Fukushima Radiation Levels At 'Unimaginable' Levels

[EduCat]

I remember a building with pools containing spent rods that exploded. The reactor cores didn't explode as far as I know. I don't think they even do that.

They went boom. There's video of it that you can watch. You can see the tops get popped and you can see rods flying through the air. The containment pools were all above the reactors themselves.

It isn't the same radiation you find in bananas

 

[EduCat]

I hope this thread ends up being about EduCation.

Me too!

It's in a structure that contains the vast majority of radiation. There is some measurable leakage, but it's within a shell that prevents instant death. As long as people stay at a distance they are OK. You may have read that some radiation has been detected quite some distance away but that's done by exceedingly sensitive equipment and far below meaningful levels. The fantastically high radiation which exists is effectively cut off from the environment.

The buildings are all busted up. (Or were at least) A 'containment unit' contains the controlled fission process, not a uncontrolled meltdown. People working on top of the reactors were ok then? 60 ft or so should be good.

 

[OverVolt]

I think I would be more worried if you went to go measure the melted nuclear material in the core and got a zero reading.

Hmm.. where'd it go? Melted through the bottom of the containment and into the water table eh?

That being said I don't eat seafood anymore because of the cesium levels.

Comparing background levels of radiation to radioactive ions that emit beta/alpha is complete tomfoolery. One bombards you randomly from all directions, and the other takes up residence in your muscle tissue in place of calcium and bombards the same cells over and over until they turn cancerous from the cell senescence pressure exerted on them.

So its completely different.

Radioactive potassium for example is excreted in 1.1 hrs for those who say stuff along the lines of "well a banana has more radioactivity than a fish" well a banana doesn't get absorbed into your muscles for 30 years instead of an hour now does it?

Never before has there been this much cesium out in the wild so incoming muscle cancer.

Historically on matters of radiation they always try and down play it and cover it up until there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary and that will take awhile.

 

[EduCat]

I think I would be more worried if you went to go measure the melted nuclear material in the core and got a zero reading.

Hmm.. where'd it go? Melted through the bottom of the containment and into the water table eh?

I agree lmao but I doubt you would ever get a 0 reading or anything close to it. That is one hypothesis though, that they could be way down there at this point. Robots dont last long enough to really get a good look so they still don't really know. The video that they just shot was what they thought were melted fuel rods. This reading also happens to be from reactor 2. I know that reactor 3 was the one where you could see the rods and top flying through the air.

 

[OverVolt]

Jesus, I never knew the rods went airborne. That is nuts.

Thats a complete meltdown then... containment 100% failed.

 

[EduCat]

I was referring to the spent fuel rods as airborne but the videos are hard to find now. I do know there are videos of what seem to be stable spent rod pools but its hard to keep track of which is which so who really knows.

Here are videos of the hydrogen explosions inside the plants:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE2eTebInJ8

 

[Darwin333]

Jesus, I never knew the rods went airborne. That is nuts.

Thats a complete meltdown then... containment 100% failed.

I didn't either, anyone have a link showing the rods going airborne?

 

[norseamd]

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/08/unimaginable-levels-radiation-fukushima-pacific-ocean-leaks

I used to track this way back when it happened, watching them try to get robots inside the reactors, etc. At what point does it become a matter of world security? Pretty much the most deadly fission products we can create are showing up all over the place, in our supplies.

3 generations and people are going to see some real problems I think. Cant imagine being one of the people that they make go into those reactors, usually only 15 minutes at a time. Time to shutdown the EPA?

No, those readings are only in a specific room near the center of the power plant, where the last of the melted nuclear fuel still is around.

 

[jman19]

No, those readings are only in a specific room near the center of the power plant, where the last of the melted nuclear fuel still is around.

The numbers being reported definitely have shock value, but the idea that radiation readings are higher as probes go deeper in to the reactors / nearer to the melted fuel shouldn't be surprising. There's nothing to suggest there is suddenly "more" radiation. The real issue is that cleanup might be more difficult than imagined.

 

[norseamd]

The numbers being reported definitely have shock value, but the idea that radiation readings are higher as probes go deeper in to the reactors / nearer to the melted fuel shouldn't be surprising. There's nothing to suggest there is suddenly "more" radiation. The real issue is that cleanup might be more difficult than imagined.

HAH!

From what I understand no one ever tried to clean up Chernobyl, they just built a concrete tomb around it. Basically about what you can do when dealing with any heavily radiated area.

 

[jman19]

HAH!

From what I understand no one ever tried to clean up Chernobyl, they just built a concrete tomb around it. Basically about what you can do when dealing with any heavily radiated area.

Yeah, that doesn't sound correct. There's been cleanup at Chernobyl, the point of the concrete sarcophagus originally constructed was to stop further contamination of the area and allow workers to continue to operate the other reactors at the plant. The original tomb was just replaced I believe as a more "permanent" solution. The fact that the reactor there still needs decades (at least?) of cleanup is obviously a real problem and demonstrates how fat the end of the nuclear energy risk tail is.

