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Fukushima Reactor 2 Core Has Melted Through Reactor
This will not be news for most objective Zero Hedge readers as we indicated this is a distinct possibility on several occasions, but some of those more "skeptical" about reality would be interested to know that according to Reuters "the core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel", Democratic Congressman Edward Markey told a hearing on the nuclear disaster on Wednesday. "I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the core of Unit Two has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel," said Markey, a prominent nuclear critic in the House of Representatives. Surely there is some bullish spin to this. We are too tired to look for it though.
And never one to not find the silver lining in the mushroom cloud, US nuclear regulator NRC promptly had to add its 2 cents:
A top official from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday it was not clear that Japan's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel.
Earlier, Democratic lawmaker Edward Markey told a House of Representatives hearing on the nuclear disaster that the NRC had told him the core had melted through the vessel.
"That's not clear to us, nor is it clear to us that the reactor has penetrated the vessel," said Martin Virgilio, deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs at the NRC.
Perhaps in order to make it clear, Mr. Virgilio can go to Fukushima and find out first hand.
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S&P to 5,000,000,000 now.
'Dow Up on Japan Reconstruction Plans' - AP
Three weeks or so ago, the world was coming to an end with disaster after disaster. Nothing has been fixed, and things are actually a great deal worse than before because now tons and tons of radioactive water is killing Japan's fishing industry, and anyone dumb enough to eat the thyroid killing food.
So what happened? Why billions and billions of dollars, yen and euros were fed into the "risk on" machine and the markets went up. Nothing got fixed, just papered over.
Destruction is the Keynesian warm fuzzy blanket. Think of all the money they can create by lending to japan..... @ interest.
Problem is will they want to rebuild? This is what is being misunderstood . Maybe the AP means the relocation of ....
its a fake headline illustrating how ridiculous the measures of the financial media are in their attempts to attribute actual economic facts to what is in reality just fiat expanded margins and debt backed by debt ...unlimited money creation for speculators while they have regulatory capture.
And to me, the meta-level of ridiculousness is that we're spending any time at all trying to figure out how to profit from this epic disaster.
We certainly don't have a greed deficit. We have a leadership and sanity deficit. They'll be plent of time to make some money AFTER THE RADIATION IS CONTAINED AND WE SECURE OUR FOOD SUPPLIES IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
Jumpin jesus on a pogo stick - what is the plan to mitigate this disaster?
This is the plan.
I am Chumbawamba.
Agreed, another tool in the slow-kill arsenal. Chumbawamba knows all.
Re: "what is the plan to mitigate this disaster"?
Answer: Move to Earth number two.
Earth number one is FUBAR, since one microgram of Plutonium will kill you, and Reactor number 3 has several tonnes of the stuff.
Yes, who will build in Japan now, or hold their debt? When, if ever, do their exports recover?
the IMF would love some beachfront villas in Japan... y'know, to hold their secret meetings to plan the coup d' grace for America.
@66sexy
Your comment on the IMF makes it sound like some foreign devil. It is not. It is a 100% kriminal amerikan organization, like your banks, brokers, politicians and the rest of what used to pass for a government.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
I should think not...its an international organization ! the coup de grace will be given to Europe as well.
I say "Fire Sale" those Canon EF lenses I want, Japan! Shit, now I have to google what part of the island they are made. Upwind lenses only, please.
+ millions of similar calculations....
Who wants some sushi or shrimp creole? Or USDA GM meat pumped full of antibiotics? Who needs regulation?
Who needs food anyway?
Here's a tip: the smart money is long Soylent Green
I'm glad I've bought all the glass I need before the disaster, alas, Nikon.
Yes. Who will build in Japan now? Who wants to own their debt or real estate? When, if ever, will exports recover, in what is fundamentally an export driven economy?
There is nothing about Keynes writing that said you spend more than you earn all the time. Indeed Keynes explicitly mentioned that in good times you build savings and then during a downturn you can be counter cyclical spend those savings and perhaps a little more (i.e. deficit)
Keynes was actually a pretty smart guy and was not attached to any dogma including his own. I have not read all his work but he was a man who changed his mind and adapted to circumstances as the world around him changed.
If you have the time google Dying of Money by Jens O Parson. A really good read and some background on Keynes and the inflation mess most governments end up in.
Keynes' "debt is power" ideology is embraced and force-fed to the world because it suits the banks and central controllers. It's that simple.
Yes simple incorrect and not even based on the facts, an example of wanton igonrance.
More power to you though.
Yup, exactly like 2008 except with no radiation then...
