Japanese earthquake / tsunami discussion

kona

This is very bad, I take it the reactors are still intact and the issue is with the spent fuel rods?

roryc1

Chad ghostal wrote: »

They're not, they're being hammered..there are some still available.



The prime minister and co are much closer to the reactor than central Tokyo.. and most of the remaining government are probably in the offices or at home in the Tokyo suburbs. The government are also not the only people to be monitoring the situation, so it would be hard for them to keep anything hidden for long if they were doing so.

Have you got a link for one that is working?
rory

maquiladora

kona wrote: »

This is very bad, I take it the reactors are still intact and the issue is with the spent fuel rods?

AFAIK, the spent fuel pool is located above the reactor.

jackiebaron

What IS the worst case scenario for this situation?

Standard Toaster

There are many heroes in Japan now. None braver than the unknown engineers fighting an impossible battle at Fukushima.
You'd find it hard to make this stuff up

Any foreign national over there would wanna be hauling ass sharpish.

Biggins

jackiebaron wrote: »

What IS the worst case scenario for this situation?

The containment structures break and crack open, releasing denser radiation into the atmosphere. Once that hits rain or clouds, etc and falls to ground, thats the soil alone devastated for years.

There there is the winds that might blow such radiation in any direction at the time, effecting everything in its wake.

maquiladora

URGENT: Fukushima's spent nuke fuel pool may be boiling, reducing water level

TOKYO, March 15, Kyodo

Water in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel at the No. 4 reactor that caught fire Tuesday morning at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant may be boiling, causing the water level to drop, an official of Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The reactor was not in service when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake jolted Fukushima Prefecture and other areas in northeastern Japan on Friday, the official in charge of the facility said.

Mister men

jackiebaron wrote: »

What IS the worst case scenario for this situation?

Vast regions of Japan evacuated for hundreds of years. Tokyo evac is the doomsday scenario.

littlefriend

opinion guy wrote: »

In a side note your username is incredibly apt to this thread

I've been dying to say that too!

SeaFields

Not nice to be waking up to bad news again

That radiation counter in Tokyo is offline. Anyone know what it was at last time it was up? It was 12-13 when I last looked lastnight.

Chad ghostal

roryc1 wrote: »

Have you got a link for one that is working?
rory

I do (it was last updated at 18:04 JST), but tbh I'd prefer not to post it as I need it and don't want it to go down .. if someone is in Japan/Kanto and needs a link pm me. It is available on other sites, for the determined

Akrasia

Can I please request that people refrain from reposting speculation that they have seen on conspiracy theory websites onto this thread!

There is enough uncertainty here without introducing the likes of Alex Jones raving unsubstantiated claims that are of a hysterical tone

tuxy

what is the reading on it now, I'm guessing it's fairly normal.

maquiladora

Reuters : Japan nuclear safety agency: Two 8-metre holes in wall of Fukushima No.4 outer building after blast

I'm guessing it was the blast at No.3 that caused that.

alibabba

littlefriend wrote: »

I've been dying to say that too!

And whats the best case senario ... I mean how can they sort this nuc mess out ?
Is it really in the lap of the gods ?

maquiladora

Kan raps Tokyo Electric's handling of nuclear crisis

TOKYO, March 15, Kyodo

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday strongly criticized Tokyo Electric Power Co. for its handling of the earthquake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

''The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier's office for about an hour,'' a Kyodo News reporter overheard Kan saying during a meeting with executives of the power company at its head office. ''What the hell is going on?''

Kan strongly ordered the company not to withdraw its employees from the power plant, which has been facing a series of problems since Friday's massive quake, ranging from explosions to radiation leaks.

''In the event of withdrawal from there, I'm 100 percent certain that the company will collapse,'' Kan said. ''I want you all to be determined.''

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78147.html

maquiladora

For people asking about worst case situations etc.

A 1997 study by the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island described a worst-case disaster from uncovered spent fuel in a reactor cooling pool. It estimated 100 quick deaths would occur within a range of 500 miles and 138,000 eventual deaths.

