The legacy services have successfully stifled à la carte for decades. ESPN costs a basic cable subscriber $4/month in the US and I couldn't enumerate the ESPN channels on my service if you put a blowtorch to me. Netflix is the first credible example of à la carte service. The legacy services refuse to provide what that market wants so the market is abandoning them.
What will Netflix do as it continues to obviate cable/satellite subscriptions? Ban new customers? Confrontation with the legacy services is inevitable. It is inevitable. Prepare for it. Win it. Or go home, because if you're not willing to deal with it you're not qualified for the position.
Stipulate for a moment that the ruling is rock solid, will stand up to every challenge and forever precludes IP addresses as evidence. Law enforcement will just adopt some other technique to relate network activity to households and/or individuals. Broadband services usually have an authentication phase between the modem and the service. If this isn't already sufficient it could be extended with a TPM chip and a key-pair. That requirement might appear with 'net neutrality debacle round II' and will be the one part that doesn't get obviated by congress.
All this ruling does is inform law enforcement that they need to go further to correlate network activity to defendants. The cops will rapidly adapt and nothing significant will change, because this isn't about the insightfulness of some district court judge. This ruling is just a small step in the tortuous process of nailing down exactly what is evidence in a court.
China doesn't have a debt bomb. The $276G is about 1/4 of their US Treasury holdings; they could build more than four more rail networks with what they've invested in US debt. At worst, $276G is a nice, healthy Chinese scale boondoggle. Anyone calculating how much `freeway' building they've offset?
On the other hand, $276G is a mere two months of US federal deficit spending; 1/6th of the projected 2011 deficit. Every 60 days we overspend that amount to buy various dependent constituencies, as opposed to something of value like a high-speed rail network.
After the/b/ disaster, a Russian organization of Chiropractors volunteered their time and set up shop in a nearby Ukraine school gymnasium.
Over 3,500 people visited and had gullibility adjustments which helped improve snark function to the poast gland, which is so important with blog trolling. NOT A SINGLE PERSON WHO VISITED GOT TROLLED!!!
Think about that next time you visit Slashdot. Chiropractic is where it's at.
Are you saying another president would have protected American manufacturing jobs better?
No. Those specific cases have sufficient notoriety to register with casual readers, and an answer (Clinton, as you say) that many find surprising. There have been precious few leaders that have been willing to rile the business world by jeopardizing their foreign investments. Reagan did specific things to prevent the destruction of the transportation sector. He let other industries suffer with no help. Textile manufacturing is a fine example. Whole towns died in the US as their plants evacuated to Asia. Since then companies have appeared that dismantle, ship and reassemble entire factories piece by piece from the US to Asia.
Even if the Foxconn factory that made the screen you're staring at were a paragon of virtue (it isn't) the rare earth mines that provided the minerals are an unforgivable crime. Miners in China are dying from silicosis. We no longer tolerate that among ourselves. We just export it.
Those dead towns? They're full of food stamp recipients, meth/oxy addicts and Walmarts with those low-low(tm) prices. The Government can't afford to keep the dependents in gravy so it borrows catastrophic amounts of debt, a fact that gives this situation a big fat expiration date.
That date is going to arrive. You can blame the rich, the corporations, Israel, white people, China or anyone else you've been taught to loath. It will come and you and yours are going to see it. Have a close look at those McDonald's 'hiring day' scenes you have carefully ignored. Learn about the place you live.
The grandparents hypothetical 'cycle' had nothing to do with the presence of foreign auto manufacturers in the US.
During the late 70's and early 80's 'domestic content' laws and regulations were both enhanced and created in the US that assess tariffs on imported autos based on the percent of value add by foreign vs. domestic industry. As a result, multiple plants opened (and remain open) in southern US by the late 80's. By 1989 all imported autos were subject to these content requirements. Trucks and SUVs were eventually reclassified (yes, these demands were met) to fall under this regime as well.
The Reagan administration also negotiated hard limits on Japanese imports. Annual caps on imports were voluntarily agreed to between the US and Japan. Reagan also applied heavy tariffs on imported motorcycles; he noted in his memoirs that the only remaining US motorcycle manufacturer was on its last legs at the time. Today that company is healthy and once again has domestic competition.
The reason, the only reason, any foreign auto manufacturers pay for US labor is to avoid heavy tariffs. This paradigm was established back when the US had leaders willing to leverage the fact that importers needed the US more than the US needed the importers.
Which president most recently granted MFN status to China and signed NAFTA?
Look it up. Learn something. There is no need to resort to speculation and theory about why things are as they are; there is actual history one may study.
somehow we expect to do better because we're not Americans
That's basically it. You must feel a degree of isolation thinking as you do.
have cranked up the power on the old ones and extended their operation permits
The US is doing the same. We 'uprate' about half a dozen reactors a year. All the reactors get rubber-stamped life extensions as well.
