Major Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan

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interludes
The "Fukushima Fifty" - the last remaining workers at the plant - have abandoned the facility. It is now completely unmanned.
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The radiation seems to be spiking and going down again in response to various fires and explosions.

Tepco has resumed operations at the plant, as all 6 reactors and associated cooling ponds need watering to one degree or another. The health minister has raised the worker's yearly exposure tolerance from 100 to 250 mSv.

White smoke or steam seems to be issuing on a more or less continuous basis from at least one of the reactor buildings.

Some special US military firetrucks have been issued to the scene. Operated by trained Japanese firemen, these may well turn the tide of battle.

The poor folks in the zone between 20-30 km are suffering something terrible. They are confined to their sealed buildings with diminishing supplies and can't leave to get new supplies, yet no supplies from the outside are allowed in for various reasons.
 
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The white smoke is said by NHK-TV to be from the cooling ponds of reactor #3. A CH-47 water-carrying helicopter was dispatched to drop water on this, but was recalled when another helo monitoring radiation above the plant detected levels too high in which to safely operate.
 


The Japanese emperor, Akihito, gave an unprecedented televised address to the Japanese nation, and said he was "deeply concerned" about the crisis in the damaged nuclear reactors and urged the Japanese to show solidarity after the quake on Friday.

With a sad and stoic appearance, Akihito, 77, gave his first televised address to the nation of his 22 year reign. This speech broadcast on public television NHK shows the seriousness of the crisis in the country, the worst since the end of World War II, according to the government.

Akihito considered that problems in the nuclear reactor plant in Fukushima, where the authorities try to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, are unpredictable and is "deeply concerned" after the earthquake described as "an unprecedented scale."

Visibly sorry, the emperor told his people to pray for the welfare of the maximum number of survivors after the disaster on Friday, which left over 11,500 dead or missing, according to figures still provisional.

"An earthquake of 9 degrees has never happened in Japan. Do not know yet the number of victims, but I pray it will save the greatest number possible," said the head of the Chrysanthemum Throne, the oldest ruling dynasty in the world.

The emperor also requested the Japanese people do not give up at this time of crisis, while thanking the many expressions of solidarity from all over the world and urged his compatriots to remain calm.

"I sincerely hope that the people will overcome this unfortunate time to care for each other," the monarch said in the message which was provided by Japan's Imperial Household.

Akihito, who recently was diagnosed with coronary arteriosclerosis, is to power in 1989 after the death of his father, Hirohito, the last witness of the Second World War.

The emperor and Empress Michiko had comforted his people in hard times to visit survivors of the earthquake that killed 6,400 people in the port of Kobe, west of the country in 1995. (YouTube video description)
 
1529: More from the IAEA. Its latest briefing says that officials are preparing to spray water onto reactor four and possibly three. "Some debris on the ground from the 14 March explosion at Unit 3 may need to be removed before the spraying can begin."

1545: The Pentagon has announced that US forces must stay 50 miles (80km) away from the Fukushima reactor unless they have specific authorisation, Reuters reports.

1548: The Pentagon said some US air crews in Japan have been given iodine tablets as a precautionary measure.

1549: However, no US military personnel have shown signs of radiation poisoning, officials say.

Uhh...

More:

1638: Latest official figures show 4,314 people are now known to have died in the disaster, AFP reports.

1639: The figures show 8,606 people are missing and 2,282 have been injured.

1640: The number of dead is expected to rise. The mayor of Ishinomaki said earlier than 10,000 people were thought to be missing in his town alone and a similar number was given in Minamisanriku.
 
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Pointless fight against the disaster in Fukushima "Many of the 50 workers will die"

White smoke rises from the rests of the nuclear power plant Fukushima. What just happens inside of the blocks? Nobody knows it. In the fight against the nuclear disaster 50 men were sent. "Pointlessly", believes the president of the society for ray protection. And the ray biologist Lengfelder is sure: Many workers will not survive the mission. "It is like during the war."

Fukushima lie in ruins. Hydrogen explosions blasted the covers of the single blocks of the nuclear power station away. The few images that still exist of the complex indicate crisscrossing the remains of a former high-tech system, white smoke from which no one knows where he comes from and exactly how dangerous he is growing, like in several places. The control rooms of the nuclear plant, if they exist at all may no longer be accessed - too high is the radiation exposure.

But still about 50 engineers and assistants try to fight against the disaster. They are further active on the area of the nuclear power station Fukushima. Their job: Fires extinguish and prevent another releasing of radioactivity in the blocks from 1 to 4. A pointless underpinned, believes Sebastian Pflugbeil, president of the society for ray protection. His judgment is unequivocal: The nuclear power plant Fukushima should be given up.

