Japan quakes

[saaya]

btw, about this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...680697248.html

The Chernobyl reactor had two crucial design flaws. First, it used graphite (carbon) instead of water to "moderate" the neutrons, which makes possible the nuclear reaction. The graphite caught fire in April 1986 and burned for four days. Water does not catch fire.

right, water creates a LOT of pressure and seperates into hydrogen and oxygen which doesnt burn... it EXPLODES... :P
so its not like gen2 reactors have a stable moderator that cant fail...

Second, Chernobyl had no containment structure. When the graphite caught fire, it spouted a plume of radioactive smoke that spread across the globe. A containment structure would have both smothered the fire and contained the radioactivity.

or... it would have been blown away partly and get damaged/cracked... and radioactivity leaks... which seems to be what happened at fukushima

great article though...
so a meltdown through the outer core is impossible?
and gen3 reactors dont need any active maintenance to shut down, you push a button and thats it, no electricity or generators or manpower needed...
i understand that people protest against nuclear power now... but what they should really protest against is using gen1 and gen2 reactors...

You used to be staff, what do you think?

As long as people follow the rules and keep things civil, pretty much anything goes.

well, that was before the news section crackdowns
i gotta say tho, the stricter moderation does work...

xs is one of the most civil forums i know of... the worst ive seen here is debating each others iq and calling each other doo-doo-heads ^^
yeah well, we are all geeks after all

EDIT: so the worst thing that could happen, as a meltdown core breach is supposedly impossible, is that the cores still get breached somehow... right?
that would result in radioactive material escaping the core... sounds just like chernobyl to me, just not as severe and more slowly like a cracked pressure cooker...
and other than chernobyl there are 4 reactors which, COULD, all crack and release radioactive material...

im really a little nervous about this...
better safe than sorry...

[MirageSys]

btw, about this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...680697248.html


i understand that people protest against nuclear power now... but what they should really protest against is using gen1 and gen2 reactors...

Japan had scheduled retirement for the plants currently experiencing trouble and was planning on building new generation 3+ reactors.

The gen3+ reactors have more redundancies and are extremely safe.



Newer generations of reactors get progressively safer. Its hard to imagine, but in the past, the united states had an experimental reactor that used liquid sodium....