[ExI] Two Japanese reactors on red alert

Keith Henson hkeithhenson at gmail.com
Mon Mar 14 03:32:12 UTC 2011


> http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

"Within the 8 hours, another power source had to be found and
connected to the power plant. The power grid was down due to the
earthquake. The diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami. So
mobile diesel generators were trucked in.

"This is where things started to go seriously wrong. The external
power generators could not be connected to the power plant (the plugs
did not fit). So after the batteries ran out, the residual heat could
not be carried away any more.

Not knowing what they actually had perhaps I am being harsh on this,
but an crew of Americans would have taken the plugs off and spliced
the wires.  There are significant cultural differences between the two
societies.

It has been ages since I read the story, but as I understand it, the
reason the fire at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browns_Ferry_Nuclear_Power_Plant didn't
cause a melt down was because a guy with a broomstick kept a pump
motor relay closed with a broom handle while standing in smoke from
burning wires.

(The fire in a wiring bundle had shorted the relay control wires,
causing the operators to lose control over the relay and the cooling
water pump.)

Keith



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