Signs of the Impending Apocalypse

[Mister Andersen]

I suggest taking it with a large chunk of salt -- although there is a webpage for the alleged provider of the image that dates back to 2001, this image can't be found on it -- but this has started doing the rounds in the last few hours:

[Krensky]

A major amount salt.

Like the entire Bonniville Salt Flats.

Fallout would require an incident generating radioactive particulate material. Like the reactor core catching fire. Since it's not a graphite reactor that's not likely.

TMI was a near total meltdow. Six feet of the core melted and the people onsite received a dose equivalent to somewhere between a chest xray and a cat scan. Residents in the area got a dose just over what they would get flying from Philadelphia to LA.

Even if there was a particulate bloom, most of it would get knocked down by rain over the Pacific.

[Wolverine]

It's starting to look more and more that most of the damage has actually been caused by the tsunami's created by the wave. I've seen one spectacular shot of Tokyo skyscrapers swaying back and forth as the quake hit. The Japanese certainly know how to build.

On the other hand, there's the town of Minamisanriku...



Half of the town's 17k population are currently missing. Half. Of 17,000 people.

Bloody hell.

EDIT: There's also been a bit of a double disaster for some Japanese english language students. They were studying in Chch when the big one hit there, and some decided to return home recently, just in time for the big one there.

[foproy]

i think the earthquake is a elaborate government cover up. i mean maybe godzilla is real

[Mister Andersen]

There's also been a bit of a double disaster for some Japanese english language students. They were studying in Chch when the big one hit there, and some decided to return home recently, just in time for the big one there.

The last time I heard of something like that happening, the towns involved were Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[glimmerrat]

Fallout would require an incident generating radioactive particulate material. Like the reactor core catching fire. Since it's not a graphite reactor that's not likely.

Yeah, this. Also, the term 'meltdown' is bandied about an awful lot without the average layman understanding what it really means. I'm waiting for someone to wheel out expressions like 'china syndrome', even though its totally irrelavant to anywhere outside the mainland US.

People forget that during the experiment at Chernobyl, the safety mechanisms on the reactor like the emergency cooling mechanism were switched off. Combine that with the crappy positioning of the control rods and the presence of a graphite moderator, and the reactor was bound to run out of control. The actual damage was caused by a steam explosion that blew massive chunks of the graphite moderator out of the reactor, taking the top off and spewing irradiated steam into the air.

Modern reactors do not use a graphite moderator, and because of the positioning of the control rods the reactor simply cannot run out of control and explode in the same way. It cannot happen. Even with a bunch of untrained monkeys running the facility, even if they screw up monumentally, the control rods simply drop into the core under the weight of gravity and halt the reaction.

Trust me, this whole scenario is never going to happen.

[Nepenthe]

Still, not very pleasant to live within a stone's throw of 4 still-operational RBMK reactors.

[glimmerrat]

Still, not very pleasant to live within a stone's throw of 4 still-operational RBMK reactors.

Pesky russians... still, its not like you guys need to worry about them invading again, not after the last time they tried that. 

[Nepenthe]

Well, the only thing history has taught us is that people don't learn from history.

[Krensky]

Fallout would require an incident generating radioactive particulate material. Like the reactor core catching fire. Since it's not a graphite reactor that's not likely.

Yeah, this. Also, the term 'meltdown' is bandied about an awful lot without the average layman understanding what it really means. I'm waiting for someone to wheel out expressions like 'china syndrome', even though its totally irrelavant to anywhere outside the mainland US.

Well, meltdown is the accepted unofficial term for an incident with damage to the reactor. Properly though, it refers to a incident where the reactor core and fuel rods melt or distort in shape. A China syndrome is where the reactor core and fuel becomes so hot it melts through the reactor vessel and the containment building floor. It's never even come close to happening. Also, I suppose the equivalent term in Japan would be the US syndrome or some other place on this side of the world.

People forget that during the experiment at Chernobyl, the safety mechanisms on the reactor like the emergency cooling mechanism were switched off. Combine that with the crappy positioning of the control rods and the presence of a graphite moderator, and the reactor was bound to run out of control. The actual damage was caused by a steam explosion that blew massive chunks of the graphite moderator out of the reactor, taking the top off and spewing irradiated steam into the air.

Irradiated steam is bad. What made Chernobyl horrible was the burning radioactive graphite.

Modern reactors do not use a graphite moderator, and because of the positioning of the control rods the reactor simply cannot run out of control and explode in the same way. It cannot happen. Even with a bunch of untrained monkeys running the facility, even if they screw up monumentally, the control rods simply drop into the core under the weight of gravity and halt the reaction.

There are several modern and advanced designs using graphite moderators. None of them are, basically, a steel can filled with graphite, fuel, and water.

Also, BWR designs have the control rods inserted from the bottom, so they rely on high pressure hydraulic reserve vessels to drive the rods home if the reactor needs to be scrammed. PWR reactors can use gravity to for a scram. The trade off is that a BWR is easier to build, cheaper to maintain (no super critical water and boric acid solution under high pressure, for instance), and if something goes wrong it takes much longer for pressures that threaten the reactor to build up.

But, yeah, no Chernobyl unless things go much worse, much more quickly.

[Krensky]

Still, not very pleasant to live within a stone's throw of 4 still-operational RBMK reactors.

I live within the evacuation zone of a two BWR plant.

[OverNinja]

Got one Apocalyptic Event last night with the results of the general elections.

[Mister Andersen]

One that by all appearances has failed to materialise:

According to the Terminator clock, Skynet was due to become self-aware on the 19th April at exactly 8.11pm on the US west coast (as of posting, a bit over 14 and half hours ago)

[RusVal]

Less of a sign, and more of a sign of someone taking this seriously.

Behold, the zombie-proof house!