One day some uprated, life extended zombie reactor is going to burst a main steam line and blow down into containment. Maybe the 50 year old LPCI kicks in as designed and protects the fuel. Maybe not. Either way that reactor will never restart.
Then, as you say, the media will foist one anti-nuke 'expert' after another onto the tube to explain how all this is inherently fatal by nature.
The grandparent questions whether we know how to 'set up social / administrative systems for safe nuclear power.' The answer is yes; look to Western Navies. Better naval reactor designs aren't precluded by hysteria. A flag officer is never more than a few hundred yards from reactor(s) operated by the finest minds the navy can train. If you fuck up you don't wander off and write a book; you face court-martial. While service extensions are granted, reactors get full overhauls with upgrades during refueling.
Could that degree of competence and discipline be applied to civilian nuclear power? Yes, but it would cost more. So will everything that isn't coal. The advantage of nuclear is that it can actually work without inducing energy poverty.
The media is getting this material here. You can find video of RC helicopter flights over the buildings, video of the No.4 spend fuel pool sampling operation right down to the surface of the water, photos of the tsunami water marks on the turbine and reactor buildings and photos of the destruction of outlying structures. Also interesting are photos of the emergency staff and their on-site facilities. Much of this stuff is high resolution photography.
The percentages attributed to both 'Health Care' and 'Job and Family Security' are misleading. The published percentages fail to reflect $452 billion of Medicare for the former and $571 billion of Social Security for the latter. The excuse that they would offer if anyone could call them on this would be the barely plausible 'FICA is not income tax.' These are the games we play.
Others, however, aren't playing. The worlds creditors are going to dump US Treasuries when they finally become convinced that reigning in the deficit is politically infeasible for the US. Greece is paying >13% interest to roll over its debt. When that happens to the US the pie chart at the bottom of the page will have one overwhelming slice called 'servicing the debt' and this house of paper will finally fall.
We are going to cut spending whether we do it ourselves or we are forced to by the Chinese. You may attribute this simple reality to the rich, the military, capitalism, big oil, Israel, the tooth-fairy or anyone else you've been trained to hate; it is still going to happen.
Oh, so we're not modding people that compare Fukushima to Chernobyl into the ground any longer? 35 scorn filled replies questioning DrJimbos's intelligence will not be written? DrJimbo is obviously a fear monger, right?
Given the shear volume of damaged fuel involved in Fukushima it is undeniable that vast amounts of contamination has and will occur. Three venting cores and a burning spent fuel pool filled to the brim with waste. At this point the question is; how will the Fukushima exclusion zone compare with the Chernobyl exclusion zone? How many kilometers radii will have to be permanently roped off?
As for the story; the planet is collecting uninhabitable scars due to cost savings. For the want of just one row of foothills between the Pacific and Fukushima Diacci we've melted three reactors. The Fukushima plants (and all other coastal power plants) are built on the beach to save the cost of building an inland heat sink.
Harold Denton has cited credible studies from 20+ years ago that damn the GE Mk.1 design, a design created primarily to lower construction costs. No Mk 1's have been replaced based on that knowledge; only decommissioned upon reaching end-of-life when their operators failed (for purely economic reasons, like cheap natural gas) to seek a rubber-stamp extension.
Let us hope that China will, at least, decide to incur the additional costs necessary to site their new reactors so they don't get clobbered by tsunamis.
Plants must sited for operation that will span centuries; when the original reactors expire the replacements will be built at the same location. If this sort of thinking is beyond the imagination of the bean-counters calling the shots then leave nuclear alone; you're just building a catastrophe for your kids.
There is an estimated 50,000 tons of water still on site that will need to be disposed of one way or the other. About 500 tons are pumped into reactor pressure vessels for cooling every day. Some recent information on this is reported here by NHK: Workers face challenge of water storage
To put 50,000 tons of water in perspective, a super tanker will carry about 172,000,000 gallons of oil. 50,000 tons of water is ~12,000,000 gallons. One super tanker could carry all the water on site plus and also receive all new water pumped into the reactors for the next 1332 days. No, I don't need the plausibility of this explained to me; this is an attempt to provide some scale to the problem.
Yay for urgency. Fresh water is finally being hauled in by the US navy as well... about two weeks after they ran out of coolant inventory.
Will there be a reckoning for this foot dragging? No one responsible for Fukushima has acted with anything like the urgency we should expect of companies and governments that operate these reactors.
Hardened robots mean we may soon learn how much spent fuel got lofted by the fires. Brace yourself; every power reactor incident in history has surprised the engineers when they finally got eyeballs on the problem. Credible and well meaning people denied major core melt at TMI-2 for six years until the first camera was lowered into the RPV.
