HFat wrote:
dhanson865 wrote:
At Chernobyl there was only one reactor that was breached. At Fukushima we have 6 to worry about (notice the spent fuel pools are an issue at all 6).
At Chernobyl a reactor *blew up*, apparently due to a nuclear explosion. Unless something unexpected happened recently, at Fukushima *no* reactors have sustained such an incident or such damage. The number of reactors affected by an incident in no way determines its seriousness and the radiation levels are totally different so far.
What's happening is obviously worse than TMI but Chernobyl is in a completely different league.
Please avoid lurid speculation. If you somehow have factual information about the risk of an explosion blowing away the containment or something, the post it. Otherwise it's irresponsible to spread baseless rumors with so many lives at stake.
Chernobyl may have had a small "Nuclear Explosion" but the majority of the problem even there was conventional explosions and fire.
The explosions and fire that have already happened at Fukushima are similar in nature to what happened at Chernobyl and the powers that be have already submitted a request to reclassify this ongoing event a level 7 (the same level as Chernobyl).
I'm not spreading baseless rumors. I'm stating facts. If you are confused by the terminology I can link to articles to explain them to you. For now I'll just quote a small portion to hopefully clear a little up for you.
Chernobyl wrote:
There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air, causing them to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area
Nuclear Explosion wrote:
A nuclear explosion occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from an intentionally high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two.
Atmospheric nuclear explosions are associated with mushroom clouds, although mushroom clouds can occur with large chemical explosions, and it is possible to have an air-burst nuclear explosion without these clouds. Nuclear explosions produce radiation and radioactive debris.
Level 7 request wrote:
Google Translate's version:
Yamada Tetsurou WASHINGTON - U.S. civilian agencies, Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) on April 15, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established by the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) 6 level presented the view that 7 or equivalent.
The institute "can no longer be viewed as a level four," he said. "Near the level 6, level 7 may reach" are trying to. In the past, nuclear accident, Chernobyl level seven former Soviet Union's worst, from the Three Mile Island accident was the U.S. level 5.
Yahoo's Babel Fish:
The American civil organization, the scientific international security laboratory (ISIS) announced opinion that in level it is suitable 6 or 7 with the international atomic energy phenomenon appraisal scale (INES) where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decides on the 15th, concerning the accident of the Fukushima first nuclear plant. As for the same laboratory “it cannot already see as level 4,” that it points out. “To be close to level 6, perhaps, it reaches to level 7,” that it has done. In the past nuclear accident, the worst old Soviet in history & Chernobyl nuclear accident was level 7, as for American Three Mile Island nuclear accident level 5. (2011 March 16th 09:56 Yomiuri Shimbun Company)
Considering I already provided links to articles on The Oil Drum with plenty of documentation I thought you might actually try and read some of it before saying I'm making stuff up but if you want to be petty I won't be documenting every little detail for you in this thread. You will have to do some reading on your own or I'll just ignore your posts when I'm too busy to reply and educate you.