Radiation Levels Surge Outside Two Nuclear Plants in Japan

Side note: Angela Merkel is about to shut down forever some older nuclear plants because of this once-in-a-lifetime Japanese disaster. How will Germany replace those kilowatt hours? Burn more coal to increase global warming, or spend more money on inefficient solar and wind turbines?

FROM ANS recently: Fires in Spent Fuel Pools.

The explosions that rocked reactors #1 and #3 were caused by high temperature hydrogen in steam reacting with oxygen. The explosions may have damaged cooling pools. The pools, as deep as 30 meters, hold fuel rods that have been used in the reactor. The rods are cooled for several years to prevent a fire or the release of radionuclides.

But after its outer building exploded today, satellite photos of reactor #3 showed fallen fuel cask cranes and damage to various concrete structures, said Alvarez. The pools are massive, reinforced structures built of concrete and steel as much as a meter thick. Were they damaged? Alvarez wondered whether apparent steam plumes visible in the photos were water coming off of the spent fuel pool.

Loss of water from the pools could lead the spent fuel to rise in temperature, causing the zirconium cladding which encases the fuel rods to catch on fire. Zirconium fires could lead to massive amounts of radioactive cesium being emitted from the spent fuel and spewed into the atmosphere as part of the smoke. "It's worrisome, but I don't think there's evidence of a zirconium fire," said Alvarez. But that risk remains real.

Looks like things are going to get worse before they get better!

One of the reasons they build these plants on the coast was they were easier to build that way and they could use the sea water as a last ditch cooling attempt. Ironic that it was the tsunami of sea water which worsened the disaster more than the actual earthquake.

SS109 wrote: Side note: Angela Merkel is about to shut down forever some older nuclear plants because of this once-in-a-lifetime Japanese disaster. How will Germany replace those kilowatt hours? Burn more coal to increase global warming, or spend more money on inefficient solar and wind turbines?

Oil prices will skyrocket if countries start shutting down nuclear plants. I'd like to hear from a knowledgeable environmentalist as to which does more environmental damage..... nuclear, coal, oil, hydro, etc. I'll bet when this mess is all said and done, the environmental impact from these nuke plants will not be very large and it will be nothing like Chernobyl , which as bad as it was, was over exaggerated. That plant was horribly designed with no containment system...I have no doubt the Japanese will handle this with minimal human exposure to radiation but the media will take any tragedy and run with it.

I was happy to hear that the Obama administration is not yet putting the brakes on future nuclear plants here.

CriticalBill wrote: Oil prices will skyrocket if countries start shutting down nuclear plants.

What the heck does nuclear energy for power have to do with oil prices for fuel?

I'm trying to get up to speed here, but I want to make sure I am understanding it all properly.

From what I understand, the core is surrounded by a containment vessel, which is surrounded by another layer of containment of concrete and then all of that is surrounded by another layer of steel and concrete that is 4 to 6 feet thick. That would mean that even in the event of a partial core melt that damaged the reactor vessel itself that there are another 2 layers of containment beyond that which would have to be breached before nuclear material entered the environment from the reactor.

I'm also led to understand that the fuel rods contain pellets of fuel surrounded in a cladding that has a lower melting point than the pellets themselves. This is also part of the safety system such that if the cladding melts the pellets will disperse and that the increase in distance between the pellets that results in less reaction between the pellets, thus lowering the heat they are producing, and also allow the cooling system that is in the first layer of containment outside of the vessel itself to cool the individual pellets at a greater rate than they could be cooled when they were contained within the fuel rod. There would be a possibility of a very sudden generation of steam at that point, which could build pressure faster than it could be relieved, which could cause that first containment to fail, but there would still be one more layer of containment beyond that that would have to be breached before the material entered the environment.

Do I have that correct?

kresspin wrote:

CriticalBill wrote: Oil prices will skyrocket if countries start shutting down nuclear plants.

What the heck does nuclear energy for power have to do with oil prices for fuel?

The loss of the nuclear facilities means that Japan will lose about 50% of its nuclear power generation, which accounts for 30% of their total generation, so figure an extra 15% of their electricity will have to be shifted from nuclear to fossil. When they run their fossil plants more to generate that increased amount of electricity, they will consume more NG, fuel oil and coal than they otherwise would. That increases the demand on these fuels which will then drive up the cost of them if the supply remains the same. If the increased demand is met with an increased supply, the cost could still go up because that ongoing increase in demand lowers the use to known reserves ratio.

That's still not going to affect the price at the gas tank though, is it? (I'm asking, not mocking)

Nuclear Power ... blah blah blah...

[youtube:38eylbzx][/youtube:38eylbzx]

URGENT: Fuel rods damage at Fukushima's 2 reactors estimated at 70%, 33%
TOKYO, March 16, Kyodo

An estimated 70 percent of the nuclear fuel rods have been damaged at the troubled No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and 33 percent at the No. 2 reactor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday.

The reactors' cores are believed to have partially melted with their cooling functions lost after Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocked Fukushima Prefecture and other areas in northeastern and eastern Japan.

Source

kresspin wrote: That's still not going to affect the price at the gas tank though, is it? (I'm asking, not mocking)

Nuclear Power ... blah blah blah...

[youtube:1n7kuadq]

[/youtube:1n7kuadq]

There is a lot more to this and you know it. :can't hear