leroy

Thanks for that pearl of wisdom. Makes perfect sense. Voltaire may have unknowingly spoke a "universal truth" during his dissertation on religious dogma. Keep up the good work. leroy

I think it is interesting that this guy was found not guilty so quickly in the face of the circcumstances. My take is that more and more people are getting fed up with thugs running wild and shooting in defense of property is becomming a more viable option for some folks (...those sitting on the jury...). The Knoxville metro area (...along with lots of other places...) is rapidly turning into a cesspool of thuggery. It appears that more citizens are comming to the conclusion that since the law seems powerless to punish this thuggery; folks are taking a more sober view of these situations, revolting against the pronouncements of the "court officers" (....read that prosecuting attorneys...), and giving approval to more "final" actions. Looks to me like the legal establishment (...prosecuting attorneys and the criminal court system...) needs to concentrate more on actually punishing criminal behavior; but that's just me. leroy

Great post!!! Keep up the good work. leroy

mike:______________ RE: My posts were never intended to infer that things aren't bad in Japan. No subliminal messages were encoded into my posts. My point was to try to point out that most of what is said by the "experts" in the media is pretty much baloney and hyperbole; and to give a bit of a more insightful view concerning nuclear power, radioisotope decay, etc. It was never intended to be a cheerleading exercise nor did the evil capitalists pay me to post what ive posted. There are a bunch of folks dead with homes destroyed in Japan; that is a bad thing. You do no one a service by lying to them (...or us unaffected spectators...) concerning what has happened; nuclear, tsunami, or otherwise. You owe it to them (...and us...) to tell the truth. The truth is there is Iodine 131 around in the water (...evidently....). The other truth is that it will soon go away. The second truth is that contrary to what the news media would have you believe; the guys at TEPCO did a job no one said could be done; they saved these units and their neighbors from more danger and suffering thru their actions at these plants. The third truth is that these plants survived mistreatment far above their design limits and still did the job they were designed to do. I've got far more confidence in the truth telling tendencies of the Japanese folks that are managing this situation than i do the "experts" sitting a continent away working overtime to slander the motives and abilities of folks fixing things. I'm an relatively old codger, i've got more time behind me, than ahead of me; so i may not live to see my prediction come true. But remember this; you heard it from ole leroy: "...There are no other technologically viable powersources out there other than fossil (...coal, gas, and petroleum...) and nuclear. Wind and solar power (...nor any other currently known energy technology...) is not capable of powering the energy needs of this or any other country on the face of the earth." That makes the choice pretty clear for the long-run. We will either start using more petroleum and coal to provide energy needs; we will crank up more nuclear plants using fuel reprocessed from the bomb making days, or both. The hype, hysteria, and disinformation that you hear and see comming out now RE: the japan crisis is nothing more than a bunch of over-priveleged activist and jackasses braying to advance an agenda. That agenda is a combination of anti-capitalism and anti-energy bias; and is ultimately self-destructive. Only in a land filled with prosperity could we raise up such a bunch of mislead, bratty, buffonish, uneducated children, and allow them to be viewed as responsible commentators on world events, and even make them "public servants" actually making serious public policy. A poor society simply does not have that luxury. In my view, the travesty going on in this country, europe, and australia is that there appears to be a goodly number of folks considering and even believing some of this bunk. Remember this, in spite of two serious nuclear "accidents" in the commercial nuclear power industry; there have been exactly zero (0) civilian fatalities; in spite of the dire predictions of the "wizened ones". Only a bunch of petulent, willfully ignorant, mush-headed, bratty children could be induced to believe that we ought to shut this source of power down and banish it from our inventory of energy options. It is astounding to me (...i know i'm a bit slow...) that while we see the middle east turning into a revived muslum caliphate with no interest in helping or trading with the "decadent west", we see regulators here in this country stopping domestic oil production thru bureaucratic shennanigans, and trying to finish off the coal industry; we would actually consider shutting down the last viable means of energy production we have. It is almost like "providential blindness" and the "lemmings jumping into the sea" to me. I aint seeking to pick a spitting contest with you are anyone else here. I'm simply sayin that sooner or later some adults are going to have to consider what will really work if you want to continue to live in a relatively free and prosperous country. Hope this gives you a bit of a different prespective on several of things, and clears up any misunderstandings that may have arisen concerning this tragic event. I'll close by pointing out the words of the noted philosopher Voltaire that is posted on my usual signature line -- i think that it is one of the most strikingly true, erudite pronouncements ive ever encountred: "...Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities...". I believe that this one quip is the center of what is going on in western society today. In this particular case, the absurdity is that we can meet our energy needs with zero risk and that there is technology out there that can make that happen. The atrocity is that we need to throw away the technology we have and embrace the absurdity of "alternate energy sources". leroy

grey:____________ Thanks for posting this neat forward. I like this stuff too. leroy

Design life of forty years (...i think...). It seems that i remember that the fossil plant design life was on the order of 35 years; but it is lots easier to rehab them. leroy By the way: crimsonaudio makes a most excellent point here: The coal and gas industry is winning the energy war (...for now, at least...).

