Fukushima Armchair Engineering of the Day
Mar. 16th, 2011 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
varjohaltiaFor all intents and purposes there are now several piles (somewhere between 2 and 7) of molten nuclear fuel sitting at least partially open to the air. The major difference to Chernobyl is that at Chernobyl the reactor was going beyond full blast when it blew, and was constructed with graphite, which caused a very violent reaction that spewed the core all over the place. There is no graphite anywhere in the Japanese reactors.
The site itself is pretty badly contaminated, but by reports workers can still go there in short shifts and not exceed their work safety limits. Why those are still being so strictly enforced (as well as visa requirements preventing the Chernobyl team from arriving, per one report) shows that Japan didn't entirely learn its lessons from Kobe, as far as the power of rote bureaucracy. There has been talk about temporarily changing exposure limits to match international recommendations to allow the workers to get more work done, but haven't heard more of that. Sucks to be there, either way, and the workers are in a fair bit of danger even if they try to follow the rules.
Winds and atmospheric conditions now matter. What goes where in what quantities depends on what gets disturbed, and this is not only entirely uncharted territory short of Chernobyl (which isn't comparable in several technical ways), it also gets into sciences I'm not so well versed in. Finnish radiation protection authorities have started to suggest that based on the IAEA back-channel info and technical data they've got the on-the-ground leadership is incompetent, but expects that even if the bungling continues, outside of the exclusion zone the effects should not be dangerous.
Contrary to some reports, NHK reports that work on the site continues, at least in shifts, and a water cannon has been brought in to get water into some of the buildings from a distance. I'm also hoping that the outside experts start to sort this situation out.
Reuters live blog has locals from Tokyo and nearby reporting that they have food in their local stores, and life goes on, despite the reports of shortages in the news.
The site itself is pretty badly contaminated, but by reports workers can still go there in short shifts and not exceed their work safety limits. Why those are still being so strictly enforced (as well as visa requirements preventing the Chernobyl team from arriving, per one report) shows that Japan didn't entirely learn its lessons from Kobe, as far as the power of rote bureaucracy. There has been talk about temporarily changing exposure limits to match international recommendations to allow the workers to get more work done, but haven't heard more of that. Sucks to be there, either way, and the workers are in a fair bit of danger even if they try to follow the rules.
Winds and atmospheric conditions now matter. What goes where in what quantities depends on what gets disturbed, and this is not only entirely uncharted territory short of Chernobyl (which isn't comparable in several technical ways), it also gets into sciences I'm not so well versed in. Finnish radiation protection authorities have started to suggest that based on the IAEA back-channel info and technical data they've got the on-the-ground leadership is incompetent, but expects that even if the bungling continues, outside of the exclusion zone the effects should not be dangerous.
Contrary to some reports, NHK reports that work on the site continues, at least in shifts, and a water cannon has been brought in to get water into some of the buildings from a distance. I'm also hoping that the outside experts start to sort this situation out.
Reuters live blog has locals from Tokyo and nearby reporting that they have food in their local stores, and life goes on, despite the reports of shortages in the news.
