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Japan earthquake and tsunami
ShadowDancer
When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie."London, UK
in Zocalo v2.0
Biggles, you ok?
Comments
I can't think of another word for it...just...terrible.
Glad you're ok Biggles!
That Helicopter video of the surge over that farm and farm land was just incredible...
Boston's The Big Picture has just updated some too, [URL="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/03/massive_earthquake_hits_japan.html"]click here to open.[/URL]
Good grief. :(
Also happy youre ok Biggles. First New Zealand, and now Japan. Hope your friends are ok too.
Couldn't believe the footage of the tsunami. Very disturbing watching people be swept away. Must have been terrible for the film crews in the helicopters, so close but unable to help.
Just hope the situation with the nuclear reactor gets under control.
Walking around town there are signs of damage all over the place, but nothing major. Broken windows, fallen roof tiles, the occasionally collapsed wall. The main problem is that the entire town is without water.
I was in Mito earlier in the day, though, and am very glad that I was able to come home half a day early.
[url]http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/03/post-earthquake-images-of-japan.html[/url]
Incidentally, something I was looking at doing at work was forensic radiography (taking images of corpses to compare to dental/medical records etc). I can't help but think there's going to be a lot of demand for that right now. It'd be grim work, but I'd like to do it to help families find answers and get closure. Part of me is glad I don't have to deal with something on this scale tho :(
Basically, it sounds like the reactors have partially melted down, but the containment is doing its job.
With that said, Chernobyl back in 1986 released into the atmosphere and was carried around the globe in the Northern Hemisphere, and there are "arguably" no noticeable effects accept in the vicinity of the reactor.
This time however we have 6 reactors in emergency mode 2 of which are in near meltdown. Might be worse this time if they can't contain it.
Sources: BBC and NYTimes
This appears to be a fairly well-written explanation of what's actually going on, from someone who knows what they're talking about. Unlike all the overseas media I've read, it actually matches what the Tepco engineers have been saying in the many, many press conferences they've given that have been broadcast live on every single Japanese channel (except TV Tokyo, 'cause they're weird).
[url]https://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/[/url]
Best wishes to everyone in Japan who has been affected.
Did containment fail, or media hype (again). So hard to find ANY reliable information right now.
Did containment fail, or media hype (again). So hard to find ANY reliable information right now.[/QUOTE]
There was radiation detected in Kita Ibaraki this morning, which has since dissipated. The level was about 10% of a chest X-ray. Kita Ibaraki is about 25km south of power plants. There was radiation detected in central Tokyo of a level 21 times the normal background level. They detected 0.809 micro-sievert at 10am this morning. There certainly aren't any places with 500x the yearly allowance, let alone the yearly expected dose. The highest has been well under 200x the yearly expected dose - and that was in the vicinity of the reactors. The only people that close are workers running the cooling systems. The increase in Tokyo is most likely from the fire in reactor #4's building, where spent fuel rods are being stored outside of the containment vessel (it's undergoing maintenance, and no, they aren't just lying on the floor). The wind this morning changed to blow from the north-west, which would move it towards Tokyo. The level detected in Tokyo is not high enough to have any effect on people. You get 6 micro-sievert per hour during air travel.
The English media coverage has been abysmal. I wouldn't trust any of it. The Japanese media has generally been much better. All those pictures you see in the western media of people being checked for radiation are people who have left the 20km zone and arrived at an evacuation point, and it's just a precaution (they haven't actually found anyone contaminated yet who wasn't working at the plant).
[list][*]At 8:30AM, they measured 8217μSv in the area of the main gate of the plant.
[*]At 9AM, it had risen to 11930μSv.
[*]At 12:30PM, it had fallen to 1362μSv.
[*]At 3:30PM, it had fallen to 596.4μSv.
[*]The release of radiation was a burst, not continuous, as was feared. The release is assumed to be from #4, where there was a fire in the containment building ([i]not[/i] in the core containment itself). This fire damaged part of the roof of the building. Remember that #4 is one of the reactors that was shut down for maintenance before the quake.
[*]The fire was put out by external methods, so they still need to investigate the situation inside the building.
[*]#1 and #3 are stable and being continuously cooled.
[*]#2 is being cooled but it is too soon to say if it is stable yet or not.
[*]#5 and #6 (both shut for maintenance at the time of the quake) have seen a slight increase in temperature, and so are being monitored.[/list]
There may be translation errors.
See radiation levels have dropped which is a good sign.
I suppose if you have to deal with the consequences of radiation for the rest of your life, as opposed to being dead, it is not much to worry about.
Apparently things are looking up at the site of the stricken reactors. They are getting power and thus the means to restart the pumps to cool down the nuclear rods.
My thoughts go to all those who have to suffer through this tragedy.