Japan hit by tsunami caused by 8.9 quake; tsunamis landing elsewhere - Page 2 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Lindy · 03-14-2011, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fill23ca

Nuclear officials believe a second hydrogen explosion has occurred at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan....

The ignorant alarmists will, of course, equate hydrogen explosion with hydrogen bomb.

I don't think that enough is known yet to make any judgement. Best to err on the side of caution, but also to avoid hysteria, which helps no one.

Lindy

roachboy · 03-14-2011, 11:19 AM

this from the red cross japan, as of this afternoon (my time):

- 2,000 people confirmed dead

- 10,000 more people expected to be confirmed dead

- 2,000 people injured

- 530,000 people displaced, staying in 2,500 evacuation centres, such as schools and public halls

- 24,000 people still completely isolated and cannot be reached

- 1.2 million homes without power

- 1.4 million homes without water

- 4,700 destroyed houses

- 50,000 damaged houses

- 582 roads cut off

- 32 bridges destroyed

the intermediary site--a blog space at the red cross uk---is down. i found this information here:

Japan tsunami and nuclear alert - live coverage | World news | guardian.co.uk

6:39 pm.

i dont have any sense at all of understanding what this means.
i look at the numbers, know they're likely to change, and think: this is so far outside what i know. it's almost just arbitrary numbers. and they'll get bigger.

tv doesn't help. like danny schechter said a while ago, american tv opts for a sense of "being there" rather than a sense of "being-informed" and so is reduced---and reduces you---to a form of disaster voyeurism.

i don't approve of fuckwits like the people who go all westboro baptist and try to link this disaster to pearl harbor---but you're not being served a whole lot better by the fatuous coverage on the major tv networks. but you're cool with that, seemingly. i guess it's easier to go after the crazies than think about problems with the infotainment delivery system that is, somehow, normal.

anyway, this is useful on the nuclear plant crises:

What the Media Doesn't Get About Meltdowns - Cristine Russell - International - The Atlantic

so's this infographic about the sequence of events:

How the nuclear emergency unfolded | The Washington Post

hunnychile · 03-14-2011, 07:58 PM

For anyone who wishes to donate money -even if it's only $10. - to help the people in Japan, several TV channels have suggested
redcross.org

(I hope this is OK with our mods) I'm unemployed but plan to send something. It's just too sad!

ASU2003 · 03-14-2011, 08:53 PM

I'm surprized that there aren't control rods that can be inserted to shut the reactor down. They were saying it might take 100 days to shut it down on the News, which doesn't seem right...

I guess we need to redesign nuclear power plants again.

Charlatan · 03-14-2011, 09:16 PM

The designs used for these plants are the same ones that were developed for the US Navy to use on their Atomic vessels. The guy who developed them, apparently, didn't think they should be used for nuclear power plants.

The plants are based on designs developed about 42 years ago... The time to upgrade has passed.

bagatelle · 03-15-2011, 01:26 AM

People here in Finland are very far from Japan, yet all iodine is sold out in pharmacies.

Charlatan · 03-15-2011, 01:32 AM

Wow. That's paranoia.

The_Jazz · 03-15-2011, 05:47 AM

Just in case you aren't freaked out enough about the nuclear crisis, here's another little ditty:

Quote:

In Stricken Fuel-Cooling Pools, a Danger for the Longer Term
Even as workers race to prevent the radioactive cores of the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan from melting down, concerns were growing that nearby pools holding spent fuel rods could pose an even greater danger.

The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese have been unable to take emergency steps because of the multiplying crises.

The threat is that the hot fuel will boil away the cooling water and catch fire, spreading radioactive materials far and wide in dangerous clouds.

The good news is that the Japanese have a relatively long time to deal with the problem. Nuclear experts estimate the timeline for serious problems that could lead to a reactor meltdown as minutes to hours, and put the comparable time for cooling pools at days to weeks.

The bad news is that if efforts to deal with the emergency fail, the results could be worse.

