Japanese earthquake / tsunami discussion

Thrill

Kyodo now says that the suppression pool may have been damaged at the second reactor.

shadowninty

Stinicker wrote: »

I was just thinking would a Nuclear blast might burn up the Nuclear material and basically limit the fallout and shorten the half life of the nuclear fallout. I hope to god there is a strong Westerly to blow all that sh1t out to the Pacific.

no

maquiladora

"There may be very serious situations happening after this", expert on NHK.

Press conference coming up.

Thrill

Mayor says Tokyo has now started monitoring radiation

Thrill

double post

JONJO THE MISER

The wind has backed northerly. High radiation levels being recorded in Ibaraki, south of Fukushima.

hmmm

It appears to be the lower half which is damaged. Knowing only what I've read over the past few days, the danger is that the molten core burns down through the floor and into the soil below, potentially spreading radiation over a wide area, into water sources etc. Even worse danger if this is plutonium.

Oh oh here comes the owners of the plant on Japanese TV, don't be surprised if they all commit seppuku.

maquiladora

TEPCO getting a bit of a roasting at the press conference.

How Soon Is Now

Anyone else watching sky news?? Very hard to understand what there even trying to say.

hmmm

Translator just said that the owners of the plant "apologise for the inconvenience that has been caused". :rolleyes:

The Sparrow

TV coverage of this potentially huge breaking news story is terrible. I've been waiting for BBC and Sky to cover it for the past ten minutes but Sky is doing a paper review and BBC has a show called Hardtalk.

Thankfully Al Jazeera has its priorities straight and is covering the press conference.

Whats the point of 24 hour rolling news coverage if they don't cover live breaking news of this magnitude.

maquiladora

"Evauation of the operators is being carried out for the first time."

Water level didn't change after the explosion but pressure dropped, they don't know why.

They don't know how many operators have been evacuated.

Jack Sheehan

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/latest-updates-on-japans-nuclear-crisis-and-earthquake-aftermath/?hp

There's video of the press conference for those not next to a telly.

hmmm

Press conference on NHK.
http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm

Very unjapanese line of questioning, they are being roasted.

rachaelf750

live stream.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

How Soon Is Now

The Sparrow wrote: »

TV coverage of this potentially huge breaking news story is terrible. I've been waiting for BBC and Sky to cover it for the past ten minutes but Sky is doing a paper review and BBC has a show called Hardtalk.

Thankfully Al Jazeera has its priorities straight and is covering the press conference.

Whats the poing of 24 hour rolling news coverage if they don't cover live breaking news of this magnitude.

Been flicking threw few different news stations they seem to be drifting back to other news storys today for the first time since its happend.

maquiladora

"Can anyone explain the situation?" Reporters sound angry.

SeaFields

maquiladora wrote: »

Reporters sound angry.

Management sound like they don't want to answer...

How Soon Is Now

maquiladora wrote: »

"Can anyone explain the situation?" Reporters sound angry.

Well there not really giving proper info there beating around the bush telling people everything is under control then all of a sudden theres another explosion and all of a sudden well where in trouble now were sorry though.

dreamer_ire

hmmm wrote: »

Press conference on NHK.
http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/6810.htm

Very unjapanese line of questioning, they are being roasted.

Yeah and they don't seem to have many answers. Aside from the fact that an explosion was reported I din't see the rationale for the press conference. They don't seem to have any answers. They also look knackered.

gbee

North wind blowing around the Fukushima No1 plant. Last protection for radiation leaking out, air and water is radioactive in containment vessel.

Higher level outside plant, allowed level 30mSv making it necessary to evacuate a larger area News Conference: At 6:14 am Fukushima No1 No2 reactor, blast near container pool and pressure dropped, continuing to inject water.

Water levels Minus 27,000mm. Damage to compression pool, not confirmed we confirmed that pressure reduced. There is a possibility that the pressure gauge is faulty. Staff does not have to stay to keep injecting water.

JONJO THE MISER

Wind is moving towards Tokyo.

maquiladora

NHK got bored listening to TEPCO, turning to their own experts.

Rob A. Bank

yoganmahew wrote: »

20 Major?

But I get what you mean. Caesium is a general buildup toxin while iodine migrates to the thyroid gland. While taking potassium iodine will flush out radioactive iodine, I haven't heard anyone say anything about caesium?

My understanding is that you need to pre-saturate the body with 'clean' iodide BEFORE exposure, to prevent uptake of radioactive I 131.

Cesium 137 and Strontium 90 are strong emitters of gamma radiation and are lethal in large doses... smaller doses produce genetic defects and cancer. They are the main reason why the land around Chernobil is so radioactive and dangerous to humans.

Given that reactor 3 seems to be leaking (according to a report on NHK?) and reactor 3 is MOX, does that mean that plutonium release is a likely next sighting?

If the ass falls out the containment in reactor 3, a large cocktail of dangerous radioisotopes will be released into the environment, which is the nightmare scenario. I certainly hope it does not happen.

Here is a list of the possible ingredients in that nasty cocktail... note the half-lives of some of them and see the note about Plutonium.

http://www.ccnr.org/SG_plutonium_CNSC.pdf

Mac daddy

SeaFields wrote: »

Management sound like they don't want to answer...

They are not being honest something is up at the moment and they won't admit it yet.

hmmm

"Please do not try to physically approach Unit 2 of Fukushima Daiichi for media coverage or other purposes."

And there I was hoping we'd have a picture of Charlie Bird standing outside reporting.

The Sparrow

Zayden Hallowed Bayonet wrote: »

Sorry if this is a silly question why can they use liquid nitrogen or something, although I am guessing the reality is things are gone way too far.

Funnily enough this was asked earlier today. Apparently not. Go back to page 138 or 139 from this afternoon for more discussion on it.

hmmm

Zayden Hallowed Bayonet wrote: »

Sorry if this is a silly question why can they use liquid nitrogen or something, although I am guessing the reality is things are gone way too far.

I believe that was tried at Chernobyl - ah, found it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/26/nuclear.russia

A plan was devised: to freeze the earth around the reactor with liquid nitrogen, and then build a heat exchanger in the ground beneath it to cool the core and prevent meltdown. Prianichnikov himself was sent in with temperature and radiation probes to discover how long they had before the core burned through the two metres of concrete foundations; meanwhile, miners were summoned from the coalfaces of Donetsk and the subway projects in Kiev to dig tunnels beneath the reactor. The scientists feared that pneumatic drills could disturb the foundations of the reactor, so they worked with hand tools, in conditions where wearing protective clothing was practically impossible, amid extraordinary fields of radioactivity. To freeze the ground, all the liquid nitrogen in the western Soviet Union was sent to Chernobyl: when it didn't arrive quickly enough, director Brukhanov received a late-night telephone call from the minister in charge of the operation. 'Find the nitrogen,' he was told, 'or you'll be shot.'

How Soon Is Now

Getting hard to get decent coverage of this from the big news stations sky and cnn are both going on about libya and ****ing royal wedding.

Have to listen to HNK just dunno whats live and whats recorded on there at times cause its all translated.

JONJO THE MISER

The reason we cant see the explosion is because the news stations cant get access to them according to Fox who have Shepard smith reporting live from Tokyo.