TSUNAMI IN JAPAN>>>> turn on the TV NOW>.

[Carnut]

I just can't get this scenario out of my mind.

4 bad guys pull up to a nuke plant in a Chevy Volt and park in Visitors parking.

One bad guy jumps out and runs to the nearest transmission line tower and plants plastic explosive around the base.

One bad guy jumps out and runs to the coolant feed line, plainly marked so a maintenance crew can find it, and sticks some plastic explosive on it.

One bad guy jumps out and puts sugar in the fuel tank of the diesel generator, or maybe not.

One bad guy jumps out and plants some plastic explosive near the diesel generator.

All 4 bad guys jump back in the Chevy Volt and silently drive of into the night while detonating the explosives and chuckling about one one less nuke plant in about 48hrs.

[wayne petty]

with the reactors spewing lethal doses of radiation ... there are 50 in there still working last i heard...  trying to restore the pumping of coolant..

they are asking for retired and older former employees as this is a terminal mission to stop the melt down..

i just had a brilliant idea..  and have called  KGO Tv in SF with it.. the assignment desk lady said its a great idea and will get to calling right now..

the idea..

san francisco has portable fire hydrants ..  light weight multiple outlet manifolds to be carried to intersections.. and additional hoses run from them...  supplied with large hoses from fireboats just off the water front...

my idea is to airlift some sections of this to supply water from either a fireboat..  or some kind of naval vessel...  as all the current crop of navel vessels are able to seal up as i understand to prevent contamination. but still be operated...


even if some machinist onboard can fab up a breach block for one of the turret guns to connect multiple fire hoses to...  to make a 5 or 6 inch water monitor...  if the barrels are not riffled..  i would imagine they are.. might work...   during the gold days here in california.. the hydraulic mining nozzles could spray water a quarter mile..   i know its a reach.. but avoiding disaster requires all kinds of ideas...

[Carps]

Again I am stunned the designers didn't have more in place than I can even think of.

I really had some faith in the Japanese Nuke Engineers....

The trouble plant was designed and built by a company Named General Electric, I don't believe they are Japanese.  

The other two plants nearby and still functioning relatively normally are Japanese designed.

[Carnut]

Heh, heh, yeah I saw those were GE nuke plants.

Still wonder how the Japanese Nuke plant buyers got dupped into buying those GE designs.

My respect for GE engineers is decreasing daily.

[river1]

i'll bet it's more of building to a price point than an engineering problem.

later jim

[Carps]

I saw an interview with the head honcho from GE yesterday (he's here oin Oz for some reason and got collared by the local media) and he mentioned that the Japanese had actually beefed up the towers and some other parts of the structures, which may explain why the thing is still standing.

[Mikej]

I live 40 miles from a nuke plant. Work 30 miles from it. Believe it or not they do upgrade it. Have security......Have it inspected. Go to training one week in six. Have emergency mangement drills with all the countys around. When you figure out how to tap the earths core or store solar energy let me know.  Mother nature has the final word on anything we can build. We are left to deal with the results.
 How are we going to power all of these electric cars? How far will an electric car go in the winter. Will it run the heater too? Seat warmer?  
 What is going on in Japan is bad. I just hope they can get a handle on it.

[Uncle Bob]

Good points all Mike.

One thing to keep in mind is that most of the problems the Japanese nuke plants are having were caused by the tsunami, not by the quake directly.  May seem like a small distinction, but when you hear the fear mongers rant against nuclear power plants, it would be useful to recall Mike's neighborhood plant.  Not much chance of a tsunami hitting Iowa.

As for worrying about terrorist attacks against nuke facilities, as Mike mentioned, security is pretty high on these plants.  Now, you municipal water system.......?

As for the battery thing being the answer to a maiden's prayer, batteries are made from raw materiasl too.  There seems to be precious little discussions of where the lithium and rare earth resources are in the world as there is about crude oil.  Those battery materials are largely in questionable third world countries too, as well as under control of the Chinese.  Ain't no free lunch out there.....

[wayne petty]

my personal counter is reading between 45 and 50 counts...

up from 20 to 25 yesterday...

T/A PUG-7a with a P-15 paddle..