Huge 8.9 quake plus tsunami - Japan

we can only hope that the reactors can be managed in this "safe" mode until it is possible to effect the necessary repairs first to stop the discharges but secondly to secure the reactors in some form of entombment that will not lead to future radioactive leaks.

"....Officials say Ukraine is likely to spend billions of euros on confinement upkeep costs before it finds a way to bury the reactor components, perhaps under layers of underground granite rocks. Even then the area around the plant will remain unsuitable for thousands of years. Asked how long before people can settle down and grow crops at the site, Chernobyl power plant director Ihor Gramotkin said: “At least 20,000 years......”

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reactor accidents are waiting games because the prompt radiations have to die off before people, or even machines, can get close to the location of the accident. During the wait the reactors have to be managed in such a way that they do not overheat and in so doing cause more problems.

the damage to the power plants and the limitations of working in them have necessarily slowed down the progress in re-establishing the "normal" cooling loops, which may also be damaged and not functional. it is a disaster to run the water through the plants and dump it into the sea, but the alternative choice is to not cool the cores, which is no choice at all.

so while we wait the radioactive elements are released into the environment, and that is not a good thing, certainly. we can only hope that the reactors can be managed in this "safe" mode until it is possible to effect the necessary repairs first to stop the discharges but secondly to secure the reactors in some form of entombment that will not lead to future radioactive leaks"

the trouble with this sort of security is that it requires continual very high attention

don't blink!

eventually the empire falls asleep

20,000 years would be the half-lives of various core materials spewed out at Chernobyl. It is what is being avoided in Japan, so far. It's 100's of years if only 137Cs...

TOKYO — Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, further complicating the delicate operation to stabilize the overheated facility.

"The situation is very grave," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Tuesday. "We are doing our utmost efforts to contain the damage."

Experts had expected traces would be detected once crews began searching for it, because plutonium is present in the production of nuclear energy.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the amounts found at five sites during testing last week were very small and were not a risk to public health.

TEPCO official Jun Tsuruoka said only two of the plutonium samples were believed to be from a leaking reactor. The other three samples were from earlier nuclear tests, he said. Years of weapons testing in the atmosphere have left trace amounts of plutonium in many places around the world.

But finding plutonium is a concern because it is the most toxic of isotopes that can be released from a nuclear reactor. It can be fatal to humans in very tiny doses and does not decay quickly.

John, the outcome doesn't depend on your hope or despair...

He mentioned that they were able to penetrate the highest security one (sorry I didn't ask for the name) by digging under the fence and that when they entered the control room, the operators on duty were sound asleep. They left notes on their consoles letting them know they had been there and then snuck back out of the place without ever being detected.

Years of weapons testing in the atmosphere have left trace amounts of plutonium in many places around the world.

But finding plutonium is a concern because it is the most toxic of isotopes that can be released from a nuclear reactor. It can be fatal to humans in very tiny doses and does not decay quickly.