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Fukushima, Technology

How did the Soviets deal with Chernobyl Disaster? Sand, Lead, Concrete

17MAR2011

The situation in Japan, with Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is similar to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, in that nuclear fuel was exposed.  The Japanese are trying to deal with the situation by dumping water onto the reactors and spent fuel pools. At this point only partial melting of fuel rods have occurred. How did the Soviets deal with Chernobyl, where full melt down of the entire reactor took place?

CNES SPOT/EOSAT satellite image, 1986.

After a series of attempts to restrain the nuclear melt down failed, resulting literally in melting of the reactor (in the U.S. it’s called China Syndrome, because jokingly it was said it would melt it’s way to China), the Soviets began to air drop sand, lead and boric acid.  5,000 metric tons worth in one week!  The reactor was eventually sealed in a concrete coffin.

Most people working to fight the Chernobyl disaster died from radiation exposure.  One firefighter said it felt like pins & needles on his face, and the air tasted like metal, then he died.  Most of the vehicles used are still parked at the Chernobyl compound.

Soviet scientist were concerned with the melting reactor reaching ground water. They decided to pour huge amounts of concrete in the bottom of the reactor building, which seems to have worked.

For perspective: Chernobyl was ONE reactor, no spent fuel pools.  Japan is dealing, officially, with SIX reactors & their spent fuel pools (1,000+ fuel rods).

Fukushima 2011: JAPAN DISASTER START OF GLOBAL GREAT DEPRESSION

IDAHO NATIONAL LABRATORY WATCHING EVENTS IN JAPAN, SEA WATER MAY NOT WORK

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS

JAPAN QUAKE = NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Business/Economics, Fukushima, Opinion

Japan Disaster start of Global Great Depression

For a third day, the DOW fell big, along with other U.S. stock markets.  Stock markets around the world being affected. This is because Japan has become the “parts” supplier to the global economy.  Auto parts to electronic chips are made in Japan.  This production has come to a virtual stand still.  One analyst said that if this situation lasts a few weeks (best case) consumers can expect noticeable increases in prices.

It must be remembered that the Great Depression, that hit the United States in the 1930s, was not solely caused by the investment/finance crash of ’29.  What put the U.S. into a Great Depression was the loss of its main industry at the time; agriculture. Because of the quake, tsunami, and now nuclear disaster, Japan has essentially lost its main industries.

Until the Second World War, agriculture was the biggest industry in the U.S.  Most Americans worked in farming, or agriculture related jobs.  The industry was hit by a disaster that was a combination of Mother Earth, and man made.  The plain states, and mid west, had been dealing with a major drought, and,   farming techniques destroyed the top soil.  This is where the term “Dust Bowl” came from.

The result was that hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their jobs and their homes, just from the collapse of the agriculture industry. Combined with the losses of the finance/investment industries (which affected manufacturing) this created the Great Depression.

The World is already in a major financial crisis, bigger than what hit the world prior to the Great Depression in the U.S. (other countries, like Germany had already experience a depression). Now we have the natural/man made disasters that could push the World into a Great Depression.

Never before have the economies of the World been so tied together.  We have a dominoes situation. Japan, being a major parts supplier, could be the dominoe that starts the fall.

Fukushima

Defense Minister says Radiation Too High, conducting cooling operations anyway

Japan Defense Minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, just said that radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi are too high to safely conduct ground operations, as well as aerial operations. Despite the dangerous radiation levels, the situation is so bad that they have decide to re-start cooling operations.

At an altitude of 300 meters (984 feet), 87.7 millisieverts (87,7oo microsieverts) were read.

Police spraying water from their riot control trucks. Japanese Self Defense Forces are bringing in more water trucks, which are being supplied by the U.S. military.  The plan is to alternate between ground and air water spraying.

Spraying with trucks being done from outside the plant because ground radiation levels are too high to get people on site.

Fukushima

Police spraying water on Reactor 4, Military dropping water on Reactor 3

Police from Tokyo have begun using their riot control water trucks to spray water on reactor 4, Fukushima Daiichi.

The JSDF has resumed dropping water on reactor 3, despite high radiation levels.  Officials say the overheating situation has become so bad that they had no choice but to have helicopter crews be exposed to high levels of radiation.

Officials say workers on the ground, and helicopter crews are wearing protective clothing.  A lead plate has been attached to the bottom of the CH-47 copter. Officials say reactor 3 requires at least hundreds of dumps of water from helicopters.  This is a logistical problem, regardless of the radiation, which is why they have brought in police, and fire, water trucks.  Another 11 water trucks are heading to the plant.

Fukushima

Nuclear Disaster “…people may be called in to sacrifice their lives”

Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, says the situation is so bad that “This is a situation where people may be called in to sacrifice their lives. … It’s very difficult for me to contemplate that but it’s, it may have reached that point.”

The U.S. military has banned service members from coming within 50 miles (80km, that’s much larger area than Japan’s 20-30km) of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.  The U.S. Embassy, in Japan, is tell all U.S. citizens who live near the plant to stay indoors.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said “…the advice the Japanese government is giving…is different than the advice we’d be giving if this incident happened in the United States.”

Fukushima, International

Almost No Time to Escape Tsunami

After watching interviews of tsunami survivors it has become clear that there was very little time between the 9.0 quake and the first tsunami surge.

Most survivors say there was less than 15 minutes from the time of the quake to the tsunami impact.  An environmental activist from the United States, Brian Barnes, says where he was it was less than 7 minutes.  He says most of the people of Otsuchi, where he was, died. The city is wiped out. Barnes survived because he immediately drove to higher ground after the quake, with the tsunami showing up after he got to the top of the hill.

Most survivors say any emergency preparedness training they underwent in the past, did not prepare them for this.

Fukushima

Japan using Hotels for People Fleeing Nuclear Disaster

The Japanese government is turning to hotels to house evacuees from the ongoing nuclear disaster.

People living within 20km of the Fukushima Daiichi plant were ordered to evacuate.  Many people discovered that the shelters they were supposed to report to were already full of quake/tsunami survivors.

Fukushima

Micro vs Milli Sievert

A Japanese doctor, who specializes in radiation sickness, says microsievert is OK (in general).  Millisievert is bad, because it is 1,000 times more than microsievert.

Japanese officials have given radiation levels in both sieverts, sometimes correcting each other during the press conferences. This is causing confusion, and adding to people’s mistrust of officials.

One official reading was in 400 millisievert, which is 400,000 microsievert. Apparently the 400 millisievert report is correct.  However, some people thought they meant 400 microsievert, which would have been a much safer reading.

The way officials are scrambling to keep the reactors, and spent fuel rods,  from melting down, indicates that radiation readings, from around the plant, are probably in the millisievert range.  One report said that readings around the plant are 1.4 millisievert per hour (that’s 1,400 microsievert).