 

[norseamd]

Yeah, that doesn't sound correct. There's been cleanup at Chernobyl, the point of the concrete sarcophagus originally constructed was to stop further contamination of the area and allow workers to continue to operate the other reactors at the plant. The original tomb was just replaced I believe as a more "permanent" solution. The fact that the reactor there still needs decades (at least?) of cleanup is obviously a real problem and demonstrates how fat the end of the nuclear energy risk tail is.

Well obviously the surrounding land was cleaned up, but the reactor itself was just surrounded with concrete. They will try to clean up what they can in safer areas of the reactor, but some areas are just too radiated.

 

[crashtech]

Not much of this stuff is obvious, especially to those who just pay attention to the sensational news surrounding these events.

 

[jman19]

Well obviously the surrounding land was cleaned up, but the reactor itself was just surrounded with concrete. They will try to clean up what they can in safer areas of the reactor, but some areas are just too radiated.

Yeah sounds like the reactor core will remain a mess for a long time. A dangerous less in hubris when it comes to safety procedures, especially when the downside is so great.

 

[crashtech]

Have you guys watched the documentary on the New Safe Confinement? It was on the Beeb's YouTube channel for a while, but I can't find it now. But the shelter is over the reactor now.

I'm sure they'll have to devise something similar for Fukushima at some point.

 

[jman19]

Have you guys watched the documentary on the New Safe Confinement? It was on the Beeb's YouTube channel for a while, but I can't find it now. But the shelter is over the reactor now.

I'm sure they'll have to devise something similar for Fukushima at some point.

Think I saw that one. Was interesting display of engineering to see how they built the structure behind a shield and how they planned to basically roll the new shelter over the reactor site.

 

[crashtech]

There was actually no shielding other than the sarcophagus and distance. The thing about Chernobyl is that despite the extreme severity of the incident, the number of deaths is, I believe, measured in the low hundreds. That might seem cavalier to say, but if you look at stats for the fossil fuel industry, nuclear is actually much, much safer. Hard numbers seem a bit hard to come by, but from what I can tell, they aren't sure if ANY of the casualties associated with the Fukushima disaster were caused by radiation exposure. Similarly to Three Mile Island, the hysteria surrounding the event is a bigger monster than the actual accident. Not to say Fukushima isn't an extremely grave and difficult situation, but the risk to people not associated with the cleanup has been radically overstated.

 

[IronWing]

Say what you will, Fukushima gets the best video titles, "Fukushima 4 Destroyed Reactors Like The Death Stare Of Medusa"

 

[JSt0rm]

There was actually no shielding other than the sarcophagus and distance. The thing about Chernobyl is that despite the extreme severity of the incident, the number of deaths is, I believe, measured in the low hundreds. That might seem cavalier to say, but if you look at stats for the fossil fuel industry, nuclear is actually much, much safer. Hard numbers seem a bit hard to come by, but from what I can tell, they aren't sure if ANY of the casualties associated with the Fukushima disaster were caused by radiation exposure. Similarly to Three Mile Island, the hysteria surrounding the event is a bigger monster than the actual accident. Not to say Fukushima isn't an extremely grave and difficult situation, but the risk to people not associated with the cleanup has been radically overstated.

losing access to lands for 20k years is a major problem. Especially in a country that has 1/20th the land mass as the us and half the population. If we have one of these problems every 80 years we are going to have blots all over the place. Nuke power just isnt worth the risks involved.

 

[norseamd]

losing access to lands for 20k years is a major problem. Especially in a country that has 1/20th the land mass as the us and half the population. If we have one of these problems every 80 years we are going to have blots all over the place. Nuke power just isnt worth the risks involved.

You dont seem to be aware of the differences between 2nd generation nuclear reactors and 3rd, 3rd+, and 4th generation nuclear reactors, nor aware just what generation most active nuclear reactors are today.

 

[JSt0rm]

You dont seem to be aware of the differences between 2nd generation nuclear reactors and 3rd, 3rd+, and 4th generation nuclear reactors, nor aware just what generation most active nuclear reactors are today.

Im fully aware that humans arent as smart as they think they are.

 

[Genx87]

So what you are saying is the guided plant tour is off limits?

 

[JSt0rm]

So what you are saying is the guided plant tour is off limits?

Yeah. For the next 20,000 years.

 

[JSt0rm]

i bet it wil cost more in energy to maintain that thing over the next 20k years then the total energy it produced.

 

[Moonbeam]

Im fully aware that humans arent as smart as they think they are.

Engineers are famous for their lack of emotional intelligence. For being smart there's a really high population of dumb fucks among them. Nuclear energy is the height of stupidity, requires massive government subsidization because private sources of capital aren't stupid enough to fund it, nobody wants the waste anywhere near them, and alternative energy technology makes infinitely more sense. Don't go into the field. You will just become a proponent of the dark side.