Heard this morning that helicopters are being used to drop sea water onto the stricken reactors at Fukushima. This looks like desperation to me. A back of the envelope calculation suggests there’s no way they can get enough water in that way, and it’s exposing the pilots to radiation risk too.
I’ve been looking at the layout of the plant I posted yesterday
Notice that it’s right on the coast, with the sea just metres away from the reactors. It seems to me that what they could do is get hold of some ships (e.g. fire-fighting vessels) with heavy duty pumping equipment, get them right up to the plant, get the pumps working and then get all the crews the hell out of there.
Can anyone see a reason why that wouldn’t work?
And while I’m at it, over on Cosmic Variance there’s a pretty clear explanation of what exactly went wrong when the tsunami struck.
Although the tone of the above post is a tad melodramatic, it’s nothing compared to what Michio Kaku’s been saying. Physicists never look good when they go seeking publicity for themselves…
Here’s a more measured summary at New Scientist and another from the Telegraph by way of balance.
In the Dark 