Fuji and the earthquake

[M.A.Longmore]

Or build it in a rural, mostly low-income area. That's the reason.

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That's explains everything !

Ron
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[LunoLuno]

It is said that Fuji is making their films in Fujinomiya plant in Shizuoka prefecture, which is located about 100km west from their Ashigara plant in Kanagawa prefecture, and the impact of the earthquake itself was subtle in Shizuoka. People here say we don't have to worry about film supply if we use only 135, but it is said that the company which make back papers for larger format got damaged on their plant and there might be some infuluence in the near future.

Luno@Kanagawa

[cmacd123]

How they could put a nuclear plant in an area near such an active fault and in a tsunami zone amazes me.

Where in Japan is not near an active fault? The only place clear of Tsunami is probably on the slope of a volcano.

[2F/2F]

Water-cooled (i.e. most) nuclear power plants have to be near a large body of water, and there really isn't anywhere in Japan that is beyond the reach of a major earthquake. I am just surprised that backup generators were located low enough that they could get flooded. Apparently the plant was designed to withstand only a 20 foot tsunami, or something like that. The wave that hit was over double that in height. Who was it who decided that a 50 foot tsunami was so improbable that the trouble and cost involved in building a better tsunami wall and placing backup generators high off the ground was not worth it? Those are the people who should be sent into the radiation field to fix the thing. Was it really worth losing the plant entirely and creating all this contamination and exposure to plant workers to be cheap and gamble with mother nature?

I also cannot believe that there was not a powerless emergency cooling system that works by convection. Having to rely on electricity for emergency cooling is a bonehead design move. It seems like this plant was disastrously under-engineered.

[CGW]

What's it like to work in Japan's nuclear industry? Dangerous. Read on:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/wo...workers&st=cse

[hrst]

I am just surprised that backup generators were located low enough that they could get flooded.

Agree. It was clearly the greatest single design mistake. However, as it seems now, even after getting power back, the cooling systems are damaged too, probably in the tsunami, so maybe it wouldn't have helped even if the generators were on the upper grounds.

I also cannot believe that there was not a powerless emergency cooling system that works by convection.

There was but it failed. It worked for some time before failing, but it is still a bit unclear to me whether it failed because the 8-hour battery power ran out or was it going to fail anyway.

As said, this is clearly the most complex nuclear accident ever.

[cmacd123]

electricity[/I] for emergency cooling is a bonehead design move.

Recall that it was built 40 years ago, and ideas about needed safety features are always being updated. My understanding is that newer plants do have a convection cooling system.

The location of the generators was probably influenced by the largest PREVIOUS such incident. This one was larger than they anticipated.

[michaelbsc]

Recall that it was built 40 years ago, and ideas about needed safety features are always being updated.

Built 40 years ago means designed 50 years ago.

[hrst]

My understanding is that newer plants do have a convection cooling system.

As said, there was such a system there, too.

AFAIK it works only as long as water in torus is still water. After a certain amount of heat generated, it stops working, so it cannot remove all of the heat. In addition, it needs some control battery power. Newer systems may have a better convection cooling that work longer, or may not, but in any case, there was a convection cooling system present.

[holmburgers]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/wo...s.html?_r=1&hp

Interesting bit of Tsunami history