I started to read this article and immediately thought "Man, this must be a reactor from the '70's. This shouldn't be a problem with a modern plant."
Then I read that it's a "40-year-old plant." That's 1971. Then I read "Japanese regulators decided in February to allow it to run another 10 years."
I hate to sound harsh, but, what were you expecting?
So far, at least, they haven't even needed to use the emergency cooling system, which is a good sign. Let's hope they won't have to.
Added: CNN has a "live update" page that you can check periodically.
5 comments:
They had to, it didn't work, plant blew up. The BBC World Service was talking about it non-stop all night.
1. Earthquake of massive proportions.
2. Tsunami.
3. Nuclear incident.
Just when you think the poor Japs have it bad enough...
They're saying that it was the coolant system that exploded, but that the reactor is still just slowly melting down. No *real* reactor problem yet.
The coolant is just water.
The reactor was overheating (among a couple other things) and splitting water molecules into oxygen and the Hindenburg's good friend hydrogen, which then got sparked.
So, now they have a reactor that has already been emitting above-normal radiation, with no cooling system, in a halfway destroyed building. The real reactor problem will come pretty soon unless they find a fix. Like dumping the core into the ocean on top of a lizard. Oh wait, then they add a rampaging monster to their city...
Crap, I completely forgot about Godzilla...
I would, for the sake of clarity, point out that reactor coolant water is not just water... it is heavy water which is, at least mildly, toxic. Moreso when it is probably laced with trace amounts of whatever fuel that reactor used.
I, too, was wondering what that reactor's major malfunction was... Good to know it was nothing more complicated than yet another idiotic government...
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