Pardon my French but that "crappy design" has been making power since 1971 (...at substantially more than the original design capacity...). It is a GE design Boiling Water Reactor system. It has kept up with design and construction updates; i (...and many others...) helped update them. All nuclear plants are continually updated and refubrished as technology improved and is codified into regulations. Remember this; the Japanese plants withstood more than the design maximum for earthquake resistance by a factor of ten (...designed for a magnitude 8 quake, got a magnitude 9 --- earthquake scale is logrithmetic; each number up brings it up by a factor of 10. The tsunami wave was figured at over 10 meters high, the plant designed seawall(s) for about 7 (...i think..-- it's somewhere in the updates on the other thread on this subject...). These on-line units shut down just as they should. The tsunami wave knocked all the external power out and destroyed the incomming transmission lines. The plants ran normally on battery power for about 8 or so hours, then the batteries went dead. These plants have survived what many "experts" said was unsurvivable -- a complete "station blackout" and loss of external power. The problems that these plants are having are directly attributable to that loss of power. It took 9 days to restore power and re-power the critical systems. During that 9 day period, there was a continual howl by various talking heads and experts saying the plants couldnt be saved and armageddon was near; while a bunch of brave souls used their heads and worked hard to save these units and their neighbors under the most unimaginable conditions. Now that the "experts", "talking heads", "opiners", and regulators have been proven wrong; i pretty much expect them to hush-- maybe they will apologize to the folks that saved these plants (...but i wouldn't hold my breath or bet the farm on it...). Looks like two units may be damaged (...due to fuel problems in the reactors; but we dont know that yet...). The remaining 4 will probably be brought back on line. My guess is that all the other stuff (...spent fuel pools and all...) will be repaired. How's that for a "crappy" build? More "food for thought": Three Mile Island was a PWR plant. Improved design similar to a Westinghouse unit. It even worked ok as far as contining dangerous stuff is concerned. It put Babcock-Wilcox out of the commercial nuclear business, but it still kept people from being hurt. By the way, it wont be restarted. I'm kinda like Enfield mentioned in his post. I'm not too scared of nuclear power. We've got 6 units of nuclear generating capacity between where i live and Decatur, AL. Hope this gives a bit of a new perspective leroy

Im surprized. I figured they would spend their time explaining how Nobama is doing a great job in Lybia or some other "important" stuff. By the way, found this on that noted commie university website at Madison ,WI. Take a look. INTERESTING FACTS FOR IODINE 131: If the little guys drink bottled water for 9 days, looks like everything is ok. I bet Lybia wont be ok in nine days. Link here: http://chem.wisc.edu/deptfiles/genchem/sstutorial/Text4/Tx46/tx46.html Keep up the good work. leroy

All:______________ Here is an interesting summary report on the four units: 10+ days of crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant – 22 March 2010 « BraveNewClimate. RE: Radiation/contamination in Japan: Radiation trends in Japan By the way, it's 4792 miles from Tokyo to Seattle, WA. It's 5487 miles from Tokyo to Los Angeles. It's 6560 miles from Tokyo to Austin, TX. It's 6600 miles from Tokyo to Memphis. My guess is that we wont have to worry about getting contaminated.. For what it's worth. leroy

Me too. Will send some $$ now. leroy

Aint it the truth, brother!! Keep up the good work. leroy OH: RE: FiddleDog's excellent question: I think one of the quickest ways to help the folks in Japan is to look at "Samaritan's Purse". They are busy sending people and stuff to Japan. Link here: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/pray_for_japan/ . I think it might be a good idea to donate and mention that it is from the concerned folks at TGO. Whatdaya think? leroy

All:_______________ Here is the latest update on the plants: Stabilisation at Fukushima Daiichi. Looks like the power is tied in, plant cooling systems are running, and the temperatures in the fuel pits are going down (...more water plus heat removal equipment working...). Looks like the checkout is about complete to the main control room. That will make monitoring and operating the plant cooling systems much easier than before. Note the last paragraph of this status report. The fact is that these heroes have about whipped this problem. The nation of Japan, the people of Japan, the stockholders of TEPCO, General Electric, Westinghouse, and the world commercial nuclear power industry (...as well as us...) owe these heroes a great debt of gratitude. These folks have done something that had never been done before; they rescued these plants from a "station blackout" --- no power anywhere to run anything ---the ultimate Jane Fonda "China Syndrome". It is now day nine after the quake and tsunami. Remember how long Three Mile Island went on? I predict that the naysayers, pseudo-experts, anti's, regulators, and news media will suddenly think that the "near nuclear melt-down" in Japan is a non story in the next few days. Let's wait and see. Again, thank you heroes. God bless the brave!! leroy