DavidC
I reckon Bernanke gives BofA the inside track on a lot of these ramp jobs. He knows that he's in a lot of trouble for his role in the ML deal if he doesn't do something to make the shareholders happy.
Crony capitalism at its finest...
Law of Unintended Consequences takes hold.
How happy are the boys and girls at Mother Merril that they got (jammed) saved by BofA.
Regulation at its finest.
We start over. So we have 3 eyes. That's even better than 3D.
I think you guys are, as usual, overstating things. Here is a link to the DoE/NNSA report from Monday:
http://antiecho.com/2011/04/06/sanity-check-on-fukushima-radiation/
It is a serious situation but the uninformed hysteria isn't helping.
...and neither is your un-attainable link to credibility. Trust in govt requires eyes in the back of the head.
Maybe we'll get there yet.
Talk to us when the spewing of new radioactive materials has ceased. Kinda hard to overstate something still in progress with many possible predictable paths that would result in much worse releases.
And go ahead and move your family to Chiba prefecture while you're at it.
See http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/
for the latests updates.
Notice the German wind map has the radioactive plume blowing south over the ocean and then back north across Japan and Korea, grazing China.
By "plume" I'll assume you mean a barely detectable too-low-to-cause-any-problems amount of radio-iodine.
You haven't been paying attention. The plume is full of radioactive materials that are contaminating anything and everything they touch. It might be dilute enough to no longer be a problem once it gets to the US, but it is causing a lot of cancers right now, and the land itself will be "uninhabitable" a la the Chernobyl exclusion zone before this is over (which is now apparently going to be never).
Normalcy bias is your new name.
Plume of fume, that's burning metals hopium head. Radioactive burning metals of the worst kind.
Breathe freely now...
t.y. for including the link, flattrader.
ahem...slewie mentioned this "viable" possibility to aristarchan, last week, right here in river city, when he was down-playing everything, including the size of these reactors, compared to chernobyl, while questioning him about the real possibilities of "intermittent re-criticality" which he then was kind unuf to respond to, in the affirmative, while poo-poo-ing the serious of all this, of course.
Jim in MN was doing the math for his great "cesium analysis" at the time and bob_d had to slug ari pretty hard to keep him from nuking Jim's analysis before he finished and posted it!
i wonder if ari isn't gonna hafta come to grips with his "biases" here, soon, and stop projecting them on those who are more "alamist" then the nuclear industry finds comfy, right now...
that said, and reuters and ed markey considered, i do not consider their pronouncements proof of the melt-through. just punched up fairewinds; nothing there, yet. so, i'll continue to say that it looks like we may have such a problem in #2. where's rodney dangerfield when ya need him?
Meltup caused by a meltdown?
Oy vey what a whacky world we live in.
You are confused by the curvature of the Earth. Easy mistake to make. Japan and New York are on opposite sides of the world, so what melts down in Japan is up relative to New York. Go with the flow. Ride that neutron beam to da moon!
Here's a link to see what's on the opposite side of the world from anywhere: http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-earth.htm
Opposite to Fukushima puts you in the south Atlantic, off the coast of Brazil.
'Hacker; totally cool link.
shit, then my farm might be down wind
nice one
Reconstruction can't start until they neutralize the radioactive situation. But the Dow will up anyway.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/tepco-knew-radiation-seawater-75-million-above-normal-it-started-dumping-radioactivity-sea-m#comment-1136077
Do you think Operation Huge Sheet has a shot? Have you seen the details?
What I read was that Operation Huge Sheet somehow magically combined flexible material and structural reinforcement that would save what's left the building in the event of the next quake. Either the author or the guy at TEPCO who told him about it must have been suffering radiation induced delusions. I am hoping for a better article or a link to manufacturer's spec sheet for this wonderful product so I can better understand what they were trying to state in the first place.
Best I got--they hope to intercept airflow, not protect the buildings--more like Odor Eaters or dryer fabric softener sheets or something--Operation Snuggle?:
Radiation-shielding sheets to be installed in Sept. at earliestTOKYO, April 6, Kyodo
A plan to cover damaged reactor buildings at the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant with special sheets to halt radiation leakage cannot offer a quick remedy, as the sheeting will be installed in September at the earliest due to high-level radioactivity hampering work at the site, government sources said Tuesday.
The government had asked Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power station crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami, to study the installment of radiation-shielding sheets, and a major construction firm commissioned to examine the idea said the construction will not start until June, the sources told Kyodo News.