The pools are a worry at the stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant because at least two of the three have lost their roofs in explosions, exposing the spent fuel pools to the atmosphere. By contrast, reactors have strong containment vessels that stand a better chance of bottling up radiation from a meltdown of the fuel in the reactor core.

Were the spent fuel rods in the pools to catch fire, nuclear experts say, the high heat would loft the radiation in clouds that would spread the radioactivity.

Its worse than a meltdown, said David A. Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists who worked as an instructor on the kinds of General Electric reactors used in Japan. The reactor is inside thick walls, and the spent fuel of Reactors 1 and 3 is out in the open.

A spokesman for the Japanese company that runs the stricken reactors said in an interview on Monday that the spent fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini plants had been left uncooled since shortly after the quake.

The company, Tokyo Electric, has not been able to cool the spent fuel pools because power has been knocked out, said Johei Shiomi, the spokesman. There may be some heating up, he said.

Some scientists said that a worst-case outcome was unlikely and that the Japanese would probably have enough time to act before too much water boiled away. Firefighters with hoses can pour in water, they said, or helicopters could drop tons of water.

Im still hopeful that they can contain all this, Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council , a private group in Washington, said in an interview. Youve got time to put fire hoses up there and get it filled if its not leaking, he said of the pool.

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.

The threat is considered so severe that at the start of the crisis Friday, immediately after the shattering earthquake, Fukushima plant officials focused their attention on a damaged storage pool for spent nuclear fuel at the No. 2 reactor at Daiichi, said a nuclear executive who requested anonymity because his company is not involved in the emergency response at the reactors and is wary of antagonizing other companies in the industry.

The damage prompted the plants management to divert much of the attention and pumping capacity to that pool, the executive added. The shutdown of the other reactors then proceeded badly, and problems began to cascade.

Mr. Shiomi of Tokyo Electric said that in addition to the power and cooling failures, some water had spilled from the pools.

But he said that the company thought there was relatively little danger that temperatures would rise.

If you compare this to everything thats been going on, Mr. Shiomi said, its not serious.

Each of the crippled reactors in Japan has one cooling pool sitting atop the main concrete structure. Thin roofs and metal walls usually surround the pools.

In a reactor pool, the time it takes uncooled fuel to begin boiling the surrounding water depends on how much fuel is present and how old it is. Fresh fuel is hotter in terms of radiation than old fuel is.

Mr. Lochbaum, who formerly taught reactor operation for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission , said the pools measured about 40 feet long, 40 feet wide and 45 feet deep. The spent fuel, he added, rested at the pools bottom and rose no higher than 15 feet from the bottom.

That means that in normal operations, the spent fuel is covered by about 30 feet of cooling water.

Depending on the freshness of the spent fuel, Mr. Lochbaum said, the water in an uncooled pool would start to boil in anywhere from days to a week. The water would boil off to a dangerous level in another week or two.

Once most of the fuel is exposed, he said, it can catch fire.

If the spent fuel is a few months old, most of the iodine 131 one of the most dangerous radioactive byproducts in spent fuel will have decayed into harmless forms.

But the cesium 137 in the spent fuel has a half-life of 30 years, meaning it would take about two centuries to diminish its levels of radioactivity down to 1 percent.

It is cesium 137 that still contaminates much land in Ukraine around the Chernobyl reactor, which suffered a meltdown in 1986.

I assume they are doing triage, Mr. Lochbaum said of the Japanese, with emergency personnel first trying to avoid core meltdowns and then turning their attention to the cooling pools.

He added that the explosions at the reactors at Daiichi could complicate efforts to try to reach the cooling pools and keep them filled with water.

Theres no telling whats up there, he said.

---------- Post added at 08:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 AM ----------

Apparently, the worst case is happening and I was reading an article that was written before the event started:

Quote:

SOMA, Japan – Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had spread from the four stricken reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant along Japan's northeastern coast. The region was shattered by Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that is believed to have killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy.

