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Blundering Fukushima Engineer Risked Another Meltdown

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Navarro

Power Poster II
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"Cooling water injections into the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan were halted for about an hour Monday morning ... Tepco was unable to inject a sufficient amount of water for cooling the No. 3 reactor, which suffered a nuclear fuel meltdown when the plant was damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami ... water injection pump for the reactor stopped operations shortly after 10 a.m. A secondary pump was activated about an hour later. ... pump went offline after a worker’s elbow hit the cover of a switch, damaging it and causing the switch to turn off ... also said that it suspended the cooling system for a shared spent fuel storage pool for reactors 1 through 3 after finding that an air removal valve was left open ... reactivated the cooling system about 6½ hours later ... There was no major change in radiation levels at the plant"
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/05/national/fukushima-reactor-cooling-halted-staff-error/#.WEXLpFzp7rN
 
Navarro said:
pump went offline after a worker’s elbow hit the cover of a switch, damaging it and causing the switch to turn off
I'm just going to say what everyone is thinking: This is Homer Simpson level incompetence.
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How do you say "d'oh" in Japanese?
 
D'a, with a long 'a'.

Pretty click-bait title. The core is slagged and producing residual heat. It has been with out any cooling for long periods, how is it going to melt down again?
 
Upshot said:
D'a, with a long 'a'.

Pretty click-bait title. The core is slagged and producing residual heat. It has been with out any cooling for long periods, how is it going to melt down again?
Shutting down coolant to Reactor 3 creates a situation which would inevitably lead to the overheating of fuel unless something is done to avert that circumstance.
 
Hmm. See 'thermodynamic equilibrium' . Also look into the elephants foot.
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But, let's not go into that, except to ask you to consider your qualifications to pass judgement blindly on media reporting that takes as its primary mission selling a product. Do you have an education in nuclear physics? Post doctoral? Engineering? Human factors? Have you ever worked in an NBC suit? Have you ever performed a technically demanding task under extremely adverse conditions? Are you sure it's rank incompetence? Sounds lake a snap judgement to me.
If this organization is to present it self as 'authoritative', then an obligation exists to look critically at media reporting and try to avoid the sensationalism which permeates 'media reporting'.
 
Upshot said:
You're not presenting a valid argument; that's purely Ad Hominem, Ad Lapidem and Ignoratio Elenchi. The fact remains:
Navarro said:
Shutting down coolant to Reactor 3 creates a situation which would inevitably lead to the overheating of fuel unless something is done to avert that circumstance.
If you have an argument which contradicts my statement, then present it.
 
Quite correct, DWS, mea culpa. The counter argument is already made. In the photograph above of the elepehant's foot we see the whole core of Chernobyl 4, melted down into the cooling galleries. Note, no cooling, none. Why did the mess of corium not keep cooking away and burning into the earth, re: 'the china syndrome' ? because it does not work like that. Thermodynamics tells us there is no free lunch. It will melt down to a point where the heat generated by fission is inadequate to melt the mess of corium further. It will be hot, but its not going to magically suck more energy out of thin air. There are other rather complex interactions at work, but there is no point in 'playing chess with pigeons', as the saying goes. The information is freely available if one care to look. No logical fallacy exists. Tu canis, non potest a melle stercore.
 
Upshot said:
Quite correct, DWS, mea culpa. The counter argument is already made. In the photograph above of the elepehant's foot we see the whole core of Chernobyl 4, melted down into the cooling galleries. Note, no cooling, none. Why did the mess of corium not keep cooking away and burning into the earth, re: 'the china syndrome' ? because it does not work like that. Thermodynamics tells us there is no free lunch. It will melt down to a point where the heat generated by fission is inadequate to melt the mess of corium further. It will be hot, but its not going to magically suck more energy out of thin air. There are other rather complex interactions at work, but there is no point in 'playing chess with pigeons', as the saying goes. The information is freely available if one care to look. No logical fallacy exists. Tu canis, non potest a melle stercore.
You're continuing to utilize the same three fallacies which I previously pointed out. For example, no one's warning of China Syndrome and that subject is irrelevant to the discussion; you're distracting from the actual issue. The suggestion that you're "playing chess with pigeons" is arrogant, unqualified and a personal attack. You've had multiple opportunities to state a valid argument and you've consistently failed to do so. Again, the fact remains:
Navarro said:
Shutting down coolant to Reactor 3 creates a situation which would inevitably lead to the overheating of fuel unless something is done to avert that circumstance.
To clarify, the incompetent and unsafe action of an engineer at Fukushima-Daiichi produced a circumstance in which primary coolant flow to R3 was disrupted, to include damage to the controls necessary to reinitialize that flow, and secondary (emergency) coolant was activated in order prevent the overheating of the fuel within the reactor. That engineer not only endangered the plant and employees operating it, but he also endangered the surrounding environment and the inhabitants of that environment.

As you've repeatedly shown that you have no intention of stating an argument, on the subject of the actual issues, which isn't based in fallacy to include personal attacks, I'm closing the thread.
 
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