They said workers need to wait until radiation levels drop at the site, where hydrogen explosions have blown away the roofs and upper walls of three reactor buildings.
Some nuclear experts have been skeptical about the feasibility of the plan as they believe the step would have only limited effects in blocking the release of radioactive substances into the environment.
In a meeting Tuesday of a team tasked with halting the leakage of radioactive substances from the plant under a task force set up by the government and the operator known as TEPCO, the construction firm gave prospects for the work schedule, the sources said.
At the gathering, a specialist from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the structure of the special sheets should guarantee that spent nuclear fuel pools in the reactor buildings will not be damaged even if the sheeting is toppled by quakes or typhoons, according to the sources.
Specialists in the government are planning to stem possible surges in radiation levels or further explosions in the reactor buildings to be wrapped by the sheets, by attaching materials that absorb radioactive materials to the inner side of the sheeting and installing air vents with filters to let out hydrogen, they said.
At the plant, TEPCO has been spraying water-soluble resin that has a coating effect to prevent radioactive particles from being dispersed by wind and rain. But the resin does not have effects to shield radiation.
The costs of building framed structures around the Nos. 1-4 reactor buildings and wrapping them with the special sheets are estimated to reach 80 billion yen.
==Kyodo
My bad- TEPCO & NRC, only short 1 stooge.
There are timeline issues-
if today = april, startdate = june, and endate = september, but startdate is dependent in lowered radiation at the site, then the whole thing is a non-starter, but its the nuclear science that's beyond me- will the readiation level drop at the job site?
Operation Panty Liner?
Arrgghh! The Stupid, it burns!
If that refers to Japanese 'shrouds' then "maybe". I worked it into this proposal:
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/modest-fuku-1-proposal
Prepared to suggest bauxite via nautical delivery in place of granite.
(I really,really hate talking my own book.)
Preventing damage to reactor containment seems moot at this stage.
What concerns me with piles of stuff is the volume of material needed. 1 ton of gold is a 15in cube, 1 ton of dirt or gravel is approximately a 1m cube. There are 4-6 reactors/jobsites and they are huge. Since Japan is an island, there is an implicit requirement to bring in vast quantities of materials via slow moving ships.
I know.
Each building is like a small city block. I would prefer to use whatever remains of building containment for 1,2 and 4 - 3 is a problem - as retainment. Density of gravel is higher than that, less so for bauxite.
Point is -- bulk cariers exist - bauxite is plentiful - irradiated potential isotopes generally decay quickly - few people needed for 'installtion'.
Building a shroud would take years.
What is the key chemical interaction with the bauxite? Can only raw bauxite be used, or alumina, or can the slag/mud be used? Developed countries would actually pay to reduce the red dread, but even Guinea will give it away free.
Operation Final Shot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZHFK0vWKpU
1)USDOE nuke computers match seismology/geology/pyrotechnics to avoid ripping island in two - maybe?
2)I advocate Sappers over bunker buster technology.
3)Remove as much intact spent fuel as possible to Mushu / water-barge hold them
4)Pre-load the site with surface boron and QUIKRETE before the shot if logical.
5)'Pull-it'
5)dike /seawall containment and surface-cap mitigation
Done correctly the blast(s) put all reactor buildings immediately sub-surface / below waterline minimizing contact/in-outflows. Float pre-positioned barges over the new basins to deliver concrete. Or we can keep dicking around.
Time to make lemons out of lemonade. Japan can turn the 250 square miles that will become the "dead zone" into a world nuclear storage site and amusement park. Countries from around the world can send their waste to a place nobody worries about if it is irradiated further - Fukushima!
They can also create a Fukushima radiation park. Kids can control one of the firehoses keeping all the rods cool. The rapid tsunami water luge ride will also be a big hit with the family. Food is free, but you only get one sandwich a day with a few crackers.
Bullish? Of course... that means there are only 3 more reactors left to breach their own containment vessels... this is PROGRESS bitchez!
HAARP? A bit more plausible, the more i think about it.
-1 Highly speculative, undifferential as to HAARP physics, nonrespective of ionospheric affectation by subject facility ...
I should add: Attempt at a blind dart-board hit, non-seeing toss of a 'Jart' (lawn dart; since may have been banned by the EPA) downrange, blinded-folded 'aim' at the local pistol practice facility ...
Jart and EPA reference (for those not getting it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_dart
Those jarts were coolist to sharpen and then play catch with. It would make for some good utubes.
Weren't jarts designed for that soft spot on a babys head?
