosion that primary containment was breached, as I described.

Your source is sloppily referring only to secondary containment - a backup structure around the reactor - as "containment". Evidently that caused you to miss the fact that there was, of course, primary containment, and that's what was breached during the accident.

[egbert]

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

So you contend that the Chernobyl plant had been spewing fission products directly into the atmosphere all along,

Well, if you need to resort to putting words in my mouth, I guess that shows what a liar you are.
Care to quote the posting where I actually said any such thing, liar?

[egbert]

Primary containment in the Chernobyl reactor consisted of pressure channels around the fuel rods and coolant.

Yeah. And the cylinders in your cars engine are a safety feature.

[maiforpeace]

There was NO CONTAINMENT AT CHERNOBYL.

So you contend that the Chernobyl plant had been spewing fission products directly into the atmosphere all along,

Well, if you need to resort to putting words in my mouth, I guess that shows what a liar you are.
Care to quote the posting where I actually said any such thing, liar?

No need for name calling, Egbert. A reminder to play nice, and follow our guidelines please.

[JimC]

Primary containment in the Chernobyl reactor consisted of pressure channels around the fuel rods and coolant.

Yeah. And the cylinders in your cars engine are a safety feature.

You miss the point, I think. Containment, in this case, is not a last-ditch safety feature, but simply the casing which separates and contains the coolant...

When this containment was explosively ruptured, the contents met the graphite, and the subsequent reaction was responsible for the release of the fission products...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Status report: Reactor-by-reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant

[Coito ergo sum]

Another quake in Japan today - 7.4 magnitude....tsunami warning.

[egbert]

Another quake in Japan today - 7.4 magnitude....tsunami warning.

Reminds of debating days back in the Holy Smoke BBS era, when the famous Australian Fundy, Laurie Appleton, announced that there was no such thing as plate tectonics.

[JimC]

Another quake in Japan today - 7.4 magnitude....tsunami warning.

Luckily, they dodged that bullet; - warning cancelled, and only relatively minor damage from the quake...

[Warren Dew]

It's to be noted that the amplitude of a 7.4 earthquake is only 1/30 that of an 8.9 or 9 earthquake.

[Gawd]

It's to be noted that the amplitude of a 7.4 earthquake is only 1/30 that of an 8.9 or 9 earthquake.

Damn logarithmic scales.

[Tero]

Evacuation should hae been, and remain, 50 miles.

[macdoc]

I think that just about covers it

as we were saying...

Japan's nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011 has had less of an impact on wildlife and human health than expected, according to a recently finalized UN report.

The Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation cast a broad net, looking at potential health effects in people living in the area, which was hit by an earthquake and tsunami three years ago.

Special report: Japan rebuilds after earthquake, tsunami
View photos from before and after the 2011 tsunami in Japan

The UN researchers looked for iodine-131 (a form of radioactive iodine) and cesium-137 in fish caught off the northeast coast of Japan and found nearly all types actually had lower than the acceptable levels of those radionuclides, which had escaped into the air and water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The UN body also looked at the measured incidences of thyroid cancer. Iodine-131 can increase the risk of this type of cancer, and early reports conducted after the disaster said there was an increase of precancerous thyroid lesions in people living in affected areas.

However, the UN report said the increase in the number of nodules found was due to increased screening, and that there was no difference between the population in 2006 and the population that was exposed to the radiation.

snip.....wonder where the handringers are??

No discernible increased incidence of radiation-related health effects are expected among exposed members of the public or their descendants," it said.

CBC science contributor Dr. Torah Kachur compares the levels of radiation in fish near Fukushima and in everyday foods, such as potato chips.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/fukus ... -1.2645238

Listen here
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Sh ... 457048926/