Japanese officials told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the reactor fire was in a fuel storage pond â€” an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool â€” and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere." Long after the fire was extinguished, a Japanese official said the pool might still be boiling, though the reported levels of radiation had dropped dramatically by the end of the day.

That reactor, Unit 4, had been shut down before the quake for maintenance.

If the water boils, it could evaporate, exposing the rods. The fuel rods are encased in safety containers meant to prevent them from resuming nuclear reactions, nuclear officials said. But they acknowledged that there could have been damage to the containers. They also confirmed that the walls of the storage pool building were damaged.

[Related: What is acute radiation syndrome?]

Experts noted that much of the leaking radiation was apparently in steam from boiling water. It had not been emitted directly by fuel rods, which would be far more virulent, they said.

"It's not good, but I don't think it's a disaster," said Steve Crossley, an Australia-based radiation physicist.

Even the highest detected rates were not automatically harmful for brief periods, he said.

"If you were to spend a significant amount of time â€” in the order of hours â€” that could be significant," Crossley said.

Radiation level soars after Japan nuke plant fire - Yahoo! News

roachboy · 03-15-2011, 06:50 AM

Quote:

12.55pm: The Kyodo news agency has a very useful update on the status, as of Tuesday evening in Japan, of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima No. 2 plant:

Fukushima No. 1

Reactor No. 1 - Cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, hydrogen explosion, seawater pumped in.

Reactor No. 2 - Cooling failure, seawater pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, damage to containment system, potential meltdown feared.

Reactor No. 3 - Cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater pumped in, hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby.

Reactor No. 4 - Under maintenance when quake struck, fire caused possibly by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, pool water levels feared receding.

Reactor No. 5 - Under maintenance when quake struck.

Reactor No. 6 - Under maintenance when quake struck.

Fukushima No. 2

Reactor No. 1 - Cooling failure, then cold shutdown.

Reactor No. 2 - Cooling failure, then cold shutdown.

Reactor No. 3 - Cold shutdown.

Reactor No. 4 - Cooling failure, then cold shutdown.

12.48pm: Documents from Japan's national institute of radiological sciences advising on decontamination procedure in the event of exposure to radiation from Fukushima have been translated into English in a Google doc (via @rick1 on Twitter).

General Decontamination Procedure (if water is unavailable)

• Remove your clothes and shoes and place them in a plastic bag.

• Wipe yourself down with cloth or a wet tissue (afterwards place the cloth or wipe in the plastic bag and throw the bag and its contents away).

General Decontamination Procedure (When water is available)

• Remove your shoes and clothes and place them in a plastic bag.

• Wipe yourself down with cloth or a wet tissue (afterwards place the cloth or wipe in the plastic bag and throw the bag and contents away).

Follow the procedure below if shower is available

• Wash your hair with shampoo.

• Wash your face. (with soap or body wash)

• Wash your body. Including the inside of your ears and under your fingernails (with soap or body wash)

• Wash the clothes in the laundry or if you are still concerned, dispose of the clothes.

Japan nuclear crisis and tsunami - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk

blahblah454 · 03-15-2011, 04:06 PM

Very scary stuff. I hope the world can band together and do what they can to help the Japanese out with their reactors.

I also hope this doesn't stop the world from safely using nuclear power as a source of energy. I am guessing all the nut jobs out there will be waving signs at every nuclear power plant in short order.

Baraka_Guru · 03-16-2011, 12:50 PM

A lot of concern. A lot of questions.

Quote:

No water in spent fuel pool at Japanese plant: U.S.
By: CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Wednesday Mar. 16, 2011 1:17 PM PT

A U.S. official says all of the water is gone from one of the spent fuel rod pools at Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, meaning there is nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and eventually melting down, but Japan denies the claim.

The outer shell of the rods could also explode with enough force to propel radioactive fuel over a wide area, if Gregory Jaczko, chief of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is correct.

He said the problem is at the complex's Unit 4 reactor.

Jaczko did not say how the information was obtained but the organization and the U.S. Department of Energy have experts on the site.

He also said radiation levels are extremely high, which could prevent the workers' ability to stop temperatures from rising.

