a. A magnitude 8.9 earthquake hit northern Japan on Friday 11 March and the nuclear reactors in operation at Fukushima Daiichi were shut down. Control rods were activated to stop the nuclear reactions that generate power.
b. However, power supplies were affected by the quake and resulting tsunami, meaning the cooling systems, which stop the fuel in the core heating up to unsafe levels, failed. Cooling is still needed even after a reactor is shut down because the fuel continues to give off enormous heat.
c. The lack of power meant water stopped circulating and began to boil, creating steam. As the water began to boil away, it is believed the rods were exposed to air above the water line, causing them to heat further, melting or splitting their zirconium alloy casings.
d. As the zirconium alloy reacted with the steam, it created hydrogen gas, which is highly volatile. As engineers tried to vent this gas outside the containment chamber to relieve the pressure, the gas exploded, blowing off the roof of the outer building.
e. Officials are now swamping the units with seawater as an emergency coolant, and are using boronic acid, which hampers nuclear reactions.
More than 100,000 people have been evacuated from homes near Fukushima
There have been two explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, following Friday's earthquake and tsunami, and a third reactor is reportedly at risk of fuel-rod meltdown.
How great a danger do these problems pose for people in Japan and further afield?
Has there been a leakage of radioactive material?
It appears so. An American warship, the USS Ronald Reagan, has detected low levels of radiation at a distance of 100 miles (161km) from the Fukushima plant.
How much radioactive material has escaped?
This is not clear. The Japanese authorities say only very low levels of radiation have been detected outside the plant. The IAEA has described it as a level four event on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which is used for an accident "with local consequences". No abnormal levels of radiation have yet been detected in Russia.
What type of radioactive material has escaped?
There are reports of radioactive isotopes of caesium and iodine in the vicinity of the plant. Experts say it would be natural for radioactive isotopes of nitrogen and argon to have escaped as well. There is no evidence that any uranium or plutonium has escaped.
What harm do these radioactive materials cause?
Radioactive iodine could be harmful to young people living near the plant. After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster there were some cases of thyroid cancer as a result. People who were promptly issued with iodine tablets ought to be safe, however. Radioactive caesium, uranium and plutonium are harmful, but do not target any particular organ of the body. Radioactive nitrogen decays within seconds of its release, and argon poses no threat to health.
How did the radioactive materials escape?
It appears that there have been problems with the power supply to pumps that fill the reactors with water, causing the reactors to overheat. When steam has built up to dangerous levels, small amounts have been vented. Experts say that the presence of caesium and iodine in the steam suggests that the metal casing of some of the fuel rods has melted or broken. Uranium has a very high melting point so it is unlikely to have melted, still less vapourised.
Could radioactive materials have escaped by any other means?
The authorities have pumped sea water into three reactors. This water will be contaminated by its passage through the reactor, but it is currently unclear whether any of it has been released into the environment.
How long will any contamination last?
Radioactive iodine decays quite quickly. Most will have disappeared within a month. Radioactive caesium does not last long in the body - most has gone within a year. However, it lingers in the environment and can continue to present a risk.
Has there been a meltdown?
The term "meltdown" is used in a variety of ways. As noted above, the reported detection of radioactive caesium and iodine may indicate that some of the metal casing enclosing the reactors' uranium fuel has melted (a "fuel-rod meltdown"). However, there is as yet no indication that the uranium fuel itself has melted. Still less is there any indication of a "China Syndrome" where the fuel melts, gathers below the reactor and resumes a chain reaction, that enables it to melt everything in its way, and bore a path deep into the earth. If there were to be a serious meltdown, the Japanese reactor is supposed to be able to handle it, preventing the China Syndrome from taking place. Reports suggest that underneath the reactor, within the outer containment vessel, there is a concrete basin designed to capture and disperse any molten fuel.
Could there be a Chernobyl-like disaster?
Experts say this is highly unlikely. The chain reaction at all Fukushima reactors has ceased and reactor 1 is reported already to be in a stable condition. The explosions that have occurred have taken place outside the steel and concrete containment vessels enclosing the reactors, which apparently remain solid. At Chernobyl an explosion exposed the core of the reactor to the air, and a fire raged for days sending its contents in a plume up into the atmosphere. At Fukushima the explosions - caused by hydrogen and oxygen vented from the reactor - have damaged only the roof and walls erected around the containment vessels.
