Re: A lesson from Japan: Be prepared for earthquakes
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Graham</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The Mechanic</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It wasn't the quake the caused the problem it was the ensuing tsunami that took out electricity for the pumps that in turn caused the overheating. The reactors took the quake just fine </div></div>I'm no nuclear scientist, but here's an idea: If you happen to be running a nuclear power plant, and it relies on diesel generators for backup, and you don't have a generator installed high enough in the plant to stay above water, then shut them off at the tsunami warning and plug the intakes. When the water subsides simply start them up again. Just a thought... </div></div>
It's not that easy. Nuclear plants don't supply their own electricity. Those generators have to run immediately after losing offsite power or the the reactor will fail. When a reactor is SCRAMed (turned off) it continues to produce enormous amounts of heat, and the electricity the diesels provide is essential to run the equipment to cool the reactor core and circulate water through the spent fuel pool. Shutting down the diesels even for a few minutes would have catastrophic effects. When their diesel fuel supply was contaminated with sea water and their freshwater wells failed, they were forced to rely on using sea water to cool the entire system. This has many negative effects, such as corroding pumps and valves, clogging pipes with sediment, and eroding the casing around the fuel bundles. When they lost all power they had no way to circulate water in the spent fuel pools, that water boiled off releasing hydrogen in the process, and caused the explosions.
There were many things that went wrong in Japan that led to the radiological release, but trust me, it could have been much worse. Those engineers did a good job of taking a very bad situation and mitigating it.