Everything is being questioned all the time. Every time something extraordinary happens, someone yells 'I told you so'.
Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
11–20 of 20 posts
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#12In the Gulf of Mexico alone, two oil drilling operations have resulted in nearly apocalyptic disasters in the last thirty years and it's nuclear power that's the problem? Nuclear power is far from flawless, but it does have a better track record. Japan's reactors have, so far, survived the worst earthquake in recorded history and a tsunami that's wiped out a good chunk of the coast. That's a spectacular success.
Survived? The reactors are all wrecks.
Huge multi-billion dollar wrecks. None of them will ever go online again. All will cost Bazillions to clean up and while humans are doing that they will be in danger.
Your reality distortion field is even larger than that from Steve Jobs.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#13In the Gulf of Mexico alone, two oil drilling operations have resulted in nearly apocalyptic disasters in the last thirty years and it's nuclear power that's the problem? Nuclear power is far from flawless, but it does have a better track record. Japan's reactors have, so far, survived the worst earthquake in recorded history and a tsunami that's wiped out a good chunk of the coast. That's a spectacular success.
Survived? The reactors are all wrecks. Huge multi-billion dollar wrecks. None of them will ever go online again. All will cost Bazillions to clean up and while humans are doing that they will be in danger. Your reality distortion field is even larger than that from Steve Jobs.
Two trains carrying 1800 people were lost because the trains weren't Tsunami proof. I assume Germany is also shutting down the ICE as a precaution?
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Survived? The reactors are all wrecks. Huge multi-billion dollar wrecks. None of them will ever go online again. All will cost Bazillions to clean up and while humans are doing that they will be in danger. Your reality distortion field is even larger than that from Steve Jobs.
Two trains carrying 1800 people were lost because the trains weren't Tsunami proof. I assume Germany is also shutting down the ICE as a precaution?
If it would have been a failure of the train, all were brought into inspection. As it has been done before when the train accident of the ICE 1 happened (Eschede).
If the track had been the cause, it would have been investigated and no train would use that track until it would have been brought up to standards.
If there were a chance to stop the train in case of an environmental catastrophe it would have been done. If there would be a technical system, it would brought into service.
Here we have a full wreckage of at least 10 nuclear plants which to rebuild and clean-up would cost upwards of 50 billion dollar. The damage that can be caused by leaking radiation to around 20 or million people can't even be estimated.
Claiming that the multiple engineering failures exposed and the multiple mismanagement is a triumph of Japanese engineering is not even laughable - it is cynical.
For example that the diesel power generators would fail has been known before and improvements had been suggested already. That there was a pool full of spent fuel is also total engineering and management failure. That the cooling failed and they caught fire is another failure. Why were they there? Because Japan does not have an idea what to do with them. They were running nuclear reactors (something like 50 at last count) without an idea where to finally store the nuclear waste. For decades! Please! The least they could have done to bring them away, provide better cooling and more space. But that would have been to expensive.
TEPCO is a company of FAIL. Multiple severe FAIL in combination with corrupt politicians.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#15Queue the onslaught of articles expounding upon the problem with 20/20 hindsight. Couple of points that the article fails to mention: * BWR reactors use less substantial construction because pressures are much lower than PWR. Intense pressure is used to prevent the water inside a PWR from boiling. Pressure in a PWR can reach 22.064 MPa (3200 PSIA). Contrast this with the 7.6 MPa (1000–1100 psi) present in a BWR. PWR…
Re: Mark I, An important perspective that's missing from this discussion is the fact that the fear of nuclear power has kept older reactors in operation longer than they should/would have been, due to lack of replacement by newer designs.
This is absolutely false. Standard lifetime for nuclear reactors is 40 years. With lifetime extension they can reach 60. Fear mongering is not in sight, the problem is nuclear plants cost a lot of money and time to build.
Especially not true for Japan, the country with the highest number of nuclear plants in the world.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two trains carrying 1800 people were lost because the trains weren't Tsunami proof. I assume Germany is also shutting down the ICE as a precaution?
If it would have been a failure of the train, all were brought into inspection. As it has been done before when the train accident of the ICE 1 happened (Eschede). If the track had been the cause, it would have been investigated and no train would use that track until it would have been brought up to standards. If there were a chance to stop the train in case of an environmental catastrophe it would have been done. I…
Yes there is weapons grade screw up - but closing unrelated reactors on the other side of the world just because they are 'nuclear' is as silly as stopping trains until the tracks in Bavaria can be protected against a Tsunami.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#17Once Fukushima 1 is under control, it'll be interesting to see if the technology at Fukushima 2 (BWR/5 with Mk2 containment, 1980+) helped it withstand damage better.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it would have been a failure of the train, all were brought into inspection. As it has been done before when the train accident of the ICE 1 happened (Eschede). If the track had been the cause, it would have been investigated and no train would use that track until it would have been brought up to standards. If there were a chance to stop the train in case of an environmental catastrophe it would have been done. I…
Yes there is weapons grade screw up - but closing unrelated reactors on the other side of the world just because they are 'nuclear' is as silly as stopping trains until the tracks in Bavaria can be protected against a Tsunami.
They are not unrelated. There are very old reactors, some of which were to be closed already, hadn't the current government changed the policy.
NONE of these reactors would get a permission to get online based on current regulations. Some are very simple BWR designs, some are near an earth quake zone, some don't have sufficient protection against relatively simple aircraft accidents, ...
The government also says that the reactors are shut down for safety inspections and then it has to be decided which of those can get back online. Which is controversal, since there was already a negotiated plan which of those had to shut down and the oldest ones had to go.
It is not silly, it is just about using the current political pressure to force the government to follow the originally negotiated phase out plan (which was also negotiated with the industry).
It has nothing to do with 'silly', it is a political struggle to force the current government to reverse its pro-nuklear policy.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re: Mark I, An important perspective that's missing from this discussion is the fact that the fear of nuclear power has kept older reactors in operation longer than they should/would have been, due to lack of replacement by newer designs.
This is absolutely false. Standard lifetime for nuclear reactors is 40 years. With lifetime extension they can reach 60. Fear mongering is not in sight, the problem is nuclear plants cost a lot of money and time to build. Especially not true for Japan, the country with the highest number of nuclear plants in the world. http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2007/npp_extension.html
It is not.
These old designs would not get any permission to get online by today's standards, at least in Germany.
Some of these old reactor designs can't be brought to current safety standards. They just have to be closed.
Re: Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Survived? The reactors are all wrecks. Huge multi-billion dollar wrecks. None of them will ever go online again. All will cost Bazillions to clean up and while humans are doing that they will be in danger. Your reality distortion field is even larger than that from Steve Jobs.
Two trains carrying 1800 people were lost because the trains weren't Tsunami proof. I assume Germany is also shutting down the ICE as a precaution?
Where, btw.. That was another fake news. There were no trains with 1800 dead.