Bad timing to resign (Nuclear power station related)

The Tepco head choose a good time to resign, not when the plant was in a mess and they found out that the rods are a bit more exposed then what they thought and causing the authorities to evacuate more people in the 30km region near the plant, but when they announce a 1.25 trillion yen loss. Seems like he had his priorities messed up.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13465692

 

In China they all would have been killed.

 

In China the building wouldn't have been close to withstanding either the quake or the tsunami. Or is everyone's memory extremely short?

Yes, clearly they should be blamed for not causing the reactors to cool.

 

Anyone or anything is more decisive than Japanese and that's a fact. Never mind a meltdown solution, they can't even decide what space to park their car in at times !

 

A friend of mine in the US corps was sent to japan to help with clean up efforts, he lost feeling in the tips of his fingers from radiation exposure. Thanks Tepco

 

Would they have made the right decision is the question. Of course, nobody will ever know. I wouldn't particularly trust their judgement. And I've seen no proof or even claims of Japan or China suffering corruption of their building codes in these incidences. Sichuan was a poor region. The buildings were shit, plain and simple. When EQ codes are updated, buildings are not rebuilt. Old building = less stable. The buildings housing the Fukushima plants withstanded the 5th largest Earthquake on record, and were only tested up to 8.0. There was no corruption. In fact, it could have been a lot worse.

He should just sue them like everyone else will, but likely can't since assuming he's in the Marine corps, doing dangerous work is the entire job description.

As for Japanese indecisiveness, making rash decisions w/o everything assessed isn't how I like my reactors handled. I'm not saying they've done a great job, but even with hindsight the only thing they clearly fisted everyone on was releasing of information. Averting a meltdown is, apparently not the easiest thing to do. If you think the US would've acted any more decisively, pull your head out of your ass and remember what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Can't comment on the other miscellaneous countries.

 

Don't forget that those reactors are amongst the oldest in the country, and were due to be decommissioned shortly.

I'd also like to point out that though the first week or two, Tepco were not very forthcoming with information and had a bit of a FUBAR event, they are almost daily publicing progress (or lack thereof) and are almost completely transparent in their actions.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing, but I wouldn't think the UK, USA and especially China would have sorted this crisis out any quicker than the Japanese have.

Speaking of Katrina, how is the area now? Last I heard it was still festering shit-tip. Top Gear went there around 5 years afterwards, and it was as if the hurricane had hit the week prior to their visit.

 

the latest news ive seen on gawker was that it was the quake that destroyed the reactors and the tsunami only compounded things

china would of likely handled this just like the Russians did with Chernobyl
in 6 days with a containment building

while this may be at level 7 it certainly isn't a Chernobyl

the evacuation zone needs to be all the way to Tokyo
not this 50 mile bull shit

sucks to be the tepco guy that resigned hes gonna get sued in 5-10 years when the courts are done with this

 

The quake caused the reactors to shut down (exactly what it's supposed to do). The tsunami flooded and subsequently destroyed the cooling systems (only) which is the issue.

Some people would consider that "back to normal".

Why? (and it's 30k, not 50 miles). I guess you're oblivious to the economic impact the current one is having, and it goes up exponentially per foot once it hits Kantou. The readings in the outter parts of the evacuation zone are still minimal at worst.

 

How is the future for nuclear power looking? Alot of people say it is dangerous because of this case and that we should find another alternative, only Hydro power, wind power etc, needs huge farms just to power one city.

Nuclear power is the way forward in areas where there are no fault lines or plate borders so places like Los Angeles are way out the question? The solution? wind/hydro power there.

 

Crystal balls don't work. However, buildings get better, generators get better, and Earthquake detection and prevention gets better. We live and go on. There is no substitute with the same cost effectiveness as nuclear. It's not going anywhere any time soon.

 

Time to wake up and get rid of the Nuclear Power plants. Whatever board made the decision that Nuclear Power is the next best power source are stupid and lack common sense. They should all be fired and put to work trying to fix all of the ones that have had meltdowns.

Sure it's clean energy when everything is fine and dandy, but break something and you pollute a quarter of the word with radiation. Why create something that can cause hundreds of years damage for benefit only here and now. That is foolish.

GaijinPunch, is money more valuable than a life? In today's world, it unfortunately is. I know in the old days construction companies even had allowances for causalities depending on how much the project cost. Which is absolutely moral filth. Luckily they now have safety polices which make them look like the good guys.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nuclear Plants are terrorist targets. The potential damage they could cause would surpass 9/11 for sure.

Money can be replaced, lives cannot. Costs should never be a factor.

 

This statement is what makes me go nuts. Used fuel rods is the most dirty waste in existence, which is dangerous to the environment for at least 1,000,000 years. Yep, that's one million years until it finally stops being harmful. And even after all the decades, there is still NO solution for safe and clean final deposition. Governments just keep throwing them into old mines and hope for nothing to happen, while in fact it's slowly leaking into our ground water. Every year TONS of additional dirty waste is being produced by the nuclear power plants around the world.

Wow, that's so very clean. :banghead:

 

Anti-nuclear people are just ignorant and reacting on emotions. The problem in Japan wasn't due to being nuclear, it was due to being EFFIN' OLD. All old plants need to be shut down and replaced with new plants that are designed better. That and putting more resources into Thorium plant design will carry us over until better sources of power are available.

 

Im quite certain that when they dispose of them they're put in thick lead boxes and buried underground (maybe in mines) atleast that's what they do with Boron control rods. - Hence its much cleaner. All that comes out of the big towers is steam.

 

Also, the quake was way worse than any they ever expected to happen (and therefore built the plants to withstand).

A few days ago Poland decided to build their first ever nucular plant, and China's still building new ones too, so for the time being it looks like my job is secure.

 

Er... how is storing the rod underground make it cleaner? All they are doing is just hiding the mess where we can't see them and hoping they'll figure out how to dispose of them in the future.

And what exactly are they going to do in say 500 years? Oh dear, the ground is full of these rods which we can't touch. Let's blame someone else...

Chilly Willy, I'm reacting on common sense that doing something for the "now" and not thinking about all the waste created after is stupid.

 

WTF? Clean up efforts where? Cleaning up fuel rods barehanded?