The Earthquake Check In thread

[APE]

So, why can't they use liquid nitrogen to cool down the reactors? Can someone please explain?

I'm only really familiar with RMBK designs (Chernoybl) but I think I can answer the question rather well:

Grab an ice cube (0°C) and throw it onto a car engine that has been running for over an hour (or a red hot frying pan). Notice how quickly the ice cube converts into steam? Liquid nitrogen is (as I'm sure we all know) a LOT colder than 0°C and quite clearly if water is being converted to steam this quickly the reactor is a lot hotter than 100°C.

Now go outside on a day where ice has accumulated on your windshield, now throw boiling water on it. Notice how you now have a $500 repair bill to fix the cracked windshield/windscreen?

In this case the reactor was designed to be cooled solely by liquid water (from my understanding) and you can't just pipe another coolant into the same systems and expect it to either work flawlessly or work for more than a few minutes. Pipes that are just fine at 10-100°C become incredibly brittle at -150°C or colder. Same goes for everything in the plant I'd imagine to some extent. If you were to bypass it all and start filling the rooms near the reactors with the stuff you'd see an INSANE amount of expansion as it converts from a liquid to a gas and might suffocate anyone around if there isn't something to deal with that gas. I can't even begin to start thinking of what would happen to the reactor vessel itself nor the fuel rods within but I'd imagine they'd react badly to temperatures that low.

However you might be able to temporarily retrofit the place to have liquid nitrogen cool down the water that is being fed into the reactor. Having the water buffer the effects would be a very good idea. Honestly I'm not an "expert" on any of this and I'm sure the technicians out there have considered it if it was possible. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they don't have LN2 reserves on site to help just in this sort of an emergency but I don't think we will have the details on exactly how the coolant systems have failed for some time.

Here is hoping our Sendai guys are fine, just have dead communication links. :crying:

[IcarusNick]

Science 101, what happens you take a sealed pressure vessel which is extremely hot and cool it extremely fast?

[GaijinPunch]

Has anyone tried to find the Japanese members who haven't checked in yet through the Google crisis response system?

Just did. Wasn't there.
I added a page for him w/ my contact info. It shows his address (only down to the neighborhood) but I guess that doesn't matter now, right? It's like... gone.

[Cyantist]

at a guess the reactors are cooled by convection currents. Hot water turns to steam rises to the top, gets cold and returns to the bottom. more than likely these are below the reactors. Using such a cold thing as liquid nitrogen could crack the reactors and let a shit tonne of radioation.

this is all just a guess though

[Martin]

The reactors are built right next to the sea for a reason... cooling from the vast amounts of water present.

I lost communications with a friend in Sendai when her phone ran out of juice. She's in a shelter with 1000s of other people. No idea how her house is. Won't know for a while. I had to post on her facebook page because she obviously had more pressing issues, but people sat at home, the other side of the world, often forget that facebook isn't actually a real priority.

[Hawanja]

Yeah, everything here is OK. North Kyushu is supposedly bullet-proof for natural disasters. I had no idea anything happened until I started to get messages on my mobile phone from overseas.

Some of the images, especially the ones with the wall of mud moving across the ground, are shocking. I lived in LA for 6 years and I was in the Northridge quake and it was hands down the scariest moment of my life. Small quakes seem "fun" until you're in a larger one and you realize you have absolutely no control over what will happen next. Either the building will collapse or it won't and you just stand there saying to yourself, "don't collapse....don't collapse....don't collapse..." It's a feeling that I don't wish upon anyone but it looks like quite a few people in Kanto just got exposed to it. If you know what I'm talking about then future quakes, even the small ones, will give you quite a scare.

Yeah I was in the Northridge quake also (lived in Canoga Park at the time,) that one only lasted for 30-45 seconds. We get little quakes here pretty often, so at first you don't panic; But after about 5 seconds when it wasn't stopping I remember thinking this really could be it. I can't even imagine two straight minutes of earthquake a thousand times stronger, I would probably be shitting my pants in fear.

For anyone who's never been through an Earthquake, it is not a pleasant experience.

[subbie]

Wii's Disaster: Day of Crisis foretold this and I have a feeling there's going to be a Fallout game about this someday!

