Radiation Levels Surge Outside Two Nuclear Plants in Japan

Thanks that makes sense. My casual conversations with Navy nuclear power people gave me the impression that it could not happen. Maybe fail safes are easier when you are surrounded by ocean?

I was a Navy nuclear operator/designer - those you spoke with are WRONG. Rickover's designs were much safer that commercial plants - but commercial plants are driven by $$$$$ and sometimes safety corners are cut - I was closely associated with three commercial plants (PWR and BWR).......USN has their act together - commercial world is different.

I just herd that radiation levels in the control room were 1000 times "normal" IF so a breech of primary systems has happened and possibly a containment leak or a containment venting system leak of some type ----and or both. IF so, this is serious to say the least. Also at the plant boundry (gates) I hear radiation levels are eight times normal. All this radiation is from core isotopes released - bad stuff.

deltamrey wrote: I was a Navy nuclear operator/designer - those you spoke with are WRONG. Rickover's designs were much safer that commercial plants - but commercial plants are driven by $$$$$ and sometimes safety corners are cut - I was closely associated with three commercial plants (PWR and BWR).......USN has their act together - commercial world is different.

No, I was not clear. Based on what you wrote my nuc's were correct. It was my mistake to apply what they said to civilian nuc power.

Believe it or not I used to lecture high school AP classes on Navy nuclear power but it was not because I knew anything, it was part of my recruiting job.

When were you in? I knew some nuc's. My last sea duty was the SoCar(CGN-37).

I served on three boats and in WDC for a time - was at MINS for five years. I also was an instructor at S1W and A1W in Idaho. The Navy programs are very solid........the operators were well trained - we made sure of that.


The commercial sector is not at all the same caliber - we had Rickover - they have wall street.

deltamrey wrote: I served on three boats and in WDC for a time - was at MINS for five years. I also was an instructor at S1W and A1W in Idaho. The Navy programs are very solid........the operators were well trained - we made sure of that.


The commercial sector is not at all the same caliber - we had Rickover - they have wall street.

Was not a nuc, but worked in the plants. The big question is why they have not brought in portable Gens to get temp power up and start running the pumps. Not sure if you heard this also. It was reported that The sec of state sent an air force plane over there loaded with coolant for the plants. First thing that came to mind was most are water cooled so exactly what did we send over there.? I learned alot with 3 mile incident. My folks lived within 60 miles of it.

The Roosevelt cvn71, lincoln cvn72 and washington cvn73

One of the plants have had an explosion I think there has been a melt down.

A massive explosion has struck a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday's devastating earthquake.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219


This is terrifying. The news will not say that it is a meltdown but the roof of the powerplant blew off. And the evacuation has been doubled. They also showed that Tokyo and most of the country has no food or phones.

IF CC is correct they had a containment burst - but no confirmation.......the worst possible outcome.

OK - just had my coffee - CG is of course correct - they have had a hydrogen explosion in containment. The containments are fitted with hydrogen igniters to burn off the gas in case of such an event - with no power the H2 built up and the containment has been breached is my guess. BAD- BAD - BAD......the root cause was the loss of the emergency diesels caused by the water inflow. This bodes ill for our "new" programs here......possibly will kill the rebirth.

Okay, so why the hydrogen explosion? Not sure what that means. I need to go back and do some reading.