Japanese nuclear officials and Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the facility, have denied water is gone from the pool.

Earlier Wednesday, emergency crews working at the plant were ordered to temporarily stop efforts to cool the facility's overheating reactors amid a surge in radiation levels.

At a news conference, Japan's top government spokesperson Yukio Edano said the containment vessel of one of the reactors at the plant may have been damaged, possibly sending radioactive steam into the atmosphere.

"A part of the containment vessel is broken and it seems like the vapour is coming out from there. (It) appears to be that vapour is coming out from the broken part," Edano said, explaining that the ongoing effort to spray sea water onto the reactors was disrupted by the approximately hour-long withdrawal.

"The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," Edano said. "Because of the radiation risk we are on standby."

Radiation levels spiked to 1,000 millisieverts per hour before coming down to the 600-800 range later in the day.

An official with the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power later said workers were preparing to return to their perilous work. Since 750 workers were evacuated from the plant on Tuesday, a core team of 50 workers had been rotating in and out of the facility to minimize their radiation exposure.

That number was boosted to 180 on Wednesday, the same day Japan's Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare announced it was raising the allowable radiation exposure limit for the country's nuclear workers. Describing the change as "unavoidable due to the circumstances," the ministry increased the limit from 100 millisieverts to 250.

CTV British Columbia - No water in spent fuel pool at Japanese plant: U.S. - CTV News

Quote:

U.S. shows growing alarm over Japan nuclear "crisis"
By Jeff Mason and Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON | Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:16pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States showed increasing alarm on Wednesday about how Japan was handling its nuclear crisis, urging Americans to leave the area near an earthquake-crippled power plant and relying on U.S. experts for updates.

Without criticizing the Japanese government, which has shown signs of being overwhelmed by the crisis, U.S. officials admitted their call for American citizens to evacuate the area near the Fukushima nuclear plant went further than Japanese advice.

The State Department recommended that U.S. citizens within 50 miles of the Fukushima plant leave the area or stay indoors "if safe evacuation is not practical."

Japan's government has asked people living within 12 miles of the Fukushima plant to evacuate and those between 12 miles and 18 miles to stay indoors

The State Department's warning to U.S. citizens was based on new information collected by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy and other U.S. sources.

The top U.S. nuclear regulator told Congress on Wednesday that radiation levels around Japan's troubled nuclear power plant may give emergency workers "lethal doses" of radiation, preventing them from getting near the plant.

"We believe that around the reactor site there are high levels of radiation," said Gregory Jaczko. "It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time."

The U.S. military has also ordered its forces to stay 50 miles away from the plant, the Pentagon said, outlining a larger no-go zone than the one Japan has recommended.

"This is a very serious situation at this nuclear plant," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"We are concerned enough that we have offered a great deal of assistance to the Japanese and we have our own experts on the ground both assisting and evaluating information independently for that reason."

Earlier on Wednesday, another fire broke out a the nuclear facility, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours.

Carney said President Barack Obama had been briefed about the deteriorating situation.

The United States is trying to deploy equipment in Japan that can detect radiation exposure at the ground level, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a congressional hearing.

The detection system is part of the 1,700 pounds (771 kg) of equipment and 39 personnel from the Energy Department sent to Japan, Chu said. The department has also provided equipment to monitor airborne radiation.

CONFLICTING REPORTS
Chu declined to tell lawmakers, when asked, whether he was satisfied with Japan's response so far to its nuclear crisis.

"I can't really say. I think we hear conflicting reports," Chu said.

"This is one of the reasons why ... (the United States is) ... there with boots on the ground, with detectors in the ground, not only to help assist (the) Japanese power company and the Japanese government but also for our own sake to know what is really happening."

The Obama administration has maintained its support for expanding U.S. use of nuclear energy despite renewed fears about its safety after the events in Japan.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the nuclear crisis raised questions about the use of nuclear energy in the United States.

