Japan rocked with 8.9 earthquake.

[ChrisH]

Cable reaches Japan nuclear plant
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12779512

[pomtzu]

Supposedly they are attempting to run in electricity and get the pumps working again, and if their pumps don't work, the U.S. has pumps on the way. But is it already too late??? - who knows, since we know only what they care to reveal to the public. I also heard early on, of the plan to dump in sand, and then concrete on top to that. Wonder why that never happened before it got so out of control?
I seriously don't know how ANY nuclear plant is allowed to start up and go on line, without a backup for the backup for the backup, and on and on, when each one fails. Isn't there some agency that takes into consideration ALL of the worst case scenarios?

[kokopup]

pomtzu

Supposedly they are attempting to run in electricity and get the pumps working again, and if their pumps don't work, the U.S. has pumps on the way. But is it already too late??? - who knows, since we know only what they care to reveal to the public. I also heard early on, of the plan to dump in sand, and then concrete on top to that. Wonder why that never happened before it got so out of control?
I seriously don't know how ANY nuclear plant is allowed to start up and go on line, without a backup for the backup for the backup, and on and on, when each one fails. Isn't there some agency that takes into consideration ALL of the worst case scenarios?

Backup plans, yes these are the same people that wrote the plans for deep oil drilling. There is someone looking the other way, so someone can make the big bucks.

Karen

The whole area needn't be a dead zone - people moved back to Hiroshima 6 months after the bombing, and that has been highly studied of course. But before anything, they need to control those reactors, which is looking less and less likely.

There is a major difference in an atom bomb and a reactor that melts down. The bomb gives off radiation only at the source of the blast and then it is over.
The radiation from this source will diminish very rapidly. Most of the people that were injured or died were injured from the intense flash of xray and neutrons given off by the bomb. With these reactors we have an active source of radiation with a half life of 700 million years. Even the spent fuel is still an active radiation source and it has a half life of 159,200 years. I think
that japan has a problem that will last much more than 6 months.

I spent 3 months at a neutron reactor in Georgia when I qualified the Saturn
telemetry for the Apollo project. There is a dead zone around this reactor that
will really get your attention. Every living thing for as far as you can see is dead. It looks like a forest fire consumed every thing. I'm talking about trees that only had a charred stump sticking out. The reactor is in a pool of heavy water when it is not running and when it is raised out of the heavy water it gives off neutrons that kills everything in sight. We tested in lead lined underground bunkers or we would have died instantly from the neutrons.