Japan, what else..

Nuclear power... The only thing that comes to my mind reading about the latest happenings at the Fukushima reactor are the words of Shakespeare from the Hamlet; ‘To be or not to be, that is the question.’

After the series of incidents that have taken place at Japan’s nuclear reactor, the world is starting to debate on the act that is world a better place with nuclear reactors in it, or should we completely stop and focus our energy to solar and wind power for fulfilling our energy demands and reducing our dependency on coal.

I am a believer in nuclear energy; I feel that nuclear energy is a very important and good source of energy as it provides constant energy for a long time with one time constructional expenses. Also if used properly, and with the coming technology, I believe that soon a time will come in which we will be generating nuclear energy in many cycles from the same reactor. What I mean to say is that is like plutonium reactors consume plutonium and the end product after fission is uranium, which is enriched and again used as a fuel. So what I believe is that soon, there would be a time when we would have one nuclear reaction generating an end product which would be fissile and then that would generate another fissile product, and this cycle would continue for a couple of times, making  a nuclear reactor a really long source of energy, making it cheap and useful.

About the present situation at Japan, I recently came across a great article, which offered several insights on what actually happened and is going on in the Japan reactor.

At the onset, I would like to apologize for my last post on this topic, in which I had asked the question that why was the Japanese reactor not shut down immediately when the earthquake struck, criticizing indirectly, or perhaps even directly, the Japanese government and the nuclear agency. I would like to apologize, because the latest facts which have come to my knowledge suggest that the reactor was shut down, immediately when the earthquake struck. Now I will mention some important parts of the process which took place and what exactly happened.

In a crisis, reactors automatically shut down. Control rods are inserted between fuel rods to prevent further reactions. But they're all still very hot and emanating heat. This is exactly what happened at Japan. The reactors were shut down, but even after the shut down, the reactor needs to be continuously cooled — and that is done by using water, draining out the steam, putting fresh water, etc. This process needs some power, which wasn't there with Japan's electricity gone due to the Tsunami reaction, and the limited capacity of backup generators. The process is now being carried out by supplying water from the ocean and even that is steaming up so fast that water levels are dangerously low.

Three explosions have since occurred at the plant, attributed to hydrogen reacting with air; hydrogen is produced when the fuel rod cladding reacts with water. That is not a bad sign if there is no breach of the primary containment vessel inside which the reactor is housed. (The secondary, or external, containment structure is designed to burst on high pressure, to protect the primary or inner shell) Reports about the damage to the internal vessel housing the fuel rods, everyone I hear from is postulating his own theory with no concrete evidence or facts from the government.

Additionally, steam has to be continually released into the atmosphere to relieve the unit of some pressure. In the early part, this steam was "clean" — radioactive elements were within limits. Now, with the damage, exposure of fuel rods to air and explosions, even steam release is turning out to be dangerous. Helicopters and measurements outside the main zone have detected higher-than-safe levels of radiation. Japanese authorities have requested people living 20 to 30 kilometres away from the plant to stay indoors, close windows and use no air conditioning.

The danger now is of a complete meltdown and a breach of the containment vessels. The Japanese government has admitted this is a possibility and evacuations around the plants are on. If this happens, this would affect the world is a very grave way. The research on nuclear reactors would seize and there would be no progress in this field which requires progress more than anything, because with the technology right now, it is not safe and it produces highly radioactive products on completion which cannot be disposed off at all. So all this research would stop for the next decade at least which would push us back in this field, adding to the fact that we are already lagging behind in this sector. Also it would raise serious debates on the construction of new nuclear reactors. US have not constructed a new reactor after the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. So there is a large possibility that this would happen in Japan which presently has 54 functional reactors and derives 25% of its energy from nuclear power. Losing one nuclear reactor or even a couple would not be a big deal, but if the public demands that all the reactors be shut down, that would be a grave problem for Japan, and following suit, several other countries which depend on nuclear power.

I shall collect some more info on this topic and will write on it soon again. Also there is going to be a post soon, coming up on the ‘Super moon’ scare...

 Ciao...