Massive earthquake hits Japan

[The Rich Port]

Okay... There are way too many things going on in the international world...

I'm going to call it: game over, man. Game Over.

[The Corparation]

Latest:

The emergency cooling system is no longer functioning at the No.3 reactor at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility, requiring the facility to urgently secure a means to supply water to the reactor, an official of the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told a news conference.

On Saturday, an explosion blew off the roof and upper walls of the building housing the facility's No. 1 reactor, stirring alarm over a possible major radiation release, although the government later said the explosion had not affected the reactor's core vessel and that only a small amount of radiation had been released.

The nuclear safety agency official said there was a possibility that at least nine individuals had been exposed to radiation, according to information gathered from municipal governments and other sources.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/ ... GI20110312

Oh boy a whole nine people exposed to high radiation. Out of a plant that employs hundreds of people all working to stop the problem in close proximity to the reactors.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Okay... There are way too many things going on in the international world...

I'm going to call it: game over, man. Game Over.

I haven't seen Death playing his guitar while riding a horse, along with his friends Famine, War and Disease, so your argument is invalid.

[The Rich Port]

Okay... There are way too many things going on in the international world...

I'm going to call it: game over, man. Game Over.

I haven't seen Death playing his guitar while riding a horse, along with his friends Famine, War and Disease, so your argument is invalid.

It's called METAPHORIC LANGUAGE, Nightkill.

No wonder you sold me Winry.

[Ceannairceach]

Okay... There are way too many things going on in the international world...

I'm going to call it: game over, man. Game Over.

I haven't seen Death playing his guitar while riding a horse, along with his friends Famine, War and Disease, so your argument is invalid.

Well, I saw a hooded guy riding a horse, playing a guitar, in the park today... >_>

[Daistallia 2104]

Has this "expert" seen the damage at the plant first hand? Does he have any experience working at that kind of plant? Does he in fact have experience working at any plant or is he just a theoretical and laboratory expert? Not that he doesn't know his subject, but I don't think he knows the full situation. I doubt anyone outside the plant with the exception of some government officials knows the full scope of the problems.

I didn't see the report, but given the record of the government, and particularly the agencies involved, I'm inclined to believe that the government is lying.

As a Japanese friend put it on FB:

Familiar patterns of events when Japanese government spokespeople are involved:
There was no leak.
There was a leak but it's not serious.
There is a coolant problem but no chance of a meltdown.
There was a partial meltdown but there won't be an explosion.
There was an explosion...

Or it could be fear mongering. Nuclear energy is hated by many.

I suspect there's a mix of government lies and fear, with the truth somewhere in there to be eventually sorted out.

The big questions in my mind are:
1) whether containment at #1 was breached (there are conflicting reports) and how badly
2) what's going to happen at #3 since they've reportedly lost cooling on that one now.

[Daistallia 2104]

JAPANESE REACTOR CONTAINER BREACHED



As the crisis continues with Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a variety of STRATFOR nuclear science and engineering sources said Japanese government statements that the troubled Unit 1 reactor container has not been breached are highly dubious. Reports of iodine and cesium outside of the plant indicate that the reactor's containment structure has been breached.

Iodine is in the fuel pins and cesium is a particulate, meaning there are heavy particles in the air, which are basically radioactive dust. Selenium 137, which Yomiuri Shimbun reports has been discovered in the surrounding area, is probably a product of the nuclear fission process and a strong demonstration of severe damage to the nuclear reactor's core. The fact that the government has prepared a series of iodine treatments for locals in the vicinity of the nuclear plants suggests it is anticipating the need to prevent iodine exposure.

Meanwhile 90 people were reported as possibly exposed to radiation, including 30 refugees from the area and 60 people on staff at Futaba hospital. Sources suspect that Japan has already undergone "clad failure" (when zirconium in the rods reacts with water) leading to a violent exothermic reaction. This produces large quantities of hydrogen. The March 12 blast was probably caused by a combined steam and hydrogen explosion. The explosion may have destroyed the containment structure in the reactor vessel. This raises the distinct possibility that the core will gain heat to the point that it will melt through the reactor at the bottom of the reactor vessel. While there remain too many uncertainties to make reliable forecasts, the disaster has clearly escalated to a high level. Critical questions will be whether the radiation count rises above 1000 millirems per hour and whether winds should change direction to blow radiation from the north into Tokyo.
Copyright 2011 STRATFOR.

http://www.stratfor.com/memberships/187 ... r-breached

[Daistallia 2104]

Oh boy a whole nine people exposed to high radiation. Out of a plant that employs hundreds of people all working to stop the problem in close proximity to the reactors.

Now at 90 and counting.

[Greed and Death]

How many Americans died due to nuclear power plant disasters? You know, there are also those pesky electrical fires that occur from time to time. Perhaps we can just ban electricity all together? We'd be safer.

Three Mile Island, probably the worst accident in the US, caused residents in the area to be exposed to radiation 3 times less than eating a banana every day for a year. Do your bananas glow in the dark?

What about Chernobyl? HOw much of the surrounding area is basically dead?

