Japan's nuclear worries

aristotle · Mar 12, 2011

Trying to follow coverage of the radiation leaks from damaged reactors in Japan has been confusing. One or more reactors may be seriously compromised. It seems the Japanese government is torn between the competing impulses to be transparent about sharing vital information versus the instinct to tightly control information as not to cause undue alarm.

A whole series of questions need to be addressed. Firstly, should nuclear power plants have been built in eartquake-prone Japan? Along the seacoast where a tsunami overwhelms backup generators designed to keep reactors cool?

Is the alarm warranted? One nuclear engineering professor appearing now on CNN says basically, "No problemo. The amount of radiation being released is less harmful than a CT scan at the hospital." Other scientists, on other cable news shows, appear less willing to soft-pedal concerns for public safety. We non-scientists are left to discern the truth as best we can. All in all, it is always fascinating to watch any government trying to manage a real crisis.

greg334 · Mar 12, 2011

aristotle said:
A whole series of questions need to be addressed. Firstly, should nuclear power plants have been built in eartquake-prone Japan? Along the seacoast where a tsunami overwhelms backup generators designed to keep reactors cool?

Actually I don't see why they need to be asked by anyone but the Japanese. It isn't our country, they are not a third world nation or France but a very strong and resilient country.

Working with Japanese colleagues on disaster related things, I found that even the less knowledgeable person on the team is far more educated on the subject than any of our team members were. They seem to think of all kinds of things and scenarios.

I would think that with the stiff anti-nuke mentality in the country, they would have done more due diligence that we can ever imagine and with the experience I had with them, I can see why they are torn between one or another question.

I also think that the world press needs to back off a bit and let things happen by the japanese themselves without the examination of what they did and didn't do or why they did somethings and not others.

aristotle · Mar 13, 2011

Greg, there is so much to be learned from any nuclear accident. It is a mighty narrow view to think it is of no concern to other people outside Japan. Because fossil fuels are diminishing, our planet will have an ever increasing need for nuclear energy. This possible environmental calamity will be studied around the world for years to come. We aren't talking about a campfire gone bad.

Turtle · Mar 13, 2011

Part of the problem is they can't just walk into the room and inspect the nuclear rods, since they are down in the reactor. So they really don't know the exact situation from moment to moment. One unit's rods were briefly exposed, which isn't good. At another unit they found radioactive cesium and iodine, which only occurs after fission, so they know that there is at least a partial meltdown. They're dumping boron and sea water into the reactors as a last ditch effort to cool things down, but it takes 8-10 days to complete that. Both reactors are done for and will have to be decommissioned, regardless.

greg334 · Mar 13, 2011

I am not disputing the need to do the right research to figure out the problems related to the accidents caused by the events but I am disputing the need to ask questions that have been answered when the decisions were made to build them in the first place and those questions coming from the media while the event is still going on.

With all these experts on TV, not one of them may be on site or connected to the Japanese officials so many times they are using the best method to speculate the issue and guess at it. Their credentials are usually enough to prevent anyone from saying they are wrong or not allowing them to cover their a** when they are wrong and someone equal to them brings it up.

aristotle · Mar 14, 2011

Japan's massive earthquake, now acknowledged by the USGS to be a magnitude 9.0 combined with a tremendous tsunami to deliver a one-two punch which crippled some of the nation's coastline nuclear plants. The combined effect superseded human engineering...to a point. Luckily, as of now, the containment apparatus seems to be holding. That could change.

Such a huge tsunami could not have been foreseen by nuclear plant designers. Paradoxically, tsunami science is imperfect because every tsunami is a fluid situation.