Nuclear Threat MUST be Worse by now than Chernobyl

[Dani D]

Do any of us really believe that what we are seeing in Japan is in any way the same or less than 3 Mile Island? I for one am seeing images that look far worse and much more like or worse than Chernobyl!

I'm wondering if anyone here knows what this could mean for the West Coast of the U.S. or even globally...

Japan seems to be a microcosm of what is to come in the Tribulation IMO.

[readytogo]

Do any of us really believe that what we are seeing in Japan is in any way the same or less than 3 Mile Island? I for one am seeing images that look far worse and much more like or worse than Chernobyl!

I'm wondering if anyone here knows what this could mean for the West Coast of the U.S. or even globally...

Japan seems to be a microcosm of what is to come in the Tribulation IMO.

The images that I keep seeing from Japan are images of the quake damage and tsunami damage. This is why it would compare to images of Chernobyl. Speaking on a level of the nuclear reactor, so far this is far less than what happened at Chernobyl. Chernobyl had lasting effects on Russia and Europe within a few days because of the direction that the wind was blowing. In this case, there hasn't been anywhere near the same level of radiation to leak out and the wind is blowing the cloud toward the Pacific. The nuclear "cloud" reached California today. The level of radiation has be so dissipated over it's journey of a few thousand miles, that it's not even setting off the nuclear warning systems on the west coast. However if a cancer patient would walk past one of the monitors, if they were being treated by radiation, the monitor would go off. The amount coming in at the moment is a 1/billionth of the warning level. This could change, but then again they could get it under control.

[YeuEmMaiMai]

imho this will surpass chernobyl in the number of people killled..

[mattfivefour]

The other reason that the effects of Chernobyl were so terrible was that the containment facility was under-built. When the radioactive material overheated and melted into plasma, it ate through the bottom of the buildings and leached into the ground and the water supply. Cattle grazed the plants that then grew and the radioactivity was passed to the children in their milk and to all people in the meat. Further the grains were contaminated as well.

To our knowledge, at this point at least, there is not the same situation at Fukushima Daiichi. So far, we are being told, the nuclear material has not turned to plasma and eaten through into the ground. However, I temper any optimism in the long run with two observations: 1) the Japanese government has been less than forthright about the actual situation at the plant; 2) Nobody, at this point, can get close enough to the mess to see if indeed any material has gone plasmic.

[YeuEmMaiMai]

There was no containment structure in Chernoybl.......



as you can see it was the reactor and that was it.........the building served as the reactor.......and the concrete steel stucture was not built to contain any radiation if something serious happened.........

[Sean Osborne]

Do any of us really believe that what we are seeing in Japan is in any way the same or less than 3 Mile Island? I for one am seeing images that look far worse and much more like or worse than Chernobyl!

I agree with you Dani D.

The Chernobyl disaster near Pripyat, Ukraine involved only 1 out of the 4 very poorly designed RBMK reactors (high-power pressure tube-type nuclear reactors). It was the single reactor of Unit 4 which caused the disaster.

The reactors in Units 1, 2 and 3 were re-started and put back into service providing electricity for several more years. Unit 2 was shut down in 1991 after a fire in an ancilliary turbine building; Unit 1 was shut down in 1996; and Unit 3 closed in 1999.


There are six nuclear boiling water (BWR) reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okhuma, Japan. These reactors were built in a known tectonic subduction and earthquake prone zone (the Japan Trench) to a specification of withstanding a magnitude 7.3 earthquake.

These reactors survived the 1978 Miyagi magnitude 7.7 earthquake with relatively minor problems. They were near the epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and the designed specifications appear to have failed as a result because this quake resulted in a ground acceleration three times of that survived in 1978. The reactors in units 1,2 and 3 were operational at the time of the quake; the reactors of units were shut down for normal maintenance procedures. Reactors 1,2 and 3 were shut down in a emergency procedure after the quake, but the subsequent tsunami destroyed the primary and emergency power back-up systems which control the cooling of the reactor cores.

Partial meltdowns of the cores of units 1, 2 and 3 occured over the next several hours resulting in hydrogen explosions that blew of the tops off the buildings housing units 1 and 3, and another explosion exposed the nuclear core of unit 2 to the atmosphere. The shut down reactor in unit 4 has suffered a series of fires.

This incident is far from over and the ultimate result has yet to be experienced.

[YeuEmMaiMai]

Do any of us really believe that what we are seeing in Japan is in any way the same or less than 3 Mile Island? I for one am seeing images that look far worse and much more like or worse than Chernobyl!

the plant at Fukushima has 3 layers of containment vs NONE at Chernoybl (as noted in abve diagram)

1. Pressure vessel
2. Steel primary containment vessel
3. 5ft of dense steel reinforced concrete that can withstand anything up to and including a magnitude 9.0 earthquake... the concrete structure will also contain any meltdown that manages to breach the pressure vessel and primary containment. (this is also why they poured concrete UNDER the reactor at Chernoybl...

also the plant was built on solid bedrock and that helped immensely....

[YeuEmMaiMai]

I agree with you Dani D.

There are six nuclear boiling water (BWR) reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okhuma, Japan. These reactors were built in a known tectonic subduction and earthquake prone zone (the Japan Trench) to a specification of withstanding a magnitude 7.3 earthquake.

These reactors survived the 1978 Miyagi magnitude 7.7 earthquake with relatively minor problems. They were near the epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and the designed specifications appear to have failed as a result because this quake resulted in a ground acceleration three times of that survived in 1978. The reactors in units 1,2 and 3 were operational at the time of the quake; the reactors of units were shut down for normal maintenance procedures. Reactors 1,2 and 3 were shut down in a emergency procedure after the quake, but the subsequent tsunami destroyed the primary and emergency power back-up systems which control the cooling of the reactor cores.

