Nuclear Boy

posted on March 18th, 2011, 10:10 am

posted on March 18th, 2011, 10:53 am

holy crap

posted on March 18th, 2011, 11:47 am

Wow, that is an awesome comparison

posted on March 18th, 2011, 11:56 am

They did a wonderfull job of explaining the impact of a nuclear explosion from a nuclear plant.
And the way the told the kids not to worry, because they are doing everything they can.
I knew under all that discipline and hardship, there is still a beating heart in Japan

posted on March 18th, 2011, 1:02 pm

Not an entirely accurate video, but much more so than the fearmongers reporting in the US news.

posted on March 18th, 2011, 4:06 pm

That video was pretty accurate. However, so long as the pressurized water reactors don't blow, there's a low chance of really bad stuff happening.

... unless they already did


On a side note, Three Mile Island wasn't actually that bad of a radiation release; in fact, it was contained very well.

posted on March 18th, 2011, 8:27 pm

there are no Pressurised Water Reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, it uses the older design Boiling Water Reactors.

The current concern is over the spent fuel pool, which is running dry. they are trying to get power back online to restore the cooling system.

posted on March 19th, 2011, 2:16 am

nuclear explosion

You mean Nagasaki ?

That was the last Nucular explosion there.

The explosions at the plants were in the cooling system outside of the main tank, as best I can tell, caused by over pressurized steam, and the water got hot enough to seperate the H and the O out of H20, which made it explosive.

That said to be honest we dont know anything, cause the media is busy having random people with no qualifications talk about it and hype it up.

Myles, boiling water IS pressurized water, when it is heated up.



Here you go, straight from the NRC website.

You have the water that stays in the loop with the reactor. This water is heated by the reactor, and when water is heated it takes up more volume (and produces more pressure).

That pressure, as it boils (hence the 'boiling water' part of the name, produces steam (just like an old coal powered steam engine).

That pressurized steam drives the turbines, which turn the generator and produce power.

That water is then ran over a series of pipes with cold water in them in a condensor, cooling that water and readying it for it's next trip to the reactor.

Megaman, the pressurized water DID blow, however is was likely just the cooling loop that blew (it blew BECAUSE it was pressurized by the heat), however TEPCO has a very long history of outright lying and falsifying reports, so noone really knows anything (other than both CNN and Fox news are looking like idiots in this)

Not an entirely accurate video, but much more so than the fearmongers reporting in the US news.

Listen to Neil Boortz on the radio, he does pretty fair coverage.

Actually he spends more time mocking the TV news than reporting due to the lack of hard news.

posted on March 19th, 2011, 9:01 am

The two most common types of nuclear reactors used in power plants are boiling water reactors (BWR) and pressurised water reactors (PWR). In short, the boiling water reactors generate steam within the reactor to run the turbine. In PWRs, pressurised water in primary coolant loop goes to a heat exchanger and the secondary coolant loop will run the turbine. Yes, there is pressure in coolant loop of BWRs too, but the pressure is considerably higher in PWRs than in BWRs. It isn't difficult to find more information about the topic on the internet.

posted on March 19th, 2011, 12:37 pm

Myles, boiling water IS pressurized water, when it is heated up.

zebh already corrected you, thanks zebh 

oh, and here is a site with a nice diagram of the difference between bwr and pwr

Types of Nuclear Reactors

the image you provided was of a bwr, not a pwr.

posted on March 20th, 2011, 7:08 am

Ah my bad.

Either way I thnk we'lll have to wait for the news to quit making stuff up, and reliable info to come out, as the jappanese agency (TEPCO) that runs the plants has a decades long history of lying about what happens during its screwups.

I imagine we'll see a mass firing of goverment employees involved, at the latest come next series of elections if the current goverment doesnt do anything.