Regulations on nuclear power plants bunch of BS?

[battery]

With its containment structure gone, a melt-down at the Fukushima Daiichi will expose radioactive contaminants directly to the environment.

This is stupid.

A nuclear power plant fails due to a lack of electricity to power the cooling system? What the hell? I thought the whole point of a reactor is to generate electricity! So a powerplant has to rely on external battery and cooling equipments to shut itself off? This tells me the plant is hopelessly outdated.

Why was this old plant allowed to operate at all, in a country where earthquakes are so commonplace?

[Etzell]

Yeah, 'cause the backup generators being damaged by fucking tsunamis had nothing to do with it.

[Lost]

Even with fail-safes in place, which apparently there was because the core did not go into hit that level of uncontrollable chain reaction like Chernobyl, it still takes juice to keep the thing from blowing up. Shutting the reactor down in itself is a slow process; the heat takes weeks to dissipate. Compound that with the fact that there is no power to operate the auxiliary cooling mechanisms, even with the reactor shut down, there is going to be heat building. These things are meant to take a beating, but even as prepared as they were, it still means a lot of shit can go fatally wrong.

Even so, in the best of circumstances, they will seal off the reactor and call it a loss, like we had to at Three Mile Island. Hopefully an aftershock doesn't mess things up worse and send it critical.

[GenghisTron]

The japanese have properly engineered an energy infrastructure, meanwhile here in the US, it's virtually crumbling, and we're fucking flat broke. Japan endured the biggest Earthquake in 50 years, were blasted with gigantic tsunamis, and they still managed to not have a complete nuclear meltdown. Russia, on the other hand, couldn't put a toaster together that couldn't break, and they managed to absolutely devastate an entire region of land, on a completely normal, non-threatening day. The effects of which, we still see today, which hundreds of thousands of mentally retarded, physically handicapped radioactive children, whose existence are being hidden from the world by international organizations.

Japan managed to go through all this shit, and leak only a minimal amount of radiation, meanwhile the Wrath of Motherfucking Zeus rained down upon their country. Do me a favor, and stop making threads.

[GenghisTron]

Originally Posted by Etzell

Yeah, 'cause the backup generators being damaged by fucking tsunamis had nothing to do with it.

Nah bro, it was the regulations.

[GenghisTron]

Oh, and I realized I'm rusty on my Greek Mythology. Poseidon was the God of Earthquakes, not Zeus. I was gonna edit my post, but then I figured, nah.

[Innoc]

Originally Posted by Etzell

Yeah, 'cause the backup generators being damaged by fucking tsunamis had nothing to do with it.

And so far it would seem that the Japanese plant designs show a huge improvement and advantage over those of the reactor in Chernobyl. What happened in Japan goes so far beyond "worst-case scenario" it's mind boggling.

[stray kitten]

This morning the rods were exposed. Meaning no coolant water to cover them at all. As everyone is saying this could lead to what the actual term "meltdown" means. The rods cannot be cooled and melt. The danger is the rods get so hot they melt then oooze on down and melt containment vessel. In this case the vessel is designed for that situation. So lets all hope thing work out. Right now there are more than one reactor affected, 3 at this plant. Bottom line, given the magnitude of this disaster, its pretty amazing those things are still standing at all. And the reak risk of a total meltdown seems low as long as theire is not another 8.9 1 in a thousand year quake.

Japan is a small country and they have 55 nuclear power plants. Japs got balls. They know wtf low carbon and self sustainable engery means. In America the academic socialists believe in magical energy fairies.

[Lost]

Originally Posted by Innoc

And so far it would seem that the Japanese plant designs show a huge improvement and advantage over those of the reactor in Chernobyl. What happened in Japan goes so far beyond "worst-case scenario" it's mind boggling.

And what is most mind boggling is that the Russians were warned that the situation which caused the meltdown in Chernobyl was a possibility. But they were told to build it that way anyways (they can physically remove the control rods from the pile, a big fucking no-no). Nor is that the only reactor in ex-Soviet territory using that design - and using only cursory protective measures to prevent another disaster similar to that.

Originally Posted by stray kitten

Bottom line, given the magnitude of this disaster, its pretty amazing those things are still standing at all. And the reak risk of a total meltdown seems low as long as theire is not another 8.9 1 in a thousand year quake.

