Re: [Marxism] Why Worry? Japan's Nuclear Plants at Grave Risk From Quake Damage

[dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The problem I have this guy, who knows earthquakes quite well it seems, knows a 
lot less about 
nuclear power plants. While not an imbecile like Caldicott or Wasserman, he did 
write this:

" If the focus of the quake had been a little farther southwest, toward the 
plant site, and the magnitude 
had been 7.5- the size of a quake that hit Niigata Prefecture in 1964--and if 
all seven reactors at the 
plant had been operating, genpatsu-shinsai, a combination of an earthquake and 
a nuclear 
meltdown, could have occurred."

No, wrong. That's not what would of happened. There would of been more 
*structural* damage, 
for sure, and, the absolute worse possible situtation a breech of both 
containment and reactor 
vessel could of occured exposing the core to atmosphere, which, could of 
allowed for steam 
generated in the reactor, which is contaminated, from escaping. Being a Boiling 
Water Reactor, 
there would be little pressure. But no meltdown. The exact same thing in a 7.5 
earthquake would 
of happened in terms of the reactor shutting down as during the 6.8 quake that 
did happen in the 
K-K quake a few weeks ago: the reactor SCARMs, the turbine trips and the 
geneator breaker 
opens.  As it happens, the reactor survived quite nicely, actually, and only 
balance of plant 
equipment was damaged. The reactor and it's containment and most of the plant 
survived a 
quake several orders of magnitude greater than it was designed for. I sometimes 
get the feeling
that some anti-nuclear activists actually wish the plant hadn't survived from 
the way they talk (not 
this guy however, who seems more responsible).

A tremendous amount of retrofitting will have to be done to make these huge 
plant quake proof,
obviously. 
The people at TEPCO's headquarters who were responsible for under-designing the 
plant and 
LIEING about it should be fired, arrested, their assets seized and the company 
nationalized. 

Fortunatly, the rest of Japan's nuclear fleet picked up much of the load lost 
by this plant, unfortunatly, 
they don't have more nuclear plants so some/lot's of the lost megawatts have to 
be made up by 
burning oil, gas and coal and therefor pumping more carbon into the air. That 
is the choice in Japan today.

David
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