Radiation Levels Surge Outside Two Nuclear Plants in Japan

To mitigate that risk, people can take iodine tablets that saturate the organ and make it unnecessary to absorb the radioactive iodine. Dr. Chesser also recommended that people stay indoors as much as possible.


CG - Potassiun Iodide tablets here in USA are stockplied near all reactors - but the industry keeps it very quiet. The Indian Point reactors are a few miles north, up the Hudson......from..........NYC (about 30 million souls in that area).

For your sleeping pleasure: There are 10 (TEN) Boiling Water Reactors at the same location (group of 6/group of 4). All are of similar design (GE). Possibly ALL have the same issues. The newer ones are at less risk. ALL MUST HAVE BACKUP POWER.......ALL I REPEAT. How would you like to be an operating engineer on shift at that facility.........NOT.

OK FOLKS--- here is the best you will get - from American Nuclear Society files - today (you now know more that the press):

 The plant was immediately shut down (scrammed) when the earthquake first hit. The automatic
power system worked.
 All external power to the station was lost when the sea water swept away the power lines.
 Diesel generators started to provide backup electrical power to the plant’s backup cooling
system. The backup worked.
 The diesel generators ceased functioning after approximately one hour due to tsunami induced
damage, reportedly to their fuel supply.
 An Isolation condenser was used to remove the decay heat from the shutdown reactor.
 Apparently the plant then experienced a small loss of coolant from the reactor.
 Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) pumps, which operate on steam from the reactor, were
used to replace reactor core water inventory, however, the battery‐supplied control valves lost
DC power after the prolonged use.
 DC power from batteries was consumed after approximately 8 hours.
 At that point, the plant experienced a complete blackout (no electric power at all).
 Hours passed as primary water inventory was lost and core degradation occurred (through some
combination of zirconium oxidation and clad failure).
 Portable diesel generators were delivered to the plant site.
 AC power was restored allowing for a different backup pumping system to replace inventory in
reactor pressure vessel (RPV).
 Pressure in the containment drywell rose as wetwell became hotter.
 The Drywell containment was vented to outside reactor building which surrounds the
containment.
 Hydrogen produced from zirconium oxidation was vented from the containment into the reactor
building.
 Hydrogen in reactor building exploded causing it to collapse around the containment.
 The containment around the reactor and RPV were reported to be intact.
 The decision was made to inject seawater into the RPV to continue to the cooling process,
another backup system that was designed into the plant from inception.

Hours passed as primary water inventory was lost and core degradation occurred (through some
combination of zirconium oxidation and clad failure).


Uhhhhhhhh.....better known as core MELT......or more sensational MELTDOWN.

So this is a for sure. Inevitable?

It has already happened........melt that is......according to ANS file sent today. The press is a bit tardy.

So what happens after?

How to Cool a Nuclear Reactor

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ar-reactor

I wonder if Obama is going to Japan to assess the damage of the Nuclear Power Plant and demand Tokyo Electric to put $ 20 billion into a clean up fund?

I am thankful for cheap coal fired electric plants.

I can't believe that these nuclear plants have only one back up plan... of course, this is a 40 year old plant....ironically in 2008, Japan put 9 Nukes in service.

I wonder what would happen if the nuclear plant got hit with a 33 feet wave of water...and all electricity was knocked and generation was knocked out...and all the operators left or drowned?

Thank you, deltamrey, for providing some believable information, rather than the pap served up by the clueless media.