Japanese earthquake / tsunami discussion

Thrill

Close-up satellite image taken today....

http://blogs.pjstar.com/eye/files/2011/03/031611_japandisaster02.jpg

http://www.digitalglobe.com/downloads/featured_images/japan_earthquaketsu_fukushima_daiichi2_march16_2011_dg.jpg

http://www.digitalglobe.com/index.php/27/Sample+Imagery+Gallery


.

maquiladora

Overheal wrote: »

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kXOWPH4IhMQ/TYBjL7SV7-I/AAAAAAAAbM4/PLUj6l1-rp4/s400/Fukushima%2Breactor%2B4%2Bdamaged.jpg

thats the one CNN likes anyway

this is from today at no. 4 reactor I believe

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-I_3STZLnYVA/TXt2FS__R3I/AAAAAAAABQs/f8pEbEunQuA/s1600/fukushima-explosion.jpg

It's kinda hard to censor that.

The second picture there is not from the nuclear plant.

Overheal

However, we now know there is a difference of opinion between the US and the Japanese. The danger zone around the plant for American citizens is 80km, for Japanese its 20-30km.

...

maquiladora

[4:25 p.m. ET Wednesday, 5:25 a.m. Thursday in Tokyo] A spent fuel pool at Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is dry, resulting in “extremely high” radiation levels, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday.
“What we believe at this time is that there has been a hydrogen explosion in this unit due to an uncovering of the fuel in the fuel pool,” Gregory Jaczko told a House energy and commerce subcommittee hearing. “We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool, and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures.”

Hank Scorpio

Overheal wrote: »

...

^ No worky from Ireland

Turtwig

maquiladora wrote: »

we now know there is a difference of opinion between the US and the Japanese. The danger zone around the plant for American citizens is 80km, for Japanese its 20-30km.

Different regulatory limits. Iirc, the US legal limit of permitted radiation for a person is 50mSv per year. The Japanese level is 100mSv per year.

Overheal

nuxxx wrote: »

^ No worky from Ireland

Its not really that funny anyway.

You also have other countries telling their people to get out. Theyre just taking the precautions they feel are necessary - I dont think the US having a larger exclusion zone than the japanese is a result of information the public isn't privy to.

jumpguy

A more interesting and disturbing speculation on how the water disappeared from the pools containing the fuel rods from the reactor no.4 is that the pools were possibly partially drained to use to cool down the reactors, and they took it too far, or the draining has unexpected results.

Or maybe one of the explosions caused it, or the earthquake.

Turtwig

jumpguy wrote: »

A more interesting and disturbing speculation on how the water disappeared from the pools containing the fuel rods from the reactor no.4 is that the pools were possibly partially drained to use to cool down the reactors, and they took it too far,

Honestly I doubt they would have been that stupid.

jumpguy

Malty_T wrote: »

Honestly I doubt they would have been that stupid.

The pools are filled above the fuel rods i.e. in excess. It'd be a tempting option. However, to drain them below what they needed would be madness...

Run_to_da_hills

Overheal wrote: »

I was almost wondering if they thought about parking the USS Reagan in front of Fukushima Daiichi and running a jumper cable...

One nuke powering another, I doubt it.

Overheal

You jest, I am sure. It would have been surely ironic to power the cooling systems with another working reactor but in fairness all thats important is getting electricity to power the primary cooling system.

jumpguy wrote: »

The pools are filled above the fuel rods i.e. in excess. It'd be a tempting option. However, to drain them below what they needed would be madness...

The lack of water isnt the problem its a lack of getting that water from point A to point B.

Unless they werent in there with Fantasia Brooms and Buckets, there isn't much way they could have got that water to the reactors.

The spent fuel still emits heat, enough to provoke evaporation over this long a period. And correctly we don't know if any fissure took place that might be draining the pool.

Worztron

My thoughts are with Japan. I saw on the news today, a mother had identified her son that was found dead amongst the rubble. It was heartbreaking.