"The nuclear power plant is now a pile of junk - whether they still send people to the slaughter or not. And at some point they will also loose the imagination that they can do anything there", said Pflugbeil to n-tv.de. The physicist pleads for departing all worker. The people who try on site to prevent the worst are "poor pigs". Now with certainty they would have quite considerable health damages, because they are delivered to the radiation virtually unprotected, because "protective suits do not help against radioactive radiation".

How during the war

Even more dramatically the ray biologist Edmund Lengfelder judges the situation. He thinks that the ray load is so high for the people in the nuclear reactor that many will die of them. "The height of the radiation dose, as it was given with 400 Millisievert per hour, means that a person in the reactor, be it a firefighter, service staff or disaster assistant, within twelve hours a dose agrees where 50 percent of the thus loaded will die within the next weeks", said the board of directors of Otto Hug of ray institute in Munich.

The operating crews in Fukushima would be apparently "sacrificed" to prevent an uncontrolled escape of radioactivity, as long as it goes. The situation compared Lengfelder to a state of war, "where also soldiers die to defend a higher aim".

Lengfelder believes that the exclusion zone at Fukushima must be extended. There could be also for Tokyo a significant risk. If the wind turns, the distance of 200 miles of Fukushima to the 35-million city for dust particles would be no problem. "Then Tokyo is part of this radiation cloud." Pflugbeil also warned that the impact of the nuclear disaster at worst could well be larger than Chernobyl. The fallout in Japan would not spread over the entire northern hemisphere, but "flatter" - this could have disastrous consequences for Japan. The fallout would then "come down substantially limited in Japan." With disastrous consequences: where the population density is higher by far than in the sparsely populated region around Chernobyl. (Source)


Ohh, the online website translators are really a nightmare. :ouch:
 
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The UK has just joined France and Australia in advising it's citizens to leave Tokyo...

Dotini
Edit: Tepco has raised the issue of re-criticality.
Here is BBC's Richard Black in analysis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12762608
Click to expand...

So much for "the plant is now safe and will stay safe". It seems the pro-nuclear lobby is about as deluded as the anti-nuclear lot right now.
 
Touring Mars
So much for "the plant is now safe and will stay safe".
Click to expand...

I have to agree. I was too confident on Japanese Nuclear engineering and totally discarding the possibility of an actual threat, hoping that all radioactive material to be confined inside the primary containment. The problem (if I read it correctly (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)) seems to come from the now-dry fuel storages pool. Since there is little to no water in them, there is no protection from radiation itself and it actually seems like the logical place from where all radiation is coming from.

I've read that an unmanned plane is going to take some video footage inside the containments to evaluate the damage.
 
I am absolutely disgusted at how the crowd behaved in the minute silence at the Chelsea game just now. I have never heard so much jeering during one for a very long time. Total disrespect from those insular and probably rascist hooligans. Many people in Japan will possibly be watching and its damn hurtful, there was even a Japaniese guy in the crowd.

When some nobody footballer dies... total silence, but when thousands are dying they are more interested in hurling their normal abuse.

Robin.
 
#
2010: More on the power line being laid to the Fukushima Daiichi plant to help restore the reactor cooling systems: Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) spokesman Naoki Tsunoda has said it is almost complete, and that engineers plan to test it "as soon as possible", according to the Associated Press. Reviving the electric-powered pumps might allow the engineers to finaly cool the overheated reactors and spent fuel storage ponds.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
 
O_o
2035: US officials have concluded that the Japanese warnings have been insufficient, and that, deliberately or not, they have understated the potential threat of what is taking place inside the nuclear facility, according to the New York Times. Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, earlier said he believed that all the water in the spent fuel pool at reactor 4 had boiled dry, leaving fuel rods stored there exposed. "We believe that radiation levels are extremely high, which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures," he told a Congressional committee.
 
Touring Mars
So much for "the plant is now safe and will stay safe". It seems the pro-nuclear lobby is about as deluded as the anti-nuclear lot right now.
Click to expand...

The truth of the matter is unclear, I don't think anyone can really be certain of the situation, conflicting reports appear to have further confused the situation. Some reports say its fine, others say it's as bad as Chernobyl. Throw into the mix, the strong opinions and biases related to nuclear energy (some of which is apparent in media reports), it's little surprise to see such differing perceptions of the same situation.

As far as assessments go I would hesitate to say anything more than this; it appears that at least one reactor has suffered a partial meltdown, cooling systems are not functioning correctly if at all, plant workers are attempting emergency solutions. Radiation levels are dangerous at the plant, but whether a significant risk is posed to those more than a few kilometres away is unclear.

The situation may not be dangerous on a large scale at the moment, but certainly has the potential to be if reports are correct.
 
