Can we have an update on the situation.

[Dale]

They ARE designed to withstand floods and earthquakes, up to a certain point of "reasonable expectation". In this case, I suspect that they experienced a bit above their design specs. But we digress, this string is about requesting updates from SE, not about flaming he operators of a reactor plant, nor debating the safety of Nuclear Power.

Again, no offens intended

No if this would have happened at any reactor that was up to the current legal standards this woudn't have happened. If you are operating a nuclear reactor saftey should be your number 1 concern, and it wasn't with them. They have a poor safety record and because no one shut them down sooner this is the result. All the signs were there.

Also, maybe i'm dumb, but if you live on a volcanic island in a part of world actually called the Ring of Fire due to all the volcanic activity, I don't think it's that unreasonable to think an earthquake and tsunami might just happen. In fact, common sense might would have told them it was likely to happen.

If you are going to build power plants near fault lines make sure they are earthquake proof, or just don't build them. Period.

And if you don't like the topic i'm talking about just don't respond to my post and let it die

Also, I'm not flaming anyone. Flaming is a forum term that used when you attack someone personally over a disagreement. I'm not calling Tepo names, i'm holding them responsible for what they did.

[Dinh]

In the words of a great man...

"Life will find a way" -Ian Malcolm Jurassic Park

[Tsukino_Kaji]

I heard a statement saying they were only required to maintain a level of readiness/preparedness of around an 8.0 quake.

[RAIST]

been trying to find the thread, but someone had posted an application that was an overlay of before/after pics where you pulled a line across the pic and it replaced the pic as you wiped it. It had a good shot of the huge storage tanks for fuel and you could see the transformers that were taken out. The tsunami ripped the fuel tanks out of the ground. A massive 13 meter wave the length of the entire prefecture will tend to have that kind of effect on smaller structures like that I guess....so regardless of where what was installed, they pumps were going to be out of commision without any power source.

[RAIST]

I heard a statement saying they were only required to maintain a level of readiness/preparedness of around an 8.0 quake.

True, but the quake was not what took out the backup systems... it was the tsunami.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

True, but the quake was not what took out the backup systems... it was the tsunami.

Right.





Superfluous text added to meet forum standards.(And you didn't Raist again. ^^)

[Dale]

In the words of a great man...

"Life will find a way" -Ian Malcolm Jurassic Park

LIfe didn't find a way.

If the reactor had been maintained properly this woudn't have happened. It was a shoddy reactor that should have been shut down.

[Dubberrucky]

been trying to find the thread, but someone had posted an application that was an overlay of before/after pics where you pulled a line across the pic and it replaced the pic as you wiped it. It had a good shot of the huge storage tanks for fuel and you could see the transformers that were taken out. The tsunami ripped the fuel tanks out of the ground. A massive 13 meter wave the length of the entire prefecture will tend to have that kind of effect on smaller structures like that I guess....so regardless of where what was installed, they pumps were going to be out of commision without any power source.

Are you looking for this http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/ja...eforeafter.htm

[Dale]

The nuclear disaster currently unfolding is a man-made disaster that could have been prevented. Talking heads for the nuclear industry appear on TV and imply that the nuclear meltdown is akin to aliens landing on planet earth, something that could not have been planned for. This is simply not the case. In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami.

Listening carefully to the nuclear industry’s experts the reason is clear. As happens daily under capitalism, profits are put before people. Making nuclear plants designed to withstand a worst case scenario and protecting the surrounding population is deemed too costly by the profit driven system.

This profit driven decision making is rubber stamped by regulators that are closely tied with the industry they are supposed to regulate. Steff Yorek, a spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Allowing the nuclear industry to regulate itself is like letting the kids set the rules for the candy store. The same process that led to the BP oil spill a year ago is the cause of the disaster at Fukushima. We cannot allow the health of people and the safety of the environment to be discarded in favor of maximum profit for a handful of wealthy people.”

She added, “The natural disaster by itself would have been difficult enough to cope with, but in five years or so life could have returned to normal. Even in the best case scenario, the working people of Japan will now face radioactive seafood and soil and contaminated ground water for the next 300 years. Capitalism has doomed another Japanese generation to cancer and birth defects. The only question now is in how large of an area will be impacted and how high the dosage of radiation will go.”

Coudn't have said it better myself

[Dale]

And in the Fukushima plant, emergency generators were in place, but not on high enough ground. So the backup system itself was vulnerable, making catastrophic failure possible. The spent fuel is stored next to the reactor, so damage to the reactor can damage the stored rods too. The “comparatively smaller and less expensive containment structure” makes the reactor more vulnerable than other designs.

And here is a quote explaining what i was talking about earlier about how they didn't have their back up systems properly placed.

Also here is a much more apt quote for this situation than the one that was quoted from a Jurassic park.

"The love of money is the root of all evil" The Bible