No, Japan's Nuclear Reactors Are Not "Stable"

Fri, 04/15/2011 - 09:48 | 1172125 tiger7905

Latest from Arnie at Fairewinde Assocites on Fukushima, see's unit #4's fuel pool as greatest danger.

Thu, 04/14/2011 - 10:06 | 1168553 Dr. Impossible

hmmm, all these post seem so negative, so quick to point out the bad.

very few offering idea's to help. We have a very educated group here, that if we could figure out how to guide a direction, we, could provide possible solutions. It seems this blog gets enough global attention, that idea's discussed here, might have a chance to make real impacts.

so i put forward an idea, right or wrong, correct or not, i'm going to try!

I'm putting forward 2 idea's

1.these "control rods" dense boron, electrically charged to increase surface area(taken from wikipedia). i was looking into this, and remembering my time working with aerosol's, and the way cans were actually charged(negatively) to use "the power of vacuum" to eject/evacuate its contents.(example, wasp killer cans can spray better than 15feet). When you hold a full/new aerosol can, try to squeeze if, you'll see how solid it is( the actual force being employed is sucking the contents out, not really pushing as 1 would think, well i'd have to say some formula's actually push but anyway. the density/weight of these cans was just amazing.

we'd stack 2 full skids high on these cans...that's ALOTTA WEIGHT!...so along these principles, i suggest encasing boron particles, under EXTREME vacuum( to replicate energetic charge,increasing surface area) into very small pellets(bb size), air drop them, or fire them as a projectile into entire of area...50 sq. km's....along similar line, inject/combine boron into fluorescent light bulbs for similar effect.

2. identify these areas as long term energy sources(i think its foolish not to) i've read concepts for space flight/liftoff, or atleast using rail gun technology to send solid mass into orbit. downfall being needing enough electrict charge to activate. so japan could have a 50 sq. km space center for launching solid mass objects....with enough energy to last a very very very long time.

me thinks its kinda silly to just bury so much energy. because people are reacting poorly, and making weak decisions based on emotions, compounded by the situation ongoing in the area(after shocks, loss of loved one's). would it kill/hurt people along the way...yes, but so do local law enforcement with this ongoing "war on drugs"

junk me if u want...but i'm trying for solutions, and not just waving a fan.

Thu, 04/14/2011 - 08:09 | 1168209 cabernet

Japan is toast, I am very sad to say. Soon, it will be nothing more than a giant microwave oven.

http://www.TheAngryGrapes.Com

Thu, 04/14/2011 - 07:04 | 1168116 TerraHertz

An interesting review of early events. Probably somewhat slanted to make TEPCO/govt look better than they should, but still worth reading:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110411004567.htm
TEPCO tardy on N-plant emergency (Fukushima events review part 1)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110412006319.htm
Absent TEPCO execs slowed crucial action (Fukushima events review part 2)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110413004031.htm
One crisis after another harried TEPCO's response (Fukushima events review part 3)

Thu, 04/14/2011 - 01:23 | 1167956 HungrySeagull

I have said for Weeks....

NUKE the ENTIRE FACILITY with underground blasts and allow the whole of it to collaspe and be eaten by the ocean. In a few days hit it again and turn that pit of rubble into glass.

It will hurt for a week or two and that's it. Problem solved.

But now? It's a total FAIL I see a future where we live in Radioactive conditions here in the USA because of Japan's Failure to step up and tell the truth from day one.

Thu, 04/14/2011 - 00:20 | 1167897 ThePhysicist

The reactors are stable. GW has been crying "meltdown" from day one, with no understanding of what a "meltdown" really means. A few hot fuel rods, even heat-damaged ones, is not a meltdown.

Unfortunately, flowing water across the fuel rods to cool them has resulted in dispersion of radionuclides, but they are relatively spatially contained and will be more so after stopping the outflow into the Pacific Ocean.

This is nothing more than a cleanup operation at this point.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 23:14 | 1167822 24KGOLD FOIL HAT

Isnt Elizabeth Regina's pic on Canadian gold pcs? And Australia's? Wonder why.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 21:47 | 1167591 flacorps

Sandbox, not sarcophagus. Move a mountain of mining tailings to bury that sucker, then put bags of concrete to fix 'em in place. A towering zigarrut of pent-up peril.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 21:17 | 1167492 romanko

Hey George, keep that Fukushima disaster dream alive! Don't ever let it go, you're carrying the torch now for all of ZH, always always never forget and never let the crisis pass, we won't be denied our nuclear apocolypse!

