Japan hit by massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake

[Wayne64SS]

@OsoiNA6

Hindsight is always 20/20, I am no expert and this is just my opinion… But considering the plant itself structurally and from an operational standpoint, the units did what they were supposed to do.

When I say structurally, I mean that nothing broke as a direct result of the earthquake. And the units that were not already shut down tripped and the right mechanisms were in place to apply cooling.

One major oversight (that I pointed out a few pages ago) has little to do with nuclear power but everything to do with planning for emergency countermeasures, etc- the emergency diesel generators to supply power for the cooling systems should NOT have been located in an area where they would have been susceptible to even a 35+ foot wave.

Some reasons/logic:

• Any earthquake causing acceleration of the unit to the extent that the unit would trip is going to be serious

• If this earthquake is the type that causes one side of the fault to move vertically with respect to the other (as in this case), a massive tsunami will be generated (as in this case)

• The entire plant and diesel generators are so close to the water that in the event of the above, the backup is compromised

All the different types of issues that occurred started with the inability to remove the coolant. This invariably led to the evaporation of coolant above fuel rods, increase of pressure within primary CV, sheath of Zirc around fuel rods being exposed etc etc. Basically almost every problem.

If the emergency diesel generators were placed, say far enough inland (although given the relatively low power output it may not be realistic since there will be a ton of loss in the lines), or perched way up high somewhere, where they could have kept working, there would be no cooling related issues.

One could argue though that such an elevated structure could have been impacted by the earthquake, but it could be done, especially by the Japanese.

Glad to see you back in here buddy. You weren’t over there at the time were ya?