Nuclear accident follows Japanese earthqauke

[emordnilap]

The Good News About Cloud Architecture: Everything Fails

And the impact of the disaster has not ended. Power-plant disruptions continue to cause rolling blackouts that cut electricity to data centers throughout the country in three-hour increments. Backup generators fill the power gap, but the Japan Data Center Council recently warned that reliance on generators is causing a diesel fuel shortage. With more than 50 data centers in the Tokyo area alone, JDCC members are burning through 5,000 to 6,250 gallons of fuel every hour.

Written by a seller of cloud computing software but I thought that quote appropriate for PS.

[RenewableCandy]

Prof from Sheffield discovers simple way of solidifying radioactive Iodine to make it easier to dispose of.

Mind you, there's only so much solid Granite/similar terrain available for suchlike activities...

[biffvernon]

Arnie Gunderson puts the boot in: http://vimeo.com/24312973

[kenneal - lagger]

That says a lot about the efficacy of the regulation process, doesn't it! How can we trust anything the nuclear industry says when they ignore expert submissions to their regulatory process?

[biffvernon]

Isn't it standard practice to not listen to experts who say something inconvenient? (cf Prof Nutt vs. Home Sec. Johnson on drugs last year.)

[kenneal - lagger]

And economists ignoring advice that there are limits to growth!

[biffvernon]

This is the most comprehensive account to date of all things Fukushima:

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format ... tation.pdf

Naoto Sekimura, Prof. Dr.,
Vice Dean, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Associate Member of Science Council of Japan

Well worth downloading.

[An Inspector Calls]

The control rods and all the metal from the fuel cladding, tubes and structure that makes up the fuel assembly will have melted to form a lava-like mess known as corium.

If that is the case then any further criticallity is highly unlikely because the bulk of the uranium will have lost the water moderator. The thermal neutron flux will therefore have reduced sufficiently to render the core incapable of criticallity. That's what's happened in all previous meltdown events.

[kenneal - lagger]

Wasn't the drywell, where the corium ended up, flooded at one point? Didn't they have to pump it out to gain access?

[biffvernon]

Yes it's flooded. It's also leaking and they keep pouring more water in. I don't think anyone has 'gained access' to the corium. You really wouldn't want to.

[biffvernon]

Unit 5 was ~11h without cooling!

At 9:14 pm on May 28, we confirmed temporary RHRS pumps were out of service, we started replacement of these pumps with spares at 8:12 am on may 29th

[biffvernon]

More about cooling failure at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 529x1.html

[biffvernon]

some reactor buildings were uncovered

What is it in the Japanese culture that allows these understatements? The buildings are not just 'uncovered', they been blown to smithereens, with nothing but clear air between leaking pressure vessels more or less containing thousands of tons of radioactive fuel that has melted its way to heaven knows where, and the approaching typhoon season.

[biffvernon]

The weather has changed. East winds and rain, the 'rainy season' has officially started, though it 17 days before 'normal'. There's a typhoon on its way.

The eight weeks of favourable weather with winds almost always off shore and very little rain, has ended.

[kenneal - lagger]

I can lend them a couple of tarps!