Follow IAEA's Fukushima Press Conference In Vienna Live

The IAEA is currently holding a press conference in Vienna with its findings on Fukushima. Since there is very conflicted reporting on the issue over the past week, the supposedly unbiased event will likely get substantial attentiont. Among the early disclosures, which should not come as a surprise is that the reactor 3 core at Fukushima is damaged, and no cooling units are functioning. Considering the destruction at that reactor, it is not surprising.

The conference can be followed live on Sky News after the jump:

Comments

[depression]

I trust the IAEA... just one little question, why don't they have anyone in Japan yet ?

[Dental Floss Tycoon]

Couldn't find any volunteers.

[Gene Parmesan]

That's strange. Flights there are pretty cheap right now. 

[I think I need ...]

Louisville is on in just over an hour

[Yardfarmer]

they're now taking the opportunity to pay a friendly visit."http://www.youtube.com/embed/AR19cbbQgQk"

[Zero Govt]

IAEA  =  windbags... nuclear lobby crones... the usual incompetent regulatory sham

[hugovanderbubble]

Sell after Nasdaq OPEX ends.

[Dick Darlington]

03-17 11:55: Thousands in Armenia rally against the government I guess they can't eat iPads in Armenia either. Wonder when these protests really start in Europe and America...

[yabyum]

And they will start, no jobs and very expensive food will do that.

[buzzsaw99]

iaea is totally pro-nuke and take money from the industry. they will kill us all.

[Commander Cody]

Wrong.  They are government funded.  But, they might still kill us all.

[malikai]

They are government funded.  They will kill us all.

There, fixed that for you.

[youngman]

Yes its a strong statement that noone is in Japan..on site...enough said for me

[Atomizer]

Tokyo TV

http://www.justin.tv/tokyo_yuta#/w/974990080

[Fortunes Favor]

Japan Tragedy & Gulf of Mexico BP Spill Follow Similar News Cycle

http://rosenthalcapital.com/blog/2011/03/japan-tragedy-gulf-of-mexico-bp-spill-follow-similar-news-cycle-precious-metals-outlook/ 

This is just like countless worthless news conferences last year on the Gulf spill

[Ident 7777 economy]

"Investigating from half a world away ..."

Nice work if you can get it.

[TWORIVER]

only comment that has made me laugh over the last week. thanks

[Commander Cody]

All three cores (Units 1-3) are damaged as evidenced by "hydrogen explosions".  Hydrogen is generated by fuel overheating which causes the fuel rods to perforate and release gases, including hydrogen, and other fission products.  The violence of the explosion in Unit 3 suggests more than just a hydrogen explosion.  By the nature of the blast, it is conceivable that what was witnessed was a catastrophic containment failure.  The fuel pool in Unit 3 could also have been damaged either by the blast or failing debris or both.  The question remains as to whether the cores are being cooled.  If not, then they will or already have melted.

[bob_dabolina]

The violence of the explosion in Unit 3 suggests more than just a hydrogen explosion.

Even more convincing is the fact that hydrogen doesn't flare/flash, it's heat is invisible...

Unfortunately a definate flare/flash (fireball) was witnessed in the video of reactor #3 exploding indicating to me that there is a high likely hood it was nuclear related.

[InconvenientCou...]

No flash with hydrogen combusting?

There's this old video called "the Hindenburg disaster". You might want to check that out.

[bob_dabolina]

Wasn't there lots of fuel for the engines, canvas, and wood as well? Or was it just a cloud of hyrdrogen?

"Pure hydrogen-oxygen flames emit ultraviolet light and are nearly invisible to the naked eye, as illustrated by the faint plume of the Space Shuttle main engine compared to the highly visible plume of a Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen

Might wanna read up on your atoms nigga. The explosion was not hyrdrogen....

[hannah]

man you need to read up on what was actually burning on the blimp....hint hint..the metal paint maybe

[passive_lurker]

Are the containment pools located beneath the rubble?  Are they intact?  Or did the spent rods cause the explosion and go up in smoke?

