About Japan’s nuclear reactors Author: morgsatlarge

Dimitris_TL · Post by **Dimitris_TL** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:45 am

Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors.
Author: morgsatlarge

About morgsatlarge
English teacher, F1/ UFC enthusiast. Japan resident, quake survivor, and most importantly a husband to an amazing woman, and father to a beautiful baby girl.

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/author/morgsatlarge/

Construction of the Fukushima nuclear power plants

The plants at Fukushima are so called Boiling Water Reactors, or BWR for short. Boiling Water Reactors are similar to a pressure cooker. The nuclear fuel heats water, the water boils and creates steam, the steam then drives turbines that create the electricity, and the steam is then cooled and condensed back to water, and the water send back to be heated by the nuclear fuel. The pressure cooker operates at about 250 °C.

The nuclear fuel is uranium oxide. Uranium oxide is a ceramic with a very high melting point of about 3000 °C. The fuel is manufactured in pellets (think little cylinders the size of Lego bricks). Those pieces are then put into a long tube made of Zircaloy with a melting point of 2200 °C, and sealed tight. The assembly is called a fuel rod. These fuel rods are then put together to form larger packages, and a number of these packages are then put into the reactor. All these packages together are referred to as “the core”.

More details here: http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/ ... -reactors/

And at the end it mentions that:

If you want to stay informed, please forget the usual media outlets and consult the following websites:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Ba ... 03111.html
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Ve ... 03111.html
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/12/j ... arthquake/
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/03/11/me ... -in-japan/

baxter · Post by **baxter** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:27 am

I don't follow what your conclusion is, or even really the logic of what you're trying to say?

While the media seem to be hyping it in a more dramatic way than it should be, the facts are that there is 4 reactors than could yet go into melt-down. While looking fairly unlikely, that is fairly serious, and fairly concerning for people around the area. It would very likely kill and f-up people if one of them did.

Dimitris_TL · Post by **Dimitris_TL** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:41 am

Good morning Baxter.
well that conclusion you have just read does not represent mine, I've just placed the link over here so the you have more informations and links about the dissaster and the reactors except the traditional media. If you follow that link you will go to the authors' page and send your opinion. by the way if that links creates problem to the forum, no problem from my side do delete it!
Thanks for listening , have a good day and good luck to all of us........

PS 1. I've just added the author's details and link of the article

P.S 2. Here is a link with 83 total pictures so you can have first hand an idea what is going on there...http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-essa ... to-9377692

baxter · Post by **baxter** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:31 pm

"In order to prevent a core meltdown, the operators started to use sea water to cool the core. ... The point is that the nuclear fuel has now been cooled down."

No.

The sea water cooling hasn't been a smooth operation (I think they're still having issues with it), and it is my understanding that it is not at all safe to assume its cooled enough to avoid a melt-down. And let's not forget they'll almost certainly have some serious after-shocks to complicate things further.

While highly unlikely, a melt-down is still a possibility. And if that did occur it almost certainly wouldn't be like Chernobyl's melt-down - but I sure wouldn't want to be anywhere near it.

Dimitris_TL · Post by **Dimitris_TL** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:22 pm

Baxter I agree with you and thanks for your coments!
I want to ask a question, they say that sea water is used for emergency cool down to the reactor, where goes the warm sea water after ? Is it radio active then? They don't say a worf about this!
best regards

baxter · Post by **baxter** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:12 am

Afaia the cooling water is rather like cooling water in a car engine in that it doesn't mix with the internals as such and does it's job by heat exchange. So no, the water will not be radioactive at all.

Dimitris_TL · Post by **Dimitris_TL** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:30 am

Baxter thanks for answer , now I feel a bit better........
best regards