Fukushima “Ethereal blue flash” may occur during “localized criticality” -Bloomberg

[stockholmer]

this article deals with a lot, including concrete dumping, length of time to contain, ocean contamination, etc



Fukushima Workers Threatened by Heat Bursts; Sea Radiation Rises
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-31/fukushima-workers-threatened-by-heat-bursts-sea-radiation-rises.html

"Japan’s damaged nuclear plant may be in danger of emitting sudden bursts of heat and radiation, undermining efforts to cool the reactors and contain fallout.The potential for limited, uncontrolled chain reactions, voiced yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is among the phenomena that might occur, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters in Tokyo today. The IAEA "emphasized that the nuclear reactors won’t explode," he said...."

snip

"‘Ethereal Blue Flash’

Nuclear experts call such reactions "localized criticality." They consist of a burst of heat, radiation and sometimes an "ethereal blue flash," according to the U.S. Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory website. Twenty-one workers worldwide have been killed by criticality accidents since 1945, the site said. The IAEA acknowledged "they don’t have clear signs that show such a phenomenon is happening," Edano said.

Radioactive chlorine found March 25 in the No. 1 turbine building suggests chain reactions continued after the reactor shut down, physicist Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, wrote in a March 28 paper. Radioactive chlorine has a half-life of 37 minutes, according to the report..............."


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more links, stories here ------------------------------> http://enenews.com/ethereal-blue-flash-may-occur-during-localized-criticality-bloomberg

[LiberalEsto]

1. But I thought nuclear plants never killed anyone

"Twenty-one workers worldwide have been killed by criticality accidents since 1945, the site said. "

How can this be? Several people who post on this forum keep asserting that nuclear plants are perfectly safe and have never killed anyone.


:popcorn:

[meow mix]

3. i dont remember them mentioning this (the people you speak of)

during thier rants of saftey, and high intelligence. hmmm

[Throckmorton]

4. Most of these were weapons plant accidents.

Plus several people have been killed by irradiators used for food preservation and industrial processes.

Then there is the infamous SL-1 accident in January 3, 1961, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1

Also, the Wood River Junction accident:

On 23 July 1964, a criticality accident occurred at the Wood River Junction nuclear facility in Charlestown, Rhode Island. The plant was designed to recover uranium from scrap material left over from fuel element production. An operator accidentally dropped a concentrated uranium solution into an agitated tank containing sodium carbonate, resulting in a critical nuclear reaction. This criticality exposed the operator to a fatal radiation dose of 10,000 rad (100 Gy). Ninety minutes later a second excursion happened when a plant manager returned to the building and turned off the agitator, exposing himself and another administrator to doses of up to 100 rad (1 Gy) without ill effect.

In IMVHO, the argument that Commercial Nuclear Power has never killed anyone, which became, "Commercial Nuclear Power has never killed anyone in the west" after Chernobyl, will undergo a new metamorphosis to be "Commercial Pressurized Water Reactors have never killed anyone" in a few months.

[Maine_Nurse]

5. The criticality incidents weren't at functional nuke plants...

A few of the older ones were at an experimental government plant and others at weapons facilities. IIRC, these were all research incidents, mostly back in the day when scientists actually held plutonium in their hands to manipulate things instead of it being done remotely. There was one particular hunk of plutonium that killed people in multiple instances when the person manipulating it dropped some component causing it to go critical.

[Statistical]

11. That would be the "demon core".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core

Insane to think that in the 1950s you had scientists working with material very close to criticality (subcritical but very very very close to criticality) without any protection at all.

This single weapons grade core killed 3 scientists in two SEPARATE incidents. The first from a falling brick, the second from a slipped screwdriver. In both instances the change caused increase in reflected neutrons causing the material to jump form sub-critical to critical briefly.

On the "plus" side the experiments did allow us to develop more efficient and powerful nuclear weapons. (Do I need a sarcasm tag?)

[jpak]

2. Not good

Quick - someone solve the Bollzmann Equation and wish it away!

Let's see - detection of "neutron beam", short-lived fission products and "ethereal blue flash".

yup - no criticality here

[Statistical]

7. Try reading. The article didn't indicate than anyone observed blue flash in Japan.

"Japan’s damaged nuclear plant may be in danger of emitting sudden bursts of heat and radiation ..."


"The potential for limited, uncontrolled chain reactions, is among the phenomena that might occur..."

“The reactors are stopped, so it’s hard to imagine re-criticality..”

[stockholmer]

8. ah, thats why the word 'may' is in the lede, nobody said it 'had occurred' yet,I dont see your point

besides, there is much other info too, on related issues

[Statistical]

10. Thats why I didn't reply to you.

Instead I replied to the post implying that the non-existent blue flash in Japan is proof of criticality.

[stockholmer]

14. ooops, my mistake, I just saw this, (spanks myself for continuity error)

:spank:

[jpak]

9. Happy Happy Talk Talk

No meltdown - in multiple reactors

No breach of containment

No evidence for criticality

Radiation below safe limits

It's not Chernobyl

Bananas are bad for you

etc.

*yawn*

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

12. you won't admit it's happening until you see some blue light with your own eyes, right?

[Statistical]

13. You will accept it is happening despite NOBODY seeing blue light.

Which is more illogical?

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

15. no, I know it's happening because Chlorine 38 was detected.

and before that Iodine 134 was detected before they claimed it was an "error".

The presence of either of these indicates recent fission.

Deny it all you like. The evidence keeps piling up.

[Bosonic]

6. Ethereal Blue Flash == Cherenkov radiation

Not a brilliant sign...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation