I see all these petitions online... all these people screaming that the world needs to step in at the Fukishima plant... A nuclear disaster of unprecedented proportions... and we need to step in to speed it up... because they aren't dealing with it fast enough.
Bullshit.
No... really... bullshit...
Okay... you insist... So... since you are smarter than everyone else... tell me... What will the world community do differently? Honestly? All these people signing a petition to do something, when they have no idea what the issues are...
I can tell you this... The world governments wouldn't and can't do anything differently...
Let's look at where we stand... we have a damaged reactor that experienced a partial melt down.
How do you deal with that...I know it... but do you? There are a great many things you have to take into account.
1) Everything you know about radiation is wrong. Wearing a lead lined suit will only protect you from very small doses of radiation... High energy radiation will hit the lead shielding and decay... into other, lower forms of radiation... The number No.1 Reactor is measuring 11.1 Sieverts an hour... that level of radiation will kill you in LESS than an hour. No. 2 is at 72 sieverts... That will kill you in minutes... No radiation protection that can survive that is maneuverable enough to do any work in there.
2) The first step to taking care of a meltdown is to COOL IT DOWN. It's called a meltdown because the nuclear pile has overheated and started to melt. The control systems of a reactor use graphite to stop the radioactive particles from colliding with the fuel rods. When the reaction slows down, the pile cools down. The failure at Fukishima prevents us from doing this. The nuclear pile overheated and melted... it cannot be placed within graphite because it melted. The fuel MELTED... So... What they have to do is get it cooled down before work can begin. This all started in March, right? It's October now... In 15 days, it will be 6 months... As you know, they have been pumping water into the containment vessels... fresh, cold water... On October 11th, they got cameras into the vessels and the water is still STEAMING. That means it's HOT. Watch the video below... That is a lot of steam.
So... Now, we not only have to deal with high energy radiation burns inside and out, now we have to deal with them being boiled alive as well.
3) Tell me. How do you get in there, work on these things and take care of the situation. Seriously... Tell me how... Robots, right? Absolutely... So... Where are our robots? The specially designed Nuclear Meltdown Robots we've had for years... Oh, right... we don't have any... So... Here we are, we need robots to take care of this. There are two types of robots - tethered and radio control. Tethered robots have a cable line that keeps them attached to the controller. Considering the nature of the reactor and complexity of the machinery surrounding everything, a tethered robot is unfeasible... The chances of getting the tether, tangled, caught or damaged make this a bad idea. So... radio controlled, right? Radio waves are a kind of radiation. The containment vessel in a reactor is designed to... well... block radiation... Add that to the fact that the radiation from the fuel rods will interfere with signals...
Another complication to this is that robots are not built quickly... It take years to properly build, test, beta test, and work out the kinks of a robotic system. But we need these robots NOW, right? Wrong... We can't begin work on the melted fuel until it cools down. We can't... don't say we can... don't say we should... Without the fuel being cooled first, work on this will result in a worse disaster than we have now... we need a tried and true system... The machine needs to be perfected, and we have time... I would rather have an untested robot perform dental surgery than work on the meltdown...
It's not ideal, but it is necessary...
Honestly... They are doing what they can and what needs to be done... They are handling the cleanup effort in the proper manner... When dealing with this kind of thing, you HAVE to move slowly... That is the nature of radiation... It has to decay... We have NO WAY TO GET IN THERE AND TAKE CARE OF IT FOR NOW...
Tepco is planning, and their plan is sound... And their time table is sound as well... The world governments stepping in to handle it will do NOTHING except make it worse... Especially since we would be interfering with Japan's sovereignty.It is a major disaster, yes... but you don't understand the technical, scientific, and engineering issues... So... STOP. Stop signing petitions... Stop telling people that they need to step in and do something... Unless you are willing to go do the work in boiling, horribly radioactive water... Stop.
The only real option that I can come up with is to send in Chuck Norris... with a snorkel and machete.
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