Article: World's worst nuclear accidents

Japan said on Saturday that an ageing nuclear plant may be in meltdown after a huge quake and monster tsunami ravaged a large area of the northeast, leaving more than 1,000 people feared dead.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Explosion occurred at the oldest plant, Unit 1, built in 1971.

Breakdown of the current situation in detail at the above link.


2011 earthquake events

After the March 11, 2011, earthquake, Nuclear Engineering International reported that units 1 to 3 were automatically shut down, and units 4 to 6 were already in maintenance outages.[2] Diesel generators installed to provide backup power for the cooling systems for units 1–3 were damaged by the tsunami;[3] they started up correctly but then stopped abruptly about 1 hour later.[4] Because cooling is needed to remove residual reactor heat, in Japan a nuclear emergency is declared upon cooling problems and therefore a nuclear emergency was declared—for the first time—when the diesel engines failed. Batteries, which last about eight hours, were being used to power the reactor controls and valves during the electrical outage.[5][6][7] Japanese ground forces were said to be trucking generators and batteries to the site.[8]
An evacuation order was issued to people living within 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) of the plant, affecting approximately 5800 residents living near the power plant. People living less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the power plant were advised to stay indoors.[9] Later the evacuation was expanded to a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) radius.[10][11][12]
Past midnight local time, it was reported that The Tokyo Electric Power Company was considering venting hot gas from the reactor vessel number 1 into the atmosphere, which could result in the release of radiation.[13] The Tokyo Electric Company reported that radiation levels were rising in the turbine building for reactor 1.[14] At 2:00 JST, the pressure inside the reactor was reported to be 600kPa (6 bar or 87 psi), 200 kPa (2 bar or 29 psi) higher than under normal conditions.[4] At 5:30 JST the pressure inside Reactor 1 was reported to be 2.1 times the "design capacity",[15] 820 kPa (8.2 bar or 120 psi).[16] At 6:10 JST, the IAEA reported that unit 2 was also experiencing cooling problems.[17]

To reduce mounting pressure potentially radioactive steam has been released from the primary circuit, into the secondary containment.[18] On March 12, 2011 at 6:40 JST, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano stated that the amount of potential radiation would be small and that the prevailing winds are blowing out to sea.[19] Measured radiation levels inside the plant control room were reported to be 1000 times greater than normal.[20] Radiation levels measured at a monitoring post near the plant's main gate were reported to be more than eight times above normal.[21][22] In a press release at 7 am (local) March 12, TEPCO stated "Measurement of radioactive material (Iodine, etc.) by monitoring car indicates increasing value compared to normal level. One of the monitoring posts is also indicating higher than normal level."[12] Also, cesium has been detected around the reactor.[23] Fuel rods may have been exposed to the air.[24]
The Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, visited the plant for a briefing March 12, 2011.[25]
At 0630 GMT, there was an explosion was at the plant.[26] At 0800 GMT, Fox News Channel reported the explosion and a plume of "white smoke" rising above the plant.[27] At 0803 GMT BBC News reported that Japan's NHK TV reported the explosion as "near" the plant, and that four workers were injured.[28] Reuters is also reporting that NHK claims the explosion blew the entire outer structure off of the containment building of Unit 1.[29]
The Guardian is reporting that NHK is advising residents of the Fukushima area "to stay inside, close doors and windows and turn off air conditioning. They have also been advised to cover their mouths with masks, towels or handkerchiefs" as well as not to drink tap water.[30] Other news agencies have reported information on a definite explosion at the plant.[31][32]
Increase of radiation levels have been confirmed following the explosion.[33] The hourly radiation leaking from the plant is equal to the amount permitted in one year.[34]
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So is this explosion already the worlds worst or does the article just outline the worse nuclear disasters?
 
i dont think its Chernobyl yet... otherwise im sure they would have said something directly, like:
我々はそれを知っているように、それが世界の終わりです
 
At 0630 GMT, there was an explosion was at the plant.[26] At 0800 GMT, Fox News Channel reported the explosion and a plume of "white smoke" rising above the plant.[27] At 0803 GMT BBC News reported that Japan's NHK TV reported the explosion as "near" the plant, and that four workers were injured.[28] Reuters is also reporting that NHK claims the explosion blew the entire outer structure off of the containment building of Unit 1.[29]
The Guardian is reporting that NHK is advising residents of the Fukushima area "to stay inside, close doors and windows and turn off air conditioning. They have also been advised to cover their mouths with masks, towels or handkerchiefs" as well as not to drink tap water.[30] Other news agencies have reported information on a definite explosion at the plant.[31][32]
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Those poor people. Radiation is probably the scariest threat. It's invisible so you don't know whether you're being exposed to it or not, there's nowhere to hide. You don't know what kind of dose you'll get if you are exposed. Will you get severe radiation poisoning and die a comparatively quick and excruciatingly painful death or will you look forward to a slow demise from cancer.

This after suffering one the largest quakes in history and a Tsunami.
 
phenom said:
Chernobyl was pretty horrid, now this, germans have also had catastrophies, and our own plants have also had bad days. HOW IS IT THEN THAT WE ARE SEEKING TO INVEST 1 TRILLION RAND TO BUILD 6 MORE OF THESE IN OUR OWN NATION.
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Like many bad things, they can be "livable" under the right conditions. As long as it suits the people who have the deciding choice in the matter to have them built they will keep doing so. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Russia Russia still uses quite a handful of Nuclear power plants, despite what happened at Chernobyl, what makes you think we wouldn't eventually take a bite out of the apple? (Ignoring the fact that with natural disasters you can only be so prepared)
 
Chernobyl only had the reactor to sort out.

