Japan Hit By Tsunami

[Me Haha]

Mt Fuji erupted, if it gets worse most of the water will turn into rock anyway =D

Uhhh... It was not Mount Fuji. It was the Shinmoedake Volcano that erupted.

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

Uhhh... It was not Mount Fuji. It was the Shinmoedake Volcano that erupted.

i was unaware that there was more then one volcano in japan.
+ 1 ::

[Me Haha]

i was unaware that there was more then one volcano in japan.
+ 1 ::

Well, Japan kinda lives on to the Ring of Fire last time I checked. >.>
Gah! Why do I feel like I was being rude by correcting you?

[acolyte_to_jippity]

Well, Japan kinda lives on to the Ring of Fire last time I checked. >.>
Gah! Why do I feel like I was being rude by correcting you?

because it is not socially acceptable to make fun of mentally challenged kids

[Nemesis]

because it is not socially acceptable to make fun of mentally challenged kids

fuck really? I've been going about all this wrong....

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

Well, Japan kinda lives on to the Ring of Fire last time I checked. >.>
Gah! Why do I feel like I was being rude by correcting you?

you were not being rude, i am aware japan lies on the ring of fire, so do several other places in the world.

What sets japan apart from others on the ring of fire is that it meets at a tripod of tectonic plates. The Pacific Plate, The Philippine sea plate, and Eurasian plate

because it is not socially acceptable to make fun of mentally challenged kids

yet i do this every day in Zm.

[dice]

I still don't understand what exactly is happening at the power plants. I have a cursory understanding on how they work, but here we have explosions and people aren't exactly freaking out... and these things have been pretty much off since what saturday? Wouldn't they have the control rods balls deep in those reactors within minutes of the quake? Why are they still hot?

[maynard]

i was unaware that there was more then one volcano in japan.

i am aware japan lies on the ring of fire

lol....


anyway yeah, on the news they were saying that it could end up being like the next chernobyl.... not cool.

[Steamer]

I still don't understand what exactly is happening at the power plants. I have a cursory understanding on how they work, but here we have explosions and people aren't exactly freaking out... and these things have been pretty much off since what saturday? Wouldn't they have the control rods balls deep in those reactors within minutes of the quake? Why are they still hot?

The control rods stop the fission reaction. You still have the radioactive decay to cool no matter what. Once fission is stopped this reactor still roughly produces 5%? production from radioactive decay. This reactor is ancient in this day and age.

[acolyte_to_jippity]

The control rods stop the fission reaction. You still have the radioactive decay to cool no matter what. Once fission is stopped this reactor still roughly produces 5%? production from radioactive decay. This reactor is ancient in this day and age.

this

bsically, we don't get electricity from radiation. the way it works is that the fuel undergoes fission, which produces heat. lots, and LOTS of heat. this heat is high enough to cause the metal caseing of the core to spontaneously combust, BUT there are pipes of coolant flowing all through the core. this coolant absorbs the heat, and becomes super hot. the coolant pipes lead out from the core and water (plain water) is exposed to these now super hot pipes. that makes steam, which turns turbines.

the control rods only absorb radioactive particles, so they stop the fission. BUT it's still hot as fuck. a SCRAM (term used for emergency shutdown of a reactor) doesn't cool it immediately, it simply halts the production of radioactive shit. After all, to take something as hot as a reactor core and cool it down in a short time, even a whole day would cause the entire unit to explode (hot suddenly cold = shatter)

tl;dr the news media is blowing this out of proportion. they've been pumping seawater in to maintain core integrity. it's fine