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 20:55 | 1167423 yipcarl

This is so lame. IF the situation is that dangerous to let some private company go at this alone is ludicrious.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 20:24 | 1167316 jointhewave

This meltdown is far worse than Chernobyl! Prepare for your kids to look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

On second thought, check out this video 'Morgan Stanley 'Top 1%' Skinny Blonde Rips Off America!' at (http://youtu.be/DGiCUQUpLQQ).

Anonymous-

It's amazing how easy it is to FLEECE this Country and laugh all the way to the bank!

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 20:23 | 1167315 destiny

Wow, Great Video, sound intervention...nice change from the usual, everyting's fine...eat Fukushima stawberries....

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 20:20 | 1167302 molotov

fucking morons. it is a class war! there is no right against left, conservative vs. liberal, republican vs. democtrat, marxist vs. capitalist. Everyone that still belives this paradigm is a kool-aid drinking catastrophe and not worthy of a single ounce of air any longer. YOU are the problem. Get the fuck out of the way! The only war there is is Corporate Interests(THE RICH) against individual human beings(THE POOR) not a bit of differnce from any age in recorded history. Eat the RICH, save the POOR!

If any of you had any courage at all, you would not go to work, you would not pay a single usury note, not a single bill for anything, and help your neighbors do the same. Help one another to survive and bring these motherfuckers to their knee's. If you are still trying to find an angle to make money off of this, we need to kill you! You are the ENEMY!

I don't pay anything to anyone anymore and live on the fringe,and I sleep well everynight. Viva la Revolucion!

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:56 | 1167252 DrtFrmR

It doesn't take a nuclear physicist to figure out that Japan is Pandoras Box and she has been spread wide open.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:50 | 1167234 kumquatsunite

oh dear it wasn't loading so clicked several times,,,don't hate...won't happen again! grrr, don't know if i can delete the repeats.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:48 | 1167230 Jim in MN

Protip: If the fuel rods are sticking up out of the water in the core...IT'S NOT STABLE!!!

If they are sticking up out of the water in three cores...IT'S HELLA NOT STABLE!!!

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:49 | 1167220 kumquatsunite

Consider this my lovely kumquats, long ago and far away the days of my youth were spent lolling on the beaches of Hawaii, driving its lovely highways across island passes with a grand blue sky overhead and the sweet sounds of ukelele singing forth from the radio. Those were simple days, long before the quiet joy of days spent free and breezy were tainted by ring tones and an unsustainable population based on the false premise that growth must exists at all moments and at all times in a country's economic trajectory; a policy which disregards a normal ebb and flow due to age variation of a populace and its intrinsic birth cycles.

Anyways, point being that Japan is a populace of 126 million in a country about the size of California but without the fertile valleys of California that grow our strawberries and where the avocado trees cling to the earth as though they are baby orangutans and their moma the earth.

On islands the water table is particularly sensitive, the rain falling on the peaks of the island mountains flowing down into the shallow, always shallow, caches from which the island populace withdraws its drinking and cooking and washing water. This water is supremely sensitive to shocks of any sort, and even back then there was concern about strain on the water table.

Now go to Japan and what do we find? A country which says it is finding radiation in its drinking water in Tokyo. The island waters of Japan are also a shallow crucilble for the people, subject to shocks of any sort. And the radiation which falls upon Mt. Fuji (for instance) will filter down the sides and join the radiation that layson the land and join in the water table where it will filter through the Japanese country. As there are at least three totally ruined reactors, and several more that are questionable, extrapolation is required. It may be that before the Japanese people are completely radiated, cause to consider the evacuation of the country will come.

Sorry to say, but an island country is exactly a worst-case scenario for a nuclear problem, such as we are seeing. Chernobyl had the advantage of having a...call it..."reverse sarcophagus" of dirt. Thus, the only real problem was with radiation spewing into the air. Japan has a worse problem for once the water is tainted, as the settlers of America knew, the land is useless, unfit for human habitation. Africa is a country in need of great people to assist it with structure. Perhaps homes there for the Japanese would be worth considering?

