News Article: Japanese utility makes first contact with melted Fukushima fuel

NationalTitles18

TideFans Legend
May 25, 2003
29,635
34,732
362
Mountainous Northern California
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...b4EytWFSPj0scWXwKVU-MVxDJ7CFu3ANWWh5_1jr-8fdI

Eight years later, TEPCO is making slow but steady progress toward decommissioning the three damaged reactors. The mission to touch the melted nuclear fuel with a remote-controlled probe aimed to find out how solid the melted fuel is and whether it could be transported away from the site. This was the first time that field crews had been able to use any device to physically interact with the fuel since the reactor meltdown.
What a mess. The design and placement of this plant was a disaster waiting to happen.
 

Tidewater

Hall of Fame
Mar 15, 2003
22,401
13,177
287
Hooterville, Vir.
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...b4EytWFSPj0scWXwKVU-MVxDJ7CFu3ANWWh5_1jr-8fdI

What a mess. The design and placement of this plant was a disaster waiting to happen.
I think Tepco is figuring that out.
A German friend shared a German proverb with me: "Wer billig kauft, kauft zweimal." (Who buys cheap, buys twice.)
Go to 3:33.
I don't think I'd worry about strengthening that much. After all, they're not meant to be luxury flats."
"Yes, provided our tenants are of light build and relatively sedentary, and, given a spot of good weather, we should be able to pull through."
This seems to have been the thinking among the architects who designed Fukushima.
 
Last edited:

NationalTitles18

TideFans Legend
May 25, 2003
29,635
34,732
362
Mountainous Northern California
I think Tepco is figuring that out.
A German friend shared a German proverb with me: "Wer billig kauft, kauft zweimal." (Who buys cheap, buys twice.)
Go to 3:33.
I don't think I'd worry about strengthening that much. After all, they're not meant to be luxury flats."
"Yes, provided our tenants are of light build and relatively sedentary, and, given a spot of good weather, we should be able to pull through."
This seems to have been the thinking among the architects who designed Fukushima.
I would think this design falls to engineers and the big wigs.
 

Tidewater

Hall of Fame
Mar 15, 2003
22,401
13,177
287
Hooterville, Vir.
I would think this design falls to engineers and the big wigs.
You are, of course, correct. Whoever decided to build a nuclear power plant on the coastal plane on the shores of the largest ocean on the planet, an ocean with a long tradition of tsunamis, those guys. "We could save a few yen if we don't strengthen the containment that much, after all, we aren't building a luxury nuclear reactor. If the Pacific Ocean stops having tsunamis and there is never another earthquake along the Ring of Fire, we should be able to pull through."
 

NationalTitles18

TideFans Legend
May 25, 2003
29,635
34,732
362
Mountainous Northern California
You are, of course, correct. Whoever decided to build a nuclear power plant on the coastal plane on the shores of the largest ocean on the planet, an ocean with a long tradition of tsunamis, those guys. "We could save a few yen if we don't strengthen the containment that much, after all, we aren't building a luxury nuclear reactor. If the Pacific Ocean stops having tsunamis and there is never another earthquake along the Ring of Fire, we should be able to pull through."
"Oh yeah! And let's make sure the design is without a failsafe if the worst scenario happens!"
 

cbi1972

Hall of Fame
Nov 8, 2005
18,139
1,295
182
51
Birmingham, AL
You are, of course, correct. Whoever decided to build a nuclear power plant on the coastal plane on the shores of the largest ocean on the planet, an ocean with a long tradition of tsunamis, those guys. "We could save a few yen if we don't strengthen the containment that much, after all, we aren't building a luxury nuclear reactor. If the Pacific Ocean stops having tsunamis and there is never another earthquake along the Ring of Fire, we should be able to pull through."
Japanese cultural traits 'at heart of Fukushima disaster'

In his combative preface to the report, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a medical doctor and professor emeritus at Tokyo University, said the crisis was the result of "a multitude of errors and willful negligence", by the government, safety officials and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco].

But behind the safety missteps and lack of readiness for a tsunami in a region known for powerful earthquakes, are cultural traits that ensured the disaster was "made in Japan", Kurokawa said.

"Its fundamental causes," he wrote, "are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to 'sticking with the programme'; our groupism; and our insularity.

"What must be admitted – very painfully – is that this was a disaster 'Made in Japan'.
 

Tidewater

Hall of Fame
Mar 15, 2003
22,401
13,177
287
Hooterville, Vir.
"Oh yeah! And let's make sure the design is without a failsafe if the worst scenario happens!"
Forever, Japanese pop culture has retained a thread of blaming the United States for radioactive poisoning in the Pacific (think Godzilla films).
I wonder if Fukushima will now replace the US boogeyman in Japanese pop culture. They have been pumping radioactivity not the Pacific for years now.
 

New Posts

Latest threads

TideFans.shop : 2024 Madness!

TideFans.shop - Get YOUR Bama Gear HERE!”></a>
<br />

<!--/ END TideFans.shop & item link \-->
<p style= Purchases made through our TideFans.shop and Amazon.com links may result in a commission being paid to TideFans.