Mega 8.4 quake and tsunami in Japan Fri 11 March

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Mega 8.4 quake and tsunami in Japan Fri 11 March

Postby tubeswell » Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:24 am

My humble condolences to those who have lost loved ones and whose lives are upturned. The pictures on TV look pretty scary. Mrs tubeswell and I were watching a live Newscast of the pandemonium on the Japanese national english language TV channel just now and the broadcast went blank.
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Postby MM_Dandy » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:03 pm

That is very scary.

From what I understand, Japan has top-notch disaster response and recovery systems, and earthquake-resistant building codes. Nevertheless, my heart goes out to all involved as well.
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Postby Arneb » Fri Mar 11, 2011 4:11 pm

300 killed up until now. This is extremely sad, and I second tubeswells' condolences.
However, given the images we're getting at the moment, "only" 300 killed is also a towering achievement. Look at the large fishing boatsbeing thrown hundreds of meters inland... Hats off.
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Postby Enzo » Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:19 pm

Where we live, pretty much all nature can throw at us is tornado storms. And if one hits you, goodbye. But it is the sort of thing that can knock down your neighbor's house and not touch yours. Most of them miss most of us. We have nothing in our direct experience that causes massive widespread destruction. I cannot imagine what it must be like for those people. Best hopes and wishes to them.
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Postby Blue Monster 65 » Fri Mar 11, 2011 6:32 pm

One of our friends was taking her family home to Tokyo this morning to visit her parents (Grandma & Grandpa). She posted from the airport that she - for the first time in her life - wasn't sure she wanted to return to Japan. It's hard to fathom what she - they - are facing.
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Postby Arneb » Fri Mar 11, 2011 6:53 pm

Enzo wrote:Where we live, pretty much all nature can throw at us is tornado storms. And if one hits you, goodbye. But it is the sort of thing that can knock down your neighbor's house and not touch yours. Most of them miss most of us. We have nothing in our direct experience that causes massive widespread destruction. I cannot imagine what it must be like for those people. Best hopes and wishes to them.


..:and we here don'T even havbe tornadoes...

More than thousand at the last count. The pictures are horrid. What a tragedy.
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Postby Blue Monster 65 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:26 am

No news from Keiko. Not sure if she's in the states or on her way to Japan.
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Postby tubeswell » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:36 am

More bad news - the Fukushima reactor exploded about an hour ago (as I write this)
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Postby Arneb » Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:47 pm

According to FAZ.net, 10.000 missing person in one harbour city Miyamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture) alone. :shock:

As they wrote in one article, the disaster is far from over yet.
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Postby Мастер » Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:16 pm

This guy yammering on Russia Today is saying this situation is completely different from Chernobyl, since that one was caused by human error, and this one was caused by a natural disaster.
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Postby tubeswell » Sat Mar 12, 2011 8:52 pm

Mactep wrote:This guy yammering on Russia Today is saying this situation is completely different from Chernobyl, since that one was caused by human error, and this one was caused by a natural disaster.


Moot point. Either way the accidental (or otherwise) failure of a nuclear power station has ongoing catastrophic consequences for the environment (of which humanity is an inextricably bound part), which is a pretty good argument for not having nuclear power altogether.

According to the venerabe wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_ener ... onsumption, the world has 436 reactors as of December 2009, give or take a few - but that's wiki, so what the hell?

However, with the failure of Three Mile island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and now Fukushima in 2011, that is an average of 1 failure per 10.6 years so far - not a pretty track record considering the evil long-term consequences. All of these 'accidents' are consequences of deliberate choices made by humans to utilise nuclear power.

What's more, so Fukushima was 'old', so was Chernobyl - but how many more 'old' reactor accidents are out there? The reactor in the Kursk at the bottom of the Barents Sea springs to mind. What others don't we know about? Besides that, even new reactors will become 'old' liabilities eventually. People who think nuclear power is safe and clean are living under a blanket of delusional irresponsibility.
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Postby KLA2 » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:16 am

Waitaminute here, folks. This Is not GLP.There has not been a meltdown or catastrophic failure, nor is there likely to be.