Japan's got an earthquake and a tsunami to sort out - so their job is more difficult.
 
One would think that in an advanced country, such as Japan, the incidents of nuclear accidents would be low...

...the human factor dictates otherwise.
 
phenom said:
The japanese can't handle it, yet we think that we could, 6 more planned for SA, at a cost of over a trillion rand while your at it, one of which, Bantumskip will have the south easterly blow straight over Cape Town.
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We must remember that those Japanese reactors are from '71. Today's designs will probably do fine subjected to the same conditions!
 
We don't really have a terror problem. That went with apartheid. And koeberg was attacked in those days of supposedly better security.
 
R13... said:
We must remember that those Japanese reactors are from '71. Today's designs will probably do fine subjected to the same conditions!
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The same design is still being used today.

There is nothing wrong with the plant per se. It's the backup generators that failed and they power the pumps that circulate the water for cooling.
 
R13... said:
We don't really have a terror problem. That went with apartheid. And koeberg was attacked in those days of supposedly better security.
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link, link

Don't forget this little incident at Pelindaba during 2007:

June 21, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Breaking in at the Pelindaba nuclear facility more than eighteen months ago is the stuff that makes us break into cold sweat. The facility contained a very large amount of high grade uranium which is more than enough to make several atom bombs. Such material is high risk and can be used to build assault weapons if it falls into the hands of a wrong person.

The event wasn’t publicized and the general public only got to know the details when it was reported by 60 minutes. The narration of a solitary man who had tried to stop the break in was given cognizance while reporting the facts.
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Anyway, it's taken a huge natural disaster to cause this accident and even now the actual reactor container has stayed intact. If it can be cooled sufficiently there will probably be no further leakage.

If I understand what's happened correctly the only leakage so far has been "intentional", gas from the reactor being released to reduce pressure.
 
This is just pure hysteria. Nuclear power plants are safer than hydroelectric power plants! Of course, if the Econazis would actually allow new plants to be built then there'd be no need to continue operating plants that are older and less safe, in relative terms.

Finally, it amuses me when people become hysterical that nuclear material could be acquired by the "bad guys". It takes a heck of a lot more than that to build a fissionable weapon. And I don't even want to hear about "dirty bombs", pathogens which occur naturally such as anthrax are far more potentially dangerous and available.
 
Ag shame. The dupes of the western media are at it again. Peddling nuclear fears bring a billion eyeballs and feed the media greed.

Few words pull more viewers than "meltdown", "nuclear plant explosion", "nine times maximum legal operational radiation levels" and the like.

Let's just get some perspective here:

* In NE Japan a number of reactors have just experienced a MAJOR earthquake (close to the max on the current scale), a MAJOR tsunami, and ...

... the automatic core shutdown systems all worked exactly as designed. What a credit to Japan's nuclear engineering industry.

... not a single core is still active, though of course they will remain hot for a week or so, or longer if cooling systems don't work normally. It's the cooling systems for the already-shutdown-but-still-hot-cores that are failing, causing pressure build-ups that in turn have resulted in at least one explosion and threaten some others. But these are not nuclear explosions and don't threaten the core containment vessels. Flooding the cores with sea water is an emergency way of cooling the already switch-off cores.

... all the media-fed panic about radiation levels being "nine times" legal level ... normal background levels are about 300-350 mrem/y; nuclear plants are licences to operate at the same level, ie 350-400 mrem/y. Nine times this barely rate a blip and aren't nearly the levels you get 3" from a normal TV set (and yes, there's a diffs between ionising and non-ionising radiation) or at a conventional thermal powerstation.

Hundreds of thousands have had their lives devastated, and all the paranoid western media go on about is 'nuclear' and 'meltdown'. Not single death or injury caused by nuclear aspect of these plants, and yet you'd think this is the greatest threat we face.

Hats off to Japan's nuclear industry.
 
CNN and BBC have been lining up anti nuclear crowd from places like "Union of Concerned Scientists" for their expert analysis.

Although there have been a few "experts" rather too nonchalant on other networks.
 
Alan said:
CNN and BBC have been lining up anti nuclear crowd from places like "Union of Concerned Scientists" for their expert analysis.

Although there have been a few "experts" rather too nonchalant on other networks.
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Perhaps Iran won't be allowed to carry on with their nuclear reactor now? I wonder if the attentions of the world could be cast from this scare to making it look like it could happen in iran :D.

CNN are haaarping on it, wow.
 
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Arthur said:
Ag shame. The dupes of the western media are at it again. Peddling nuclear fears bring a billion eyeballs and feed the media greed.

Few words pull more viewers than "meltdown", "nuclear plant explosion", "nine times maximum legal operational radiation levels" and the like.
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From the twits over at Time.....

Most worrisome of all is plutonium-239 — for a number of reasons. First of all, the vast majority of a fuel rod is made of plutonium, which means there's just more of it in play.
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Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/20...ion-exposure-how-serious-is-it/#ixzz1Ga1L2NHR

:erm:
 
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