The blast happened at Reactor 3 but the reactor shielding didn't rupture.

The fuel rod exposure is happening in Reactor 2 because, I'm told, the coolant is evaporating at or above the rate at which they can pump it in. The fuel rods aren't exposed to the outside air but rather to the gas inside the reactor. There has been unhelpful media speculation that Reactor 2 is leaking as well but this isn't backed up by any reliable source that I can find.

So the blast and the exposure are two separate problems in two separate reactors.

Hope this helps

^this

Reactor 1 blew. Reactor 3 blew. Reactor 2's rods are exposed.

Ah, terminology understanding fail.

When they said exposed, I thought they meant exposed to atmosphere; which is why the second statement had me confused.

TBF, they didn't exactly make it clear in the initial report.

I was listening to the radio this morning and there was a debate on as to whether the UK should continue to invest in nuclear power or sink the budget into renewables. One advocate of wind & wave said that the loss of function and explosion at the Japanese plants proved Nuclear power was an 'inherently frail technology'.

I nearly drove off the road. The reactor goes through a force 9 earthquake, followed by a 10m tidal wave, followed by an explosion that looks at least as big as anything your typical terrorist cell could manage without any major contamination of the environment and this proves the technology is 'frail'? Anyone care to speculate what would happen to a wave-based power generator if it had to cope with a 10m tidal wave? Or what would happen if you subjected a typical wind turbine to a force 9 earthquake?

Jon

What about the report that the Americans moved one of their ships further away after detecting slightly elevated radiation levels 100 miles off shore?



I suppose you could argue that a failure of a wave-based generator or wind turbine doesn't cause cancer and FLKs.

FLKs?

The military is usually over cautious when it comes to radiation. That said I doubt they release all information, controlling panic is just as important as controlling radioactive leakage.

It's a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. It will have systems on board that monitor radiation in order to check for issues with it's own power plant. Even minor increases in 'atmospheric radiation levels' will send those systems ascquif, possibly leading to lots of false positives and unnecessary alarms & etc. So they move it upwind to calm the machines down. Doesn't mean they think it's dangerous - the reported radiation levels aren't that much more than background, presuming the people working close to it are at all sensible. You wouldn't want the reported radiation levels constantly in your house but it's not in anyone's house, it's miles out to sea.


No, but it'd still cause [lifted]load of trouble if you were near to it. I assume you've seen this? Imagine a couple of dozen of those going over all at once. Admittedly the overdrive on the prop causes a fairly spectacular failure but if the thing went over while in use, bits would still fly everywhere.


Got me. Google's no help either.


Jon

First hit on Google suggests "Funny Looking Kid".

I think someone has been reading the "medical acronym" thread

Actually, not that funny

Actually, I think it was in a Tom Clancy novel.

Japan earthquake: New blast at Fukushima nuclear plant



More from the BBC here.

Well it looks like it has finally tipped the scale.

News of a radioactive cloud now being blown toward Tokyo

This is seriously going to f*ck a lot of things up.

Crap.

Yes crap now my iPad will have radioactive components!

I am genuinely concerned that this will not improve for a while. While the personal risk is non existent I do have sympathy for the citizens of Japan over this entire incident.

A fake text message warning people that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant has leaked beyond Japan has been panicking people across Asia.

Clicky