8.8 Quake



The media today tell us Petrol prices are going down for a while, like they are the heroes here. The fact is japan wont be using as much and the rest of the World benefit as a result until they are back to normal.

Fucking disgusts me that politicans act so heroic.
 
The UK Media has actually made me sick with disgust - Some of the reporters we have here are a bunch of insensitive bastards.

When it was happening, the reporters were more concerned over how Japans government were reacting, how good a job they were doing etc, rather than just reporting on the actual event.

They just went on, and on, and on with the same questions, are the government reacting positively, how do you feel about the governments reaction, blah blah.

.... and the Japanese people were replying "well... its still happening so we need to give the government time to actually react", which is true. Fuck, i'd love to see what our government would do in this situation... i can guarantee it'd be a massive 'fail' though.

Sorry. I live in the UK, but i get pissed off with the politicians and reporters here who seem hell bent on making other countries look bad when our country is all to shit.
 
magicberry said:
Apparently the plant that has sprung the leak after the explosion yesterday was due to be decomissioned later this month. Apparently there is legislation that says the plants are to run only for 4 years and the areas where these plants are located the jap government issues subsidies for their use and development....
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I guess it would make sense considering what they are doing is trying to use sea water + boron to cool the reactors, which will effectively ruin the reactor. However I haven't seen the 4 year time frame thing in any report.
 
Nowhere have I heard anything about the 4 year rule. Considering this was Japan's oldest reactor at 40 years old though it's still amazing how relatively safe everything is.

Here is an assessment from a guy with knowledge on these matters today:

Sorry to keep you folks waiting, but I have a day job.

The contamination on the 17 US personnel was simple soap and water stuff. I've seen no reports of nasal cavity decon or chest scans or any such in-depth techniques that would be associated with more serious contamination. They probably kept their boots and personal effects but lost one outer set of clothing that they can be reimbursed for. If that's the worst the plume has to offer to prudent helicopter crews, then so far this ain't even in the same galaxy as what happened at Chernobyl, when guys spot welded lead plates on the bottom of the front of their machines and still got lethal doses.

I've still only seen reports of a handful of operators on site getting enough dose to even be examined for radiation sickness. The injuries of note so far have been primarily from falling equipment or steam burns. Probably quite a few have some degree of contamination as well, but apparently not to such a level that treatment of their other injuries would become a lesser priority.

Remember that all these reactors have already been shut down for several days now and are only producing decay heat. They don't have the capability of a prompt criticality event like Chernobyl or SL-1. One of the TV "experts" being interviewed described a nightmare scenario of the fuel elements melting together to form a supercritical mass that could explode, but that idiot obviously doesn't understand that most of the fuel material isn't uranium at all, but is instead zircalloy, zirconium oxide, and other non-fissionable materials that would constitute most of any amalgamated mass of molten slag, and would thus physically separate the existing fuel content into pockets too widely spaced to support a mutual chain reaction, especially in the absence of any water or other material for moderating and reflecting neutrons. MELTDOWN DOES NOT EQUAL EXPLOSION. Meltdown, even complete and total meltdown, just renders the reactor permanently inoperable, but that status is already assumed anyway by the act of pumping seawater into the machine. An excessively hot core plus seawater could create some contaminated steam, but even the atmospheric release of that steam shouldn't be too much of a danger, because the gamma emitting Nitrogen -16 has a half-life measured in seconds, four days of being shut down will have reduced the quantity of available alpha emitters to go airborne, and the flow of seawater can be regulated to control the amount of steam produced.

In short, don't panic. There will be plenty of time for that later.

--
They are just reporting that a third blast just occurred in reactor #2 in the containing pool.

The reading was 8217 microsieverts/hour which equals 821,700 microroentgens per hour.

That's less than 1 Rem per hour at the incident point, and the time/distance/shielding thing works in the surrounding environment's favor. 1R/hr is low enough to enable casualty response with no significant danger of exceeding acute exposure limits.

It ain't good by a long shot, but it's still in the manageable range of bad.
 