Could there be a nuclear explosion?
No. A nuclear bomb and a nuclear reactor are different things.
What caused the hydrogen release from the reactor?
At high temperatures, steam can separate into hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of zirconium, the metal used for encasing the reactor fuel. This mixture is highly explosive.
How do iodine tablets work?
If the body has all the iodine it needs, it will not absorb further iodine from the atmosphere. The tablets fill the body up with non-radioactive iodine, which prevent it absorbing the radioactive iodine.
Is any level of exposure to radiation safe?
In some parts of the world, natural background radiation is significantly higher than others - for example in Cornwall, in south-west England. And yet people live in Cornwall, and many others gladly visit the area. Similarly, every international air flight exposes passengers to higher than normal levels of radiation - and yet people still fly, and cabin crews spend large amounts of time exposed to this radiation. Patients in hospitals regularly undergo X-rays. Scientists dispute whether any level of exposure to radiation is entirely safe, but exposure to some level of radiation - whether at normal background levels or higher - is a fact of life. We do not yet know how much higher than normal the levels around Fukushima are.
How do Fukushima's problems affect the rest of the world?
It depends on how much radiation is released. At present, the IAEA says the effects are of a "local" nature.
Probably the best post I've seen so far, trying to give some perspective to folks outside of Japan.
It's slightly long but he says everything I've been trying to say, only better.
Jaerik, I wanted to add a few things to this, that I'm really glad , first of all that you did add a a TAB on the left side of main page of FFXI for ppl to donate that is a good thing to do, and second of all, since working with a Search and Rescue base, in Northern Ontario, I have heard words about ppl "ALWAYS" wanting to help. When I read that link you posted, and near the end where the gentleman had mentioned the part about people wanting to help, and the upside of the real comment of " Having to babysit the foriegner" is really true, b.c the ppl wanting to come help, either don't know the language, and have no true bearings of the Isle of Japan, its like having someone whose from streets of Toronto, and is a true Urbanite, goes way up north to help with survival and searching for someone lost in the Boreal forests of Northern Ontario, and getting losts and putting themselves in harms way, and dampening the efforts of Search & Rescue crews themselves, is just a total waste of productivity.
BTW... Good Read Jaerik, and btw again thanks for posting the donation Tab on the main page there. Thanks.
I was just going to post some info on this kind of stuff. Happy to see some good people out there beat me to it :)
I just bought in bulk, enough to make 1,000 capsules of potassium iodate. I'm going out today to also buy some natural seaweed kelp too along with colloidal silver and see what I can do to get some more oxygen in my system.
Remember peeps, keep your thyroid healthy with natural iodine so your body won't absorb as much radioactive iodine.
There are reports that the heavier radiation iodine is leaking from Fukoshima right now and that the japanese government isn't reporting how severe their crisis really is.
If anything this is a wake up call for the world to get healthy and stay healthy for the times to come within the next few years with all the new wars the Elites are cooking up in the name of Power.
Anye, , I don't mean to derail your comment, but me and Dasva were posting back, With Catastrophe, re" set ups and ideas of Nuclear energy ideals and ***, and so I wanted to post the the link of one of our stations, near Toronto, and what the ideas of what we run off..
I was just going to post some info on this kind of stuff. Happy to see some good people out there beat me to it :)
I just bought in bulk, enough to make 1,000 capsules of potassium iodate. I'm going out today to also buy some natural seaweed kelp too along with colloidal silver and see what I can do to get some more oxygen in my system.
Remember peeps, keep your thyroid healthy with natural iodine so your body won't absorb as much radioactive iodine.
There are reports that the heavier radiation iodine is leaking from Fukoshima right now and that the japanese government isn't reporting how severe their crisis really is.
If anything this is a wake up call for the world to get healthy and stay healthy for the times to come within the next few years with all the new wars the Elites are cooking up in the name of Power.
Peace~ *Molon Labe*
Uh. I think it'd be better if you took those tablets and sent them to Japan--if Russia has officially reported no signs of radioactivity, our being thousands of miles away certainly helps.
There's absolutely no need to buy SSKI tablets in the US. Also, iodine doesn't necessarily make you more healthy, it's mainly used in your thyroid to create hormones. In the case of being exposed to radioactive iodine, SSKI tablets give your body the iodine it needs, and just enough, so that your body doesn't feel a need to take in the radioactive iodine. That's it. Again, there's absolutely no need to buy SSKI tablets in the US.
