15th Interview with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

Picture of a Boiling Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant like the Fukushima Plants. My dad refers to this image in his interview.

You can listen to all the interviews on the new vimeo channel Brandon and I created. You can also listen to most of the interviews on Brad Go's YouTube channel.

Here's the vimeo channel:

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on vimeo

Brad Go's YouTube channel: 

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on YouTube

This evening my dad and I recorded our 15th interview on the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Please see the rest of the blog (sidebar) for previous interviews. Please keep sending questions and comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn but please do not send questions via twitter.

In today's interview:

1. My dad gives his usual update

2. My dad talks some about high radiation levels at reactor #2 and potential sources of this radiation

3. My dad elaborates on the venting of steam from reactors and explains why venting of steam at the Fukushima Mark 1 nuclear power plants is different from venting of steam at American Mark 1 nuclear power plants, which have been retrofitted with design modifications

Hope to have an audio link soon. Here is the interview on vimeo:

Please see the announcement page for more information about these interviews:

Announcement Page

If you have time and interest, please transcribe this interview. Our next interview will be on Friday, April 1st. Thanks to Kenyon, a transcript is now available after the jump. 

14th Interview with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

You can listen to all the interviews on the new vimeo channel Brandon and I created. You can also listen to most of the interviews on Brad Go's YouTube channel.

Here's the vimeo channel:

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on vimeo

Brad Go's YouTube channel: 

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on YouTube

This evening my dad and I recorded our 14th interview on the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Please see the rest of the blog (sidebar) for previous interviews. Please keep sending questions and comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn but please do not send questions via twitter.

In today's interview:

1. My dad gives his usual update

2. My dad addresses my question "How does Fukushima compare with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl?"

3. My dad answers two questions from listeners: "How will they increase shielding at the Fukushima nuclear power plants now that the cooling water is more radioactive?" and "Is there a way to fingerprint radiation as coming from a specific nuclear power plant?"

Here is a website we refer to in today's interview:

International Atomic Energy Agency

Hope to have an audio link soon. Here is the interview on vimeo:

Please see the announcement page for more information about these interviews:

Announcement Page

If you have time and interest, please transcribe this interview. Our next interview will be on Tuesday, March 29th.  Thanks to Dave, a transcript is now available after the jump. 

A Quick Note: Upcoming Interviews with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, and Lulu Book

Some Quick Announcements:


1. Upcoming Interviews:

While my dad and I wish we could stop doing our interview updates, the situation at Fukushima remains serious. We will discuss this more in our interview tonight, but keep in mind that the nuclear disaster at Fukushima will not be resolved in a matter of days; there are many long months and years of work ahead, especially since some of the reactors have been badly damaged by the earthquake, flooding (from the tsunami), and subsequent explosions. To fully clean-up the Fukushima site will require decades.

We probably won't continue doing these interviews for decades, but we will continue them awhile longer.

This week we will be conducting interviews on Monday (3/28, later this evening), Tuesday (3/29), and Friday (4/1). Please send any questions or comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn.


2. Lulu Book:

I just wanted to let you know that sometime soon (sometime in April, hopefully) I plan to self-publish a book titled "Conversations with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disater in Japan" on Lulu. In this book, I will compile all of the interview transcripts (which I will clean-up and check for errors) and also write brief summaries of the content in each interview. I will also include a chapter with some background on my father and I, including some pictures of us over the years, and a chapter with some of the many, many emails and comments we have received in response to these interviews. For the emails and comments, I will only use first names (or anonymous if the person did not give a name) and will avoid any personal details.

My father and I will donate 25% of the profits of each book to charities supporting Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster relief. If you have any interest in buying a book, let me know in a comment below or by email so that I have a rough idea of how many books might be ordered.

The interviews and audio files will remain freely available here always; I just thought that some people might like to have all of the interviews compiled in an easier-to-read book form. As I mentioned, I will try to have the book published sometime in April; I have a long plane flight to South Africa coming up in a few weeks when I can work on this. Depending on the situation at Fukushima, we may continue to do these interviews on a regular basis for some time. So, it's possible that the book will need to be updated at some point if we continue interviews past April.


3. More Thank-Yous

Thanks again to all of the transcribers and audio helpers. I mailed pretty rocks to the volunteer helpers below (except Gerald-- send me your address if you want a rock) earlier today. Rocks are heavy, so I mailed them parcel post, but they should arrive sometime in the not-too-distant future.

-Skype PR Representative
-Michelle, Gregg, Kirsten, Sophie, Chris, & Maria (transcription)
-Brandon (vimeo & audio help)
-Mike (audio help)
-Brad (YouTube help)
-Gerald (audio file hosting)

13th Interview with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

You can listen to all the interviews on the new vimeo channel Brandon and I created. You can also listen to most of the interviews on Brad Go's YouTube channel.

Here's the vimeo channel:

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on vimeo

Brad Go's YouTube channel: 

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on YouTube

This evening my dad and I recorded our 13th interview on the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Please see the rest of the blog (sidebar) for previous interviews. Please keep sending questions and comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn but please do not send questions via twitter.