TEPCO officially announced they're scrapping reactors 1 through 4. This is a formality really; recovering those reactors is not feasible. The important thing to notice is that this omits 5 and 6. Those reactors will be put on-line again, just like TMI-1 and Chernobyl 1, 2, and 3. They know, however, that it is much too early to float that balloon.
I am a nuclear advocate. I just don't defend incompetence, poor judgment or neglect. There just isn't any room for it if you're going to burn matter and expect the trust of the people that grant you the liberty.
As they should have, whether they wanted to save the reactors or not. With any part of the normal cooling system functioning the operators can avoid venting contaminated steam. Use of sea water commits the operators to the potential destruction of that equipment.
When that didn't work out and it was clear that they had absolutely no other option, TEPCO began pumping seawater in
If they had resorted to seawater injection/venting before failing to recover the normal cooling system they would have been rightly accused of abject incompetence. Normal cooling would halt fuel damage, maintain coolant inventory and avoid venting to the atmosphere. All good things whether you want to save the reactors or not.
There may be evidence somewhere of your accusations, but not immediately resorting to seawater injection isn't it. Indulging nonsense that neatly confirms your preconceptions is fun though, so enjoy yourself.
There are immediately several posts expressing scepticism about this story. You people need to set that instinct aside for a moment. I am not an anti-nuke hysteric. Allow me the benefit of the doubt.
Recent reports from Japan are trending towards large amounts of contamination. Levels of Caesium and Iodine in the sea are very high. Soil samples are turning up large amounts of contamination. Tokyo tap water (200 km away) is contaminated. Vegetables in Hong Kong are accumulating Caesium that exceed limits. I have been monitoring Kyodo and NHK news and the degree of contamination being reported is disturbing.
Today's events include severe radiation burns on two workers, acknowledgement of containment failure in No.3 (MOX reactor,) an increase of the evacuation radius from 20 to 30 km and an order to greatly increase radiation monitoring at the site. Unexplained bursts of various gases have been forcing worker evacuations throughout the week. Fukushima didn't end when the news cycle cut over to Libya.
Fukushima has been releasing vapour directly into the atmosphere from reactor pressure vessels in which fuel damage has occurred. There is no precedent for that procedure in the history of nuclear technology, there has been no opportunity to directly measure the contamination of these releases, so there is no credible information on the actual amount of contamination being released from these vessels. There is no credible information on the amount of spent fuel that was lofted by the spent fuel pool fires. There is no accounting of the amount of contamination flowing off the site due to the use of water cannons.
DO NOT discount reports of contamination. DO NOT dismiss out of hand comparisons of Fukushima with Chernobyl.
The thing that *does* worry me is the fact that our plants are ~40 years old.
I'll give you something to worry about: Power uprates. This is where a utility gets the NRC to approve operation of a plant above its design power level. 105%. 115%. One day a 40 year old uprated reactor is going to fracture a main steam line and blow-down into containment. Zero pressure. The LPCI better kick in as designed because nothing else will save it.
but there was so much bitching and other bullshit
That, ultimately, is the real problem in the US. The little enthusiasm a utility might have to replace an old facility is utterly overwhelmed by the legal tar-pit that must be forded to accomplish anything. The somewhat greater desire to expand existing plants or even create a new plant is also legally infeasible. Tying up billions in capital for years on an uncertain outcome is financially infeasible; much easier and more profitable to take that money to Asia. The US can rot in its legal morass; money doesn't care.
This is a matter of political will; stimulus projects have exemptions from "environmental review." Border fence construction enjoyed that as well. When either the left or the right wants to stop muddling around and accomplish something they can make it so. They know exactly what the problem is and they know exactly how to fix it.
At least for some of us. No matter what obstacle emerges it will still get made. The Hobbit is probably worth more than $2 billion. Tolkiens, unions, ulcers, whatever; ultimately the various and sundry stake holders want their cut and for that to happen it must appear in the theater, and they all know it.
the only way you take and hold ground is by virtue of putting a man on that ground with a rifle
The ground forces are already there. When they aren't being strafed by aircraft or overrun by tanks they do pretty well (except for the part where they waste all their ammo every time they're near a camera.)
Libya will be a turkey shoot. It is difficult to imagine a more ideal theater for air power. Almost everything of significance in Libya is clustered easy sortie range of the coast. The weather is usually dry and clear. The nations that will attack have been honing their air-to-ground capabilities for decades in various conflicts under nearly identical conditions. The equipment, training and organization are all optimally prepared for exactly this. The Mediterranean is easily navigated by carriers and Libyan targets are easily in range of European air bases, so the full weight of both naval and land based air power are at hand. Libya doesn't have anything within twenty years of what they might need to even worry the UN forces. If the UN forces do suffer any casualties they will be mid-air collisions.