[cosmictrainwreck]

yeah, they've been prepping this story-line with little snippets past 72 hours about "possible potential partial melt-down" spin

[Scisco]

Hydrogen is not generated by the perforation of fuel rods. It is generated when water is heated to the point where it dissociates. This is the cause of the primary release of hydrogen (including its isotopes)

[Commander Cody]

I stand corrected.  The zirconium in fuel cladding facilitates the free-release of hydrogen:

Balanced half-reaction E⁰ / V Zr⁴⁺ + 4e^-Zr_(s) -1.539 H₂ZrO_3(s) + H₂O + 4e^-Zr_(s) + 4OH^- -2.36 HZrO₃^- + 5H⁺ + 4e^-Zr_(s) + 3H₂O -1.276 ZrO²⁺ + 2H⁺ + 4e^-Zr_(s) + H₂O -1.570 ZrO_2(s) + 4H⁺ + 4e^-Zr_(s) + 2H₂O -1.456 ZrO₂.H₂O_(s) + 4H⁺ + 4e^-Zr_(s) + 3H₂O₃ -1.53 ZrO₂.2H₂O + 4H⁺ + 4e^-Zr_(s) + 4H₂O -1.553

The cut and paste of the half reactions showing reaction of zirconium with water didn't work out so well.

[Franken_Stein]

Earthquake in Vanuatu. Magnitude 6.5 !

[Franken_Stein]

If I were in California, I'd get a little bit nervous because Cali is long overdue for "The Big One".

The ring of fire seems to have become rather active recently.

[Pool Shark]

Yep, I've been thinking that for years. Last significant quake we've had in SoCal was the '94 Northridge quake.

We're living on borrowed time.

[ptoemmes]

FYI: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7675

Full excerpt of a comment from a poster named donshan, but there is more.

"

I think I can answer this if I am correct that the Japanese reactors use conventional zirconium ( Zircaloy) fuel cladding with ceramic uranium oxide fuel pellets inside. I understand that Unit 3 has a mixed oxide pellet including plutonium oxide.

In 1956, my first job as a materials scientist was at the AEC's Hanford Laboratory in Washington State, operated by General Electric. Over 8 years I conducted many laboratory scale high-pressure autoclave experiments on the properties of zirconium alloys in high temperature and pressure water and steam. These tests were classified "secret" back then to prevent our technology from being obtained by the Soviets. Sometimes I fear that even though all this science is now declassified, this early science has not made into the education of today's engineers. I retired in 1995 and have followed TOD for 3 years now, having also worked on natural gas pipeline and geothermal system corrosion, but now feel I have expertise to share on this topic.

The source is the hydrogen is a chemical reaction between the uncovered, overheated fuel assemblies and steam.

Zr + 2 H2O (steam) = ZrO2+2 H2

Zirconium is an extremely reactive metal and has even been used in flash bulbs filled with oxygen. There have been fatal explosions handling zirconium powers. So how is it possible to use zirconium safely in a nuclear reactor?

Like aluminum, zirconium and its alloys (Zircaloy-2) oxidize instantly in air. A thin film of ZrO2 is so impervious to oxygen diffusion that the reaction stops. Even in 300 C (572F) water or steam at over 1000 psi, the oxidation rate is extremely slow and corrosion properties of Zircaloy fuel cladding are outstanding and safe, AS LONG as they are not overheated and cooling water flow is maintained. In fact, it is standard practice to autoclave fuel rods in hot-pressured water or steam to precoat these rods with the optimum coating of ZrO2.

But these fuel rods must NEVER be overheated. That is why multiple redundant cooling systems are required. All these backup-cooling systems failed in Japan. Even after reactor shutdown, if the fuel rods are uncovered cladding temperatures can rapidly rise to 800C or higher, due to fission product decay heat. As in any chemical reaction, the rate accelerates rapidly with temperature, but in the case of zirconium, the protective character of a thin ZrO2 film is destroyed by this high temperature and catastrophic oxidation occurs. However this catastrophic oxidation occurs below the melting point, so I object to the media using the common term "meltdown" which is misleading.

This loss of the last battery-powered cooling, led to the fuel rods becoming uncovered in a manner similar to that in the Three Mile Island accident (although due to different reasons). When overheated in steam, the oxidation reaction above accelerates exponentially. As the zirconium oxidizes, the coating thickens, cracks, and turns white from internal fractures that increase the diffusion rate of steam to the metal. It then has the look and mechanical properties of eggshells. Hydrogen from this process is released, but is also absorbed by the underlying metal cladding, which causes embrittlement and metal fracture. Soon cracks form in the cladding, releasing the trapped fission products inside. This is not "melting', but rather catastrophic disintegration of the cladding structural integrity and containment of fission products. If the process continues, the cladding can fracture away, exposing the fuel pellets, which in the worst-case scenario can drop out and collect on the bottom of the reactor vessel. It is the worse case scenario that I believe is causing the Japanese to inject boric acid. Boron is a neutron absorber and will prevent any possibility of a pile of fuel pellets on the bottom of the vessel from going critical and restarting the chain reaction.

These reactors are now a total loss, but I am still disturbed by their inability to bring in portable diesel generators and restart the back-up cooling. I guess the chaos of the catastrophe is the cause.