Gertex said:
Nowhere have I heard anything about the 4 year rule. Considering this was Japan's oldest reactor at 40 years old though it's still amazing how relatively safe everything is..
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Thanks for posting another update. Please continue to do so as time avails you.
 
I'm having a hard time with this article because if it's true someone seriously fucked up...

Radiation levels spike at Japanese nuclear plant - CNN.com

"Authorities began pumping a mix of sea water and boron into the No. 2 reactor after Monday's explosion, as they have been doing with units 1 and 3. But the pump ran low on fuel when workers left it unattended, and the water soon burned off and exposed the reactor's fuel rods, allowing them to emit levels of heat and steam that can melt the reactor's core.

When that problem was resolved, Edano said, a new problem sent the water levels plummeting again. A valve that was supposed to be open to allow the heat and steam to escape was closed, causing pressure to build up inside the reactor building, according to TEPCO. But pumping had resumed by early Tuesday, Edano said."

They let the pump run out of gas because it was unattended and had their valve settings wrong? Seriously?
 
That's the thing with nukes. Shit happens, as it does with everything, but when it's nukes it's much more of a bummer.

Can we hear more from the know-it-alls that said it was all media hype?
 
geomark said:
That's the thing with nukes. Shit happens, as it does with everything, but when it's nukes it's much more of a bummer.

Can we hear more from the know-it-alls that said it was all media hype?
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I live here. Do you think I'm not watching carefully?

The Western media is fear-mongering. Not about the fact that there's a problem, but about the scale of the threat they are portraying.

And actually it pisses me off because it takes attention away from the earthquake and tsunami victims. There are countless people with no electricity, food, water, or heat right now but everybody's talking about the nuclear shit.
 
Bombastic said:
I live here. Do you think I'm not watching carefully?

The Western media is fear-mongering. Not about the fact that there's a problem, but about the scale of the threat they are portraying.

And actually it pisses me off because it takes attention away from the earthquake and tsunami victims. There are countless people with no electricity, food, water, or heat right now but everybody's talking about the nuclear shit.
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It's the news, they're not interested in the truth, their interested in viewers.
 
Fatbat said:
I'm having a hard time with this article because if it's true someone seriously fucked up...

They let the pump run out of gas because it was unattended and had their valve settings wrong? Seriously?
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Let's put things in perspective for you right now. As it stands right now, the northern part of Japan where this plant is, has been decimated. Pretty much no roadways, electricity and its a wasteland.

The crew in the nuke reactors have been on duty non-stop for pretty close to 4 straight days with minimal support from the outside world. Getting ANYTHING to the plant is an adventure of itself.

After 4 days on the job, tired, hungry and most importantly scared shitless of being blown up mistakes happen. It sucks but it's reality.

However, please do yourself a favor and read the post above again. The reactors have been off-line and every minute the situation improves. Shit can STILL go serious sideways but I venture to guess that the whole Chernobyl is now off the table as a worst case scenario (the way I understand it).

Bombastic: I totally 100% agree with you!!!! It's anti-nuke folks trying to push their 'AGENDA' instead of actually paying attention to the disaster that has already happened.

Chris Matthews on MSNBC is one of the most despicable human beings I know. While showing scenes of the wave hitting Japan on the split screen with people running for their lives and dying, he was contemplating how this could help President Obama in the polls because it would remind folks that he is from Hawaii.... SAY WHAT?????

The one thing I am absolutely amazed at is the courage and order the Japanese people are displaying. There were no reports of looting, people are orderly standing in line and folks are helping each other. Contrast that with the looting in New Orleans and other places around the world after a major disaster.

We haven't even addressed the economic side yet... Honda's shipping facilities??? completely wiped out...
 
Check this out. People are starting to ask a curious question: why is there no looting going on in Japan?

CNN contrasts the behavior of the Japanese to the looting that occurred in Haiti and after Katrina.

Other accounts can be found here, here, and here. And there are a lot of other pieces hitting Google News.

That gets your attention. Got mine, at least.


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