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      Modelling ‘Type B’ ejecta formation reveals reactor Unit 1 conditions during the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

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          Abstract

          For the first time, a model was developed to simulate the cooling of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant reactor Unit 1-derived, ‘Type B’ radiocaesium bearing microparticles, distributed into the environment during the 2011 nuclear meltdown. By establishing an analogy between ‘Type B’ CsMP and volcanic pyroclasts, the presented model simulates the rapid cooling of an effervescent silicate melt fragment upon atmospheric release. The model successfully reproduced the bi-modal distribution of internal void diameters observed in ‘Type B’ CsMP, however, discrepancies resulted primarily due to the neglection of surface tension and internal void coalescence. The model was subsequently utilised to estimate the temperature within reactor Unit 1 in the instant preceding the hydrogen explosion—between 1900 and 1980 K. Such a model demonstrates the accuracy of the volcanic pyroclast—‘Type B’ CsMP analogue, and confirms radial variations in cooling rate as the cause of the vesicular texture of Unit 1 ejecta. The presented findings provide scope to further explore the comparison between volcanic pyroclasts and ‘Type B’ CsMP via experimentation, which will provide a deeper understanding of the specific conditions within reactor Unit 1 during the catastrophic meltdown at the Japanese coastal plant.

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          The 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake: mosaicking the megathrust from seconds to centuries.

          Geophysical observations from the 2011 moment magnitude (M(w)) 9.0 Tohoku-Oki, Japan earthquake allow exploration of a rare large event along a subduction megathrust. Models for this event indicate that the distribution of coseismic fault slip exceeded 50 meters in places. Sources of high-frequency seismic waves delineate the edges of the deepest portions of coseismic slip and do not simply correlate with the locations of peak slip. Relative to the M(w) 8.8 2010 Maule, Chile earthquake, the Tohoku-Oki earthquake was deficient in high-frequency seismic radiation--a difference that we attribute to its relatively shallow depth. Estimates of total fault slip and surface secular strain accumulation on millennial time scales suggest the need to consider the potential for a future large earthquake just south of this event.
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            Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents: a review of the environmental impacts.

            The environmental impacts of the nuclear accidents of Chernobyl and Fukushima are compared. In almost every respect, the consequences of the Chernobyl accident clearly exceeded those of the Fukushima accident. In both accidents, most of the radioactivity released was due to volatile radionuclides (noble gases, iodine, cesium, tellurium). However, the amount of refractory elements (including actinides) emitted in the course of the Chernobyl accident was approximately four orders of magnitude higher than during the Fukushima accident. For Chernobyl, a total release of 5,300 PBq (excluding noble gases) has been established as the most cited source term. For Fukushima, we estimated a total source term of 520 (340-800) PBq. In the course of the Fukushima accident, the majority of the radionuclides (more than 80%) was transported offshore and deposited in the Pacific Ocean. Monitoring campaigns after both accidents reveal that the environmental impact of the Chernobyl accident was much greater than of the Fukushima accident. Both the highly contaminated areas and the evacuated areas are smaller around Fukushima and the projected health effects in Japan are significantly lower than after the Chernobyl accident. This is mainly due to the fact that food safety campaigns and evacuations worked quickly and efficiently after the Fukushima accident. In contrast to Chernobyl, no fatalities due to acute radiation effects occurred in Fukushima. © 2013.
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              Viscosity of magmatic liquids: A model

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                peter.martin@bristol.ac.uk
                Journal
                Sci Rep
                Sci Rep
                Scientific Reports
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2045-2322
                6 March 2023
                6 March 2023
                2023
                : 13
                : 3686
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.5337.2, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 7603, HH Wills Physics Laboratory, School of Physics, , University of Bristol, ; Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL UK
                [2 ]GRID grid.5337.2, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 7603, HH Wills Physics Laboratory, Interface Analysis Centre, School of Physics, , University of Bristol, ; Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL UK
                Article
                30903
                10.1038/s41598-023-30903-6
                9988873
                36878970
                acc52971-14a8-4368-8581-01991b961321
                © The Author(s) 2023

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 13 January 2022
                : 3 March 2023
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council;
                Award ID: EP/S020659/1
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005118, Japan Atomic Energy Agency;
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005118, Japan Atomic Energy Agency;
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2023

                Uncategorized
                environmental sciences,pollution remediation,geochemistry,volcanology,nuclear energy,glasses,mechanical properties,fluid dynamics

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