The UN didn't authorize a just no-fly zone. They authorized the use of "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya. It is now a no-tank zone, a no-bunker zone and a no-man-with-gun zone. Anything hostile that isn't buried in a camouflaged hole will be a smoking crater.
Expect Gaddafi to pull some underhanded tricks. During his career he had civilian aircraft bombed and mined the Mediterranean, among other things. Doubtless he'll have the wells set on fire. That will seriously upset the enviros, at which point so the UN will take off the gloves and Libya will become a no-palace zone as well.
The best part is than soon only historians will ever again have to be concerned with the spelling of his name.
The global nuclear industry is effectively dead as of now.
The global nuclear industry will be fine. China is building about 10 reactors a year. They have already stated that their plans will continue apace despite Fukushima. They are even working on a pebble bed research reactor. China is not ruled by hysterical malcontents. Neither is Turkey. Brazil is building plants as well.
As the 'first world' embraces its self induced energy poverty, emerging economies are building plentiful energy supplies. Walmart's 'low-low' price supply chain is assured.
Fukushima Dai-ichi No.1, the reactor inside the building that blew up March 12, was part of the power supply that made Japan what it is today. It has been generating power for 40 years and essentially every Japanese car you see on the road today has some Fukushima Dai-ichi No.1 in it. For the same reason there hasn't been any looting or riots in Japan since the quake/tsunami, I suspect Japan may also fail to abandon nuclear power as the pundits universally prescribe for the rest of the first world. If so then Japan will provide at least one instance of a liberal democracy that is also not ruled by hysteria.
This BBC story says TEPCO is blaming the #2 fuel exposure to several different problems including a fire pump running out of fuel, 4 out of 5 fire pumps being damaged by the #3 explosion and the 'accidental' operation of an 'air flow valve.'
These reactors scrammed over two days ago. At some point the generation of decay heat will be low enough to stop damaging fuel. Meanwhile TEPCO has discovered an easy method of dealing with hydrogen accumulation; they just wait for it to burn and blow up whatever part of the reactor building it accumulates in. This means we'll be spared the post meltdown hydrogen bubble drama experienced at TMI-2.
Fukushima Dai-ichi No.1 Reactor does not have a concrete containment dome. This reactor was built before the now familiar reinforced concrete dome became mandatory for most reactors. Instead, the reactor has a much smaller steel containment vessel around the reactor vessel.
Hydrogen burn isn't a very energetic event, which is why the Reactor Building framework is still intact. This means the Reactor Vessel is still intact and bolted upright to the floor with the damaged core inside. The RV and the steel containment around it is a very robust container, much stronger than the framework of the building.
All cooling apparatus is gone. If the detonation didn't disable it the fire will. So total core melt is almost certain.
TMI-2 melted 50% of the core which pooled at the bottom of the RV. The RV did not rupture despite the intense heat. It is possible this RV may also not rupture, especially if any cooling can be applied to the outer surface. If so then widespread intense contamination may be avoided.
If the RV does rupture then we'll have molten corium pooling on the concrete floor uncovered before God and everyone. All bets are off at that point.
FYI the reactor is a GE Mark I BWR with steel containment. Details here(PDF). A very old, before-mandatory-concrete-containment-dome system.
It will take the media and Japan a while to circle around to what caused the explosion, so I'll explain it now.
1. cooling circulation failed due to power loss.
2. reactor boiled off the coolant inventory and exposed the core
3. core overheated and damaged the fuel
4. the damaged fuel reacted with water vapor (zircaloy+H2O) and created a hydrogen bubble
5. the hydrogen burned (exploded, iow) and neatly removed the outer walls of the reactor building
The explosion you see in the videos aligns perfectly with the Fukushima Daiichi No.1 reactor building seen here (forth square building from the left.)
The BBC has provided this incredible before/after photo where you can actually see the reactor building structure with the walls removed by the explosion: the metal framework is still intact.
The exact same thing happened with TMI-2 in 1979. The hydrogen burn occurred inside the containment dome. The Fukushima reactor doesn't have such a dome, so the hydrogen accumulated in the reactor building.
Webgl is real and works today in the latest browsers. Go here (with Chrome 9 or FF4 and a real GPU) to see it right now.
developing for a web browser would [not] be more advantageous
In terms of performance, browsers already provide an environment that has parity with the best stand-alone dynamic languages. Both HTML5 canvas and Webgl are sufficient to solve the rendering problem for a broad class of games. These tools are standards based and free. If you've ever earned a living making games you can't miss the potential.
Large investments into browser development are coming from several competing organizations. Don't be surprised if browsers become superior to traditional techniques.