The above scenario has its fons et origo in the phrase: "poisoning the well."Humans must have water to survive, and there may be a reason here, also, that the United States was sending fresh water to use on the reactors. After all, an entire nation doesn't have enough of its own fresh water for placing on its nuclear reactors? That bears scrutiny and thought, so read the above again and consider that we may be seeing a first in history: an entire nation which may need evacuating.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:48 | 1167219 kumquatsunite

Consider this my lovely kumquats, long ago and far away the days of my youth were spent lolling on the beaches of Hawaii, driving its lovely highways across island passes with a grand blue sky overhead and the sweet sounds of ukelele singing forth from the radio. Those were simple days, long before the quiet joy of days spent free and breezy were tainted by ring tones and an unsustainable population based on the false premise that growth must exists at all moments and at all times in a country's economic trajectory; a policy which disregards a normal ebb and flow due to age variation of a populace and its intrinsic birth cycles.

Anyways, point being that Japan is a populace of 126 million in a country about the size of California but without the fertile valleys of California that grow our strawberries and where the avocado trees cling to the earth as though they are baby orangutans and their moma the earth.

On islands the water table is particularly sensitive, the rain falling on the peaks of the island mountains flowing down into the shallow, always shallow, caches from which the island populace withdraws its drinking and cooking and washing water. This water is supremely sensitive to shocks of any sort, and even back then there was concern about strain on the water table.

Now go to Japan and what do we find? A country which says it is finding radiation in its drinking water in Tokyo. The island waters of Japan are also a shallow crucilble for the people, subject to shocks of any sort. And the radiation which falls upon Mt. Fuji (for instance) will filter down the sides and join the radiation that layson the land and join in the water table where it will filter through the Japanese country. As there are at least three totally ruined reactors, and several more that are questionable, extrapolation is required. It may be that before the Japanese people are completely radiated, cause to consider the evacuation of the country will come.

Sorry to say, but an island country is exactly a worst-case scenario for a nuclear problem, such as we are seeing. Chernobyl had the advantage of having a...call it..."reverse sarcophagus" of dirt. Thus, the only real problem was with radiation spewing into the air. Japan has a worse problem for once the water is tainted, as the settlers of America knew, the land is useless, unfit for human habitation. Africa is a country in need of great people to assist it with structure. Perhaps homes there for the Japanese would be worth considering?

The above scenario has its fons et origo in the phrase: "poisoning the well."Humans must have water to survive, and there may be a reason here, also, that the United States was sending fresh water to use on the reactors. After all, an entire nation doesn't have enough of its own fresh water for placing on its nuclear reactors? That bears scrutiny and thought, so read the above again and consider that we may be seeing a first in history: an entire nation which may need evacuating.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:46 | 1167216 kumquatsunite

Consider this my lovely kumquats, long ago and far away the days of my youth were spent lolling on the beaches of Hawaii, driving its lovely highways across island passes with a grand blue sky overhead and the sweet sounds of ukelele singing forth from the radio. Those were simple days, long before the quiet joy of days spent free and breezy were tainted by ring tones and an unsustainable population based on the false premise that growth must exists at all moments and at all times in a country's economic trajectory; a policy which disregards a normal ebb and flow due to age variation of a populace and its intrinsic birth cycles.

Anyways, point being that Japan is a populace of 126 million in a country about the size of California but without the fertile valleys of California that grow our strawberries and where the avocado trees cling to the earth as though they are baby orangutans and their moma the earth.

On islands the water table is particularly sensitive, the rain falling on the peaks of the island mountains flowing down into the shallow, always shallow, caches from which the island populace withdraws its drinking and cooking and washing water. This water is supremely sensitive to shocks of any sort, and even back then there was concern about strain on the water table.

Now go to Japan and what do we find? A country which says it is finding radiation in its drinking water in Tokyo. The island waters of Japan are also a shallow crucilble for the people, subject to shocks of any sort. And the radiation which falls upon Mt. Fuji (for instance) will filter down the sides and join the radiation that layson the land and join in the water table where it will filter through the Japanese country. As there are at least three totally ruined reactors, and several more that are questionable, extrapolation is required. It may be that before the Japanese people are completely radiated, cause to consider the evacuation of the country will come.