I would almost bet that there is a seawall of some sort around the plant (...at least the front...) to stop the crushing effect of the water. My guess is that it simply got overtopped and flooding caused the damage. It didn't hurt the wall, it just went over it and flooded it like a swimming pool. It's hard to say without looking at the drawings. I bet this question is addressed before the next unit is built. leroy

All:______________ RE: The tsunami wave hitting the plant. I believe it did. I seem to have read that the tsunami wave was 7.1 meters high -- thats about 23 and one half feet tall. It seems that ive seen some photos that show the switchyard partially full of water. If that is so; the tsunami wave was the worst part of the problem. It evidently either flooded or tore down the interties between the station power and the transmission lines or flooded out the cable tunnels; or both. TEPCO did say for sure that the tsunami wave was the cause of the diesel generator failure. My guess is that crews have been pumping and drying out these cable tunnels since this whole thing began, while the guys you keep seeing and hearing about in the news were busy getting water to everything else. Check out this video for an annimation of the probable time line for the problems: YouTube - Timeline: Japan's nuclear trouble Here is some late breaking news on the powerline intertie: http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110320D19JFF09.htm Hope this helps. leroy

All:_______________ Here is a good report (...for a change...) RE: the plant and ongoing accident mitigation activities: Fukushima nuclear accident: Saturday 19 March summary « BraveNewClimate. leroy

If you are going out toward sevierville; you can go out Alcoa Highway (US129 -- probably 3 or so miles south toward the airport...), take a left at Governor John Sevier (...cant remember the #...), then right on Chapmn Highway (..US441...). Thie route brings you out about 4 or so miles south of the Henley Bridge. Hope this helps. leroy

All:____________ Looked at my two sources for news (...the one's ive been linkin to...). Pretty quiet; no update yet. Still pumping to the fuel pits and working on the powerline. Mabee more later. RE: The discussion regarding the plant location. We all need to remember that the nuclear plant (...or a fossil plant, or a gas fired plant...) must be located near a large body of water (...in this case, the ocean...). The reason is that in order for the steam cycle to work, you need bunches of cooling water to pump thru the condensers of the units to cool the spent steam. We're talking lots of water here with a good cool temerature to increase the plant effiency. That, in a nutshell, is why the plant is situated on the ocean -- it simply aint a question of some nerdy engineer making a mistake as to where to locate the plant, or that property prices were lower there. Take the time to take a look at where your nearest powerplant to you is located. In every case, it's located on a sizeable body of flowing water. That location is not just a preference; it's a necessity. RE: Pumping water over a long distance. It aint as easy as it would seem. All pumps, no matter the size or number of stages (...some pumps are multistage to increase pressure --- more pump impellers on the shaft --...) will only lift or pump a certain vertical and horizontal distance. Then you need another pump to pick up the water and pump it another distance. My guess is that if you could see the firetruck setup all the way from the ocean to the delivery point, you would see several trucks, each pumping into a reservoir ahead of it (...higher in elevation...) until the water gets to the place they need to drop it on (...the fuel pits...). This is a helluva headache. You have to keep everything running (....that means fueled, serviced, constantly manned...) and in sequence. One hu-ho and the pumping chain stops. That's why i think you see the "staging area" full of trucks. They are being serviced, refuelled, etc -- you get the picture. That is why getting this powerline tied in and one of the D-G sets running is so important to them. Like kblem says, "It. is. just. not. that. simple..." His post is dead on target. What these guys are doing is a very large and complex job. It's being done around the clock and in real dangerous conditions. As far as im concerned, all these folks are real heroes who are doing things for the good of their families (...if there are any of them left...), their neighbors (...if there are any of them left...), and their country. They are a far different breed than some in our country who squall for help or run away when things get tough; or call an international meeting complete with a bunch of pseudo-experts to study the problem. They aint got time for that. They have to do something NOW -- a few hours later, it may be too late. Remember General Patton's great quip: "A workable plan now is better that an great plan five minutes from now"... That is the situation these folks are in. I say they are "the best of the best" among the human creatures. Let's keep sending up the prayers that these folks get this powerline tied in soon so they can handle this a bit easier. Hope this gives a bit more perspective. leroy

Thanks to all who have taken the time to post; i really appreciate it. I ordered the glock replacement parts a few minutes ago. Will take another look at the ghost triggers. Thanks again, leroy

Dear fellow TGO'ers:______________ Just came into possession of a lightly used Glock 27. It shows almost no use; but appears to have been mechaniced on to comply with some unknown (...to me at least...) LEO departmental requirements for heavier than stock trigger pull. The trigger pull is noticeably heavier than either of my stock glock 33 or 32 triggers. I would like to return this pistol to the "stock" configuration; but im not sure that i know which of the parts should be replaced. I also suspect that the firing pin spring is heavier than stock too. All that being said; I would appreciate your collecitive input as to what to do to get this little jewel back in the 5 lb trigger pull range. It would also help to clean some of the grittiness in the trigger too. Thanks in advance. leroy