Slashdot Mirror
The legacy services have successfully stifled à la carte for decades. ESPN costs a basic cable subscriber $4/month in the US and I couldn't enumerate the ESPN channels on my service if you put a blowtorch to me. Netflix is the first credible example of à la carte service. The legacy services refuse to provide what that market wants so the market is abandoning them.
What will Netflix do as it continues to obviate cable/satellite subscriptions? Ban new customers? Confrontation with the legacy services is inevitable. It is inevitable. Prepare for it. Win it. Or go home, because if you're not willing to deal with it you're not qualified for the position.
but unfortunately the judge failed
Stipulate for a moment that the ruling is rock solid, will stand up to every challenge and forever precludes IP addresses as evidence. Law enforcement will just adopt some other technique to relate network activity to households and/or individuals. Broadband services usually have an authentication phase between the modem and the service. If this isn't already sufficient it could be extended with a TPM chip and a key-pair. That requirement might appear with 'net neutrality debacle round II' and will be the one part that doesn't get obviated by congress.
All this ruling does is inform law enforcement that they need to go further to correlate network activity to defendants. The cops will rapidly adapt and nothing significant will change, because this isn't about the insightfulness of some district court judge. This ruling is just a small step in the tortuous process of nailing down exactly what is evidence in a court.
Their debt bomb is the ghost cities...
China doesn't have a debt bomb. The $276G is about 1/4 of their US Treasury holdings; they could build more than four more rail networks with what they've invested in US debt. At worst, $276G is a nice, healthy Chinese scale boondoggle. Anyone calculating how much `freeway' building they've offset?
On the other hand, $276G is a mere two months of US federal deficit spending; 1/6th of the projected 2011 deficit. Every 60 days we overspend that amount to buy various dependent constituencies, as opposed to something of value like a high-speed rail network.
We are the debt bomb.
After the /b/ disaster, a Russian organization of Chiropractors volunteered their time and set up shop in a nearby Ukraine school gymnasium.
Over 3,500 people visited and had gullibility adjustments which helped improve snark function to the poast gland, which is so important with blog trolling. NOT A SINGLE PERSON WHO VISITED GOT TROLLED!!!
Think about that next time you visit Slashdot. Chiropractic is where it's at.
Are you saying another president would have protected American manufacturing jobs better?
No. Those specific cases have sufficient notoriety to register with casual readers, and an answer (Clinton, as you say) that many find surprising. There have been precious few leaders that have been willing to rile the business world by jeopardizing their foreign investments. Reagan did specific things to prevent the destruction of the transportation sector. He let other industries suffer with no help. Textile manufacturing is a fine example. Whole towns died in the US as their plants evacuated to Asia. Since then companies have appeared that dismantle, ship and reassemble entire factories piece by piece from the US to Asia.
Even if the Foxconn factory that made the screen you're staring at were a paragon of virtue (it isn't) the rare earth mines that provided the minerals are an unforgivable crime. Miners in China are dying from silicosis. We no longer tolerate that among ourselves. We just export it.
Those dead towns? They're full of food stamp recipients, meth/oxy addicts and Walmarts with those low-low(tm) prices. The Government can't afford to keep the dependents in gravy so it borrows catastrophic amounts of debt, a fact that gives this situation a big fat expiration date.
That date is going to arrive. You can blame the rich, the corporations, Israel, white people, China or anyone else you've been taught to loath. It will come and you and yours are going to see it. Have a close look at those McDonald's 'hiring day' scenes you have carefully ignored. Learn about the place you live.
This is exactly what happened in the US.
The grandparents hypothetical 'cycle' had nothing to do with the presence of foreign auto manufacturers in the US.
During the late 70's and early 80's 'domestic content' laws and regulations were both enhanced and created in the US that assess tariffs on imported autos based on the percent of value add by foreign vs. domestic industry. As a result, multiple plants opened (and remain open) in southern US by the late 80's. By 1989 all imported autos were subject to these content requirements. Trucks and SUVs were eventually reclassified (yes, these demands were met) to fall under this regime as well.
The Reagan administration also negotiated hard limits on Japanese imports. Annual caps on imports were voluntarily agreed to between the US and Japan. Reagan also applied heavy tariffs on imported motorcycles; he noted in his memoirs that the only remaining US motorcycle manufacturer was on its last legs at the time. Today that company is healthy and once again has domestic competition.
The reason, the only reason, any foreign auto manufacturers pay for US labor is to avoid heavy tariffs. This paradigm was established back when the US had leaders willing to leverage the fact that importers needed the US more than the US needed the importers.
Which president most recently granted MFN status to China and signed NAFTA?
Look it up. Learn something. There is no need to resort to speculation and theory about why things are as they are; there is actual history one may study.
somehow we expect to do better because we're not Americans
That's basically it. You must feel a degree of isolation thinking as you do.
have cranked up the power on the old ones and extended their operation permits
The US is doing the same. We 'uprate' about half a dozen reactors a year. All the reactors get rubber-stamped life extensions as well.
