Japanese Earthquake

[segedunum]

It's just horrendous isn't it?

This earthquake was massive but it doesn't seem to have sunk in just how massive. The tsunami seems to have taken most of the headlines but thankfully the Japanese buildings largely seem to have held up pretty well otherwise things would have been much worse. If that was anywhere else, including the Eastern seaboard of the US, everything would have been flattened.

[forty-two]

Absolutely horrific.

I suspect that Seg is right, the buildings in the cities seem to have held up remarkably well, I fear however that the true scale of the devastation will not become apparent for several days yet.

As for the nuclear incident, I fear that this could turn out to be significantly worse than is currently being suggested. But perhaps it's the "least worst" situation now possible?

There is a hindsight point of view, which would question the sense of building nuclear reactors in a heavy earthquake zone albeit with this factored into the design, but frankly all that is moot right now. Lessons should still be learnt from this.

[Shrieker]

Interior radiation levels 1,000 times than normal

Bad, bad news for the people working there

[manchild]

Update from Associated Press

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ ... TE=DEFAULT

Evacuation zone was more than tripled to 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) after authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.

The government declared a state of emergency at the Daiichi unit - the first at a nuclear plant in Japan's history. But hours later, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site in northeastern Japan, announced that it had lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site.

"With evacuation in place and the ocean-bound wind, we can ensure the safety." Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano

Completely atypically hypocrite statement that no one would expect from traditionally ethical Japanese politician. They can ensure safety if no one is there to face the existing danger, and if wind blows as they hope?! What is their contribution in all of that? Radiation will do what, drop in the ocean and disappear?

They are already deploying special army units and vehicles designed to operate under nuclear war conditions.

[pipex]

I'm pretty sad for the people in Japan. I hope that they recover from this disaster...

[manchild]

Just watched Japanese NHK news.

Situation in one of the nukes is terrible. All of 14 diesel power generators for emergency cooling of reactors have been instantly disabled by the quake itself!

They are now considering rotating workers who are manually operating systems to reduce their exposure to radiation which is too high, or to get in some remote controlled machinery/robots to replace the workers.

[WhiteBlue]

I just hope that they get electricity to the failed reactors to prevent the melting of the fuel rods and a full blown run away reaction. A demonstration how safe nuclear energy is in areas with tectonic risks like Japan.

[manchild]

It blew up.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/ ... SS20110312

[forty-two]

Exclusion zone has been increased to 20km following the explosion.

Pundits are saying that the explosion, so far was a steam explosion rather than a "nuclear" explosion. The containment building has been all but destroyed, but the metal reactor container is "unlikely" to have been damaged.

Either way, partially radioactive steam has been released in fairly large quantities into the atmosphere.

No word yet on if a complete meltdown has happened or is likely to happen.

[WhiteBlue]

Good report by an American expert.

The root of the problem is the lack of cooling to the fuel rods. The residual heat that cannot be carried away if the water pumps have no energy will lead to the water cooking and vapour collecting in the reactor vessel. Engineers have been venting the reactor vessels of various reactors for hours to prevent massive build up of steam that can blow up a complete reactor.

When the water is not replaced fast enough the water level obviously will fall and the top of the fuel rods will not be cooled at all. The danger is that the steel tube which contains the fuel (uranium/plutonium) will overheat and pieces of the radioactive fuel will start to contaminate the water and the vapour. That has obviously already happened because Caesium has been found in the area surrounding the plant. This can only happen when the barrier of the containment of the fuel rod and the reactor vessel have been overcome by radioactive matter from the fuel. Under normal circumstances no Caesium will be found.

The steam or hydrogen explosion which we heard about indicates that one of the reactor must have at least partially run away and that the reactor basically is lost. All that can be done now is to try and keep the damaged core as cool as possible as and when cooling fluid is available. Because the reactor is now open to the environment it means that the process will continually produce radioactive water and steam that is contaminated with fuel and waste debris.

In that situation the Japanese will try to avoid a Chernobyl type situation where the complete core melted and a steam explosion distributed a substantial percentage of the radioactive fuel and waste over Europe. That has obviously not happened at Fukushima. Let's hope it does not come this far. It probably makes sense to follow the American hint and kill the reactor with radiation absorbing boron coolant.

We can be happy that this was one of the conventional light water reactors that was hit by the problem. The new breading reactors that Japan and many other countries are developing and some are actually running are using liquid metal (sodium) instead of water. When the sodium gets in contact with air as in an overheating scenario that we see now, it starts to burn and creates a huge fire. I just can't get it through my head that people think this can ever be safe, particularly in an earth quake and tsunami zone.

[manchild]

I have huge doubts about recent reports saying that level of radiation has dropped.

read this:

"The authorities also say they are making preparations to distribute iodine to residents in the area of both the plants," the IAEA said in a statement.

"The IAEA has reiterated its offer of technical assistance to Japan, should the government request this," it said.

Copyright Reuters, 2011

Why would they distribute iodine unless the situation isn't much worse than it was yesterday?

I think IAEA should have sent their controllers instantly, instead of taking reports from Japanese politicians as 100% truth. This isn't risk to Japan only, but to whole planet. They've already polluted atmosphere with radioactive steam and smoke following explosions. Now they plan to use Pacific ocean as dump for drained radioactivity from the nuclear power plant.

Pacific ocean isn't Japanese property to use it as dump just to save themselves, it is part of the planet belonging to all of us, affecting every form of life, from plants to ourselves.

[Pup]

I'm sure the iodine distribution is due to the explosion, which released a lot of radioactive steam.

Drained radioactivity?

[timbo]

I have huge doubts about recent reports saying that level of radiation has dropped.

If there was a radioactive steam blowoff, you would expect that local radioactivity level would sharply rise and then drop via mixing with atmosphere.
Iodine distribution is a precautionary measure to prevent iodine isotope adsorption.
So everything seem to confirm a one-time leak.
Right now it is important to have adequate cooling to prevent meltdown.

[feynman]

.....

[Giblet]

Hey guys lets tone it down a bit. Opinions will differ on how to mitigate a disaster that is yet unknown. No need to attack other users for their opinions. If you want to get reliable and informed opinions about what is happening in the world, coming to an F1 forum is the wrong place. This thread is still open as so far it has mostly been discussion.

The Japanese rely quite heavily on seafood for sustenance. More than many other countries, however, the amount of radiation we are talking about

I have heard that another nuke plant voiced that they are not sure how bad the damage is there and can't comment at the plant that had the explosion. The fact is, that know exactly what is going on as we can see it plain as day, so many people are taking this as the Japanese government trying to keep panic from spreading and trying to make it out like it is less than others.