All:_________________ Here is some more relatively good news concening the restoration of power and the on site D-G set. Link here: Fukushima – 18 March morning updates, radiation and tsunamis « BraveNewClimate. If the plant guys and the transmission line guys can make the tie in they can power the plant systems they need to run back up from the control room and make life a bunch easier for those working on this problem; as it eliminates the gilflirting and changing of piping systems around by hand -- they can do it with a mouse click from the control room. They should also have intertie capability between the indvidual units so they can run the needed equipment and pumps on any other units too. I know this sounds crazy; but it also allows them to make make-up water. They need it top off the reactor cooling systems and (....idealy...) the fuel pools. The plant uses extremely clean deionized water for all this in normal operation. It also looks as if the radiation levels from the fuel storage pools are going down. Looks like the water spraying with the fire trucks and helicopter water drops have (...and are...) worked. The more water you add to the pools, the better the shielding and less the radiation. That allows folks to work longer and safer. It will make life easier for all these folks and is a good indicaor that they are finally getting all this multi-faceted nightmare under control. Keep sending up the prayers that these folks dont fall over or get killed working on this extremely serious bunch of problems. leroy

All:_____________ New good news. Looks like they have got one of the emergency diesel generators going. Link here: Progress by on-site workers . Go all the way to the bottom of the article for the info. leroy

All:______________ RE: The replacement pump and generator thing. OS asked the question about replacement generators and bklem basically answered it along with crimsonauto. The emergency diesel generator sets that the tsunami wave took out were probably about 3300 HP per set (...if i remember right from brown's ferry...) and i think there are 3 sets to run and one spare. That means 10,000 hp is on the line to provide power to the plant for emergency shutdown. Each of these gen-sets are the size of a diesel electric locomotive and are housed in sturdy concrete buildings. My guess is that one of these gen sets weighs 75 to 100 tons each. Each nuclear unit has this same installation. Package diesel-generator sets just are not big enough to provide the power needed to run the plant equipment. That's why they have the emergency d-g sets built as part of the plant. I understand they brought in several smaller sets to get some of the systems running; but it would probably take a bunch of them to provide the power they need to do everything they need to do. Diesel generator sets have their own set of problems too; we used them on my old job from time to time; and keeping them fueled, serviced, and running 24/7 is a continuing headache. I've seen the little ones 700 hp or so, suck down 200 gallons of fuel an hour under a heavy load. Diesel drive pumps are basically the same problem. You can pump water around with them, but you loose lots of efficiency running the long distances with temporary piping. Fueling and keeping them running is the same headache as with the d-g sets. All this is why they need the power line tying the plant's back on to the grid. Thet's why they are working so hard to get the line built. Hope this gives a bit more perspective on the d-g / pump thing. PS-- If your are inclined to be curious about this d-g thing; go to this link (http://www.americanmachinist.com/Calculators/HorseToKilo.aspx ...) and play with the kw (...1kw is 1000 watts, a megawatt is 1000 kw or one million watts...). Plug in 6000 kw (...that's 6 mw; probably about what the plant systems need to maintain shutdown...). That gives a pretty good perspective on how much power these plants take. The horsepower to kw convertor assumes 100% efficiency. My guess is that the d-g efficiency is on the order of 85%; but i dont know for sure. leroy

The good thing about getting power back is that all the systems have backup systems (...they call them redundant systems...) that allow for working around problems with the "main systems". I understand the concern about "assuming everyting is working properly" -- it has probably sustained some damage; but it's a lot easier to fix and work around when the plant has power. leroy

Yup, you are exactly right. If they can get power to the plant (....and it takes a bunch....). They can crank up all the cooling systems, start making clean make-up water for both the reactor and the fuel pits and get everything back under control using the existing plant systems. That will make life lots easier for them. There are some who say the fuel in the fuel pits has been uncovered. Check this link for a great discussion of this: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/17/fukushima-redux-design-basis-godzilla/. There is also a good discussion of the spent fuel problem here: http://reindeerflotilla.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/fukushima-redux/ leroy

All:_________________ Here is an update on the fuel pool situation that all the talking heads and experts are wringing their hands about: Attempts to refill fuel ponds. I think its just another extremely dangerous (...for those fixing these problems...) and serious problem for these worn out techincians and others to work on. Let's keep sending up the prayers that these heroes can get this back under control and keep the fuel pits flooded and water in the reactors. I also read the TEPCO has almost completed an emergency power line back to the plants. If they get that finished, the plant guys can crank up the big pumps and plant systems and furnish all the water they need to keep everything calmed down. leroy