One day some uprated, life extended zombie reactor is going to burst a main steam line and blow down into containment. Maybe the 50 year old LPCI kicks in as designed and protects the fuel. Maybe not. Either way that reactor will never restart.
Then, as you say, the media will foist one anti-nuke 'expert' after another onto the tube to explain how all this is inherently fatal by nature.
The grandparent questions whether we know how to 'set up social / administrative systems for safe nuclear power.' The answer is yes; look to Western Navies. Better naval reactor designs aren't precluded by hysteria. A flag officer is never more than a few hundred yards from reactor(s) operated by the finest minds the navy can train. If you fuck up you don't wander off and write a book; you face court-martial. While service extensions are granted, reactors get full overhauls with upgrades during refueling.
Could that degree of competence and discipline be applied to civilian nuclear power? Yes, but it would cost more. So will everything that isn't coal. The advantage of nuclear is that it can actually work without inducing energy poverty.
The media is getting this material here. You can find video of RC helicopter flights over the buildings, video of the No.4 spend fuel pool sampling operation right down to the surface of the water, photos of the tsunami water marks on the turbine and reactor buildings and photos of the destruction of outlying structures. Also interesting are photos of the emergency staff and their on-site facilities. Much of this stuff is high resolution photography.
The percentages attributed to both 'Health Care' and 'Job and Family Security' are misleading. The published percentages fail to reflect $452 billion of Medicare for the former and $571 billion of Social Security for the latter. The excuse that they would offer if anyone could call them on this would be the barely plausible 'FICA is not income tax.' These are the games we play.
Others, however, aren't playing. The worlds creditors are going to dump US Treasuries when they finally become convinced that reigning in the deficit is politically infeasible for the US. Greece is paying >13% interest to roll over its debt. When that happens to the US the pie chart at the bottom of the page will have one overwhelming slice called 'servicing the debt' and this house of paper will finally fall.
We are going to cut spending whether we do it ourselves or we are forced to by the Chinese. You may attribute this simple reality to the rich, the military, capitalism, big oil, Israel, the tooth-fairy or anyone else you've been trained to hate; it is still going to happen.
Oh, so we're not modding people that compare Fukushima to Chernobyl into the ground any longer? 35 scorn filled replies questioning DrJimbos's intelligence will not be written? DrJimbo is obviously a fear monger, right?
Given the shear volume of damaged fuel involved in Fukushima it is undeniable that vast amounts of contamination has and will occur. Three venting cores and a burning spent fuel pool filled to the brim with waste. At this point the question is; how will the Fukushima exclusion zone compare with the Chernobyl exclusion zone? How many kilometers radii will have to be permanently roped off?
As for the story; the planet is collecting uninhabitable scars due to cost savings. For the want of just one row of foothills between the Pacific and Fukushima Diacci we've melted three reactors. The Fukushima plants (and all other coastal power plants) are built on the beach to save the cost of building an inland heat sink.
Harold Denton has cited credible studies from 20+ years ago that damn the GE Mk.1 design, a design created primarily to lower construction costs. No Mk 1's have been replaced based on that knowledge; only decommissioned upon reaching end-of-life when their operators failed (for purely economic reasons, like cheap natural gas) to seek a rubber-stamp extension.
Let us hope that China will, at least, decide to incur the additional costs necessary to site their new reactors so they don't get clobbered by tsunamis.
Plants must sited for operation that will span centuries; when the original reactors expire the replacements will be built at the same location. If this sort of thinking is beyond the imagination of the bean-counters calling the shots then leave nuclear alone; you're just building a catastrophe for your kids.
There is an estimated 50,000 tons of water still on site that will need to be disposed of one way or the other. About 500 tons are pumped into reactor pressure vessels for cooling every day. Some recent information on this is reported here by NHK: Workers face challenge of water storage
To put 50,000 tons of water in perspective, a super tanker will carry about 172,000,000 gallons of oil. 50,000 tons of water is ~12,000,000 gallons. One super tanker could carry all the water on site plus and also receive all new water pumped into the reactors for the next 1332 days. No, I don't need the plausibility of this explained to me; this is an attempt to provide some scale to the problem.
Yay for urgency. Fresh water is finally being hauled in by the US navy as well ... about two weeks after they ran out of coolant inventory.
Will there be a reckoning for this foot dragging? No one responsible for Fukushima has acted with anything like the urgency we should expect of companies and governments that operate these reactors.
Hardened robots mean we may soon learn how much spent fuel got lofted by the fires. Brace yourself; every power reactor incident in history has surprised the engineers when they finally got eyeballs on the problem. Credible and well meaning people denied major core melt at TMI-2 for six years until the first camera was lowered into the RPV.
