I saw Dr. Michio Kaku give a talk to day and he discussed Japans nuclear reactors.

[Kablooie]

Michio Kaku is a Japanese American physicist who is a co-founder of string theory and is on the Science Channel often.

He gave a talk at Cal Tech about where technology will be in the future. It's the theme of his new book.

At the end of his lecture someone asked him about Japan's problems.
He said that his relatives left Tokyo and are staying in his living room right now.

He also said that this situation was never planned for.
They had emergency plans for almost every situation.
The one situation they didn't plan for is when every single backup plan was destroyed all at once.
No one really knows what to do. This is totally unknown territory and they are making it up as they go.

One reactor has exposed 70% of the core, another 30%. A third reactor's situation is unknown but could be as bad.

His opinion was that the only known solution at this time was to do what Russia did at Chernobyl .
They shielded helicopters with lead and flew 5000 tons of sand laced with boron and dumped it to bury the reactors.
It would take the same 5000 tons for each reactor at Fukushima.
He seemed disturbed at the ineffective actions that have been taken up to now.

"Just bury the suckers!" was his final comment.


(The lecture was part of a series by Michael Shermer's Skeptic organization. http://www.skeptic.com/)

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[wordpix]

2. don't know why Japan is not burying - too much faith in the corporate nuke greedmongers?

[Art_from_Ark]

10. I don't think it's the "greedmongers" at this stage

After all, the Fukushima complex is a lost cause now as far as restoring any power generating capacity. The problem now is probably how to make sure that burying this stuff will be enough to keep it permanently immobilized.

[bananas]

3. Michio Kaku is a very wise man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michio_Kaku

At the National Science Fair in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he attracted the attention of physicist Edward Teller, who took Kaku as a protégé, awarding him the Hertz Engineering Scholarship. Kaku graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a B.S. degree in 1968 and was first in his physics class. He attended the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and received a Ph.D. in 1972 and held a lectureship at Princeton University in 1973.

<snip>

Kaku credits his anti-nuclear war position to programs he heard on the Pacifica Radio network, during his student years in California. It was during this period that he made the decision to turn away from a career developing the next generation of nuclear weapons in association with Teller and focused on research, teaching, writing and media. Kaku joined with others such as Helen Caldicott, Jonathan Schell, Peace Action and was instrumental in building a global anti-nuclear weapons movement that arose in the 1980s, during the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Kaku was a board member of Peace Action and on the board of radio station WBAI-FM in New York City where he originated his long running program, Explorations, that focused on the issues of science, war, peace and the environment.

[roguevalley]

8. some people earlier were worried that it might force the stuff

to heat up under the cover and melt downward even more. No one knows what to do. ALl of them are petrified. I think they believe they have murdered their country. Michio Kaku is awesome. If he says so, I would go with him.

[Brother Buzz]

4. They are making it up as they go.

Reminiscent of Top Hat, Junk Shot, Top Kill....

Like Yogi Berra said, "It's déjà vu all over again".

[Kablooie]

5. He started his lecture with a Yogi Berra quote:

It's hard to make predictions. Especially about the future.

[MinneapolisMatt]

6. He is BRILLIANT.

I would trust him with my life in this situation. He knows his shit.

[Marblehead]

7. I agree with him

there are no back up systems that work and they don't have a clue what to do. Salt water is only a short term fix and may actually be making the situation much worse. The longer they wait the more damage is done to the enviroment, there is still a chance to save Tokyo if they act swiftly. Bury it.

[Raine]

9. He's the only one I trust to get the truth from.

The rest of them are more interested in protecting the nuke industry.

[FredStembottom]

11. From what I understand.....

Dumping things on these buildings would knock all the spent fuel rods off their racks. If they were to pile together at the bottom of those wide-open spent fuel rod pools, critical mass might be reached and a nuclear chain reaction would ensue pretty much right out in the open.

(Someone knowledgable should jump right in and correct me where needed.)