And yeah, it's cool Neon! XD Post whatever you like, every little bit of info helps!
Yep, Fwd them to Japan.. Donate them.. Hell, IDK if the US govt knows, or maybe they have, and have already sent a huge shipment over with them, in the Air Craft Carriers coming over..
Or was the US sending ACC over there, b.c of the typhoons and Tsunamis? Would be better to send Air Ships.. err planes ( dammit withdrawl syndrome here) LOL...
Was just thinking that if there is a Nuclear system near YOUR area, then you have an idea of how they work, and learn a little bit about how they work. I actualy in Grade 7, in my public school, we had a day trip to Toronto, 8 am -11 am, we went to this place, and then from 11:30 am till 5 p.m we went to Ontario Science Centre and has a sceince heyday kinda day and had fun immersing ourselves with science and how things work,. I can clearly remember that day and had a blast. TBh, Id take my wife and son and do this as just the 3 of us, and stull have the same fun I did when I was 11, 12 yrs old.
I was just going to post some info on this kind of stuff. Happy to see some good people out there beat me to it :)
I just bought in bulk, enough to make 1,000 capsules of potassium iodate. I'm going out today to also buy some natural seaweed kelp too along with colloidal silver and see what I can do to get some more oxygen in my system.
Remember peeps, keep your thyroid healthy with natural iodine so your body won't absorb as much radioactive iodine.
There are reports that the heavier radiation iodine is leaking from Fukoshima right now and that the japanese government isn't reporting how severe their crisis really is.
If anything this is a wake up call for the world to get healthy and stay healthy for the times to come within the next few years with all the new wars the Elites are cooking up in the name of Power.
Peace~ *Molon Labe*
Uh. I think it'd be better if you took those tablets and sent them to Japan--if Russia has officially reported no signs of radioactivity, our being thousands of miles away certainly helps.
There's absolutely no need to buy SSKI tablets in the US. Also, iodine doesn't necessarily make you more healthy, it's mainly only used in your thyroid to create hormones. In the case of being exposed to radioactive iodine, SSKI tablets give your body the iodine it needs, and just enough, so that your body doesn't feel a need to take in the radioactive iodine. That's it. Again, there's absolutely no need to buy SSKI tablets in the US.
And yeah, it's cool Neon! XD Post whatever you like, every little bit of info helps!
You're talking to the resident paranoid conspiracy theorist.. You really expect anything less of him? Engage him long enough and I'm sure he'll come up with how this is all some master plan for the Japanese to take over, vice versa or some ***.
Also, it's vitally important that people realize the amount of radiation being reported is significantly less than that you're exposed to during an international flight.
Perspective is extremely important here. Yes, radiation is bad. But as the article mentioned, bananas contain radioactive potassium, and you still eat them. Just because they have "detected radiation" doesn't necessarily mean that it's a level that would harm anyone, and so far that doesn't sound like it's the case. You'll notice the reports of radiation by US ships out at sea don't involve them scrambling out of the way, either.
So far both the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency are not freaking out, so I suggest we don't either. The biggest problem right now is that the US media is panicking, because high drama and panic increases their ad revenue and fills out otherwise empty 24-hour news cycles, and so now many in Japan are starting to wonder who is right.
Nobody high up in the bureaucracy of foreign corporations wants to be known as the guy who kept people at their desks should something go wrong, so there are reports of some of them panicking and sending people out of Tokyo. While I understand the "cover your *** / better safe than sorry" thinking here, I would have advised them not to panic unnecessarily and put a further drain on already overloaded transit and energy grids if Japanese companies are not also doing the same en masse.
Japan will not turn down any international aid, but at the same time, there's only so much that countries like the US can do. Yes, sending over the USS Ronald Reagan is a nice gesture, but Japan has plenty of its own aircraft carriers and so far, the JSDF is doing an admirable job.
The biggest problem right now is that the US media is panicking, because high drama and panic increases their ad revenue and fills out otherwise empty 24-hour news cycles, and so now many in Japan are starting to wonder who is right.