Great warm-up activity for those youngsters who later in life would dedicate their lives to 'knife catching' (insert 'catch a falling knife' reference here) ...
Another wonderfully instructive lesson in governmental interference in the "free" (LOL) market system.
Any parents smart enough, any of their children smart enough to try catching Jarts (And, oh yes, I do remember them fondly, like when I stuck Huey with one in his arm. Kid tried to catch the one I threw to try to stick him, fucktard.) deserves the whole fucking lot to be eliminated from the gene pool.
Instead, the idiots keep breeding.... and become politicians, like Senator Blutarsky.
Jarts had a fundamental Malthusian purpose.
bkutarsky was a pirate, heroic, too, and one of the best characters in the history of story and the cinema, especially compared to you.
Sen. Blutarsky, later, became president of the U.S. Now, that's heroic.
Some of the cosmic forecasts being predicted for the passage of Comet Elenin appear to be quite dire. These projections and forecasts are being produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other inter-agency departments. According to some theories, the Earth will suffer a series of Extinction Level Events beginning around September 25th, 2011. This is when Comet Elenin (interesting name, BTW. "ELEnin".) is expected to make its passage between the Earth and the Sun. The greatly increased seismic activity, along with the clear increase in EQ frequency and magnitude intensity has many seismologists very concerned. Some of them are beginning to speak out these past two or three months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnG8Pa0u-4U
According to some theories, the Earth will suffer a series of Extinction Level Events beginning around September 25th, 2011. This is when Comet Elenin (interesting name, BTW. "ELEnin".) is expected to make its passage between the Earth and the Sun.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Great; looking forward to it ... what does this mean market-wise? What should I be 'long' in?
Any chance we can get hold of the same type of rocket Jor-El used to send his son Kal-Elto (who became Superman under a yellow sun) to Earth?
Well, this certainly isn't a popular topic of discussion in most social settings. The idea that the vast majority of life on this planet is about to be destroyed is unsettling in the extreme. When this celestial body crosses Earth's orbital path later this year, along with all the cosmic debris from the Oort Cloud that it was able to capture on its cyclical transit into the center of our solar system, there is also the possibility that Earth will lose its only satellite, when the Moon is captured and pulled away from the Earth and hurled off into deep space.
I just found this on Nasa's site.
Someone asked what the deal is with Elenin and the Nasa Sicentist said it's "nothing to worry about". He also talks about people posting "fictional" claims about how it will effect the earth, he said this...
"One of the worst examples is a video that someone posted on the NASAbuzzroom website that claims that the magnetic field of the comet will cause a large shift in the rotation axis of the Earth and produce mega-earthquakes on March 15, 2011. It is hard to imagine anyone would take this seriously. Comets don't have magnetic fields, and magnetic fields can't change the rotation axis or cause earthquakes no matter how large they are."
What happened four days before March 15th?
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=14416
After several years of trying to determine truth along with how the markets should or will react to truth I have decided to surrender to the insanity and go numb.
Calgon, take me away.
LOL...
Its pointless, when markets finally do 'react' it will be far too late for anyone to react to it in any way, therefore I just keep buying beans, guns, and bullets.
Better than 'Caesium...take me away!'...BTW, welcome to the Insanity Club...
It's actually a nice club, very swank. But I suspect it will take many months, even years, before I stop walking around with my family jewels carefully cupped in my hand. Of course as soon as I do they will be promptly cut off at the root. :>)
...like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb85K6XqB8k
Ed Zachary! BTW, is that last bit of a Fukushima to come? Methinks lead undies are overdue...
Yeah, something like that. :>)
Oh Calgon please take me away
I'm losing more marbles each day
Insanity rules
The MSM fools
"We're All Fucked"..(what more can I say)
CD, I hope you got a nice free towel in that box of soap!
No towel. But it did include a "personal size" tube of K-Y that I can carry around in my pocket with my chap-stick. Just in case there's an emergency.
I hope I don't get them mixed up in the dark. I'm not worried so much about using the K-Y on my lips, but the chap stick up my.......well, you understand.
Either way, pucker up!
the saddest part is that the world is full of morons that will still never learn. this is basically a repeat of chernobyl.
http://covert2.wordpress.com
x6
southern hemisphere is looking bullish for real estate
+1
GWB and Ted Turner head to Paraguay and Argentina. And Maggy Thatcher goes to Chile.
I am in Colombia...
Peru, Putaz!
EDIT: As long as Ollanta Humala does not win...
Yea, but I heard they're not taking $dollars...
The roaring forties ,Furious fifties and the Shrieking Sixties should keep the badness at bay...............
