[5\/11]<\/em><\/strong> After gaining access to the interior of n1, TEPCO operators said to have\u00a0\u201ccorrected\u201d #1-A gauge<\/strong>, which was found to be \u201cdown-scale\u201d (i.e. core empty).\u00a0 Since temperature is low all over the reactor the fuel is assumed to have\u00a0completely melted down<\/a><\/strong> and reached the bottom of the RPV where it\u2019s kept cool.<\/p>\n As of 6\/02<\/em><\/strong> TEPCO keeps on\u00a0reporting #1-B (half filled core) <\/strong>as well, and no information has been given on what they did to \u201ccorrect\u201d gauge A.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those points are from a layman’s blog with the lyrical title FNPP1 Reactor Parameters<\/a> which takes a balanced view, in my opinion, and seems to do well in maintaining a focus on getting to the bottom of the data. \u00a0He is referring to this picture:<\/p>\n "A" and "B" are different sets of instruments, measuring the same thing. The little-commented discrepancy for three weeks between 1A and 1B is just plain sloppy. --hbd<\/p><\/div>\n It’s not fair to say that this stuff is not rocket science, because compared to nuclear physics, rocket science is child’s play. \u00a0What is not so complicated are the relationships between temperature, pressure, volume, mass flow rates, and thermal capacities. \u00a0Even simpler are the facts surrounding containers which hold water and containers which do not.<\/p>\n It is not as though we expect perfection from men. \u00a0Just competence.<\/p>\n I am glad that todays no-confidence motion was defeated. \u00a0I am no fan of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ, which is far but not extreme left in American parlance), but the motion brought by the Liberal Democrat Party of Japan (LDP, which is American center with fat tails) was just plain stupid. \u00a0Not only was it a bad idea politically, but the problems shown by the current bout of idiots running Japan are no worse than when the idiots in the LDP run the place.<\/p>\n Competence is hard to come by, and this means that excuses are a habit, and while this is hardly a uniquely Japanese problem, in relation to Fukushima there is nobody else. \u00a0And as Tolstoy pointed out that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, the style of Japanese incompetence is uniquely Japanese, and relies upon a docile, willing acceptance of lies and nonsense by the governed. \u00a0And Japan may be running out of that willingness. \u00a0Uncorrected “corrected” graphs like that above are part of the reason why.<\/p>\n I presume it is simple incompetence which causes contradictory readings to be passed for three weeks, after a “correction” and without explaining the remaining discrepancy. \u00a0This is as opposed to incompetence compounded by malice, wherein the bad data is effectively relied upon as s smokescreen. \u00a0But it does make you wonder. \u00a0It is difficult to give these folks the benefit of the doubt when almost everything is doubtful.<\/p>\n The reactor is neither half-full nor half-empty. \u00a0It is empty, and all the fuel lies in a glowing heap in the flooded drywell beneath it, seeping contamination into the air, the soil, and the water.<\/p>\n That’s a fact.<\/p>\n The broad strokes are known, while the details are sketchy. \u00a0The cover-up consists of TEPCO and the government issuing a steady stream of tut-tuts and there-theres trying to reassure a populace being poisoned that there’s nothing wrong, or not much, or it’s getting better, or whatever the feel-good phrase of the day is.<\/p>\n The government has been honest in some refreshing ways, but don’t expect cheerleading for only lying part of the time. \u00a0There’s a certain amount of half-full, half-empty debate as to how lucky we are that certain aspects of this disaster may have prevented or limited certain other aspects. \u00a0That’s great, but with how difficult it is to get straight facts from TEPCO and the government of Japan (which our acronym-loving government refers to as GOJ), … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/NOLINKYET\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/110602_WaterLevel-600x437.png\" "\\"110602_WaterLevel\\"")
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