Japan scrambles to avert nuclear disaster, global fears mount

It’s still very bad over there. I wouldn’t call it a global problem just yet, though it could use some global help.

“It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time.”Health experts said panic over radiation leaks from the Daiichi plant was also diverting attention from other threats to survivors of Friday’s 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami, such as the cold or access to fresh water.The head of the world’s nuclear watchdog, meanwhile, said it was not accurate to say things were “out of control” in Japan, but the situation was “very serious”, with core damage to three units at the plant, around 240 kms (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Read more…

Under ordinary circumstances, a Boiling Water Reactor is safer than the typical Pressurized Water Reactor. A 9.0 earthquake and accompanying 10-meter tsunami are by no means ordinary circumstances, however. I suspect that after this, reactor designs are going to be even more expensive due to the need for the spent fuel storage depot needing its own containment building and some sort of armored gravity feed for the coolant systems. They will probably move them further inland which means more expensive nature impact surveys as well.