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signy_Research_Station
Signy Research Station - British Antarctic SurveyThat is why the elite, the Banksters and the rest of the enemies of humanity are relaxed, they will FLEE when the time is ripe. Like GWB putting tons of DU contaminated sand from Kuwait in Idaho.
.gov is the enemy of your survival.
"Like GWB putting tons of DU contaminated sand from Kuwait in Idaho."
Never hear of this... have a reference? (thanks!)
Google on Kuwait + Idaho for multiple hits.
http://www.newwest.net/city/article/army_shipping_contaminated_kuwait_sa...
Good one. :)
duplicate
northern hemisphere is looking bare-ish for life.
There Is Still Time . . . Brother.
We are truely "On he Beach". Milestones
Lead Body Suits Bitchezzzzzz!
Lead Cups by Under Armour....
Uber Bullish.
rally on.
I wish Markey would head over to the site to investigate. Maybe take some up close pictures for us.
HOLY MOLY! THAT IS BAD!!
But now they are trying to inject nitrogen into reactor one to keep it from EXPLODING!!
http://fiatsfire.blogspot.com/2011/04/only-6-more-months-to-go-before.html
AND.... they won't even have shilding for 6 months because the radiation is SO HIGH they can't even measure it!!!
and don´t forget the stored used cores that are on site.....they are probably re birthing now with all the heat....
t.y. for the info and the link, j_l_r.
Real Bullish,(Southern Hemisphere) if you can hang on to your HEAD!
Refresh my geography. What country is diametrically oposite the Fukishma core?
Funny!
easy ...
Dig a hole through the Earth
i think Rusty Shorts may have provided the actual co-ordinates, on an earlier post. when i see his avatar, i have thoughts like: "Burning Man? every day? awesome!!!"
Aye matey, argh.
United States of Zimbabwe?
That just got a laugh from my office
diagonally on globe it must be S Africa/Mozambique to left or Chile/Argentina to right. You don't want to go diametrically if you want t leave NH!
The closest land approximation is the shores of Uruguay. Not bad.
It's in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1500km off Argentina...not that a melt-down would get there.
Kinda' looks like it might bubble up in the middle of the Panama Canal.
But since that's owned by China now you might say it will melt clear through to China.
Could be a good idea for a movie.
Nuclear hot plutonium mass will now melt thru the lava rock Japan is entirely made of until it hits a big aquifer at which point we'll see the mushroom cloud in Japan from New Hampshire.
Doesn't that aquifer feed something like half of Asia and Europe?
Whoa, calm down. Nothing under Fukushima except igneous and metamorphic rock. No aquifer. Meltdown will hit seawater. Local problem, except for airborne contamination.
and all the other seawater and sea life that comes into contact with the meltdown byproducts, so actually a bigger problem than an aquifer.
UR---altho i agree w/ the smackdown and the logic, since we also have chernobyl radiation in an enormous aquifer, heading slowly to kiev, please be advised of a possible alternative POV.
Not to be a know-it-all, but the term is "Antipode", as in "Japan and Uruguay are Antipodes". Please make a note of it....
Dont be foolish. The rods will not melt through to the opposite side of the globe. Since the south pole as at the bottom, once it melts through the crust and hits liquid magma, gravity will pull it downward and it will come out at the south pole.
And the first elephant, and then the second elephant, and then...
Swans. Swans.
Not elephants.
Black Swans
Just for shits and giggles....
In the real world, there are no/few/whathefuckeverhowmany truly Gaussian or Poisson distributions, for most many/most/a lot/enough for the sake of this shit, are leptokurtotic.
So, as one meanders merrily out towards the tails, there are new and big bulges that all of a sudden pop up, like when I've been staring at Deta von Teese for too long. But anyhow, these bulges should/could/just stay with me here for a moment, I'm trying to help, be viewed as their very own little special additional non-Gaussian/Poisson but yes, again, leptokurtotic distributions.
And once one gets cast therein, assuming the sticky state of reality, almost as if it were a condition similar to stasis, then experiences tend to remain bounded therein, within their own extremes.
It's as if (And probably is near to the truth, but so far I appear to be the only person working on it at this moment... or at least posting it right here if that makes anybody feel any better. Which it should not.) the fractalius nature of events (naturally occurring in mother nature, no different that pi and a few other constants, limits and associated and randomly but not really assorted givens) takes hold.
So we get stuck therein, so to speak.
Think of it as a Ground Hog Day condition.