QFMFT

[Bridget]

Originally Posted by Lost

And what is most mind boggling is that the Russians were warned that the situation which caused the meltdown in Chernobyl was a possibility. But they were told to build it that way anyways (they can physically remove the control rods from the pile, a big fucking no-no). Nor is that the only reactor in ex-Soviet territory using that design - and using only cursory protective measures to prevent another disaster similar to that.

Welcome to central planning.

[battery]

OMG!

The plant is on fire and leaking radiation. If things get worse they will have to pour concrete over the reactor to bury it. Many emergency workers will die.

[Bridget]

OMG BAD SHIT HAPPENS EVERYDAY

[stray kitten]

Originally Posted by Lost

And what is most mind boggling is that the Russians were warned that the situation which caused the meltdown in Chernobyl was a possibility. But they were told to build it that way anyways (they can physically remove the control rods from the pile, a big fucking no-no). Nor is that the only reactor in ex-Soviet territory using that design - and using only cursory protective measures to prevent another disaster similar to that.


QFMFT

Chernobyl was also seriously neglected before the 1986 disaster. Plus the soviet fags kept it a secret until the rest of the world found out through intel:

"Hey what the fuck is that big nuclear fallout cloud doing over Prypiat?"

"huh? What cloud comrade?

When the iron curtain fell nuclear inspectors about shit their pants peeking into the old block reactors. There was kind of a manufactured crisis going on regarding the condition of all these plants suddenly finding themselves in Eastern Europe.

If nuclear power can survive the soviet union it should be good to go, eh?

[Lost]

Yeah, no shit that. When the sirens went off in West Germany, peoples WTF meter took notice. Which was like 4 days later? You're right though, it was seriously dilapidated and under funded.

[Icculus]

Originally Posted by GenghisTron

The japanese have properly engineered an energy infrastructure, meanwhile here in the US, it's virtually crumbling, and we're fucking flat broke. Japan endured the biggest Earthquake in 50 years, were blasted with gigantic tsunamis, and they still managed to not have a complete nuclear meltdown. Russia, on the other hand, couldn't put a toaster together that couldn't break, and they managed to absolutely devastate an entire region of land, on a completely normal, non-threatening day. The effects of which, we still see today, which hundreds of thousands of mentally retarded, physically handicapped radioactive children, whose existence are being hidden from the world by international organizations.

Japan managed to go through all this shit, and leak only a minimal amount of radiation, meanwhile the Wrath of Motherfucking Zeus rained down upon their country. Do me a favor, and stop making threads.

Japan is actually a bit behind on their Nuclear Reactor technology.

Reactor Design in Japan has long been questioned.

The type of containment vessel and pressure suppression system used in the failing reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant — and in 23 American reactors at 16 plants — is physically less robust, and it has long been thought to be more susceptible to failure in an emergency than competing designs.

G.E. began making the Mark 1 boiling water reactors in the 1960s, marketing them as cheaper and easier to build — in part because they used a comparatively smaller and less expensive containment structure.

American regulators began identifying weaknesses very early on.


Still, Japan's reaction to this catastrophe and their efforts to minimize Nuclear contamination have been very impressive.

[Iggy]

That's what happens when you have important shit build by the lowest bidder.

I'll tell you another thing that really impresses me about the Japanese: There have been no riots over food supplies, and no looting. Had that happened here, it would have been insane. Remember when Katrina rolled through N'awlins?

[WiFiDi]

when a nuke reactor blows it nowwhere near as big as a nuclear bomb because in the bomb they use an unstable isotope or somthing like that. where as in a reactor they use a stable one.

[FrenchToast]

The other major difference between Japan and New Orleans is that the Japanese government seems to have... you know... noticed. And done something.

[Icculus]

Originally Posted by FrenchToast

The other major difference between Japan and New Orleans is that the Japanese government seems to have... you know... noticed. And done something.

Our fearless leader noticed when Katrina happened. I seem to remember him doing a fly over and doing his patriotic duty by waving back to the people below frantically calling for help or assistance of any sort.

[stray kitten]

Originally Posted by FrenchToast

The other major difference between Japan and New Orleans is that the Japanese government seems to have... you know... noticed. And done something.

It would be pushing it, but entire country of Japan can almost fit inside Louisiana.

Using Japan as a model one may conclude that a good state government would have been more imediatly beneficial while a secondary federal government response would augment initial responses. Most of the damage in "Nawlins" was from flooding with a slow onset over a period of a few days vs. total destruction within hours. Which makes the comparison of human responses and interaction even more pathetic. It's not a USA things it's a western thing. We are "entitled" that someone else take care of everything.