Re: OT - overcast with almost no wind. Wind and solar not doing much.

No, the problem was they assumed a maximum sized tsunami of (iirc) 8 metres. Back in those days, nuclear plant safety cases were deterministic and assumed what we called in the UK a "Maximum Credible Accident".

For a long time now we have used Probabalistic Safety Cases that do consider more extreme events.

Now, of course, we site emergency generators "further up the hill" to reduce that risk. We have thought about it more carefully. But remember that introduces new issues. As you locate your generators further from the plant, they may become more at risk from terrorist attack. The power cables are longer and more susceptible both to sabotage and to earthquakes. There are always compromises in design decisions.

newshound snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

Same thing in different words.

But it's less clear whether it would have been possible to have the aux power generation at the same level as the reactors themselves which would have avoided the problem

Still there would not have been a problem if the aux power generation had been at the same level as the reactors.

And that’s what was the problem, they didn’t, as I said.

It's far from clear that that would have seen their aux power generation further from the plant if for example it was at the same level as the plant.

But not necessarily in this case.

I'm not saying that (with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight) they did not get it wrong. All I am saying is that the designers followed the thinking of the time. ISTR that generators have been moved at some Japanese plant, maybe even on that site. I guess when that was done they made a judgment that the risk was tolerable at older plant with not much longer to run.

And, in truth, the radiological exposure consequences were trivial compared to the physical damage caused by the tsunami. As usual, the PR damage was far higher than the direct impact. It's also been costly of course, especially with having so much of their nuclear plant shut down.

newshound snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

Why would terrorists take out the cables from the aux power generators when they can be fixed trivially without risking anything ?

And sighting the power generators at the same level as the reactor would eliminate that risk.

That’s not really true either with the sighting of the aux generators.

Likely, but that’s a separate question to why they were so stupidly sighted in the first place.

Sure, but again, that’s a separate issue.

Public impact, of course. "We almost lost Detroit".

When the water is released, they'll be closing fishing grounds within some radius of the release.

How do you flush a toilet ? Do you let the huge quantity of water release at maximum speed, or do you dribble it out. Decisions, decisions.

If they add a yellow dye to the water, that'll make it seem more realistic.

Paul

I'll bet though any deaths are nothing compared to the 20k who died at from the earthquake and wave.

Andy

Ah, but to te Art Student Mind, one death from radiation is preventable and equals 20,000 that Gaia in her wisdom inflicted...