The study also found that land over 2,170 miles would be contaminated and damages would hit $546 billion.

That section of the Brookhaven study focused on boiling water reactors — the kind at the heart of the Japanese crisis.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42083048

Probably very unlikely to actually happen though. I'm sure serious measures would be taken to prevent that happening.

Blackpitts

Tsunami, earthquakes, nuclear leaks etc...i can't believe at the amount of **** the Japanese population has to cope with.
and here there are revolutions and people slaughtered in Africa...i wonder if "2012" was not only a conspiracy theory...

petes

Blackpitts wrote: »

.i wonder if "2012" was not only a conspiracy theory...

Ehh, was 2012 a conspiracy theory?

Absolutley terrible what they are going through.

Luxie

Insurgent wrote: »

Ehh, was 2012 a conspiracy theory?

Absolutley terrible what they are going through.

They're a pragmatic people and they'll get through this on a practical level eventually.

But what the hell must it be doing to people pschyologically?

maquiladora

6.3 aftershock

Brenireland

Two survivors of the Japan earthquake have been pulled alive from the rubble, four days after the 9.0 magnitude tremor.

A 70-year-old woman was found alive in the quake-hit town of Otsuchi in Iwate prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported. She was suffering from hypothermia but was not in a life-threatening condition, it said, adding that she had been hospitalised.

A man, whose age was not given, was rescued in the town of Ishimaki in Miyagi prefecture, the network said.
Miyagi was particularly badly hit by the quake and the subsequent tsunami that swept away whole towns and villages. Emergency personnel were reported to have found 2,000 bodies in the prefecture on Monday.
The rare rescues came just a day after a four-month-old girl was plucked - apparently uninjured - from the rubble of the town of Ishinomaki.

Well god bless them!,legends.

maquiladora

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/videonews-com-live

Live press conference with Masashi Goto, former design engineer of nuclear containment vessels with Toshiba.

novarock

according to the conference - reactor 2 is going into meltdown. 1 and 3 have a probability of following the same way.

Sykk

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/14/nhk.vo.quake.damage.friday.nhk?hpt=C2

^

Brutal video of the tsunami, this really captures how deadly and powerful the force is... Shocking stuff

bradlente

novarock wrote: »

according to the conference - reactor 2 is going into meltdown. 1 and 3 have a probability of following the same way.

jackiebaron

novarock wrote: »

according to the conference - reactor 2 is going into meltdown. 1 and 3 have a probability of following the same way.

Is "meltdown" the worst case scenario? Is it the worst thing that can happen to a reactor? Fuck's sake, this is scary. Now I'm getting worried.

Cantona's Collars

My missus has a kind of "if it's not happening here it's ok" attitude,had a row the other day over my leaving on the coverage and trying to talk about it.I reckon most women (prepares for backlash) have a similar attitude.If they had a storyline of something similar in one of the soaps it would affect them more.:(

Mr Benevolent

zerks wrote: »

My missus has a kind of "if it's not happening here it's ok" attitude,had a row the other day over my leaving on the coverage and trying to talk about it.I reckon most women (prepares for backlash) have a similar attitude.If they had a storyline of something similar in one of the soaps it would affect them more.:(

Generally they're not as interested in the technical stuff and can't see the relevance it has to us. It actually doesn't have much immediate relevance to us anyway. Still, it's extremely interesting and quite frightening, not to mention educational.

novarock

jackiebaron wrote: »

Is "meltdown" the worst case scenario? Is it the worst thing that can happen to a reactor? Fuck's sake, this is scary. Now I'm getting worried.

I think a big problem here is that people are not being told exactly what "meltdown" means. Im not a physicist, and im only basing things on what i have been reading over the last few days, as is everyone on this forum.

there will be no massive nuclear explosion - there may be high levels of radiation emitted - not in an apocalyptic manner, but I imagine it will be similar to the three mile island incident.

My advice is to not worry until there is something factual to worry about. Nobody on here understands what is going on. Be assured that they have managed to keep this under reasonable control for four days now, and are still doing an amazing job.