A core meltdown is not really a problem, since the radioactive material would stay trapped inside the primary containment, a rock solid concrete embendment, with embendment shells and biological shells, designed to take up a complete core meltdown. The problem is the open door storage polls where they cool down the old (and in this case, new as well) rods that come from the core. Thing is, this rods take some time (even years) to cool down, and with the cooling problems that aroused, you know what to expect.
 
A core meltdown is not really a problem, since the radioactive material would stay trapped inside the primary containment, a rock solid concrete embendment, with embendment shells and biological shells, designed to take up a complete core meltdown.
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They don't have a concrete embedment as far as I know, it's a pretty old design with just a steel vessel. A lot of old plants have that and it's a huge issue, one of the reasons why they've shut down some of the plants here in Germany now, to check if they are really safe.

EDIT:
#
2319: The level of radiation detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has fallen steadily over the past 12 hours, an official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has said, according to the Reuters news agency. A level of 752 microsieverts per hour was recorded at the plant's main gate at 1700 on Wednesday (0800 GMT), said Tetsuo Ohmura. The monitoring point was then changed to the plant's west gate and readings were taken every 30 minutes, he said. At 0500 on Thursday (2000 GMT on Wednesday), the reading was 338 microsieverts per hour. That level is still much higher than it should be, but is not dangerous, Mr Ohmura added.
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"Not dangerous" isn't really true... but that's good to hear.
 
Yea, if Mr. Ohmura thinks it's not dangerous, he should take a 12hr picnic at the gate. :)

Even more dramatically the ray biologist Edmund Lengfelder judges the situation. He thinks that the ray load is so high for the people in the nuclear reactor that many will die of them. "The height of the radiation dose, as it was given with 400 Millisievert per hour, means that a person in the reactor, be it a firefighter, service staff or disaster assistant, within twelve hours a dose agrees where 50 percent of the thus loaded will die within the next weeks", said the board of directors of Otto Hug of ray institute in Munich. Link
 
ZeGermanBastorD
Yea, if Mr. Ohmura thinks it's not dangerous, he should take a 12hr picnic at the gate. :)

Even more dramatically the ray biologist Edmund Lengfelder judges the situation. He thinks that the ray load is so high for the people in the nuclear reactor that many will die of them. "The height of the radiation dose, as it was given with 400 Millisievert per hour, means that a person in the reactor, be it a firefighter, service staff or disaster assistant, within twelve hours a dose agrees where 50 percent of the thus loaded will die within the next weeks", said the board of directors of Otto Hug of ray institute in Munich. Link
Click to expand...

I'm sure the staff have been rotated well enough - or rather, I hope they have. Please don't confuse the millisieverts measured near the reactors with the microsieverts measured at the gates. There have been no reports that individuals have been exposed to 4800 millisieverts (400 x 12). In fact it was mentioned that the control rooms were abandoned at one point, so I think they are trying to avoid over-dosing, as it were.

The tell-tale sign is the request to have the yearly radiation limit lifted from 100 to 250 millisieverts. That's probably indicative of the level right now, depending on what dates the limits run between.

The lack of containment around the spent fuel at reactor 4 is a worry, but the government has now instructed the police to use their water cannons on it. The next 12 hours will be interesting.
 
Two helicopters are also dropping water while passing the reactors.
Let's hope that will help until they've some more power back to cool them down with the pumps from the plant.
 
I wonder what peoples thoughts are regarding this analysis BBC

It seems quite a good article to me, although I would be first to admit I am not an expert on nuclear reactor meltdowns.
 
That article makes sense, I'm no expert, but that fits to what I know about that stuff.

#
0117: A lead plate is attached to the bottom of each chopper and the crew are wearing protective suits - NHK.
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I'm not very religious, but I can't think of something better than "god bless these guys".
 
I seems that international media is making a huge deal about the nuclear plant,Personally I prefer local media,so I strongly advise that if you have family or relatives there,or your are reading this and life in Japan switch to NHK,they are updating the death victims and they give critical information about shelters,and constant updates about the nuclear plant situation,here is a link to NHK online(Japanese only):

http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv43478575

Apart from that it seems that the cold Siberian fronts finally struck in,and in some zones in the north east is already snowing,which I consider will help to cold down the reactors,apart from that,in some affected areas has started to snow,which sadly reduces probability of survival for tsunami survivors.
 
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G.T.Ace
That article makes sense, I'm no expert, but that fits to what I know about that stuff.


I'm not very religious, but I can't think of something better than "god bless these guys".
Click to expand...

Yes, hats off to those still working to prevent a full scale disaster, especially considering the potential risks to their health they are taking in order to help everyone.
 
solidsnakejej
Loyalty of dogs


UPDATE: CNN and the UK Telegraph have both reported that the dogs have been rescued since the footage aired, and are both receiving veterinary care; the more seriously wounded dog is at a clinic in the city of Mito, while the protective spaniel-type dog is receiving care at a shelter in the same town.

