Japanese Earthquake! 8.9 - 24km* deep

[Zenith]

Can't find the article which said it had melted down now (I hope the got the context right when they quoted)
Weather map I found made it look like wind going up the island from tokyo and turning east off shore so pretty good at the time. (SW winds)

[monpepe]

no meldown....yet......lets hope not. Just an explosion. Meltdown is very different and bad.

[Zenith]

I had read the cement that it was a meltdown, now can not find it again and no other reports of a meltdown.  A guess would be the explosion was the pressure vessel rupturing which would be bad.  
Nothing I can do from a PC in NZ to help, so best I go to bed and hope for the best in the morning

Also beware all the images of Oil refinery fires that a put with "meltdown" stories
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20110312-267777.html

[SteddieEddie]

Taken off the bbc website

Analysts say a meltdown would not necessarily lead to a major disaster because light-water reactors would not explode even if they overheated.

But Walt Patterson, of the London research institute Chatham House, said "this is starting to look a lot like Chernobyl".

He said it was too early to tell if the explosion's aftermath would result in the same extreme level of radioactive contamination that occurred at Chernobyl.

The explosion was most likely caused by melting fuel coming into contact with water, he told the BBC.

[camy205]

God they just need everyone to get the hell of there. I'm praying nothing serious happens.



Slightly off topic, this will surely fuck up the economy for at least a couple of months right?

[kookynic]

the yen has already crashed

[Greaver]

This a copy paste of what I information I have amassed that actually has been confirmed, the stuff that hasn't has been noted as such, its the TL;DR version for those who can't be fucked looking around

Cooling failures occurred in Fukushima Nuclear power stations oldest  reactor just over a day ago, the diesel generators meant to keep coolant  flowing through the reactor failed an hour after coming online  resulting in an increase in pressure.

The electrical systems rely on batteries when a power outage occurs and  are good for 8 hours so the Japanese military (note they call them  defense forces) has been trucking in generators and batteries.

At 07:36 GMT on March 12th a large explosion caused the concrete structure surrounding the reactor to collapse.

It was a hydrogen explosion which was a result of water levels in the reactor falling.

The Japanese government maintains that the situation is under control  but they moved their initial evacuation of the area from 3kms to 10kms  rather quickly, and then last night increased it to 20kms, and they are  stopping anyone from entering the area 60kms from the plant (BBC got  stopped there)

As of last night 300,000 people had been evacuated from the area

The four workers injured during the blast are conscious and their  injuries are described as non life threatening, 30 employees and 60  patients were evacuated from the immediate area, three received a check  up for radiation exposure, two had minor exposure and one had received a  decent dose of radiation, they are being decontaminated but there are  fears they may have contaminated the others during the evacuation.

Worthy of note, the reactor in question was constructed in 1967, first  criticality was in 1970 and it was due to be decommissioned March 26th this  month

According to the World Nuclear Association (note: who apparently have a  reputation for talking shit) one worker in a crane by the stack has  died.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57/Rhys88/Shit/yQGkS.jpg[/IMG]

[Pyromanik]

This shouldn't be as bad as Chernobyl, because well the Russians really fucked that one up.

Yeah. Because when a core explodes and exposes itself to the air you have complete control over radiation containment.

The Soviets fucked up through lack of proceedure for such an event. They didn't have the correct equipment or any clue on what to do about it. They didn't know the core was exposed at first.


What I'm worried about here is the Asian culture of saving face. Hopefully they won't be too ashamed to admit when it's really bad, and not play it down to the news or public (like the Soviets did).

[Greaver]

^ This post is spot on - there are already lots of reports saying things are a hell of a lot worse than we are being told because of honor

And everytime an 'analyst' compares this situation to Chernobyl I want to kick something - That was Human error and a complete lack of understanding in regards to nuclear power and its intricacies.

We are 40 years on now and the Japanese are leaders in most technological fields so everytime they compare this to Chernobyl I really want to kick something

[Ngati_Grim]

That's not anything to do with what I said bro. Don't correct what I didn't say.

. You asked a question sand I replied that topography plays a role.
It wasn't a 'correction'!

[kookynic]

Jesus Grim, do us all a favor and hang yourself

[TofuEater]

. You asked a question sand I replied that topography plays a role.
It wasn't a 'correction'!

He's the Ken Ring of Tsunamis.

[Emrico1]

He's the Ken Ring of Tsunamis.

 

Japanese Earthquake! 8.9 - 24km* deep

This is me on a wave that would kill you in a moment. Just stop a moment and think about it you fucking tool.
You can't even begin to consider the ocean knowledge that comes with 20+ years of chasing storms around the world.

