Exactly. Nobody knows what is being released into the atmosphere, only that it is being released.

If you interpret that to mean "OMG APOCOLYPSE!!1one", fine go run for the hills or something.

If you interpret that to mean "LOL EVERYTHING IS NORMAL", great--stop coming in this thread and go about your normal routine.

Again here I believe its in the middle. I am certain there are things not being said and one of those happens to be the fact they are flying blind due to the chain of events that leads us to this point.

The last thing the public wants to hear is I don't know so they are forced to answer questions they cannot answer or do not want to.

I think it's more that they are trying to hide that they really don't know what's going on. Which, in my opinion is warranted. On the one hand, they don't want to freak the **** out of the population by telling them how little control they may have, on the other hand, they HAVE to give some kind of information.

Yup, it's sad that people think nuclear power is unsafe after a 40 year old nuclear plant being hit by an 8.9 earthquake, a tsunami, several hydrogen explosions and an out of control fire leaks enough radiation to check your breasts for lumps.

I have to admit I am pretty damn impressed by the performance of these reactors so far. 40 years old in age of material and design. Not only did it survive one of the strongest earthquakes in the modern era, it took on a tsunami as well. Afterward a chain of events that appear to be caused directly by the tsunami and indirectly by the quake is causing a crisis that has been ongoing for days. The design seems sufficient enough to give us plenty of time to try and prevent things from getting much worse.

Also given what we know now we can apply these lessons learned to newer and safer designs that already exist and make reactors pretty damn bulletproof. Sure those reactors will have weaknesses as well, but its getting to the point that if those are exposed it does not ****ing matter because whatever caused it to fail killed everyone anyway.

No you can't. Nuclear power is horribly dangerous and will kill us all. It's best that we give up pursuing it and leave our existing plants alone.

Burn more coal.

The only thing I can gather from tree huggers is they want humans dead.

Robots don't count.

There was also probably some kind of human error on TEPCO's part in all this. I don't think it was handled all that well from the get-go.

I see a weakness when it comes to nuclear plants now though that I didn't know about before. That issue is with the spent fuel pools. Who the **** thought that up? It seems really stupid to expose them like that, and especially put them up in a high area. It seems like a well placed missile or an object acting like a missile could create a 'dirty bomb' if it were to get to the pool.

There's also the problem of where to store all the fuel. I have read several reports that suggests this facility was well over the limit and design for spent fuel rod storage.

Well 40+ years ago when they were designed I don't think that was a concern. From what I read they were placed there for easy access when a reactor was being refueled.

Back then the concerns were nuke strikes or state warfare and at that point it does not really matter.

The human factor is a legitimate concern and we will have to wait and see. Need to have an investigation done when its all over so every detail is logged and vetted.

It's a problem in the US as well. By 2015, a lot of our nuclear plants are going to be out of room for spent fuel.

http://www.nrc.gov/images/waste/spen...age/fig044.gif

NRC: Nuclear Fuel Pool Capacity

I was reading that research is being done on spent fuel. They are finding new ways to reuse them and get a lot more energy out of them. Was in a Popsci article. Can't find it at the moment. Maybe that can help.

In China?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/wo...hina.html?_r=1

Honestly none of this would be an issue if there had been a passive cooling system, as is implemented in newer designs. Everything went to **** after the more-powerful-than-expected hydrogen explosions, which occurred because of gas release when the reactors became too hot.

Also, just from observation of the videos, comparing the explosion at the #1 reactor (very "clean," quick expansion of gas) vs. #3 reactor (seemed larger, much more dirt and **** in the air afterward,) I almost question whether it was _only_ hydrogen that exploded in reactor #3. From that, if hydrogen was the cause of both and was more powerful than expected, then the design strategy of the shell buildings (ie more or less airtight enough to buildup a ****ton of pressure) makes me wonder if a pressure moderated release valve (bleed gas slowly) is a future contingency solution.

But pretty much everything stems from requiring a lot more energy than was
available to run some very necessary pumps, whose contingencies were designed with the idea that ONLY Fukushima would be losing power in a disaster, and diesel generators would be 100% usable, and a solution if those two failed could be found within the several-hour-battery window. Obviously this wasn't the case, tons of power infrastructure is down after the gigantor earthquake, and the generators were right by the ocean for some reason, and the batteries ran out. The solution is passive cooling.

And before I hear from all the "omg why do you care so much" haters, I'd just like to say that huge, complex engineering projects have always fascinated me and I love learn about them at any opportunity.

From my understanding the generators themselves are underground. However, the fuel source is above ground. I'm not sure if ingesting sea water has damaged the generators or not.

I have been using this thread to find new information on the disaster. This thread is a positive thing not a negative thing. Sure some jokes are made but for TW it's been pretty minimal.

Street Fight IV on iphone is now .99 and all proceeds go to disaster relief.

Anonymous sources citing a "range of outcomes". Color me impressed.

We have that facility to store spent nuclear fuel, but we can't use it now.
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does anyone else find the name tree hugger odd? I mean if they hug trees hard enough, wouldn't that just create coal and petroleum? Hypocritical if you ask me.

White smoke from #2 and #4 this morning.

does that mean we get a new pope??

Already been done earlier in thread :)

Hay guyz! You got any extra radiation just lyin' around?

well shoot

Launch the spent rods into space, problem solved.

Appears TEPCO didn't want help from the US at first and wanted to save the reactor:

2226: The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, quoting a senior official of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said the US made the offer immediately after the disaster damaged Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant. According to the unnamed senior official, US support was based on dismantling the troubled reactors run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) some 250 km (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo. However, the government and TEPCO thought the cooling system could be restored by themselves, the report said

is there video of the tsunami hitting the plant?

Going to try to restore electricity to #1, 2 today and #3, 4 by Sunday.

why is everyone still posting in this thread

aren't we bored and back to charlie sheen yet?

that dude is crazy

the girls are back so his rod is wet again :brows:

I read the article a year or so ago. I honestly do not remember. I just remembered a quote in which someone said it will be like the old days in which we used to throw away one of the byproducts of oil or maybe it was coal. Now we use that byproduct to produce gasoline. He was saying this will be the same way. He obviously had very high expectations in how much energy we could gain from reusing spent fuel rods.

We need to harness stray radiation.(I know - runs on light)
http://www.envirogadget.com/wp-conte...Radiometer.jpg

Edano is holding a press conference. Again differences between the agencies.

Cluster**** of news headlines:

NEWS ADVISORY: Cooling efforts at No. 1 reactor also eyed: Edano (11:09)
NEWS ADVISORY: No. 3, No. 4 reactors are more urgent than No. 1 reactor: Edano (11:08)
NEWS ADVISORY: Tokyo fire trucks to spray water onto No. 1 reactor: Edano (11:07)

thanks to north america they have a radiation tolerance better than any other country

Somebody explain why don't they just pull the rods out before busting in? Does this **** keep throbbing hot as long as it's nearby other rods?

how exactly will they pull the rods out?

Oh c'mon.

Don't you know that if we hit the Moon with those then it'll be glowing all d@mn night? I've got one of those sitting on the top shelf of my bookshelf behind me. No sh*t. I love those things!

Stop trying to turn this into a thread about homosexuals!

:lolwut: