• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Edit:22 Update 2: Experts warned Fukushima of tsunami threat 2 years ago.

Page 9 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Oh I missed that comment by techs. Let me explain the 40 years part.

Back when they were designing and building the plants, the AEC did not know how long to license them for since such a project had never been built. So they threw out a conservatively low number and agreed to re-evaluate periodically after that.

The plants were not designed to only last 40 years and they are not operating past their life time.
 
QuantumPion said:
Fail. The cost of disposal of nuclear waste is entirely paid for by the industry into a fund. Recently, several companies sued the government and won due to breech of contract for not having a disposal/reprocessing facility ready to accept the waste (which was supposed to be ready by 1990 or something).

Yes the government paid for the original Manhattan project and the naval nuclear program, but that is already done and paid for. You can't continue to cite that as a subsidy to commercial nuclear power. The government does not pay for any current nuclear research.

The government subsidizes alternative energy 1000x more per MW compared to nuclear.
Click to expand...

Do you see the inherent contradiction? You're saying the nuclear industry is suing the government for not having a reprocessing/storage facility. Hmm. Where is the industries reprocessing/storage facility? The industry paid 30 billion into a government fund to cover the cost of the creation of a storage facility. Now Republican Senator Lindsay Graham wants to refund that money to the nuke plants if Yucca Mountain is cancelled. That comes to about 300 million on average per nuke plant. Storage of highly contaminated nuclear materiels for thousands of years from one plant would cost more than 300 million. Meaning there would be no place to store nuclear waste.

Hey, if the nuke plant exactly 8 miles from my home melts down and contaminates me why can't I sue them? The government passed a law saying I can't(well, I can but for a ridiculousy small amount). Seems insurance would cost too much if nuke plants had to buy it on the open market.


The idea that the government is not paying for research into nuclear reactors is as silly as saying the government isn't doing research into crop genetics, pharmaceuticals, etc that directly benefit industries on the American taxpayers dollar.

C'mon, get real.
 
QuantumPion said:
Oh I missed that comment by techs. Let me explain the 40 years part.

Back when they were designing and building the plants, the AEC did not know how long to license them for since such a project had never been built. So they threw out a conservatively low number and agreed to re-evaluate periodically after that.

The plants were not designed to only last 40 years and they are not operating past their life time.
Click to expand...

Well, no one knew how long the first automobile would last, but to say that after 40 years it's not past it's "lifetime" because it has no "lifetime" is pure semantics.

When the plant was designed and built the builders only had a 40 year lifetime to base their construction techniques on.
 
QuantumPion said:
Oh I missed that comment by techs. Let me explain the 40 years part.

Back when they were designing and building the plants, the AEC did not know how long to license them for since such a project had never been built. So they threw out a conservatively low number and agreed to re-evaluate periodically after that.

The plants were not designed to only last 40 years and they are not operating past their life time.
Click to expand...

Another thing to note regarding the difference in design life for people without background:

When these plants were originally constructed people envisioned using them like traditional power plants which means cycling up and down with usage. However, they figured out these plants run much better full throttle and that has been the industry trend. What this helped do is eliminate fatigue cycles. When a plant cycles between a high temp/high pressure to a lower temp/lower pressure this induces damage in the components of the nuclear power plant. The reactor vessels were designed for an incredibly high number of fatigue cycles that were pretty much never needed.

*edit* Also I would like to point out the license renewal process is incredibly indepth and people do huge amounts of NDE inspections to prove that the equipment can continue to operate successfully. The age of the plant really had no effect on the current failures in Japan, other than the fact that it is an older design with less passive systems than Gen III plants. Infact this plant is probably safer than when it was originally built because safety is an evolving process.
 
Last edited:
Nik said:
Sigh.

Don't buy into the ignorant hype.

First, if it really were in danger of thermonuclear meltdown, they'd evacuate WAAAAAAAAAAY farther out than 1.8 miles. Someone doesn't remember their history and basic science lessons.

Second, the cloud being released isn't really that dangerous.

Third, if the US has time to gather, prep, load, and fly coolant over to Japan, on the opposite side of the world, then there's no real time issue, either.
Click to expand...

If they knew disaster was imminent they'd really just let it happen rather than alert others...especially if there was still a chance to fix it somehow.
 
Partial meltdown in one reactor, another one with cooling system malfunction, 170000 people evacuated from the area, pictures of children being checked with radiation meters, iodine pills being distributed to the population.

Where are the idiots in here who insisted there was nothing to see, just a minor nuclear occurrence, Nik anyone?
 
Number1 said:
Partial meltdown in one reactor, another one with cooling system malfunction, 170000 people evacuated from the area, pictures of children being checked with radiation meters, iodine pills being distributed to the population.

Where are the idiots in here who insisted the was nothing to see, just a minor nuclear occurrence, Nik anyone?
Click to expand...

No partial meltdown at all. Those reports are false. Japanese reports told CNN is saying those reports were false.
 
techs said:
Can you really have too many "Japan is doomed" threads?
Click to expand...

check out the pinned threads at GLP, they're having a doomgasm over there !!:

screenshot20110312at400.png
 
Number1 said:
Partial meltdown in one reactor, another one with cooling system malfunction, 170000 people evacuated from the area, pictures of children being checked with radiation meters, iodine pills being distributed to the population.

Where are the idiots in here who insisted there was nothing to see, just a minor nuclear occurrence, Nik anyone?
Click to expand...

Its a significant event but at the end of the day the amount of radiation released will be relatively minor.
 
Number1 said:
Japan tries flooding damaged reactor
to stop meltdown; 170,000 evacuated
Click to expand...

Official: Meltdown MAY be under way at nuclear reactor in Japan

May is the key word. MAY, that does not mean there is. That's not to say it could happen but it has not happened.

[6:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 a.m. Tokyo] There is currently no evidence of a nuclear meltdown at one of Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear power reactors in northern Japan, Japan's ambassador to the United States said.

"There was a concern about this reactor. We have confirmed that there was a blowup but it was not a blowup of reactor nor container. It was a blowup of the outer building so there was no leakage of the radioactive material," Ichiro Fujisaki told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"We are now trying to cope with the situation by putting salt water into the reactor," he said. "There are some other issues with other reactors as well, which need also injection of water or taking out vapor because of increasing pressure into the container and we are now working on it."

When asked if there may be a nuclear meltdown, Fujisaki said, "we do not see any evidence of that at this time."

Engineers have been unable to get close enough to the core to know what's going on, an official with Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency told CNN Sunday. He based his conclusion on the fact that they measured radioactive cesium and radioactive iodine in the air Saturday night.
Click to expand...

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/1...oll-rises-amid-widespread-destruction/?hpt=T1
 
Last edited:
Each time we get news it's worse and worse. I'm starting to think this isn't going to end well. At least they are admitting that disaster could happen, as opposed to yesterdays attitude that everything was fully under control. I know Japan is historically a save face country, so it's good to see them getting people out of the zone.
 
Wyndru said:
Each time we get news it's worse and worse. I'm starting to think this isn't going to end well. At least they are admitting that disaster could happen, as opposed to yesterdays attitude that everything was fully under control. I know Japan is historically a save face country, so it's good to see them getting people out of the zone.
Click to expand...

I agree that the government is putting the best case scenarios out there. However, I wonder how much anyone really knows about what is happening inside the reactor or immediately around it. No one can go in there, and the sensors and video feeds are almost certainly not working.

At this point I am guessing they are guessing. And its in the nature of governments and the Japanese society to play down what is happening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top