AP reports New power line almost ready at Fukushima nuke plant. LET'S ROOT FOR JAPAN ! GO JAPAN GO GO GO

With power the water pumps can be started to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods.

I was wondering though why is it designed so that the nuclear reactors generate electricity to power the pumps ? Wouldn't it make sense to have the reactor cool itself.

i find it hilarious that people in san francisco and other places in the bay are buying iodine tablets to protect themselves from radiation. They are selling out everywhere.

Hmmm... the Fukushima plants were bought from the U.S. company, General Electric in the 1970s.

GO JAPAN GO GO GO wrote:

With power the water pumps can be started to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods.

I was wondering though why is it designed so that the nuclear reactors generate electricity to power the pumps ? Wouldn't it make sense to have the reactor cool itself.

In normal operation that's basically how it works. Getting started up to that point is the hard part, especially after the automatic SCRAM and tsunami flooding of electrical switchgear.

The backup generators were destroyed by the 30' Tsunami.

Reactors can't cool themselves. You need to get the heat out of the reactor somehow and in most reactors that is water. The nuclear reaction has shut down. It just takes a couple years for everything to end and stop generating heat. I am little surprised that there was not an additional back up to the back up as I thought most of the critical systems had triple redundancy.

marksman wrote:

GO JAPAN GO GO GO wrote:

With power the water pumps can be started to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods.

I was wondering though why is it designed so that the nuclear reactors generate electricity to power the pumps ? Wouldn't it make sense to have the reactor cool itself.

In normal operation that's basically how it works. Getting started up to that point is the hard part, especially after the automatic SCRAM and tsunami flooding of electrical switchgear.

marksman wrote:

GO JAPAN GO GO GO wrote:

With power the water pumps can be started to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods.

I was wondering though why is it designed so that the nuclear reactors generate electricity to power the pumps ? Wouldn't it make sense to have the reactor cool itself.

In normal operation that's basically how it works. Getting started up to that point is the hard part, especially after the automatic SCRAM and tsunami flooding of electrical switchgear.

I didn't read the OP's 2nd post correctly.

really...?! wrote:

i find it hilarious that people in san francisco and other places in the bay are buying iodine tablets to protect themselves from radiation. They are selling out everywhere.

really...?! wrote:

i find it hilarious that people in san francisco and other places in the bay are buying iodine tablets to protect themselves from radiation. They are selling out everywhere.

I saw on the news last night that people in North Carolina are buying iodine tablets. Crazy.

Good news.

Diesel Generators are now powering pumps that supply Sea Water to some of the reactors.

The Army has built Emergency Power lines. They should be done any minute now. Then Sea Water can be pumped onto spent fuel rods and reactors using consistent electric power.

gotta a question. Why can't we just nuke the Fukushima plant? Does the nuclear blast effectively vaporize everything? If it does, doesn't that solve all the meltdown problem, since everything gets vaporized?

That's the same question the guys at M.I.T. ask about Tel Aviv.

curiossi wrote:

gotta a question. Why can't we just nuke the Fukushima plant? Does the nuclear blast effectively vaporize everything? If it does, doesn't that solve all the meltdown problem, since everything gets vaporized?

Wow, uh, you're dumb.

That leads to nuclear armageddon.

curiossi wrote:

gotta a question. Why can't we just nuke the Fukushima plant? Does the nuclear blast effectively vaporize everything? If it does, doesn't that solve all the meltdown problem, since everything gets vaporized?

I betcha that's the last time the Japanese will buy a nuclear plant from a US company (GE) ;-)

I bet they are ready for the weekend.

Go Japan!

Whoa:

Power line connected to cool #2 Reactor

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20044391-264.html

Hope they can start getting the reactor cooled down

Good News wrote:

Good news.

Diesel Generators are now powering pumps that supply Sea Water to some of the reactors.

The Army has built Emergency Power lines. They should be done any minute now. Then Sea Water can be pumped onto spent fuel rods and reactors using consistent electric power.

Why in the world did it take them so long to get an adequate number of generators to the area? Couldn't they have shipped or flown in generators to supply power to the pumps? The reactors are located next to the water, right? So bring in a couple of ships with generators, dock the ships next to the faulty reactors and hook up the damn H20 pumps!!!

People are dying trying to save the nuclear plant and all you can do is criticize and act like a know-it-all. Stop being so apathetic and cynical like the typical Western barbarian and wait for the facts to come out.