"What's happening in Japan raises questions about the costs and the risks associated with nuclear power, but we have to answer those. We get 20 percent of our energy right now in the United States from nuclear power," she said in an interview with MSNBC in which she emphasized the need for a comprehensive U.S. energy policy. LINK

(Writing by Jeff Mason; reporting by Ayesha Rascoe, David Morgan and Phil Stewart).

U.S. shows growing alarm over Japan nuclear crisis | Reuters

noodle · 03-16-2011, 01:15 PM

What frustrates me is that there are so many people talking about "how awful thing in Japan are" and yet they haven't watched any footage, they have little useable knowledge, and they're just regurgitating what people put in their status reports on Facebook.
One lady was talking about the "nu-cue-lar explosion the other day"... I had to bite my tongue from first correcting her pronounciation and secondly asking her to explain the explosion since she obviously had no idea what really happened.
The worst was when I asked a doc I work with (out of pure curiosity) what people like me would do in the event of a nuclear explosion since I'm allergic to iodine... she asked what that had to do with a nuclear event.
I less-than-three Southerners.

roachboy · 03-16-2011, 01:36 PM

this seems to me a good thing to keep in mind:

Quote:

#
1633: Dr Richard Wakeford of the University of Manchester in the UK says the real health risks come from the consequences of the quake and tsunami, not the radiation. "If this was a developing country, we'd have people going down in their hundreds and thousands with the likes of typhoid and cholera by now. The questions should be: Where is the sewage going? What is the state of the drinking water? If I were a public health official, that would be my principle concern," he told Reuters.

via bbc's live blog

BBC News - LIVE: Japan earthquake

Baraka_Guru · 03-16-2011, 02:16 PM

rb, I would like to think that these more pressing issues are being discussed on the local/regional levels in Japan.

As far as international news is concerned, a nuclear "event" is much, much higher profile.

Fremen · 03-16-2011, 04:37 PM

I think some of those guys are going to have to pull a Mr. Spock, and get in there and save the nuclear wessles, no matter the radiation levels. It'd be for the greater good.

Craven Morehead · 03-16-2011, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fremen

I think some of those guys are going to have to pull a Mr. Spock, and get in there and save the nuclear wessles, no matter the radiation levels. It'd be for the greater good.

Those who perished doing the same at Chernobyl were treated as national heroes and have tended graves. In Japan they are now referred to as the Fukushima 50.

Fukushima heroes: Not afraid to die - CBS Evening News - CBS News

Deep respect from the other side of the world.

Craven Morehead · 03-17-2011, 02:09 PM

A somewhat technical but very interesting blog on the status of the reactors, probably the most concise and complete account I've seen anywhere

MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub (http://web.mit.edu/nse/) | Information about the incident at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants in Japan hosted by http://web.mit.edu/nse/ :: Maintained by the students of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering a

Craven Morehead · 03-19-2011, 08:14 PM

Interesting graphic showing the radiation at Fukushima Daiichi in relation to sleeping with someone all the way to Chernobyl.

I also read today that power has been partially restored to the nuclear plant. And in the same article it mentioned that reactor 3 was using plutonum/uranium fuel rods.

Weapons grade radiation, anyone?

Zeraph · 03-20-2011, 11:23 AM

Poor japan, always getting radiation....but I guess that's what it takes to make godzilla!

