Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Time to put your evacuation plan together?

From what I'm reading of the Japan Times things are not looking good for them or the rest of the world. If this isn't a time for swift world action then I don't know when is. There are so many things going wrong in Japan at the moment I see no good outcome and this will affect all of us if we don't rally the best minds in the world.
Here's a thought if the details could be worked out. Pump liquid nitrogen into or near the reactor core to bring down the temperature. There is the danger of course of making the metal brittle causing it to crack but I think seeing as how the containment structure is some six inches of hardened steel it just may have a chance of working. The problem would be getting that much liquid nitrogen to the location. Maybe by ship?

According to the Times all personnel have been evacuated from the plant. It has been deemed unsafe for any workers to be in the area. Elevated levels of radiation has been recorded as far away as Tokyo 150 miles away.

So you have about 10 days depending on the weather and when a meltdown will occur to decide what you will do. Will you stay and try and ride out the fallout or head for some safer area? Anyway you look at it this will affect us all in one way or another. 750 rads is enough to give you cancer down the road. And I'm sure when the estimates from my last post were done they were a best case scenario.

7 comments:

BBC said...

By the time they could get a lot of liquid nitrogen there I think it would be too late. Best to keep trying to drown it with water.

Anyway, while I bitch about the rain here I have to remind myself that it will knock that radiation down and it won't reach us.

It's not expected to reach us anyway, South America is more likely to get it.

Those poor folks sure do have a mess over there for sure. But with three or four of their paper plants down and out the Jap owned paper mill here will go into increased production so I suppose the employees here are happy to hear that.

There's sure going to be a lot of economic opportunities after things settle down. Look at all the things they are going to have to rebuild and replace.

We'd better start cutting down more trees.

BBC said...

Trees we have, lots and lots of them, even throughout this town, it wouldn't hurt to thin them out for some money.

BBC said...

Um, hey, nitrogen condenses (liquefies) at 77 K (−195.8 °C), I don't think it would do much good to direct it at fire.

Ever poke a hole in a can of freon? I have, most of it boils off before it even hits the floor, it evaporates that fast and it's boiling point is only 25 degrees below zero.

Anyway, does that atomic fission even need air to burn? If it doesn't smothering it with nitrogen won't help a bit.

BBC said...

Our bodies are three percent nitrogen, toss all the dead body's on it, hehehehe

BBC said...

Being as I'm fucking crazy I should also point out that our body's also have a fair amount of hydrogen in them and we all know that it burns well. I guess we're just fucked.

When you get up in the morning, eat dessert first.

BBC said...

Hasn't anyone else got anything to say?

S.W. Anderson said...

First, I wonder if the amount of liquid nitrogen required is readily available over there. And if it is, as you said, how do you get it in there? The stuff's difficult and dangerous to transport and handle.

I thought last night about maybe laying a lattice, or several lattices to form a honeycomb, of steel beams on the containment structure, in hopes it would act as a big heat sink, helping to draw off and disperse some the heat. Then, as often as possible, flood the heat sink with sea water and at the same time do giant dry-ice dumps on it.

Just a thought, anyway.