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henk600
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TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake
#14467150 - 05/17/11 10:04 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted for the first time on May 15 that most of the fuel in one of its nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had melted only about 16 hours after the March 11 earthquake struck a wide swath of northeastern Japan and triggered a devastating tsunami.
According to TEPCO, the operator of the crippled nuclear power plant, the emergency condenser designed to cool the steam inside the pressure vessel of the No. 1 reactor was working properly shortly after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, but it lost its functions around 3:30 p.m. on March 11 when tsunami waves hit the reactor.
Based on provisional analysis of data on the reactor, the utility concluded that the water level in the pressure vessel began to drop rapidly immediately after the tsunami, and the top of the fuel began to be exposed above the water around 6 p.m. Around 7:30 p.m., the fuel was fully exposed above the water surface and overheated for more than 10 hours. At about 9 p.m., the temperature in the reactor core rose to 2,800 degrees Celsius, the melting point for fuel. At approximately 7:50 p.m., the upper part of the fuel started melting, and at around 6:50 a.m. on March 12, a meltdown occurred.
On the reason why it took over two months after the earthquake to reveal the information, TEPCO said it had only been able to start obtaining detailed data on the temperature and pressure in the reactor for analysis in early May.
Junichiro Matsumoto, a senior TEPCO official, said, "Because there is similar damage to the fuel rods at the No. 2 and 3 reactors, the bottoms of their pressure vessels could also have been damaged." He said the utility would carry out similar analysis on the two reactors.
Hiroaki Koide, professor of nuclear safety engineering at Kyoto University, was critical of TEPCO.
"They could have assumed that when the loss of power made it impossible to cool down the reactor, it would soon lead to a meltdown of the core. TEPCO's persistent explanation that the damage to the fuel had been limited turned out to be wrong," he said.
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110516p2a00m0na028000c.html
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: henk600]
#14467165 - 05/17/11 10:10 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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So no surprises there.
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memes
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Registered: 01/11/05
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: koraks]
#14467184 - 05/17/11 10:15 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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so now that I know what a nuclear meltdown "technicallY" is, what is the result? exposed mass radiation?
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memes
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Registered: 01/11/05
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: koraks]
#14467185 - 05/17/11 10:15 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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so now that I know what a nuclear meltdown "technicallY" is, what is the result? exposed mass radiation?
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: memes]
#14467194 - 05/17/11 10:17 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
meams said: so now that I know what a nuclear meltdown "technicallY" is, what is the result? exposed mass radiation?
You know the result. It's the current situation.
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ifoundwaldo


Registered: 09/28/10
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: koraks]
#14467217 - 05/17/11 10:22 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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2,800 Celsius! (5072 Fahrenheit)
So does this change the seriousness of the situation at all?
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Doc_T
Random Dude




Registered: 03/06/09
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Loc: Colorado
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: koraks]
#14467229 - 05/17/11 10:26 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
koraks said:
Quote:
meams said: so now that I know what a nuclear meltdown "technicallY" is, what is the result? exposed mass radiation?
You know the result. It's the current situation.
Yeah.
Not always, you could have a meltdown that is contained by properly designed and functioning safety systems, with no release of radiation.
But these guys didn't have that.
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memes
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Registered: 01/11/05
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: Doc_T]
#14467327 - 05/17/11 10:48 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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k word.
when i think of the term 'nuclear meltdown' its immediately associated with the comic-book-cum-action-movie representation whereas there is some plant somewhere that hits a nuclear meltdown and then boom boom theres a giant mushroom cloud in the air.
clearly, thats not what happened here... which is why i inquired
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Doc_T
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Registered: 03/06/09
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: memes]
#14467340 - 05/17/11 10:52 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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No, it just melts, as the name implies. But what happens at that point depends on how the place is built. It can be contained, or not.
Note that Chernobyl caught fire and then exploded, it didn't melt. We knew that was a bad design back in the 50's, but it sold really well because it was cheap and made interesting materials.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: ifoundwaldo]
#14467348 - 05/17/11 10:53 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Doc_T said: Not always, you could have a meltdown that is contained by properly designed and functioning safety systems, with no release of radiation.
But these guys didn't have that.
They had numerous safety systems, some of which didn't work as intended, and some of which prevented this accident from culminating into something even worse. Consider the hypothetical possibility that this plant had no steel containment vessel (like the Chernobyl plant), then the amount of radioactive exhaust would have been a lot worse.
The mushroom cloud-type meltdown is really something you'll only find in comic books. A nuclear reactor doesn't work very well as a nuclear bomb, even in the worst of circumstances. But evidently, things can get bad enough as it is.
Quote:
ifoundwaldo said: 2,800 Celsius! (5072 Fahrenheit)
So does this change the seriousness of the situation at all?
For the general public, not really. The exact mode of failure and the extent and type of damage to the fuel elements and the containment structures is relevant information in terms of long-term storage and cleanup.
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Doc_T
Random Dude




Registered: 03/06/09
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: koraks]
#14467398 - 05/17/11 11:07 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Oh agreed, this was only a partial failure. But from what I've read there were some design errors. This thing was not built to be in a quake zone.
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Rectangle 3D
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Re: TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake [Re: Doc_T]
#14467415 - 05/17/11 11:14 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Korak you know your stuff, since warnings aren't all over the news, for a melt down did this go better than it could have?
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