03-14-2011, 11:19 AM	#42 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	this from the red cross japan, as of this afternoon (my time): - 2,000 people confirmed dead - 10,000 more people expected to be confirmed dead - 2,000 people injured - 530,000 people displaced, staying in 2,500 evacuation centres, such as schools and public halls - 24,000 people still completely isolated and cannot be reached - 1.2 million homes without power - 1.4 million homes without water - 4,700 destroyed houses - 50,000 damaged houses - 582 roads cut off - 32 bridges destroyed the intermediary site--a blog space at the red cross uk---is down. i found this information here: Japan tsunami and nuclear alert - live coverage \| World news \| guardian.co.uk 6:39 pm. i dont have any sense at all of understanding what this means. i look at the numbers, know they're likely to change, and think: this is so far outside what i know. it's almost just arbitrary numbers. and they'll get bigger. tv doesn't help. like danny schechter said a while ago, american tv opts for a sense of "being there" rather than a sense of "being-informed" and so is reduced---and reduces you---to a form of disaster voyeurism. i don't approve of fuckwits like the people who go all westboro baptist and try to link this disaster to pearl harbor---but you're not being served a whole lot better by the fatuous coverage on the major tv networks. but you're cool with that, seemingly. i guess it's easier to go after the crazies than think about problems with the infotainment delivery system that is, somehow, normal. anyway, this is useful on the nuclear plant crises: What the Media Doesn't Get About Meltdowns - Cristine Russell - International - The Atlantic so's this infographic about the sequence of events: How the nuclear emergency unfolded \| The Washington Post __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 03-14-2011 at 11:24 AM..

03-14-2011, 07:58 PM	#43 (permalink)
hunnychile Alien Anthropologist Location: Between Boredom and Nirvana	For anyone who wishes to donate money -even if it's only $10. - to help the people in Japan, several TV channels have suggested redcross.org (I hope this is OK with our mods) I'm unemployed but plan to send something. It's just too sad! __________________ "I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB

03-14-2011, 09:16 PM	#45 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	The designs used for these plants are the same ones that were developed for the US Navy to use on their Atomic vessels. The guy who developed them, apparently, didn't think they should be used for nuclear power plants. The plants are based on designs developed about 42 years ago... The time to upgrade has passed. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

03-15-2011, 01:26 AM	#46 (permalink)
bagatelle Psycho Location: Europe	People here in Finland are very far from Japan, yet all iodine is sold out in pharmacies. __________________ Life is...

03-15-2011, 01:32 AM	#47 (permalink)
Charlatan Getting it. Super Moderator Location: Lion City	Wow. That's paranoia. __________________ "My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars." - Old Man Luedecke

03-14-2011, 08:53 PM	#44 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	I'm surprized that there aren't control rods that can be inserted to shut the reactor down. They were saying it might take 100 days to shut it down on the News, which doesn't seem right... I guess we need to redesign nuclear power plants again.

03-15-2011, 04:06 PM	#50 (permalink)
blahblah454 Let's put a smile on that face Location: On the road...	Very scary stuff. I hope the world can band together and do what they can to help the Japanese out with their reactors. I also hope this doesn't stop the world from safely using nuclear power as a source of energy. I am guessing all the nut jobs out there will be waving signs at every nuclear power plant in short order.

03-16-2011, 02:16 PM	#54 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	rb, I would like to think that these more pressing issues are being discussed on the local/regional levels in Japan. As far as international news is concerned, a nuclear "event" is much, much higher profile. __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

03-16-2011, 04:37 PM	#55 (permalink)
Fremen With a mustache, the cool factor would be too much Location: left side of my couch, East Texas	I think some of those guys are going to have to pull a Mr. Spock, and get in there and save the nuclear wessles, no matter the radiation levels. It'd be for the greater good. __________________ Google

03-17-2011, 02:09 PM	#57 (permalink)
Craven Morehead Custom User Title	A somewhat technical but very interesting blog on the status of the reactors, probably the most concise and complete account I've seen anywhere MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub (http://web.mit.edu/nse/) \| Information about the incident at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants in Japan hosted by http://web.mit.edu/nse/ :: Maintained by the students of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering a

03-19-2011, 08:14 PM	#58 (permalink)
Craven Morehead Custom User Title	Interesting graphic showing the radiation at Fukushima Daiichi in relation to sleeping with someone all the way to Chernobyl. I also read today that power has been partially restored to the nuclear plant. And in the same article it mentioned that reactor 3 was using plutonum/uranium fuel rods. Weapons grade radiation, anyone?

03-20-2011, 11:23 AM	#59 (permalink)
Zeraph Banned Location: The Cosmos	Poor japan, always getting radiation....but I guess that's what it takes to make godzilla!