TEPCO officially announced they're scrapping reactors 1 through 4. This is a formality really; recovering those reactors is not feasible. The important thing to notice is that this omits 5 and 6. Those reactors will be put on-line again, just like TMI-1 and Chernobyl 1, 2, and 3. They know, however, that it is much too early to float that balloon.
I am a nuclear advocate. I just don't defend incompetence, poor judgment or neglect. There just isn't any room for it if you're going to burn matter and expect the trust of the people that grant you the liberty.
They held onto that as a last resort
As they should have, whether they wanted to save the reactors or not. With any part of the normal cooling system functioning the operators can avoid venting contaminated steam. Use of sea water commits the operators to the potential destruction of that equipment.
When that didn't work out and it was clear that they had absolutely no other option, TEPCO began pumping seawater in
If they had resorted to seawater injection/venting before failing to recover the normal cooling system they would have been rightly accused of abject incompetence. Normal cooling would halt fuel damage, maintain coolant inventory and avoid venting to the atmosphere. All good things whether you want to save the reactors or not.
There may be evidence somewhere of your accusations, but not immediately resorting to seawater injection isn't it. Indulging nonsense that neatly confirms your preconceptions is fun though, so enjoy yourself.
There are immediately several posts expressing scepticism about this story. You people need to set that instinct aside for a moment. I am not an anti-nuke hysteric. Allow me the benefit of the doubt.
Recent reports from Japan are trending towards large amounts of contamination. Levels of Caesium and Iodine in the sea are very high. Soil samples are turning up large amounts of contamination. Tokyo tap water (200 km away) is contaminated. Vegetables in Hong Kong are accumulating Caesium that exceed limits. I have been monitoring Kyodo and NHK news and the degree of contamination being reported is disturbing.
Today's events include severe radiation burns on two workers, acknowledgement of containment failure in No.3 (MOX reactor,) an increase of the evacuation radius from 20 to 30 km and an order to greatly increase radiation monitoring at the site. Unexplained bursts of various gases have been forcing worker evacuations throughout the week. Fukushima didn't end when the news cycle cut over to Libya.
Fukushima has been releasing vapour directly into the atmosphere from reactor pressure vessels in which fuel damage has occurred. There is no precedent for that procedure in the history of nuclear technology, there has been no opportunity to directly measure the contamination of these releases, so there is no credible information on the actual amount of contamination being released from these vessels. There is no credible information on the amount of spent fuel that was lofted by the spent fuel pool fires. There is no accounting of the amount of contamination flowing off the site due to the use of water cannons.
DO NOT discount reports of contamination. DO NOT dismiss out of hand comparisons of Fukushima with Chernobyl.
I can't find a way to sugar coat that. Sorry.
The thing that *does* worry me is the fact that our plants are ~40 years old.
I'll give you something to worry about: Power uprates. This is where a utility gets the NRC to approve operation of a plant above its design power level. 105%. 115%. One day a 40 year old uprated reactor is going to fracture a main steam line and blow-down into containment. Zero pressure. The LPCI better kick in as designed because nothing else will save it.
but there was so much bitching and other bullshit
That, ultimately, is the real problem in the US. The little enthusiasm a utility might have to replace an old facility is utterly overwhelmed by the legal tar-pit that must be forded to accomplish anything. The somewhat greater desire to expand existing plants or even create a new plant is also legally infeasible. Tying up billions in capital for years on an uncertain outcome is financially infeasible; much easier and more profitable to take that money to Asia. The US can rot in its legal morass; money doesn't care.
This is a matter of political will; stimulus projects have exemptions from "environmental review." Border fence construction enjoyed that as well. When either the left or the right wants to stop muddling around and accomplish something they can make it so. They know exactly what the problem is and they know exactly how to fix it.
They just don't want to.
At least for some of us. No matter what obstacle emerges it will still get made. The Hobbit is probably worth more than $2 billion. Tolkiens, unions, ulcers, whatever; ultimately the various and sundry stake holders want their cut and for that to happen it must appear in the theater, and they all know it.
the only way you take and hold ground is by virtue of putting a man on that ground with a rifle
The ground forces are already there. When they aren't being strafed by aircraft or overrun by tanks they do pretty well (except for the part where they waste all their ammo every time they're near a camera.)
Libya will be a turkey shoot. It is difficult to imagine a more ideal theater for air power. Almost everything of significance in Libya is clustered easy sortie range of the coast. The weather is usually dry and clear. The nations that will attack have been honing their air-to-ground capabilities for decades in various conflicts under nearly identical conditions. The equipment, training and organization are all optimally prepared for exactly this. The Mediterranean is easily navigated by carriers and Libyan targets are easily in range of European air bases, so the full weight of both naval and land based air power are at hand. Libya doesn't have anything within twenty years of what they might need to even worry the UN forces. If the UN forces do suffer any casualties they will be mid-air collisions.