Irem foretold this 3 times already with it's 4th prediction due out this year. Woops

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettai_Zetsumei_Toshi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ET8i0P8Ow <-got delayed, was supose to be out back in February.


Actually I wonder if irem will shelf the game for a year now.

[Barc0de]

Irem foretold this 3 times already with it's 4th prediction due out this year. Woops

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettai_Zetsumei_Toshi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ET8i0P8Ow <-got delayed, was supose to be out back in February.


Actually I wonder if irem will shelf the game for a year now.

I guess they might. That said, I don't see any insult in making a game about being prepared for a disaster. If anything it should convey some basic survival lessons from now.

[Shakey_Jake33]

A couple of the guys I know here have actually fled the country in case the problem with the nuclear reactors gets worse. One has simply fled to Okinawa, but one has returned to Canada (and it looks like she might not be able to return unless she can get a re-entry visa before tomorrow).

Given we live in Kyoto, it feels like a bit of an over-reaction. That said, it's hard to really get a grasp of how big the danger is. Most of the English-language news media have stressed that it's not going to be another Chernobyl, and most of the Japanese language media are still focusing more on the earthquake and tsunami (understandable given the death toll) than the current problem with the nuclear reactors.

[Ground Zero]

I would leave - you only have this one life and we all know that they never tell the truth when it comes down to nuclear disaters!

[Tatsujin]

Yeah if it always would be that easy.

[Ground Zero]

I know it's not easy - especially if you really live in Japan.
But if you're a foreigner and planned to stay for only 1-2 years i would grab my things and leave the country.

[GaijinPunch]

A lot of us have families.

an_tutar
Home address: 気仙沼
Status: Someone has received information that this person is alive

Hid his name just in case.

[Tatsujin]

Has someone closers infos about the 3 hours power break they are planing. How are Tokyo and kanagawa affected from that?

[Japan-Games.com]

Anybody else see this shit?

http://media.riemurasia.net/albumit/.../794541220.jpg

Anywho back to hoping everything with the reactors turn out ok....

Wow, that's a great page! Do you have one with harsh responses from Germans? I hate Germans. Being able to have a page like that and then spreading it across internet message boards and saying, "It's no wonder everyone hates Germans" would really make my day. Failing that, one for the Chinese would suffice. I hate them as well. Err...I don't mean I hate them...I mean that I just want to educate others about Chinese people and what they're saying about the event. Education is the key.

[ave]

an_turtar is ok

A friend of his also wrote this on the google person finder page:

He made contact with his family and they wrote on his facebook to let us know that he is alive.

What a relief. Not sure if his address still exists, but the harbour of his hometown isn't exactly exposed to the sea like Sendai's bay area.

/edit
Just had a look, the entire city is destroyed just like Sendai.


More and more photos are turning up. The devastation of the tsunami is unbelievable, it looks like Hiroshima after the nuclear strike.

[Tatsujin]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/ja...eforeafter.htm

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...aftermath.html

[Tatsujin]

the just annoucing the powershut down for tomorrow monday 14th for almost whole kantou area between 9:20am ~ 1pm and 6:20pm ~ 10pm.

[GaijinPunch]

Just had a look, the entire city is destroyed just like Sendai.

Yeah, if you look on the map, he's not totally exposed (there's a peninsula in front of it) but I'm sure it didn't do shit in the long run.

[K-Panggg]

Wow, that's a great page! Do you have one with harsh responses from Germans? I hate Germans. Being able to have a page like that and then spreading it across internet message boards and saying, "It's no wonder everyone hates Germans" would really make my day. Failing that, one for the Chinese would suffice. I hate them as well. Err...I don't mean I hate them...I mean that I just want to educate others about Chinese people and what they're saying about the event. Education is the key.

That JPG you quoted is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. Japan "payed" for what happened in Pearl Harbor with Hiroshima and Nagasaki...

I haven't seen the german responses, but I'm betting they can't be much worse than that.

regarding the chinese... I hate them too...

Back on topic, how's everything going with the reactor?
Any news? I've been looking for more fresh info on it, but I haven't found a satisfactory source.

Keep us posted, and above all, LEAVE the area.. Go as further away from the reactors as possible.

That's what I would do if I were in that situation.