Wish I could find that girls link. She did a motorcycle ride through the area and took photos.......

No one is saying nuclear material is safe, people are saying nuclear material is safe when handled in the correct manner, much like fire the basis of our civilization. Chernobyl shows how not to safely run a nuclear power plant.

[NERVUN]

Oh boy a whole nine people exposed to high radiation. Out of a plant that employs hundreds of people all working to stop the problem in close proximity to the reactors.

Now at 90 and counting.

CNN is reporting that the government is actually admitting a meltdown in progress.

In other news, the US military has started helping out (Imsogone, your daughter's base apparently was helping deliver food supplies via helicopter).

Oh, and Major League Baseball is promising to help out too.

[The Rich Port]

Oh, and Major League Baseball is promising to help out too.

Well... I would make a stereotype joke, but I'm afraid it'll be considered trolling.

[DogDoo 7]

Dammit.

My father once wrote an article titled "Mini probabilistic risk assessment of the reduction in core melt frequency due to a core rescue system" (Reliability Engineering, Volume 13, Issue 3, pp. 157-162) - but sciencedirect.com want to charge me $31.50 for the privilege of downloading it.

A mini probabilistic risk assessment was performed in three stages to determine the reduction in core melt frequency due to a core rescue system. The core rescue system is intended to provide a means completely independent from normal ECCS systems of flooding the reactor core and removing decay heat.
The first stage was to determine the dominant core melt sequences for the reference plant (a Westinghouse three loop PWR) without the core rescue system. This was done by comparing the reference plant design with the designs analyzed in six PRAs on Westinghouse PWRs. The second stage was a standard fault tree analysis of the unavailability of various functions of the core rescue system. The third stage was to integrate the core rescue system analysis into the reference plant design and construct event trees to analyze the reduction in core melt frequency due to mitigation of the dominant sequences.

That article is some 20 years old now, but you can see why his opinion would potentially be valuable here if I could establish contact.

Hooray University Access!!!

http://uploading.com/files/bmca955d/ArchScience.pdf/

[Gauthier]

Oh, and Major League Baseball is promising to help out too.

Well... I would make a stereotype joke, but I'm afraid it'll be considered trolling.

Makes sense, a lot of American ballplayers do time in the Japanese league, and on occasion vice versa.

[Liam is the BEST]

Dice K and Ichiro are having a tough time contacting their families, since their power is out and all of the preaseason games have been cancelled. That is how terrible it is up there

[Hypparchia]

Does anyone know whether or not there are underground galleries beneath the reactors in this nuclear power station ?

[Daistallia 2104]

Still no word from cousin. He's going to have some serious apologising to do if he hasn't got a good excuse for the silent treatment

Hoping for you.

Now at 90 and counting.

CNN is reporting that the government is actually admitting a meltdown in progress.

Yappari.

[The Corparation]

Oh boy a whole nine people exposed to high radiation. Out of a plant that employs hundreds of people all working to stop the problem in close proximity to the reactors.

Now at 90 and counting.

Well that particular source said 9.

Has this "expert" seen the damage at the plant first hand? Does he have any experience working at that kind of plant? Does he in fact have experience working at any plant or is he just a theoretical and laboratory expert? Not that he doesn't know his subject, but I don't think he knows the full situation. I doubt anyone outside the plant with the exception of some government officials knows the full scope of the problems.

I didn't see the report, but given the record of the government, and particularly the agencies involved, I'm inclined to believe that the government is lying.

As a Japanese friend put it on FB:

Familiar patterns of events when Japanese government spokespeople are involved:
There was no leak.
There was a leak but it's not serious.
There is a coolant problem but no chance of a meltdown.
There was a partial meltdown but there won't be an explosion.
There was an explosion...

Never said the Japanese government wasn't lying. Just that the ones at the plant are the only ones with the whole story.

[Innfinitus]

Hope Japan can recover.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

The latest thing I heard was that the reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant is being pumped with sea water to try to cool it. Things are tense.

[Daistallia 2104]

Watching Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano's NHK press confrence on CNN now.

#3 reactor has lost cooling, is "in danger", and they're making a controlled venting of air and have released some radioactive material.

[Charlotte Ryberg]

I am very sorry to see such a tragedy happen but I am very grateful to the people of Japan for the readiness because much more would have been lost had it not been for the readiness programme.

[Jari Head]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T2 not only did the main island get moved 8 feet east but the planet's axis got altered by 4 inches

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T2 not only did the main island get moved 8 feet east but the planet's axis got altered by 4 inches

Yup, I read that too.

[A lot of Nomads]

I still have my heart for Japan. What I hate most right now are people saying that it's karma for Pearl Harbor. Now, I don't want to offend anyone. I am an American, but I have to say that I am ashamed right now to be one. Here's the facebook statuses related to Pearl Harbor

All I can do now is donate to Japan. I hope it clears up soon.

[Christantle]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T2 not only did the main island get moved 8 feet east but the planet's axis got altered by 4 inches

Yup, I read that too.

I'm watching this on the news at this very moment.