Nuclear accident follows Japanese earthqauke

Ippoippo · Post by **Ippoippo** » 02 Nov 2011, 12:30

"New fission suspected at Fukushima nuclear plant"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/nati ... lear-plant

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/no ... ar-fission

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... plant.html

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 02 Nov 2011, 13:54

and http://cryptogon.com/?p=25810

So what they told us was impossible is happening after all!

Discussion at http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread ... 0&page=724

An Inspector Calls · Post by **An Inspector Calls** » 02 Nov 2011, 16:33

What are you on about? Radiation is detected at Kukishima: therefore, there's fission. You can't have radiation without fission. So what's the news?

I suppose you're thinking of criticallity, but since the nuclear material isn't in a moderated configuration (assuming it's been melted down) it's difficult to see how it can go critical.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 03 Nov 2011, 18:10

Re-criticality is exactly what the Xenon 135 levels indicate.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, said that gas from Reactor No. 2 indicated the presence of radioactive xenon and other substances that could be byproducts of nuclear fission. The presence of xenon 135 in particular, which has a half-life of just nine hours, seemed to indicate that fission took place very recently....

But even in their most dire assessments, some experts had not expected even bursts of re-criticality to occur, because it was unlikely that the fuel would melt in just the right way — and that another ingredient, water, would be present in just the right amounts — to allow for any nuclear reaction. If episodes of fission at Fukushima were confirmed, Mr. Koide said, “our entire understanding of nuclear safety would be turned on its head.”

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/0 ... -its-head/

The discussion by the physicists continues at http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread ... 0&page=726

An Inspector Calls · Post by **An Inspector Calls** » 04 Nov 2011, 12:45

No it doesn't, it indicates fission.

A reactor goes critical only when the replication of released, fission neutrons generation to generation reaches 1.

If it's below 1 the reactor is sub critical, if above it's super critical and the radiation levels will start to multiply (a key measurement then is doubling time which is why reactors are always fitted with doubling time trips).

But the reactor, if it has melted down, is no longer in a configuration where the fissionable uranium can achieve criticallity - it's lost the moderator and thus the quantity of thermal neutrons (as opposed to fast neutrons) has fallen.

These points are mentioned in the physics forum.

There may be zones in the melted lump where, as it cools, neutron replication increases from time as it physically shifts or if neutron absorbers, such as xenon, decay to other fission products. There's no new physics.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 02 Dec 2011, 08:11

The truth is leaking out from TEPCO, rather more slowly than the fuel did.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/de ... ely-melted

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 29 Dec 2011, 08:20

Here's an interesting video with the new Japanese prime minister explaining just what 'cold shutdown' means. He admits the most, if not all, the fuel melted and went through the floor and it's exact location and temperature are unknown. Cold shutdown means that the whole thing is generally under 100 degrees but that doesn't amount to 'control'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xUQKJwkIeY

Ippoippo · Post by **Ippoippo** » 31 Dec 2011, 08:24

This is rather worrying footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHXXa_QOET8

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 05 Feb 2012, 19:13

Getting on for a year on and the summing up accounts are emerging.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=28870

Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War

The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation

Michel Chossudovsky (Editor)

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 24 Feb 2012, 09:27

Quite a good documentary on BBC2 last night, probably on iplayer now.

Extended interviews with workers, politicians and management, about how close the reactor cores came to exploding, and the release of spent fuel in one of the explosions, and at one point the director of the plant called for its total abandonment, ordering all staff to leave, as he saw total meltdown as unavoidable.

No discussion of what the current status is, or what next... implied a 20 year exclusion zone in the immediate area.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mgxx

Inside the Meltdown

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 24 Feb 2012, 09:36

RalphW wrote:No discussion of what the current status is, or what next... implied a 20 year exclusion zone in the immediate area.

Probably a good thing I don't live much less than that distance from Hinkley Point any more!

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 10 Mar 2012, 10:13

Life in Japan a year on as the world's biggest clean-up is attempted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-17321936

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 10 Mar 2012, 17:44

And a nice little film via People Tree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLSiJDO99c4 with some interesting insights into how folk are coping, the media and how to cope without nuclear power.

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZDvWtHOb8

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 24 Mar 2012, 19:27

More devious goings on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn6I6dj8PlA

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 27 Mar 2012, 19:46

Problems at the site rumble on: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/world/2264059.html