I made pretty good calls, there was a warning, I said nothing would come of it. Did you? What did you offer? Nothing.
Just stop with the baiting and abvious chip on your shoulder. You are now ignored... Again.

[deanox]

^very nice!!!!!

(the photo)

[Ngati_Grim]

Jesus Grim, do us all a favor and hang yourself

Fuck off kocky.

At least I leave pies for others.

[kookynic]

Fuck off kocky.

At least I leave pies for others.

 
Whats with the personal attacks grim?
run out of comebacks?
things not going well at home?

my mate knows a good councillor, here is her details

[kookynic]

on a happier note, all my friends and contacts are safe, my friend Miyuki was the only one i know to be evacuated for the tsunami

[TofuEater]

Japanese Earthquake! 8.9 - 24km* deep

This is me on a wave that would kill you in a moment.

Your arse looks a bit big in those jeans.

[R3DM@N]

Awesome vid

[monpepe]

I have my holiday in japan all paid for and it is meant to start in 3 weeks.

Checked my travel insurance and in the fine print....'do not cover costs for delay caused by a Nuclear Meltdown'...WTF!!!

[Zenith]

Was talking to Dad, they went down to the beach at Whitianga along with hundreds of others and watched the off shore powerboat racing saturday with the Tsunami warning in place.

Don't know what the current state of the Nuclear power stations is, very hard to tell what is current and what is from yesterday with most reports.
Looking at the Google sat image of the site it is right on the coast and although it has big wave breaks heading out to sea, the scale of the Earth quake and tsunami would have been hard to predict.
Also trying to work on site, there would be a lot of water and damaged buildings etc making the job hard.

[Lvl10]

was wondering about the difference between a meltdown and a atomic bomb would be and found this. So Chernobyl was 200 times worse than the 2 bombs dropped in japan my brother has been to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as visiting an atomic museum they have in Nagasaki

Quite obviously this would be much better handled in japan that it was in Chernobyl (if it does happen)

http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/nuclear_disasters/nuclear_disasters.html

he effects of the disaster at Chernobyl were very widespread. The World Health Organization (WHO) found that the radiation release from the Chernobyl accident was 200 times that of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs combined. The fallout was also far-reaching. For a time, radiation levels in a Scotland were 10,000 times the norm. 30 lives were directly lost during the accident or within a few months after it. Many of these lives were those of the workers trying to put out the graphite fire and were lost from radiation poisoning. The radiation released has also had long-term effects on the cancer incidence rate of the surrounding population. According to the Ukrainian Radiological Institute over 2500 deaths resulted from the Chernobyl incident. The WHO has found a significant increase in cancer in the surrounding area. For example, in 1986 (the year of the accident), 2 cases of childhood thyroid cancer occurred in the Gomel administrative district of the Ukraine (this is the region around the plant). In 1993 there were 42 cases, which is 21 times the rate in 1986. The rate of thyroid cancer is particularly high after the Chernobyl accident because much of the radiation was emitted in the form iodine-131, which collects in the thyroid gland, especially in young children. Other cancer incidence rates didn't seem to be affected. For example, leukemia was no more prevalent after the accident than before.

[Lvl10]

also found this

The 480-megawatt Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is a hundred times more powerful than the ill-fated reactor at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine. On April 26, 1986, the Soviet reactor exploded after a power surge. Four hundred times more radioactive material was released from the crippled nuclear power plant than had been by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. The fallout was detected across Europe.

link http://www.infowars.com/japanese-nuclear-meltdown-would-be-hundreds-of-times-worse-than-chernobyl/

[Greaver]

Thats all well and true LVL10 however the design of Fukushima number one means that if a meltdown occurs radiation will not be released into the atmosphere, it will simply melt and head downwards at which stage concrete will be dumped on top. Comparing Atomic bombs to nuclear reactors is also a useless comparison.

Not good for the environment, but a fuck ton better than exposed melting fuel rods pissing radiation into the air

All comparisons between the two are essentially null and void because the reactors are completely different, the engineering and designs are completely different (read forty years different) and on top of that all the structures and exterior support systems were made by the Japanese, I shouldn't have to explain why that matters.

In short even if a meltdown occurs we are not looking at Chernobyl

[BerG]

Was talking to Dad, they went down to the beach at Whitianga along with hundreds of others and watched the off shore powerboat racing saturday with the Tsunami warning in place.
.

I was at the 600 metre line off the shore of Whitianga fishing in the competition when the tsunami warning was in place, along with the other 150 or so boats in the competition.

The tsunami warning was for waves 10cm tall.