No Exit Plan
Japan investigation into nuclear plant radiation leak
An investigation is under way in Japan to establish the source of a radiation leak at the quake-hit nuclear plant, which left two workers in hospital.
The plant’s operator says dangerously high radiation levels recorded in water at one reactor raise the possibility its core has been damaged.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the situation was “very unpredictable”.
If you look at the Wikipedia article on pressurized water reactors they have a nice graphic showing how the system is supposed to work.
In a bit of unintended irony, the third item under “Advantages” of this design explains what is happening. These are wonderfully safe and stable systems, as long as the coolant pumps work. If the pumps don’t work, well, you have nuked yourself.
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That’s one advantage of the Canadian-style heavy water reactors. Lose your water, lose your nuclear reaction. Of course, the disadvantage is that said heavy water reactors are also the #1 choice of nuclear proliferators, since it’s child’s play to irradiate U-238 to Pu-239 in such reactors as they’re in operation.
– Badtux the Helpfully Glowing Penguin
I have a gut reaction, that a Stirling engine pump system could be integrated into the system as there is so much waste heat in this system that could be put work, especially in a shut down.
Yes, the ability to create plutonium is a major problem on a lot of fronts.
Oh, I forgot – three workers were together [you already know their names], but only one was wearing rubber boots when they walked through 15cm of water while running cable. The two without the boots are in the hospital, as the radioactive water soaked their pants and burned their legs.
These were regular employees of a power company running electrical cable in an area that has been subjected to fire hoses for days, and they weren’t wearing rubber boots.
I know the names of the three workers — Larry-san, Curly-san, and Mo-san — but which two got the burned legs again? 😈
This is as bad as the three guys mixing nuclear fuel in buckets one. Who was their supervisor who’s supposed to be responsible for making sure they had proper equipment and followed proper safety procedures, and where was he? Oh wait, this was Japan. He was in a bar somewhere six sheets to the wind, and it wouldn’t have made any difference if he wasn’t because he was appointed to his position due to cronyism, not due to expertise. Alrighty, then!
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
You didn’t really expect Larry-san or Curly-san to get the boots?
The local workers put on the rubber boots even when they are working in the bucket, which as a rubber floor mat and is insulated. It is just part of the procedure, even though they wear non-conducting boots. I asked, and one of the guys said you always do it so you never forget to do it. Apparently the power company will screw you over if you are injured and aren’t wearing all of the protective gear. It’s probably something to do with their health care coverage, because they sure aren’t worried about OSHA.
This whole mess is certainly destroying myths about Japan – they are as incompetent as we are.
Yeah, I told ya about my boss who got bit by the 440v junction box. If he hadn’t been wearing his rubber boots, he would have been toast. Dead. Deceased. Bereft of life. Yada yada yada, that parrot woulda been dead ;). He was wearing his rubber-soled boots because, well, because that’s what ya do.
Regarding the safety gear in the bucket thing, it’s a workman’s comp / unemployment insurance thing. If you get in an accident and you aren’t wearing the company-mandated safety gear, they get to screw you out of both by firing you for failing to follow proper safety procedures. Had a distant relative on my mother’s side screwed that way by a major food store chain, the *fryer* exploded in the deli and burned her horribly, the store promptly fired her and denied her workman’s comp claim, claiming that it was her own fault for not following every safety procedure in the manual that she’d never received but signed a piece of paper saying she’d received and that *she* actually owed *them* for destroying their fryer (WTF? How can a Mexican fry cook destroy a fryer? But as you know, making outrageous claims is the first thing a lawyer does in these situations). If she’d gone to court, the Tex-ASS courts woulda agreed with the store chain, she didn’t even bother (now how did you know Texas was involved in this? Well, ’cause it involved screwing the little guy, of course :twisted:). Which is how I got to share a bedroom with her husband and kid for a while when I was a teenager, but that’s another story, similar to the time that my brother and I stayed a few nights in the spare bedroom of a gay couple, but that’s *another* story, uhm…
And this one got off track. What else is new? :).
Yeah, the military will do the same sort of thing, filing charges if you aren’t complying with regs, even off-duty. They want to transfer costs to someone else’s budget.
Businesses immediately go on the attack, and that is followed up by their insurance companies. If you don’t have a union behind you, you are screwed, because you probably can’t afford an attorney. It’s a great system we have in this country.