Translation of the video:http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...y-the-side-of-its-ailing-friend-in-the-rubble
Click to expand...

http://e-mpire.com/threads/124330-Huge-Earthquake-Hits-Japan?p=2572346#post2572346
 
Griffith500
I'm sure the staff have been rotated well enough - or rather, I hope they have. Please don't confuse the millisieverts measured near the reactors with the microsieverts measured at the gates. There have been no reports that individuals have been exposed to 4800 millisieverts (400 x 12). In fact it was mentioned that the control rooms were abandoned at one point, so I think they are trying to avoid over-dosing, as it were.

The tell-tale sign is the request to have the yearly radiation limit lifted from 100 to 250 millisieverts. That's probably indicative of the level right now, depending on what dates the limits run between.

The lack of containment around the spent fuel at reactor 4 is a worry, but the government has now instructed the police to use their water cannons on it. The next 12 hours will be interesting.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are right. 👍

Oversaw the mili & micro difference. Also found the following refference:


Hourly Dose Examples

* Typical individual's natural background radiation: 0.3 μSv/hr
* Highest recorded radiation at reactor 2, Fukushima I: 8 mSv/hr
* Recorded radiation at Fukushima I on March 15–16: 3–10 mSv/hr
* Highest recorded radiation at Fukushima I: Gate Area - 11 mSv/hr
* Typical dose near Chernobyl reactor 4 and its fragments, shortly after explosion: ≈ 10 000–300 000 mSv/hr (Souce)

If all numbers are correct, it looks too fishy for me. :odd:
 
Do you guys believe in karma? I almost do:

JACK JOHNSON ANNOUNCES $50,000 DONATION
FOR JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI RELIEF

In the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Jack Johnson announces his support of relief and recovery efforts in the region. Johnson is donating $50,000 to GlobalGiving's Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund to help residents of the affected areas. The non-profit is distributing funds to Save the Children, the International Medical Corps, and other organizations on the ground to provide relief and aid to victims.

While traveling in Japan as part of the To The Sea tour, Johnson and his crew were in Osaka when the earthquake struck on March 11. The concert in Osaka took place as scheduled hours after the massive earthquake, as television images of the powerful tsunami began streaming in, revealing the magnitude of the devastation. Sendai, one of cities hardest hit by the tsunami, was the next concert stop scheduled on the tour.

The day following the earthquake and tsunami, Johnson canceled plans to travel to Tokyo for a media event because of rising concerns about the safety of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The band and crew remained in Osaka until the decision was made to postpone the remainder of the tour due to the tragedy. Postponed shows include Zepp Sendai, Budokan, Zepp Fukuoka and Studio Coast Tokyo.

Johnson stated, "My family and I were in our hotel room on the 29th floor in Osaka when the earthquake hit. Although it was an extremely nerve-racking experience, it was nothing compared to what those closer to the epicenter are going through. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families that have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami. We are making a donation to help with the relief efforts and hope to be back in Japan soon to reunite with friends and play more music."

Johnson is encouraging his fans to support relief and recovery efforts in any way they can. To learn more about GlobalGiving's Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund visit: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief/

In addition to supporting GlobalGiving's earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan, Johnson's To The Sea World Tour is collaborating with over 150 hand-chosen community groups around the globe as part of Johnson's All At Once Community. Jack Johnson is donating 100% of his To The Sea tour proceeds to charity.

For more information visit JackJohnsonMusic.com and AllAtOnce.org.
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I got this email from them just now. When I attended his concert here in the States, it was pouring. This was to be my first outdoor concert, and it was the most rain I have seen in my life.

The gate was about to open, so we were all about to get out of the car, the rain stops. Completely. As soon as the show ended, it was right back to the hardest rain ever.

If you don't know who Jack Johnson is, he's a do-good, happy go lucky, good karma type guy. Now reading about how he missed this epic disaster by just one show, I'm pretty close to believing in karma, I think. :lol:

I'm glad that one of my favorite artists is being so generous with his contribution, and also spreading the message to help out my country. Thank you Jack! 👍
 
Those helicopters are quite accurate launching the water to surface, although I consider that they should bring the Tanker 910 used to pull out fires in the States,the water load is really huge but maybe is not as accurate as an helicopter,in any case I think that it will help more than the current 4 Chinook helicopters.

Picture of the Tanker 910:

300px-10tanker-N450AX-061215-03-16.jpg
 
They cannot drop the water precisely because they can't hover above the reactors.
I don't know if that tanker would be a good idea though, that amount of water could also damage some things.
 
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Is this the Jack Johnson you are talking about?:



Well, yea it's Karma. Or a 🤬 full of luck. :dopey:

Imagine what had could happen if the concert was planned one day earlier. All the concert visitors. OMG. :scared:
 

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