Fallschirmjager

jumpguy wrote: »

The pools are filled above the fuel rods i.e. in excess. It'd be a tempting option. However, to drain them below what they needed would be madness...

spent fuel rods can sit in 50 feet of water for years to cool and still radiate heat. the water is used to stop radiation and you can actually stand above them and look in with no risk...IF there is about 20 feet of water.

since they are hot, and the water stops flowing (remember no power for the pumps), the water heats up and evaporates. that is one of the reasons you have those radiation warnings, its not the reactors, its the cooling pools evaporating exposing the rods> However the good news is their radiation is very short lived but still dangerous. hence why you get spikes one minute and low reading 20 minutes later. i would suspect that if they get water levels and power back to these, a considerable amount of the warning they are issuing on radiation will stop.

pegasus1

cherryghost wrote: »

Live feed of the plants here

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html

Camera is pitch black as its 5am there of course. Few hours time and you'll be able to see something.

Daylight now!! 30 minutes after you posted

unless it's a recording loop..

cherryghost

pegasus1 wrote: »

Daylight now!! 30 minutes after you posted

unless it's a recording loop..

It was updating every 10 minutes a while ago, seems they've changed that.

Overheal

I see the plant, are you guys getting black or something?

Turtwig

Overheal wrote: »

I see the plant, are you guys getting black or something?

Nope, got a visual on the plant. Though, I'm not sure why I'm watching it...yep just closed it.

Fallschirmjager

can see a pic from 6am and 32 seconds...

pretty amazing looking dawn ...happy st pats day japan...and hoping you manage to get a bit of irish luck today...fuk me you are long overdue one ...

Overheal

Fallschirmjager wrote: »

can see a pic from 6am and 32 seconds...

pretty amazing looking dawn ...happy st pats day japan...and hoping you manage to get a bit of irish luck today...fuk me you are long overdue one ...

No Green jokes.

/:|

pegasus1

Overheal wrote: »

No Green jokes.

/:|

fec an i was just gonna post saying hope no one turns up in green!

jackiebaron

It doesn't strike me that there are any improvements in this situation. It seems like a lost cause. CNN (who suck) are stating that the situation is far more grave than the Japanese authorities are reporting.

Fallschirmjager

i just read the bulletin releases. one guy said they had a fire and then when they went to check it there was no fire.

thats exhaustion setting in. god really needs to cut these guys some fukign slack.

i know they have about 700 people but that level of readiness, constant stress and keep in mind searching for family members when the leave the plant is going to start taking its toll soon and the risk of a mistake increases...

each one of them is a super hero (okay maybe that too is not a wise thing to say with radiation)...to do that when your house could be 20km inland rolled up with a boat, a car and half the neighbourhood...amazing spirit and strength of will...IMHO

i will say one thing tho...if you are ever stuck for a place to stay in a tsunami and earth quake...it looks like the best place is in a nuke plant at least in the early stages. if we can ignore the power issue for a moment, the fact that those containment buildings are still there is a testament to the engineers who built it over 35 years ago.

Mister men

cherryghost wrote: »

Live feed of the plants here

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html

Camera is pitch black as its 5am there of course. Few hours time and you'll be able to see something.

Link not working?

Ickle Magoo

Any news on that power line?

macroboy

Well theyve lost control of at least one of the reactors.

ffs my girlfriend is in kanagawa

Mister men

jackiebaron wrote: »

It doesn't strike me that there are any improvements in this situation. It seems like a lost cause. CNN (who suck) are stating that the situation is far more grave than the Japanese authorities are reporting.

No ****

Turtwig

Fallschirmjager wrote: »

i will say one thing tho...if you are ever stuck for a place to stay in a tsunami and earth quake...it looks like the best place is in a nuke plant at least in the early stages. if we can ignore the power issue for a moment, the fact that those containment buildings are still there is a testament to the engineers who built it over 35 years ago.

They plants actually became shelter for people in the aftermath. Onagawa is sheltering up to 200 homeless people in the administration building of the Power Plant.

jackiebaron wrote: »

It doesn't strike me that there are any improvements in this situation. It seems like a lost cause. CNN (who suck) are stating that the situation is far more grave than the Japanese authorities are reporting.

The worst case scenario at the moment is a fission like explosion from the spent fuel pools. That's still an extremely unlikely scenario though. It's not a lost cause yet, but some of the workers have definitely shortened their life spans by a few years.

cherryghost

German government is now advising to leave the country.

Fallschirmjager

related news...

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136640.php