Fukishima

I don't understand this. The news is now saying they are going to use a helicopter to drop water into a pool housing spent fuel rods.

The kind of quantity of water you can get in a helicopter isn't enormous.

I know they have the best scientists on this, but I don't understand why they can't pump water. Fire departments pump huge amounts of water using mobile appliances all the time. The plant is right next to the sea.

They are also saying that they are having difficulty restoring power to the site to run the pumps, mains supply has failed, diesel generators have failed, and batteries have failed, but a diesel generator can fit on the back of a truck, and there are several of them connected to every decent datacentre or industrial plant in the developed world.

Any developed neighbouring country could have had a ship packed with such equipment sitting in the docks at Fukishima 24 hours ago.

There has to be a lot more to this than the news are telling us. The problems the news says they are having, water supply and power supply, are not difficult to solve, and they have some of the best nuclear engineers in the world working on it. I wish they would just explain what the problem is, we are not stupid.

I get the feeling they're trying to save face.

[Mr Speirs]

I thought this too. They can't get power to the generators to restore water cooling. So get some mobile generators and get on with it.

However I guess if the Tsunami took out the generators why would they not have taken out the water pumps the generators powers?

The wave has probably broken many more components of the cooling system than just the generators powering them.

[Bri w]

I wouldn't want to be a fireman walking towards it with my pump etc whereas the helicopter method is a quicker in and out and with more distance in between.

They're the guys on the ground, so I guess they've got a better idea than us.

Originally Posted by Mr Speirs

I thought this too. They can't get power to the generators to restore water cooling. So get some mobile generators and get on with it.

However I guess if the Tsunami took out the generators why would they not have taken out the water pumps the generators powers?

The wave has probably broken many more components of the cooling system than just the generators powering them.

Possible, though that's not what they are saying on the news, they are saying that they need to restore power to get the pumps running again, and that the pumps were running fine on generators, then on fine on batteries, and that power seems to be the issue, but they don't need more power than can be obtained from batteries or generators?

I just smell a rat, what the news agencies are being told doesn't stack up to the layman, and usually news agencies don't sit back and accept what they are told, and I have had CNN and BBC on in the background for a few days now, and there have been lots of experts come on the TV and explained, why does it need water, what is a nuclear meltdown, what has caused these explosions, all of which they have been able to explain to the layman.

Why is nobody asking on of these experts to explain why it's so difficult to supply power to these pumps?

My work has on one site, 8 diesel generators, supplying 4 datacentres, with 10 megawatts of power, and each one of these things is commercially available and no bigger than a long wheelbase transit van.

Originally Posted by Bri w

They're the guys on the ground, so I guess they've got a better idea than us.

I'm sure they do Bri, they wouldn't be risking a nuclear disaster because they are all a bit thick and can't be bothered to think of a solution. But I also suspect they are having difficulties they don't want to tell the outside world about and that restoring power and supplying water is not really the issue!

[mikerj]

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

I don't understand this. The news is now saying they are going to use a helicopter to drop water into a pool housing spent fuel rods.

The kind of quantity of water you can get in a helicopter isn't enormous.

I know they have the best scientists on this, but I don't understand why they can't pump water. Fire departments pump huge amounts of water using mobile appliances all the time. The plant is right next to the sea.

Would you be happy to climb up to the top of the reactor buildings at the moment? The spent fuel rods are a separate issue to the main reactor, they are stored in a large tank of water within the reactor buildings since even when exhausted the fuel rods have enough energy to create a substantial amount of heat. The water in the tank has evaporated, so they want to top it up to keep the spent fuel rods cool.

Originally Posted by mikerj

Would you be happy to climb up to the top of the reactor buildings at the moment? The spent fuel rods are a separate issue to the main reactor, they are stored in a large tank of water within the reactor buildings since even when exhausted the fuel rods have enough energy to create a substantial amount of heat. The water in the tank has evaporated, so they want to top it up to keep the spent fuel rods cool.

I think you are missing the point. The fact you can refill this tank from a helicopter, would suggest that it doesn't require a lot of water to fill it. So why does it seem to be so difficult to get the necessary electricity to the water pump that would normally top up this tank? It's not like you need megawatts to pump that amount of water.

I think they are having greater difficulties than they are admitting to, otherwise they would have solved it by now, and wouldn't have had 3-4 explosions.

I am concerned and amazed that not one but 4 reactors are in trouble.

This is getting worse every day and it ain't getting better

[Bri w]

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

I think you are missing the point. The fact you can refill this tank from a helicopter, would suggest that it doesn't require a lot of water to fill it. So why does it seem to be so difficult to get the necessary electricity to the water pump that would normally top up this tank? It's not like you need megawatts to pump that amount of water.

I think they are having greater difficulties than they are admitting to, otherwise they would have solved it by now, and wouldn't have had 3-4 explosions.

If its a fire fighting helichopping thing it just dips the tank in the sea/lake