From the last page:
Caitsith.Taazy said:
Quote:
1844: Mikan in Tokyo writes: "There is a growing sense that the Japanese government is not telling us the true story. On one end, there is the Japanese media that plays down the nuclear drama and focuses on human drama, and at the other, the foreign media is up-playing the nuclear disaster. In my company I heard at least half the essential staff is being sent to Hong Kong, Singapore or even Sydney. I am preparing to leave Tokyo and/or Japan. So are many of my friends. There is a sense of deserting Tokyo as soon as possible
I agree Jaerik, the news can never be 100% b.c somewhere it has to be flawed. What I mean is what you said there...
Lakshmi.Jaerik said:
So far both the Japanese government and the International Atomic Energy Agency are not freaking out, so I suggest we don't either. The biggest problem right now is that the US media is panicking, because high drama and panic increases their ad revenue and fills out otherwise empty 24-hour news cycles, and so now many in Japan are starting to wonder who is right.
Fear-mongering and wide-spread panic is something we don't need on a huge scale here. From what I have seen, the Japanese and the IAEA are doing a good job and quashing the hype, and trying to keep dmg to a minimal and downplaying the panic.
This is what needs to be done, b.c working with Nuclear power plants are a serioz thing.
It's not only the US media doin it! UK media likes to do it aswell!
and MSN news pisses me off something rotten. So many articles about how a Nuclear meltdown is almost inevitable & comparing to chernobyl.. When the Japanese reactors are contained and chernobyl wasn't so a meltdown would be much less catastrophic than that.
1844: Mikan in Tokyo writes: "There is a growing sense that the Japanese government is not telling us the true story. On one end, there is the Japanese media that plays down the nuclear drama and focuses on human drama, and at the other, the foreign media is up-playing the nuclear disaster. In my company I heard at least half the essential staff is being sent to Hong Kong, Singapore or even Sydney. I am preparing to leave Tokyo and/or Japan. So are many of my friends. There is a sense of deserting Tokyo as soon as possible
Remind me of this....
Epic alone scene at 1:25 Seeing Will alone in his car with grass growing in the streets of NYC.....
It's not only the US media doin it! UK media likes to do it aswell!
and MSN news pisses me off something rotten. So many articles about how a Nuclear meltdown is almost inevitable & comparing to chernobyl.. When the Japanese reactors are contained and chernobyl wasn't so a meltdown would be much less catastrophic than that.
Jaerik was right about this... its the news trying to fill in the void void till the next new thing comes up.
I did notice with BBC though, that they do occasionaly report about how Ghadfi is still trying to rally troops and how the rebels are securing some oil facilities and how some of these Oil companies are now siding with rebels to go against Ghadafi's uprisings...
Its about time the Oil Companies and the rebels team up to oust that B-stard.
try to contact several friends in Japan not all respond atm
hope you guys are doing good
sidenote big thx to windbells who let me know whats going on there
saeko eup leona hakf kimnou hikaron amunechan and all the others hit me up on msn if you can
to Lakshmi.Jaerik i totaly agree with you man
@ SE we dont need a free month take the april charge and suport the peeps that lost everything
2022: A Russian diplomatic source has told the Interfax news agency that Moscow is "awaiting trustworthy information regarding the situation at Japanese nuclear power plants" from the authorities in Tokyo. The source said Russian officials had not ruled out that the Japanese were playing down the possible threat for fear of causing panic among members of the public. Moscow planned to send seismologists to Japan to *** the situation on the ground so it could be "a thousand times more sure tht everything is safe", the source added.
2022: A Russian diplomatic source has told the Interfax news agency that Moscow is "awaiting trustworthy information regarding the situation at Japanese nuclear power plants" from the authorities in Tokyo. The source said Russian officials had not ruled out that the Japanese were playing down the possible threat for fear of causing panic among members of the public. Moscow planned to send seismologists to Japan to *** the situation on the ground so it could be "a thousand times more sure tht everything is safe", the source added.
With what happened in Chernobyl, least the Russians are helping out, by learning from their mistakes, and offering advice.
This whole thing break my heart, My hear goes out to everyone in japan right now. the devastation is massive. I dont beleive we will see the servers back up and running for at least a month or even longer if they have a meltdown and have to evacuate tokoyo. I say *** worring about the servers .. Square enix focus all your time and efforts helping the people of the japan. Human life first video games last........
Am I crazy for still wanting to study abroad in Japan with all this happening?
Why would you be? It's a natural disaster....it's not like saying you want to go study abroad in Iraq...ok then I may say you are stupid.