Partial meltdowns of the cores of units 1, 2 and 3 occured over the next several hours resulting in hydrogen explosions that blew of the tops off the buildings housing units 1 and 3, and another explosion exposed the nuclear core of unit 2 to the atmosphere. The shut down reactor in unit 4 has suffered a series of fires.

This incident is far from over and the ultimate result has yet to be experienced.

The plant did not fail due to the earthquake, matter of record is the 3 reactors scram'd automatically and the backup generators provided power as required. The other 3 units were already offline

Don't let anyone fool you, this disaster is a DIRECT RESULT of the generators getting swamped when the tsunami wave breached the sea wall protecting the plant. (10M high wall of water). Also the location of the electrical gear in the basement did not help

[Sean Osborne]

The plant did not fail due to the earthquake, matter of record is the 3 reactors scram'd automatically and the backup generators provided power as required. The other 3 units were already offline

Fukushima Daiichi was subjected to 3 times its design specification for earthquake. Emergency procedures were effected to shut the operational units down. This is normal procedure, but especially for a Mag 9.0 earthquake. The reactors went INOP to determine if physical damage had occurred to them due to the quake. The subsequent tsunami made that inspect moot and impossible.

To say that Fukushima Daiichi did not fail due to the earthquake is incorrect. The earthquake produced the tsunami. As for the other three units being offline... yeah, I already made that point quite clear in my post above.

[YeuEmMaiMai]

Fukushima Daiichi was subjected to 3 times its design specification for earthquake. Emergency procedures were effected to shut the operational units down. This is normal procedure, but especially for a Mag 9.0 earthquake. The reactors went INOP to determine if physical damage had occurred to them due to the quake. The subsequent tsunami made that inspect moot and impossible.

To say that Fukushima Daiichi did not fail due to the earthquake is incorrect. The earthquake produced the tsunami. As for the other three units being offline... yeah, I already made that point quite clear in my post above.

units 4-6 were not in service

units 1-3 automatically shutdown as designed

to sit here and say (when the FACTS OBVIOUSLY STATE otherwise) that the reactor failed due to the earthquake is incorrect. The plant failed when the PRIMARY (grid) power was disrupted and the SECONDARY (diesel electric gensets) failed due to getting swamped with seawater. The plant did not experience any major issues until after the gensets failed. I have provided the facts and once again I will post them up here for you to see.......

Summary of Conditions at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Located on the Eastern coast of Japan, the six nuclear power reactors at Daiichi are boiling water reactors (BWRs). A massive earthquake on 11 March disabled off-site power to the plant and triggered the automatic shutdown of the three operating reactors - Units 1, 2 and 3. The control rods in those Units were successfully inserted into the reactor cores, ending the fission chain reaction. The remaining reactors - Units 4, 5 and 6 - had previously been shut down for routine maintenance purposes. Backup diesel generators, designed to start up after losing off-site power, began providing electricity to pumps circulating coolant to the six reactors.

Soon after the earthquake, a large tsunami washed over the reactor site, knocking out the backup generators. While some batteries remained operable, the entire site lost the ability to maintain normal reactor cooling and water circulation functions. <-damage caused by tsunami not earthquake.....

Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log

[Sean Osborne]

units 4-6 were not in service

No kidding, that is agreed upon.

units 1-3 automatically shutdown as designed

No, it was human intervention, not a designed software shutdown acccording to Japanese nuclear officials who physically placed these units into an inoperative status.

Take a breath and stop picking a nit. You are not a subject matter expert.

[YeuEmMaiMai]

No kidding, that is agreed upon.



No, it was human intervention, not a designed software shutdown acccording to Japanese nuclear officials who physically placed these units into an inoperative status.

Take a breath and stop picking a nit. You are not a subject matter expert.

uhm

I hate to break this to you but the reactors did shutdown automatically as designed by GE.

Facts on the Nuclear Energy Situation in Japan (Update) | GE Reports

During the magnitude 9.0 earthquake (the fifth largest earthquake in recorded history), the GE Boiling Water Reactors (BWR), performed as designed and initiated safe shut down processes. We understand that the back-up generators performed as designed to begin the cooling process. Shortly thereafter, we understand that the tsunami disabled the back-up emergency generation systems.

In a typical BWR setup, the control rods are inserted up from underneath the reactor vessel. the primary system is a hydraulic control unit with a pressurized storage tank provides the force to rapidly insert the control rods upon any interruption of the electric current, again within four seconds.

A large BWR will have 185 of these control rods. In the BWR there are secondary systems (and often even tertiary systems) that will insert control rods in the event that primary rapid insertion does not promptly and fully actuate. In the BWR design the secondary system uses steam from the reactor to insert the rods if the main hydraulic system is damaged.

PLEASE quit saying things that are not true. Nowhere has it been indicated that the reactors did not SCRAM as designed....the reactors were designed by GE to do this.

[GlennO]

Hijack!

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end of hijack.......

[Elijah's Mantle]

imho this will surpass chernobyl in the number of people killled..

ooh heavens

Japan needs our prayers

[mattfivefour]

Indeed Japan needs our prayers. Times of trouble are opportunities God gives His people to share His gospel among those who, shaken out of their comfort and sense of security, are more willing to listen and to consider His words of hope.

As His servants, that should be our focus.

As to what happened at the reactors, I believe enough information has been shared by both views ... certainly enough for us to understand. Any further discussion, respectfully, is not only likely beyond the focus of this particular forum but also runs the risks of brothers and sisters becoming angry with each other and displaying that anger on this board. We'll take a break on this topic.

In the meantime, let's pray for those who are evangelizing in Japan and petition the Father to send His Spirit to anoint the lips of the preachers and the hearts of the hearers of His Word there.