I do question the use of seawater cooling. I hope the Japanese have considered the danger they have created by introducing oxygenated seawater into this stainless steel piping and pressure vessel at boiling temperatures. These stainless steels are extremely susceptible to chloride stress corrosion cracking:
http://www.tpub.com/content/doe/h1015v1/css/h1015v1_134.htm

Since residual weld stresses and tensile stress in piping, valves, control tubing, etc. are always present, Standard Operating Reactor water quality standards require keeping chlorides at parts per billion levels. Seawater has about 3.5% or 35 grams per liter of salinity!!!

I have no way of knowing how many days they have before a stainless steel component suddenly cracks, but if it were me, I would be advocating an emergency program to get pure deionzied cooling water back into this stainless steel system ASAP. In laboratory tests in boiling chlorides, cracking of stainless in tensile stress can occur within days- they have at most a few months if they keep boiling sea water in this system and yet another disaster occurs. I am sure there are competent scientists in Japan's nuclear industry and government regulators. I hope they are on top of this threat!

"

Pete

[stephysat28]

http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html

[rubearish10]

So can we all now move on? It appears things are getting better so we cannot anticipate anything otherwise. 

[iDealMeat]

Upgraded terminology..

Fukushima = FUBAR + Clusterflock + Helicopter Ben

[Dr. Porkchop]

There's a sign on their door that reads "Gone Fission".

[TruthInSunshine]

Nero is going to give mini-speech today:

03-17 12:29: White House says Obama to make statement on Japan at 1530 ET today (1930 GMT)

[rwe2late]

Obama probably wants to reassure everyone that his administration is on top of this disaster...

But you can't fix everything anything right away. He has therefore set a target date of 2050 to begin implementing his safety plan.

So, until then:

Obama Administration Picks Tokyo Electric To Build U.S. Nuke Plant

http://wonkette.com/440692/obama-administration-picks-tokyo-electric-to-build-u-s-nuke-plant

[Silverhog]

In other news, "Search for missing president continues"

[Johnny Lawrence]

Don't ask any questions now, I'll make a statement later:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/03/obama-to-ma...

[Drag Racer]

temperatures of the spent nuclear fuel pools at Units 4, 5 and 6

Unit 4
14 March, 10:08 UTC: 84 C
15 March, 10:00 UTC: 84 C
16 March, 05:00 UTC: no data

Unit 5
14 March, 10:08 UTC: 59.7 C
15 March, 10:00 UTC: 60.4 C
16 March, 05:00 UTC: 62.7 C

Unit 6
14 March, 10:08 UTC: 58.0 C
15 March, 10:00 UTC: 58.5 C
16 March, 05:00 UTC: 60.0 C

number 4 having no reading is a little unsettling, is it completely dry now?? I am guessing the sensors will not read anything if not in contact with the water. 5 & 6 on a steady climb...

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

[TruthInSunshine]

number 4 having no reading is a little unsettling, is it completely dry now?? I am guessing the sensors will not read anything if not in contact with the water. 5 & 6 on a steady climb...

Bernankified markets like it, for today.

After 4 p.m. is when we hear the really bad news, but they'll resolve all those crises 15 minutes prior to tomorrow's market open.

[stephysat28]

http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html

[Johnny Lawrence]

I've read 5 reports from various brokerage firms and mutual fund companies over the past 2 days.  They can all be summarized as "Don't worry about it."

[redpill]

"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the most important policy priority for Japan now was to restore economic growth as quickly as possible, reports Reuters."

Wow, really?  I figured it was feeding and housing the Japanese people and getting their nuclear emergency under control.  Thanks for the tip, IMF, fucking bastards.

[Johnny Lawrence]

You can't make this stuff up.

[greenfire]

This is precisely what is wrong and is what will be our undoing.  Unquenchable greed is a disease, not a virtue.

[BrassmonkeyUSA]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/tokyo-passengers-trigger-u-s-ai...

Tokyo Passengers Trigger U.S. Airport Detectors, N.Y. Post Says By Alan Purkiss -

Mar 17, 2011 2:08 AM ET Thu Mar 17 06:08:48 GMT 2011

• 
  

Radiation detectors at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports were triggered when passengers from flights that started in Tokyo passed through customs, the New York Post reported.

Tests at Dallas-Fort Worth indicated low radiation levels in travelers’ luggage and in the aircraft’s cabin filtration system; no passengers were quarantined, the newspaper said.

Details of the incident at O’Hare weren’t immediately clear, the Post said.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Purkiss at [e-mail]