The UN didn't authorize a just no-fly zone. They authorized the use of "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya. It is now a no-tank zone, a no-bunker zone and a no-man-with-gun zone. Anything hostile that isn't buried in a camouflaged hole will be a smoking crater.
Expect Gaddafi to pull some underhanded tricks. During his career he had civilian aircraft bombed and mined the Mediterranean, among other things. Doubtless he'll have the wells set on fire. That will seriously upset the enviros, at which point so the UN will take off the gloves and Libya will become a no-palace zone as well.
The best part is than soon only historians will ever again have to be concerned with the spelling of his name.
The global nuclear industry is effectively dead as of now.
The global nuclear industry will be fine. China is building about 10 reactors a year. They have already stated that their plans will continue apace despite Fukushima. They are even working on a pebble bed research reactor. China is not ruled by hysterical malcontents. Neither is Turkey. Brazil is building plants as well.
As the 'first world' embraces its self induced energy poverty, emerging economies are building plentiful energy supplies. Walmart's 'low-low' price supply chain is assured.
Fukushima Dai-ichi No.1, the reactor inside the building that blew up March 12, was part of the power supply that made Japan what it is today. It has been generating power for 40 years and essentially every Japanese car you see on the road today has some Fukushima Dai-ichi No.1 in it. For the same reason there hasn't been any looting or riots in Japan since the quake/tsunami, I suspect Japan may also fail to abandon nuclear power as the pundits universally prescribe for the rest of the first world. If so then Japan will provide at least one instance of a liberal democracy that is also not ruled by hysteria.
It is not clear when and why it died.
This BBC story says TEPCO is blaming the #2 fuel exposure to several different problems including a fire pump running out of fuel, 4 out of 5 fire pumps being damaged by the #3 explosion and the 'accidental' operation of an 'air flow valve.'
These reactors scrammed over two days ago. At some point the generation of decay heat will be low enough to stop damaging fuel. Meanwhile TEPCO has discovered an easy method of dealing with hydrogen accumulation; they just wait for it to burn and blow up whatever part of the reactor building it accumulates in. This means we'll be spared the post meltdown hydrogen bubble drama experienced at TMI-2.
Fukushima Dai-ichi No.1 Reactor does not have a concrete containment dome. This reactor was built before the now familiar reinforced concrete dome became mandatory for most reactors. Instead, the reactor has a much smaller steel containment vessel around the reactor vessel.
Can't say about the No.2 reactor.
Let China know about that. Doubtless they'll halt their immense reactor program immediately.
Hydrogen burn isn't a very energetic event, which is why the Reactor Building framework is still intact. This means the Reactor Vessel is still intact and bolted upright to the floor with the damaged core inside. The RV and the steel containment around it is a very robust container, much stronger than the framework of the building.
All cooling apparatus is gone. If the detonation didn't disable it the fire will. So total core melt is almost certain.
TMI-2 melted 50% of the core which pooled at the bottom of the RV. The RV did not rupture despite the intense heat. It is possible this RV may also not rupture, especially if any cooling can be applied to the outer surface. If so then widespread intense contamination may be avoided.
If the RV does rupture then we'll have molten corium pooling on the concrete floor uncovered before God and everyone. All bets are off at that point.
FYI the reactor is a GE Mark I BWR with steel containment. Details here(PDF). A very old, before-mandatory-concrete-containment-dome system.
It will take the media and Japan a while to circle around to what caused the explosion, so I'll explain it now.
The explosion you see in the videos aligns perfectly with the Fukushima Daiichi No.1 reactor building seen here (forth square building from the left.)
The BBC has provided this incredible before/after photo where you can actually see the reactor building structure with the walls removed by the explosion: the metal framework is still intact.
The exact same thing happened with TMI-2 in 1979. The hydrogen burn occurred inside the containment dome. The Fukushima reactor doesn't have such a dome, so the hydrogen accumulated in the reactor building.
We relay (sic) on Technology to [do?] the thinking way to (sic) much these days. GPS is just another way to not take person (sic) responsibly (sic).
Grammar checkers are just another way to not take responsibility for our engrish.
micro-games with abysmal graphics
Webgl is real and works today in the latest browsers. Go here (with Chrome 9 or FF4 and a real GPU) to see it right now.
developing for a web browser would [not] be more advantageous
In terms of performance, browsers already provide an environment that has parity with the best stand-alone dynamic languages. Both HTML5 canvas and Webgl are sufficient to solve the rendering problem for a broad class of games. These tools are standards based and free. If you've ever earned a living making games you can't miss the potential.
Large investments into browser development are coming from several competing organizations. Don't be surprised if browsers become superior to traditional techniques.