Which may not be easy from which to escape. So, now that we are here (not about to enter, but experiencing in actuality, real time, now) in an apparently major/the clusterfuck of reality, one can assume that within extreme conditions and given the very illogical, ego driven, emotional nature of the human condition (generally piss poor) that we'll be seeing much more of the same.
So, whatever's worked for you recently, will likely persist as we continue to experience a period of significant turmoil. Sorta "the Fourth Turning meets the Book of Revelations and Murphy's Law. (Hereby termed Bozo's Law)
That's pretty awesome. Bouncing around local optima in a portion of a distribution. Just a bad neighborhood.
good law, k-nuk! Bozo's Law, it is! {4th T, Book of R, + Murph} with ground hog heuristic, there, too! even slewie, with somehow-overheated bong, can understand and remember. i think.
I think that "staring at Deta von Teese for too long" would definitely leave me in a "sticky state of reality."
...
My apologies, I simply could not resist. :D
Turtles all the way dooownn!
I thought the earth was flat? So doesn't that mean that it would just melt through the Earth and fall into space. Maybe it will hit the moon?
mummm....melted cheese. who dosent like a good cheese dip?
Fukushima fondu ....
Oh shit, no. It'll burn right through the shell of the giant turtle that carries us on its back, and all the turtles below that one!
We're in trouble now!
Gravity acts into the centre of the earth. So in the unlikely event it gets down more than about 3 yards, all it's ever going to do is aim for the centre of the earth. In the scientifically-impossible event of the gloop making it to the centre of the earth, it's going to stay there.
I don't care about the sleestaks, but what about Holly, Will and Chaka?
They'll have entirely new forms of light crystals to play with.
+1
Chaka used to creep me the hell out.
pods
As you stated, a scientfically impossible event. Until someone presents a coherent analysis of 1) thermodynamics (can the rod generate enough heat to melt a 5 mile thick column of earth crust, 2) Hydrodynamics (is the density of the rods high enough, so IF they make it to the magma, they will actually sink 3) Gravity (gravity is a function of mass and as it sinks will be subjected to less gravity forces pulling toword center - converget to a limit problem). Until then, I will continue to make kindergarten smart @ss remarks to china syndrom posts.
The corium (not rod) can reach temperatures only seen on our sun.
Do I really need to be an expert on thermodynamics to know that if something looks like shit, and smells like shit, it's probably shit?
"The temperature of corium can be as high as 2400°C in the first hours after the meltdown and can reach over 2800°C."
Read all about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corium_(nuclear_reactor)
No doubt. But high temperature is only part of the equation to melt through the earths crust. Like I said, I need someone to run some numbers before I believe corium (or whatever we choose to name the blob which genrates the energy) will melt a column of rock several miles thick.
We should be so lucky. It will all probably just stay in the basement like everything else.
Thirty years from now: "Ahhh thats where it was.... I was looking for that, thought I threw it away!"
Or the wife sells it in a garage sale.
hey bob_d! pretty hard to grok those temps, fer yerz trooly, yet i somehow intuit that even igneous rock may "remember" what it's like to be a liquid and a gas under such conditions. after all, wtf does "igneous" mean in the first place? that we can use such rocks to build a fire-pit and safely roast our marshmallows? ...uhhhn...no?
btw, i caught that odor, too...
Maybe the Fukushima reactor cores just want to go home?
http://www.rense.com/general25/vore.htm
Giant Nuclear Reactor May Run Earth's Magnetic Field
This is actually a serious and very cool theory btw. Google it. Fits well with many aspects of Earth's nature and geological history. Giant natural nuclear reactor at the core, that operates intermittently. Here's to its long-continued operation!
Tristan de Cunha?
That's ok, we'll just raise the acceptable radiation levels again and everything will be fine. Right?!
They should quit trying to quantify acceptable radiation levels and just go to a qualifying system of "glowing" and "not-glowing".
Hmmm, very similar to raising the Debt threshold. It can't be bad if we raise the limits right? /sarc
Let's eat more fish, too.
What a coincidence. Our EPA just made the following ahem.. changes in the acceptable standard levels of radiation. According to PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the new standards would result in a “nearly 1000-fold increase for exposure to strontium-90, a 3000 to 100,000-fold hike for exposure to iodine-131; and an almost 25,000 rise for exposure to radioactive nickel-63” in drinking water.
Problem solved. Take down all the monitoring devices, raise the acceptable levels and then declare everything is "safe".
Twilight Zone. Somebody pinch me...oh fuck, you're all virtual! Damn. Guess this is as real as it gets.