"Breach of Containment" in Japan? (power, material, TV)

[geos]

"Breach of Containment" in Japan? (The Three Most Feared Words in the Lexicon of a Nuclear Scientist) | Dr. Kaku's Universe | Big Think

The three most feared words in the lexicon of a nuclear scientist is "breach of containment," i.e. an uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment. It appears that we may be seeing this dreaded event unfolding in Japan.

[plwhit]

Reads like more FUD...... I like the article, it starts off with

A source told the NY Times

and the author just takes off from there with wild suppositions....

Who is the source? Only Gorp of the Seven Moons of Altair knows.......

Here's facts, not the fiction Dr Kaku's Universe is pumping out:

Fukushima scaremongers becoming increasingly desperate?

[Asheville Native]

Originally Posted by geos

"Breach of Containment" in Japan? (The Three Most Feared Words in the Lexicon of a Nuclear Scientist) | Dr. Kaku's Universe | Big Think

The three most feared words in the lexicon of a nuclear scientist is "breach of containment," i.e. an uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment. It appears that we may be seeing this dreaded event unfolding in Japan.

Times 3, maybe 4

[geos]

Originally Posted by plwhit

Reads like more FUD...... I like the article, it starts off withand the author just takes off from there with wild suppositions....

Who is the source? Only Gorp of the Seven Moons of Altair knows.......

Here's facts, not the fiction Dr Kaku's Universe is pumping out:

Fukushima scaremongers becoming increasingly desperate?

Facts? You must be kidding. My god what a shameless piece of nuke industry damage control. Dr Kaku is a a theoretical physicist at C.U.N.Y, has a dozen letters after his name, has written a half dozen books, has been on dozens of radio and TV programs, is the go to egghead on science topics on many networks. And Lewis Page? And you?

Anyone who really wants to understand the nightmare legacy of nukes should read Dr. John Goffman Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology in the University of California at Berkeley, and Lecturer at the Department of Medicine, University of California School of Medicine at San Francisco instead of Fox news style transparent nuke industry propagandists.

1/20/94 Gofman interview in UCSF publication, "synapse", Vol. 38, Number 16 " After Chernobyl, I estimated that there were going to be 475,000 fatal cancers throughout Europe -- with another 475,000 cancers that are not fatal. "

He's the author of:
Radiation And Human Health, 908 pages (1981).
X-Rays: Health Effects of Common Exams (with Egan O'Connor), 439 pages (1985).
Radiation-Induced Cancer From Low-Dose Exposure: A Independent Analysis, 480 pages (1990).
Chernobyl Accident: Radiation Consequences for This and Future Generations, 574 pages (1994)

[sponger42]

Originally Posted by geos

"Breach of Containment" in Japan? (The Three Most Feared Words in the Lexicon of a Nuclear Scientist) | Dr. Kaku's Universe | Big Think

The three most feared words in the lexicon of a nuclear scientist is "breach of containment," i.e. an uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment. It appears that we may be seeing this dreaded event unfolding in Japan.

Actually, the most feared event to a Nuclear Engineer (what's a Nuclear Scientist doing in a operating commercial reactor? Scurry on back to your research reactor, egghead.) would be a supercritical event followed very quickly by an uncontrolled power excursion. This happens too fast for even computer-controlled insertion of negative reactivity and is only stopped by "a change in core geometry." Which is a euphemism for your reactor blowing itself to hell and gone. Well, not really gone, but in itty bitty pieces all over the place.

There's loads of different types of containment to breach. You can lose containment on trace radioactive steam or hydrogen gas (like when TMI vented or Fukishima blew the roof off several containment buildings). You can lose containment of core coolant when you have a LOCA (TMI again). You can lose containment of fuel material when you expose the fuel rods, then re-flood the core (or-hey-cooling pools) with cold water, shattering the Zr cladding due to thermal stress. (TMI again, and probably where the Plutonium external to the core at Fukishima is coming from).

Containment loss is bad, no doubt. People get fired and plants get fined breach of containment, but nobody dies. You need a power excursion (Like the one which caused a steam explosion which jettisoned control rods from an experimental reactor and impaled a guy working on top of the reactor at Rocketdyne way back when) or an industrial accident (crane tips over, guy falls off a catwalk) before you can start talking loss of life.

I got all excited too about "core breaches" at Fukishima, but the thermal readings throughout the event indicate far too low core temperatures for it to be un-contained fuel melt or anything which could ever lead to re-criticality. Most likely it's simply seals failing and the core getting a little leaky due to the thermal stresses over the past few days. Nothing so sexy as an actual melt-out, happily. I'd be very surprised if any of the cores have more than a few feet of melt once they peel them open maybe a decade from now. Though knowing the Japanese, it'll probably take more like 2 years.