"What we have seen is only the slight indication from a monitoring post of cesium and iodine," he said. Since then, he said, plant officials have injected sea water and boron into the plant in an effort to cool its nuclear fuel and stop any reactions.
"We have some confidence, to some extent, to make the situation to be stable status," he said. "We actually have very good confidence that we will resolve this."


http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... tml?hpt=T1
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Postby MM_Dandy » Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:50 am

I think that there's at least been a partial meltdown so far; that's how the small amounts cesium and iodine got into the environment from what I understand. But you're right: it's a far cry from Chernobyl. More like Three-Mile Island, only the hydrogen bubble exploded.
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Postby Мастер » Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:30 am

tubeswell wrote:Moot point.


Yes, I agree. If it does meltdown, I don't think the people getting irradating will say, "Oh, it's OK, I don't mind, because it wasn't operating error, it was an earthquake." For one, they'll say it in Japanese :)
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Postby Мастер » Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:32 am

KLA2 wrote:Waitaminute here, folks. This Is not GLP.There has not been a meltdown or catastrophic failure, nor is there likely to be.


Bugger. Forgot where I was again :)

Fair enough, but if the post mortem indicates it came close, that's perhaps an indication that it might be a good idea to do things differently.
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Postby KLA2 » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:51 pm

Mactep wrote:
KLA2 wrote:Waitaminute here, folks. This Is not GLP.There has not been a meltdown or catastrophic failure, nor is there likely to be.


Bugger. Forgot where I was again :)

Fair enough, but if the post mortem indicates it came close, that's perhaps an indication that it might be a good idea to do things differently.


Absolutely agreed. I hope tubeswell does not feel I jumped on him.

The earth shakes, bakes, sloshes, rattles and blows.

There will be earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and hurricanes.

If nuclear reactors cannot be made absolutely failsafe in the face of such events, perhaps they should not be used at all.

I am not at all pleased by the cool appraisal of an "expert" who stated that an earthquake that could cause a catastrophic failure would be a "one in 10,000 year event."

Have one today, and we should be good to go for another 9,999 years. :roll:

Statistics. :evil:
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Postby tubeswell » Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:49 am

Meanwhile the nuclear catastrophe continues to intensify.

Anyone willing to review their earlier optimism about how bad this is going to get?

'partial meltdowns have cracked as much as 70 percent of the fuel rods in reactor No. 1, according to NHK, the Japanese government broadcaster. And the fuel rods in reactor No. 3 were exposed to the air for hours—causing a build up of steam and hydrogen that raised pressures and may have cracked the massive steel suppression pool designed to cool the radioactive core and trap radioactive materials. Without the workers' efforts, cooling could not continue at the stricken nuclear power plant and a full fuel meltdown would very likely ensue."

from here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ma-workers
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Postby Мастер » Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:20 am

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Postby Superluminal » Sun Mar 20, 2011 12:11 am

Any idea how much radiation has been released compaired with Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
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Postby Enzo » Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:27 am

Not yet. Still waiting for Glenn Beck to tie it in with Hitler.
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Postby tubeswell » Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:09 pm

As at 15 Sept 2011

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Postby KLA2 » Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:52 am

:cry: "Safe limit???"

The "safe limit" on the number of floors you can fall from off the Empire State Building is 101. Provided you start from the top. :evil:
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Postby tubeswell » Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:27 am

KLA2 wrote::cry: "Safe limit???"

The "safe limit" on the number of floors you can fall from off the Empire State Building is 101. Provided you start from the top. :evil:


Well I guess that's Japanese Food Sanitation Law for you (or for Japanese food sanitation). Helps serve to remind me not to eat Japanese food any time soon.
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