In today's interview:

1. My dad gives his usual update

2. My dad talks in a little more detail about radiation in the environment in Japan

Here are some websites we refer to in today's interview:

Tsunami Update (International Atomic Energy Agency)

Japan Update (Nuclear Energy Institute)

Hope to have an audio link soon. Here is the interview on vimeo:

Please see the announcement page for more information about these interviews:

Announcement Page

If you have time and interest, please transcribe this interview. Our next interview will be on Monday, March 28th. Thanks to Dave, there is now a transcript after the jump. 

12th Interview with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

Update: Sorry that it took me so long to post this interview, which was recorded last night. I had trouble converting the video file at first, but I think I've sorted it out now.

You can listen to all the interviews on the new vimeo channel Brandon and I created. You can also listen to most of the interviews on Brad Go's YouTube channel.

Here's the vimeo channel:

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on vimeo

Brad Go's YouTube channel: 

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on YouTube

This evening my dad and I recorded our 12th interview on the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Please see the rest of the blog (sidebar) for previous interviews. Please keep sending questions and comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn but please do not send questions via twitter.

In today's interview:
1. My dad gives his usual update

2. We discuss:
      a) why salt might be a problem for nuclear reactors

      b) Fukushima has dropped off the front page of the news, and the mainstream media                               is not doing the best job of reporting about Fukushima in recent days (on a soapbox again)

      c) monitoring of radiation by the Japanese government and radiation in the environment

      d) why reports about radiation levels need to be in units people can understand and need to be             in consistent units

Hope to have an audio link soon. Here is the interview on vimeo:


Please see the announcement page for more information about these interviews:

Announcement Page

If you have time and interest, please transcribe this interview. Our next interview will be on Saturday, March 26th. Thanks to Kenyon, a transcript is now available after the jump.

11th Interview with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

Update: Gerald has kindly hosted all of the new audio files. I am still updating all the audio links (some of which are broken). I'll try to finish this up tonight-- been busy! Meanwhile, you can listen to all the audio files on the new vimeo channel Brandon and I created. You can also listen to most of the interviews on Brad Go's YouTube channel.

Here's the vimeo channel:

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on vimeo

Brad Go's YouTube channel: 

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on YouTube

This evening my dad and I recorded our 11th interview on the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Please see the rest of the blog (sidebar) for previous interviews. Please keep sending questions and comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn but please do not send questions via twitter.

In today's interview:

1. My dad gives his usual update

2. We discuss:

      a) radiation in Tokyo tap water

      b) preparing for emergencies

      c) can older nuclear power plants be retrofitted with passive cooling systems?

      d) should some nuclear power plants in disaster-prone areas be shut down?

      e) what happens to spent fuel rods (in the US) at decommissioned nuclear power

         plants?

Here are some websites we refer to in today's interview:

CNN Article: Shelter Sales Up

Why are there Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Japan

Here is a link to the audio:

11th Interview with My Dad

Here is the interview on vimeo:

Please see the announcement page for more information about these interviews:

Announcement Page

If you have time and interest, please transcribe this interview. Our next interview will be on Friday, March 25th. Thanks to Michelle and Dave, there is now a transcript after the jump. 

10th Interview with My Dad, a Nuclear Engineer, about the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in Japan

Picture of a Boiling Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant like the Fukushima Plants. My dad refers to this image in his interview.

Update: Gerald has kindly hosted all of the new audio files. I will update all the audio links (some of which are broken) soon-- I meant to do this yesterday or today but was overwhelmed with work. DONE Meanwhile, you can listen to all the audio files on the new vimeo channel Brandon and I created. You can also listen to most of the interviews on Brad Go's YouTube channel.

Here's the vimeo channel:

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on vimeo

Brad Go's YouTube channel: 

Georneys Nuclear Engineer Dad Interview Series on YouTube

This evening my dad and I recorded our 10th interview on the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Please see the rest of the blog (sidebar) for previous interviews. Please keep sending questions and comments to georneysblog@gmail.com. You can also follow me on twitter @GeoEvelyn but please do not send questions via twitter.

In today's interview:
1. My dad gives his usual update

2. My dad and I step up on a soapbox and discuss: a) why nuclear organizations and the media need to be better about providing information about nuclear power and nuclear disasters, b) why the US should reprocess (recycle) nuclear fuel rods, c) long-term storage of nuclear fuel, and d) nuclear power, power plants in general, and the world's energy needs

3. We address  the questions "How do you move fuel rods?" and "Should the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant license have been renewed?"

Here are some websites we refer to in today's interview:

International Atomic Energy Agency

Nuclear Energy Institute

Why are there Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Japan

Here is a statistic we discuss (from wikipedia, let me know if you have a better source):

The US consumes 25% of the world's energy but has less than 5% of the world's population

Here is the audio file:

10th Interview with My Dad

Hope to have an audio link soon. Here is the interview on vimeo:


Please see the announcement page for more information about these interviews:

Announcement Page

If you have time and interest, please transcribe this interview. Our next interview will be on Thursday, March 24th. Thanks (again!) to Michelle, there is now a transcript after the jump.