Family's been tellin' me I'm crazy for still wanting to study abroad. I keep telling them that the Universities aren't anywhere near the disaster zone.
Family's been tellin' me I'm crazy for still wanting to study abroad. I keep telling them that the Universities aren't anywhere near the disaster zone.
Am I crazy for still wanting to study abroad in Japan with all this happening?
Why would you be? It's a natural disaster....it's not like saying you want to go study abroad in Iraq...ok then I may say you are stupid.
Family's been tellin' me I'm crazy for still wanting to study abroad. I keep telling them that the Universities aren't anywhere near the disaster zone.
It's a natural disaster with a majority of the damage localized to certain areas...avoid said areas and you're set....as I said it's not a war ravaged country
Family's been tellin' me I'm crazy for still wanting to study abroad. I keep telling them that the Universities aren't anywhere near the disaster zone.
but then again, it would be safer to learn at home... going to Japan now would not be a good time..
See my thread on this page and the reference Jaerik said. Foriegners travelling abroad to Japan, would just be getting in the way, at this precious time.
As for Urial's post.. Don't go to Iraq.. tis not a safe place still.
However, it could be, if for something magical changed it to be safe. Iraq looks to be a nice little Oasis to a traveller's opinion.
d. As the zirconium alloy reacted with the steam, it created hydrogen gas, which is highly volatile. As engineers tried to vent this gas outside the containment chamber to relieve the pressure, the gas exploded, blowing off the roof of the outer building.
What caused the hydrogen release from the reactor?
At high temperatures, steam can separate into hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of zirconium, the metal used for encasing the reactor fuel. This mixture is highly explosive.
Chemistry experts! Does this sound right? I know that at high temperature, gasses (including water vapor, aka steam) dissociate, whereby their individual atoms separate. These atoms may then form new bonds, in this case making hydrogen and oxygen gasses (energy + 2H2O --> 2H2 + O2 [with some intermediate reactions taking place as well]).
My question is: what does the zirconium alloy have to do with it? Is it some catalyst that reduces the temperature at which dissociation takes place? What temperature is that, by the way?
people seem to be forgetting that these people who supposed be getting game running again are in japan themselves and just might have more pressing concerns like finding missing family/friends or recover what they can from destroyed homes and finding new places to live let alone clean water and food to eat among 100 other things. Instead of worrieing about mailing servers to US or tying to update servers and boot back up a vid game. Not mention any resources in the country gonna be focused on recovery efforts not something like a game.
What a horrible chain of events. I wish the best for everyone affected by the events in Japan. I hope people everywhere are compassionate enough to understand why the servers are down. So far I'm glad to see the overwhelming amount of people that realize the urgency and priority such a catastrophe takes over a novelty RPG.
I am writing this text (Mar 12) to give you some peace of mind regarding some of the troubles in Japan, that is the safety of Japan’s nuclear reactors. Up front, the situation is serious, but under control. And this text is long! But you will know more about nuclear power plants after reading it than all journalists on this planet put together.
There was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity.
By “significant” I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on – say – a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation.
I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single (!) report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By “not free of errors” I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism – that is quite normal these days. By “not free of errors” I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error.
We will have to cover some fundamentals, before we get into what is going on.
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”.
The Zircaloy casing is the first containment. It separates the radioactive fuel from the rest of the world.
The core is then placed in the “pressure vessels”. That is the pressure cooker we talked about before. The pressure vessels is the second containment. This is one sturdy piece of a pot, designed to safely contain the core for temperatures several hundred °C. That covers the scenarios where cooling can be restored at some point.
The entire “hardware” of the nuclear reactor – the pressure vessel and all pipes, pumps, coolant (water) reserves, are then encased in the third containment. The third containment is a hermetically (air tight) sealed, very thick bubble of the strongest steel and concrete. The third containment is designed, built and tested for one single purpose: To contain, indefinitely, a complete core meltdown. For that purpose, a large and thick concrete basin is cast under the pressure vessel (the second containment), all inside the third containment. This is the so-called “core catcher”. If the core melts and the pressure vessel bursts (and eventually melts), it will catch the molten fuel and everything else. It is typically built in such a way that the nuclear fuel will be spread out, so it can cool down.
This third containment is then surrounded by the reactor building. The reactor building is an outer shell that is supposed to keep the weather out, but nothing in. (this is the part that was damaged in the explosion, but more to that later).
