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An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

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Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#3
post #2

although not submitted separately, this was discussed a bit yesterday on HN, when plux posted it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2411141 it looks like the attribution is different for each presentation, though the content is identical

The attribution here is correct (Matthias Braun, Areva); the name and logos were stripped when it was released, apparently for some kind of legal reason. This is discussed at the end of this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/science/03meltdown.html?pa...

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#4
post #2

although not submitted separately, this was discussed a bit yesterday on HN, when plux posted it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2411141 it looks like the attribution is different for each presentation, though the content is identical

It appears the Stanford presentation was given by an Areva executive, and the branding / sources on this copy were removed:

"On March 21, Stanford University presented an invitation-only panel discussion on the Japanese crisis that featured Alan Hanson, an executive vice president of Areva NC, a unit of the company focused on the nuclear fuel cycle."

Source here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/science/03meltdown.html?pa...

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#5
post #3
post #2

although not submitted separately, this was discussed a bit yesterday on HN, when plux posted it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2411141 it looks like the attribution is different for each presentation, though the content is identical

The attribution here is correct (Matthias Braun, Areva); the name and logos were stripped when it was released, apparently for some kind of legal reason. This is discussed at the end of this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/science/03meltdown.html?pa...

Beat me to it :-)

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#6
Areva is a company that sells nuclear reactors. It's important to realize that there are enormous political and financial interests on both sides of the "nuclear debate" in framing the "reality" of what happened and continues to happen. How the accident is presented and which details are highlighted depends very strongly on who is doing the presentation. In this case, let's have a healthy dose of skepticism about certain value statements in the presentation, knowing full well that there are unquantifiable financial implications for the presenter, Areva.

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#7
All right. The Google URL's are different, so I'll assume this isn't just another copy/pasta karma endeavor.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2400790

I don't particularly care about my own karma (or lack thereof; and after all I was reformatting someone else's URL, albeit to avoid the PowerPoint dependency (and risk)), but I do care about the contribution of repetition to the increasing volume of noise on HN.

That aside, it is an interesting slide deck.

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#8
It seems that it might be a good idea to design future nuclear reactors with pneumatic-powered robots in mind; purpose-built shafts and ramps could allow robots with minimal electronics into areas unsafe for humans. I say pneumatic instead of hydraulic, as based on my very limited understanding of nuclear physics, lightweight gases are less likely to become neutron activated for extended periods of time.

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#9
post #8

It seems that it might be a good idea to design future nuclear reactors with pneumatic-powered robots in mind; purpose-built shafts and ramps could allow robots with minimal electronics into areas unsafe for humans. I say pneumatic instead of hydraulic, as based on my very limited understanding of nuclear physics, lightweight gases are less likely to become neutron activated for extended periods of time.

I believe radiation messes with machines a bit too, though.

Re: An Engineer's Explanation of the Fukushima Incident

#10
i'm wondering about the main design principle of the reactor cores - by default they are "hot", ie. producing heat/energy, so one needs to make effort to keep them "cold", ie. non-producing heat/energy. This hot-by-default principle was the main reason of Chernobyl catastrophe and here as well.

Why not reverse the principle and design the cold-by-default core? For example, instead of inserting graphite rods into the core to calm it down, one would need to insert additional uranium rods (or pump molten uranium salt, or move the 6-8-12 pieces of core close enough, etc...) for the reactor to activate and become "hot".

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