Some of the "Experts" on the BBC are saying that this is a desperate measure, and we could be about to watch the next Chernobyl.

That's scaremongering, Chernobyl R4 was running out of control at ~500 times maximum power when it blew the top off the containment, mainly because the RBMK is the single most stupid nuclear reactor design ever used for commercial generation. The entire concrete pilecap weighing something like 100 tons was lifted into the air, flipped over and fell back onto the core. This smashed what was left of the graphite moderator stack and hurled fuel and graphite hundreds of meters from the core. The situation was made even worse by the graphite and fuel catching fire. The plume went high into the atmosphere and fallout spread across the world.

These Japanese reactors are fully shut down and have been for several days. Worst case, R3's containment gives way and you would then have some very nasty contamination in the local area, but there just isn't the potential for a Chernobyl level accident.

The yanks only think it's a desperate measure to pump sea water in because doing so will write off the reactors, but considering the alternative is a potential for meltdown, it's the correct thing to do.

yeah I figured you were probably well aware.

Even back in the 50s and 60s, no non-soviet government would have licensed the RBMK on safety grounds, and even in spite of the stupid design and horrible lack of proper containment, Chernobyl R4 only blew up because the operators were performing an insane experiment and had specifically over-ridden most of the safety equipment which did exist.

me either. Frankly, as long as the containments hold, this should be seen as a demonstration of exactly how safe these things are. They took the brunt of an event which has totaled entire towns and the worst thing that has happened is a little bit of slightly radioactive steam and the Tokyo Electric Company has lost the use of 2-3 of its oldest and most clapped out reactors. TBH the chemical plants which must have been hit by this wave will have done 1000s of times more environmental damage, probably more even than if the containments on all three reactors crack. After all, wildlife actually seems to rather like the Chernobyl "dead zone".



I had a feeling it was while I was working at BNFL in 01/02 that they shut the last Chernobyl reactor down but the Wiki page for the RBMK says you're right at 2000 so it must have been start of decommissioning that I remember. The more worrying thing is that the Kursk, Leningrad and Smolensk stations are all still operating RBMK's, albeit with safety modifications made since 1986. I am generally pro nuclear power, but I am very much anti-RBMK reactors, I'll be happy when they're all shut down.

http://www.last.fm/user/skidzilla

skidzilla

skidzilla.googlepages.com/…Last seen: yesterday evening

Assumedly alive then 

http://www.last.fm/user/skidzilla

skidzilla

skidzilla.googlepages.com/…Last seen: yesterday evening

Assumedly alive then 

I was just about to post about that.

I think the third reactor's just gone.

edit.

2316: Kyodo now says that the suppression pool may have been damaged at the second reactor.

I don't like the look of the latest reports at all, third explosion and now radiation levels harmful to human health and a fire.

indeed, it's looking like the high rad levels earlier were from the fire in the cooling ponds of R4, although how a cooling pond full of water can catch fire is a bit of a mystery to me.

I'm still a bit concerned by R2, but the longer everything stays more or less under control the better the situation gets because the residual activity in the cores will be decaying all the time. It will be interesting (if we ever find out) to see how much melting actually took place in the 3 cores which are damaged. From the information we have, R2 spent a considerable time totally uncovered so I'd be quite surprised if it didn't have at least a partial meltdown. Thank God for ceramic fuel, if this was an older uranium metal design meltdown would have been much more serious.