Earthquake in Japan....9.0...ouch!

I'd of thought hydrogen would be likely to explode even if it wasn't mixed with oxygen?

Hole in the rough could have been good for it though? Less pressure during the explosion?
 
Over Clocker said:
Isn't that why a hydrogen explosion happens? They pump water in, which creates Hydrogen, The Hydrogen can escape, mixes with the Oxygen in the air and boom?

Bad news if it's true anyway.
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I think the explosions were happening because of a build up of hydrogen, which is not clear but some people are saying the hydrogen is being produced as the outer casing of the fuel rods burns off, then maybe as they vent the steam mixes and blows, not sure but they were saying earlier they were planning to drill a hole in the roof section to prevent the gas build up that they thought would prevent an explosion, but didn't need to because the reactor 3 explosion apparently blew a hole in reactor 2 just where they needed.

THey've just said about the explosion, it doesn't seem like a hydrogen one at all, theres a strange sound, pressure containment vessel area made a strange noise, they aren't sure what it was. The pressure control vessel pressure is increasing? If it was another hydrogen blow at the top I think they'd know.

They announced this just before 8am there, it happend almost two hours before just after 6am, they still don't seem to know what it was.

They think it was somewhere around the supression pool which is, what the melted core would hopefully be cooled from, they've evacuated the operators apparently, this is starting to sound really really bad. Maybe the sound of lots of core material dropping into the pool below, which would create a lot of steam instantly which would create high pressure quickly in the containment building. I really don't know, they haven't said really yet what it is, they guy doing the press conference did NOT look good. The news people look really more worried than normal.
 
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Over Clocker said:
Isn't that why a hydrogen explosion happens? They pump water in, which creates Hydrogen, The Hydrogen can escape, mixes with the Oxygen in the air and boom?

Bad news if it's true anyway.
Click to expand...
Just confirmed on BBC News 24 that there has been an explosion at reactor #2

In a normal situation pumping in water wouldn't create a significant quantity of hydrogen. When the fuel rods are uncovered due to coolant loss and the temperature/pressure rises enough steam reacts with zirconium in the fuel rod casing creating zirconium oxide and releasing hydrogen.

The hydrogen explosions indicate some degree of core meltdown.
 
More unconfirmed reports that a meltdown has happened at unit 2 now.

Dunno what to believe really. Even people in Japan do not believe their Government when it comes to the nuclear emergency....
 
m4rk84 said:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

Translated Japanese news channel live.

Not sounding good from the Japanese reports.

They keep repeating "This could be the worst case scenario".
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THeres levels of worst case, if this is the core melting down and hitting the pool, as long as the building remains intact, thats not terrible, its designed to do that, if it breaks through the containment vessel or the vessel has a leak then, yes, that could be terrible.

Depends what the "blast" was, the vessel itself with the reactor in, I've seen people talk about the pressure inside getting to hot the top can literally blow off, but won't necessarily damage the containment building.

Really you've got to hope that if everything goes to crap inside the core, that outer containment just keeps it contained.

EDIT:_ they really haven't said what the explosion was, just where they think the sound was from, so it doesn't necessarily mean any explosion damaged the outer container, the reactor container can go, that can completely meltdown but can be entirely contained, god damned I'm hoping for that.

Thing is, this happened at 6.10-6.15, the press conference was just before 8, basically this blew over 2 hours ago and well, they are taking their time. I think if they honestly detected anything truly terrible it would be sirens blazing for a evacuation by now. Even if you want to keep it quiet theres a point where you tell everyone to get as far away as possible.

Though, 20km, couldn't they have increased that gradually over some time, the rods were uncovered pretty much from 5pm, through 6am then an explosion with no water going in for much of that time.
 
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Both the government and the people, everyone is helping one another today. There are truck drivers helping evacuees move. I even heard that the “yakuza” (gangsters, organized crime groups) are helping to direct traffic in the Tohoku region! There have been many recent developments that have made me lose my sense of pride in my country, but not anymore. Japan is an amazing place! I’m just simply touched. Go Japan!

Some great reads: http://oxhu.posterous.com/45931848
 
It seems that even if they go into meltdown its likely to be ground contamination rather than airborn based like in russia. While either is not good, its not the worse case.

Either is still bad, but I'm surprised that they survived this event. But they got some bad lessons to learn. The whole backup power system to the coolant system is a joke if its true. Using Sea wall defenses as your only defense seems mad to me considering nature can and will make bigger Tsunamis.

I have family in Tokyo and they say its crazy there just now, lots of panic buying of basics.
 
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