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The Ocean around Fukushima is steaming from radiation
pic: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BSyyVi-CIAEsVPy.jpg
- tedjdziuba 13y agoThat's something of a dishonest title - it leads you to believe that there is an uncontrolled nuclear fission chain reaction happening in the sea water, which is highly, highly unlikely. What's more likely is that hot water that contains fission byproducts is leaking into the sea. The water itself contains radioisotopes, but there isn't a nuclear reaction happening in the water. The radiation is not heating the sea water, there is hot water leaking into the sea.
- the-kenny 13y agoI don't know about the current state of the cooling mechanism, and I don't want to doubt there has been major spills of nuclear water in the past, but why are they so sure that this mist over the sea is caused directly by heat release from nuclear material in the water? I'd suppose it's warmer-than-normal water that has been through some sort of multi-stage cooling circuit, just like in any other nuclear plant.
- dylanhassinger 13y agothe article says half the cooling circuits are fucked and that leaks are a huge problem - i.e. waste water bypassing the cleaning systems agreed that there's no proof the mist is steam. But if a normal nuke plant warms up the water enough that fish come to feed there, not hard to believe that in a crisis some steam could rise.
- lutusp 13y agoThe word "steaming" does not appear in the original article -- that is a hyperbolic invention of the article's submitter The word "boiling" does appear in the article. But the water is neither boiling nor steaming. The Fukushima situation is very serious, but spreading baseless rumors out of ignorance is not constructive.