What Would McGiver do.

I'd call in the stunt double and get the hell out of there.

Don't you suppose that if there was anything that could possibly be done, it would be?

You may not fully appreciate the scope of this problem, nor the shear size of the reactors involved. Nor the amount/density/weight/volume of the nuclear material involved. Nor the intensity of the radiation at the site.

But we well know the government dont always react as soon as they should do.

Granted.

But, remember, this is not a government facility.

I don't know who is "in charge" at the moment, but I think that if anyone had any credible ideas.....................................

Never mind. I just remembered BP's handling of the Gulf oil spill. Total chaos!

Actually, if i was warren " mcGyver" buffett i'd buy whoever makes pyrex glass an start telling them to make marbles out of pyrex surrounding a round core or slug of boron. And I'd start airfreighting them over to japan by the container load. In the eventuality that ther actually is a meltdown of fuel and it is collecting on the bottom, these marbles will help reduce the heat, absorbing neutrons, and mechanically neutron smother the reactions. The borosilicate glass should be able to handle the heat, and while spheres provide both close packing and geometry allowing them to mix and stay in reactants "spill". Eventually they will get power and be able to craft some kind of trough hose pipe sytem through which these could be dropped/ delivered after which they could add water once the temps dropped. This assures placement of absorbers into the fuel at its most active and dangerous locus.

milo "actually had a radioisotopes class back in the day was the first $100 + textbook I ever bought"

That actually sounds like a good idea. But it's an answer to some other question.. McGyver has no resources to have things made or ship by container load! You're thinking of Batman. The whole point of McGyver is that he has to do in with whatever is in hand, and never has the right tool for the job.

Thats why i said i was Warren "mcgyver" Buffett Some problems have scale that transcends duct tape... Milo

Milo "big picture" McGyver Buffet.

My theory from day one was that I would have gotten the biggest bulldozer I could find and a team of electrical line men and just started plowing a path from the nearest available power source that worked and laid down common underground type electrical line on the ground from the working power systems down to the power plants as a temporary service feed.

Even if the temporary service line was limited on power capacity it could still be used to run the pumps in alternating cycles for each of the damaged backup power systems. Some cooling in cycles is still far better than non at all.

a paper clip and chewing gum and it foil wrapper is not going to do it.

Well MacGyver did in Series 1 episode 13 using a 6-shooter as a wrench to turn a valve that activated a reserve water supply for a run away nuclear reactor (or something similar from memory).

You can guess the writers didn't know a great deal about mechanics or nuclear power, but it was entertaining (if not helpful in this case) none the less.

can you use XXXXL Pulse tube refrigerator to cool the system, or can you use Liquid Nitrogen to shutdown the core.

Got to get the coolant to the right spot which is a challenge in what is effectively (in its most simple form) a sealed closed-loop system encased in concrete.

Shoelaces of course. McGyver does wonders with shoelaces.

I'd drop barges in there. All the BS that comes with them would sniff snuff out the fire.

Or, maybe wind levers.

Well, I'm not gonna make a lot of friends with this approach but I will forward the following suggestion anyway.

Instead of using fairy pee from a chopper they should aim with cartons of cold beer. Very cold beer. It takes a bit of practice but who is counting?

It is not only about the cold beer its about the containers they are stored in = glass and aluminum.

Even if they melt (and they will) they will combine to form a mix of glass aluminum with a smidgen of carbon from the burnt cardboard boxes. Just keep them coming, maybe 6 at a time. In the end it would be like putting extra bubbles in the beer. _{(Young Einstein, he started this!!)}

The foam would act as an insulation layer against radiation (trap particles) and once the bubbles burst (cavitation) they create very small fragments of whatever materials are involved and assist melting . Not to mention the sugar and all the other stuff that could solidify under such heat and combine to a solid crust.

If all choppers are out of fuel use this apparatus. They could be built by using debris from the tsunami. With the one below we supplied the blokes, (during the recent floods here), on the other side of the river, with amber liquid. Just aimed at the swimming pool on Bruce's property.

That's me in the back ground. The president of AA is guarding the stuff so it is not misused by us, on this side of the river.

Anyway, that's what I would do if I were the paperclip hero, Ky.

Or we can simply dump all the politicians of the world into the reactor cores. They're all so dense they'll absorb all the radiation ensuring that none leak out, and they'll absorb all the neutrons so that fission will stop......

First off why are we resorting to fictional characters to save us. And if we are in the case of MacGyver story line aways placed him on the scene before the worst problems happened. So he would had a solution to stopping the tsunami from doing the damage it did. Or maybe fiqured out away to get the back up systems on line that were damaged by it. The never flew him in after the fact.

Why not in the future, when more nuclear reactors shall be undoubtably built again, after this mess is cleaned up and long forgotten, that is to position the reactor cores and associated used wasted fuel depositories below where the local seawater/lakewater/river levels are.

In case of a worst case scenario, as has been recently disclosed, the seawater or fresh water can be allowed to drench and smother and cool the fuel containment area by manually opening and closing valves or sluice gates on the water tunnels or viaducts.

When the power is operating as normal, the flow is shut, and operating in it's normal range of circulation through the moderation circuit including the cooling towers, BUT when all heck breaks loose, what with no power, pumps or people - then open and close the flow control as needed - manually.

If the encasement structure is compomised, and does break and is breached - the concequences of such are already a foregone conclusion.

If the water table is affected, the readings will show same, and people will be forced to do what we all do with bottled water (BPA leaching is the least of their problems at this time), or trucked in water placed in temporary cisterns.

Water tables in most places have a natural ability to cleanse and refurbish themselves over time. It all goes downhill from here.

MacGuyer, do your best man - a paper clip, an empty toilet paper roll, chicken wire, some old Playboy mags, and some common sense. _{(hindsight is 20/20;foresight is a gift.)}