The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: Aristotelian on February 16, 2012, 10:40:22 AM
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FourScore (7,173 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
Scientists: 'Big One' Building Beneath Fukushima
Wed Feb 15, 2012 at 12:28 PM PST
Scientists: 'Big One' Building Beneath Fukushima
by JoieauFollow
Last week the temperature in Fukushima Daiichi's #2 reactor vessel - as measured at the "0" position gage - began rising in an erratic manner. Over the weekend the gage shot over 80ºC, causing TEPCO to have to report that if the reading is accurate, the #2 reactor can no longer be considered to be in a state of "cold shutdown..."
SNIP
...Today the "0" level gage at unit-2 is still hovering around 250ºC, after having gone as high as 275.9ºC on Monday. TEPCO has been issuing reassuring statements that they 'think' the gage is broken because two other temperature gages in the vessel aren't reading that high, although at least one of them has behaved as irregularly as the "0" gage has. TEPCO employees at the site say they doubt the gage is actually broken, and have increased the water being added to the vessel as well as injected boron to help prevent criticality. Analysts have suggested that recent changes in the coolant flow due to changes made when the endoscopy was done may have affected the amount of water reaching the molten corium (wherever it may be), causing it to crack or shift, thus possibly going critical again for short periods to cause the temperature rise. Also over the weekend cesium levels measured around unit 2 jumped from single digits to 98.2 MBq/km2 for Cesium 134 and 139 MBq/km2 for Cesium 137.
SNIP
Some of us will recall the many reports during the fall of rising groundwater underneath the nuclear reservation, including boiling water and steam 'erupting' from the ground around units 1 and 2 through the extensive ground fissures and cracks that riddle the ground and widen with every 'aftershock' of the great earthquake that initiated the disaster nearly a year ago. In the last couple of days a new danger has reared its head with the release of a new study from the European Geosciences Union which issues the warning that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reservation is at increased risk of suffering a big earthquake epicentered essentially right underneath it, and that rising groundwater is an ominous sign that it could come very soon...
SNIP
...In the Iwaki area ~25 miles south of Fukushima Daiichi, where a magnitude 7 'aftershock' last April 11 occurred, Japan's seismic monitoring network recorded more than 24,000 tremors in the seven and a half months after March 11. There were a mere 1,300 quakes in the same area over the nine previous years. The research paper notes that Daiichi sits atop fractured crust with the same traits as Iwaki's, and that the fault under the plants can be weakened and "lubricated" by the same rising fluids. The conclusion of these geophysicist?
"Therefore, much attention should be paid to the FNPP (Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant) seismic safety in the near future..."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/15/1065089/-Scientists-Big-One-Building-Beneath-Fukushima?via=siderec
We need the world expert in nuclear power to join-in and help.
The DUmmies should all get down on their knees and beg her to return to crunchy material and save us all...
DUmp Link (http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002316346)
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My milk glows in the dark....I need to ask Nadin if it's safe to drink?
Whenever I open the fidge door, it's bright inside the fidge...got to be the milk.
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I wonder what the DUmmies will do when they find out that the Japanese government, and TEPCO have quietly contracted with both GE and Siemens to conduct a study to dismantle the damaged Fukishma complex (which was 40 years old, and due for decomissioning anyway), and erect a modern six reactor plant on the same site......... :rotf:
doc
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As long as they don't use Mitsubishi steam generators, it's all good.