Sorry to say, but an island country is exactly a worst-case scenario for a nuclear problem, such as we are seeing. Chernobyl had the advantage of having a...call it..."reverse sarcophagus" of dirt. Thus, the only real problem was with radiation spewing into the air. Japan has a worse problem for once the water is tainted, as the settlers of America knew, the land is useless, unfit for human habitation. Africa is a country in need of great people to assist it with structure. Perhaps homes there for the Japanese would be worth considering?

The above scenario has its fons et origo in the phrase: "poisoning the well."Humans must have water to survive, and there may be a reason here, also, that the United States was sending fresh water to use on the reactors. After all, an entire nation doesn't have enough of its own fresh water for placing on its nuclear reactors? That bears scrutiny and thought, so read the above again and consider that we may be seeing a first in history: an entire nation which may need evacuating.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:48 | 1167214 kumquatsunite

Consider this my lovely kumquats, long ago and far away the days of my youth were spent lolling on the beaches of Hawaii, driving its lovely highways across island passes with a grand blue sky overhead and the sweet sounds of ukelele singing forth from the radio. Those were simple days, long before the quiet joy of days spent free and breezy were tainted by ring tones and an unsustainable population based on the false premise that growth must exists at all moments and at all times in a country's economic trajectory; a policy which disregards a normal ebb and flow due to age variation of a populace and its intrinsic birth cycles.

Anyways, point being that Japan is a populace of 126 million in a country about the size of California but without the fertile valleys of California that grow our strawberries and where the avocado trees cling to the earth as though they are baby orangutans and their moma the earth.

On islands the water table is particularly sensitive, the rain falling on the peaks of the island mountains flowing down into the shallow, always shallow, caches from which the island populace withdraws its drinking and cooking and washing water. This water is supremely sensitive to shocks of any sort, and even back then there was concern about strain on the water table.

Now go to Japan and what do we find? A country which says it is finding radiation in its drinking water in Tokyo. The island waters of Japan are also a shallow crucilble for the people, subject to shocks of any sort. And the radiation which falls upon Mt. Fuji (for instance) will filter down the sides and join the radiation that layson the land and join in the water table where it will filter through the Japanese country. As there are at least three totally ruined reactors, and several more that are questionable, extrapolation is required. It may be that before the Japanese people are completely radiated, cause to consider the evacuation of the country will come.

Sorry to say, but an island country is exactly a worst-case scenario for a nuclear problem, such as we are seeing. Chernobyl had the advantage of having a...call it..."reverse sarcophagus" of dirt. Thus, the only real problem was with radiation spewing into the air. Japan has a worse problem for once the water is tainted, as the settlers of America knew, the land is useless, unfit for human habitation. Africa is a country in need of great people to assist it with structure. Perhaps homes there for the Japanese would be worth considering?

The above scenario has its fons et origo in the phrase: "poisoning the well."Humans must have water to survive, and there may be a reason here, also, that the United States was sending fresh water to use on the reactors. After all, an entire nation doesn't have enough of its own fresh water for placing on its nuclear reactors? That bears scrutiny and thought, so read the above again and consider that we may be seeing a first in history: an entire nation which may need evacuating.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:47 | 1167210 kumquatsunite

Consider this my lovely kumquats, long ago and far away the days of my youth were spent lolling on the beaches of Hawaii, driving its lovely highways across island passes with a grand blue sky overhead and the sweet sounds of ukelele singing forth from the radio. Those were simple days, long before the quiet joy of days spent free and breezy were tainted by ring tones and an unsustainable population based on the false premise that growth must exists at all moments and at all times in a country's economic trajectory; a policy which disregards a normal ebb and flow due to age variation of a populace and its intrinsic birth cycles.

Anyways, point being that Japan is a populace of 126 million in a country about the size of California but without the fertile valleys of California that grow our strawberries and where the avocado trees cling to the earth as though they are baby orangutans and their moma the earth.

On islands the water table is particularly sensitive, the rain falling on the peaks of the island mountains flowing down into the shallow, always shallow, caches from which the island populace withdraws its drinking and cooking and washing water. This water is supremely sensitive to shocks of any sort, and even back then there was concern about strain on the water table.

