Oh crap - talk about setting Nuclear Power back 50 years
From the
UK Independent:
Protests as Japan restarts nuclear power plant
Dozens of demonstrators in Japan are protesting against the restarting of a nuclear power plant - the first to go back online since all reactors were shut down for safety checks following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Ohi nuclear plant's reactor number three is set to go online today despite a deep divide in public opinion. Protesters shouted and danced outside it.
Last month, prime minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the restarts of reactors number three and nearby number four, saying living standards can not be maintained without nuclear energy.
All 50 of Japan's working reactors have been turned off. Last year's earthquake and tsunami sent the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into multiple meltdowns, setting off the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Worries about a power crunch over the hot summer months have been growing.
And from
Japan Times:
Temperature climbing in No. 4 reactor's pool after cooling system knocked out
The cooling system of the spent-fuel pool in reactor 4 at the Fukushima No. 1 plant automatically suspended operations Saturday and the water temperature is starting to rise, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.
The utility has been unable to activate a backup cooling system for the pool since operations halted at around 6.25 a.m., and is looking into the causes, Tepco officials said later in the day.
The pool's water temperature stood at around 31 degrees Celsius when the cooling system ceased functioning and was increasing by 0.26 degree per hour late Saturday afternoon, according to the officials.
If Tepco remains unable to start up the system or its backup, the temperature could reach 65 degrees by Tuesday morning — the maximum limit specified by safety regulations.
Now you and I know that this is an inconvenience -- an engineering problem that needs to be taken care of. It is not an OMFG disaster. Unfortunately, when a common citizen sees the media narratives from the environmental pundits, this will be spun as a complete meltdown and a justification to dismantle every nuke plant on the island.
31 degrees Celsius is a balmy 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Their "worry point" is 150F and if the heating is linear, they will not reach that point for
over ten days DERP! a little over five days (remember Dave, 24 hours in a day, not twelve) --
plenty of they have time to bring in the needed equipment to fix the problem
if they do not dawdle.
We (the Planet) need Nuclear Energy to power our civilization. I regret that the industry went with Uranium -- Thorium was looked at but because it doesn't go BOOM!, they decided on using Uranium which does. They looked at it as duplicating efforts.
Posted by DaveH at July 1, 2012 4:58 PM