Now go to Japan and what do we find? A country which says it is finding radiation in its drinking water in Tokyo. The island waters of Japan are also a shallow crucilble for the people, subject to shocks of any sort. And the radiation which falls upon Mt. Fuji (for instance) will filter down the sides and join the radiation that layson the land and join in the water table where it will filter through the Japanese country. As there are at least three totally ruined reactors, and several more that are questionable, extrapolation is required. It may be that before the Japanese people are completely radiated, cause to consider the evacuation of the country will come.

Sorry to say, but an island country is exactly a worst-case scenario for a nuclear problem, such as we are seeing. Chernobyl had the advantage of having a...call it..."reverse sarcophagus" of dirt. Thus, the only real problem was with radiation spewing into the air. Japan has a worse problem for once the water is tainted, as the settlers of America knew, the land is useless, unfit for human habitation. Africa is a country in need of great people to assist it with structure. Perhaps homes there for the Japanese would be worth considering?

The above scenario has its fons et origo in the phrase: "poisoning the well."Humans must have water to survive, and there may be a reason here, also, that the United States was sending fresh water to use on the reactors. After all, an entire nation doesn't have enough of its own fresh water for placing on its nuclear reactors? That bears scrutiny and thought, so read the above again and consider that we may be seeing a first in history: an entire nation which may need evacuating.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:47 | 1167209 kumquatsunite

Consider this my lovely kumquats, long ago and far away the days of my youth were spent lolling on the beaches of Hawaii, driving its lovely highways across island passes with a grand blue sky overhead and the sweet sounds of ukelele singing forth from the radio. Those were simple days, long before the quiet joy of days spent free and breezy were tainted by ring tones and an unsustainable population based on the false premise that growth must exists at all moments and at all times in a country's economic trajectory; a policy which disregards a normal ebb and flow due to age variation of a populace and its intrinsic birth cycles.

Anyways, point being that Japan is a populace of 126 million in a country about the size of California but without the fertile valleys of California that grow our strawberries and where the avocado trees cling to the earth as though they are baby orangutans and their moma the earth.

On islands the water table is particularly sensitive, the rain falling on the peaks of the island mountains flowing down into the shallow, always shallow, caches from which the island populace withdraws its drinking and cooking and washing water. This water is supremely sensitive to shocks of any sort, and even back then there was concern about strain on the water table.

Now go to Japan and what do we find? A country which says it is finding radiation in its drinking water in Tokyo. The island waters of Japan are also a shallow crucilble for the people, subject to shocks of any sort. And the radiation which falls upon Mt. Fuji (for instance) will filter down the sides and join the radiation that layson the land and join in the water table where it will filter through the Japanese country. As there are at least three totally ruined reactors, and several more that are questionable, extrapolation is required. It may be that before the Japanese people are completely radiated, cause to consider the evacuation of the country will come.

Sorry to say, but an island country is exactly a worst-case scenario for a nuclear problem, such as we are seeing. Chernobyl had the advantage of having a...call it..."reverse sarcophagus" of dirt. Thus, the only real problem was with radiation spewing into the air. Japan has a worse problem for once the water is tainted, as the settlers of America knew, the land is useless, unfit for human habitation. Africa is a country in need of great people to assist it with structure. Perhaps homes there for the Japanese would be worth considering?

The above scenario has its fons et origo in the phrase: "poisoning the well."Humans must have water to survive, and there may be a reason here, also, that the United States was sending fresh water to use on the reactors. After all, an entire nation doesn't have enough of its own fresh water for placing on its nuclear reactors? That bears scrutiny and thought, so read the above again and consider that we may be seeing a first in history: an entire nation which may need evacuating.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 19:37 | 1167174 MSimon

I have never had a finger in a dyke. I did have a tongue once.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 18:44 | 1167035 Infinite QE

You can see Kan mumbling beneath his breath, "Fuck Hatoyama. I should have never run against him. I could be hanging out in France with my girlfriend......."

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 18:31 | 1166986 Stuck on Zero

World renowned physicist Michio Kaku? Renowned among whom? The media. Certainly in the physics community he's as respected as ... well ... Al Gore is in the Internet community.