Thread is about the various issues surrounding Japan in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. Don't bring the shit side of the internet to the thread, and post with the realization that this thread is very important, and very real, to your fellow members.
Do not post speculative and unconfirmed news you saw on TV or anywhere else. Generally the more dramatic it sounds the less likely it's true.
There's no more water in the pool holding spent fuel rods at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, says the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to the Associated Press.
If all water is gone from the cooling pool, the exposed fuel rods will overheat and could possibly melt or even explode, spreading highly radioactive material.
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko did not say how he obtained that information.
The Japanese nuclear safety agency and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., have denied the claim. A utility spokesman said the "condition is stable" at Unit 4.
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko did not say how he obtained that information.
This was WEEKS AGO and it was already proven that he was WRONG via aerial photos on the site. This site/article is hasn't been updated since Marsh 16.
you missed the point - we already know it is three weeks old. the article shows that there are conflicts between TEPCO's reports and what the international experts are finding.
TEPCO has not given the japanese government or international community reliable and timely information which leads to this sort of speculation.
The way I understood it, the "level 7" is because a large area around the plant is irradiated enough to force the government to make it a long-term exclusion zone. The only other nuclear power plant accident that caused something like that was Chernobyl.
The total number of deaths already attributable to Chernobyl or expected in the future over the lifetime of emergency workers and local residents in the most contaminated areas is estimated to be about 4000. This includes some 50 emergency workers who died of acute radiation syndrome and nine children who died of thyroid cancer, and an estimated total of 3940 deaths from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia among the 200 000 emergency workers from 1986-1987, 116 000 evacuees and 270 000 residents of the most contaminated areas (total about 600 000). These three major cohorts were subjected to higher doses of radiation amongst all the people exposed to Chernobyl radiation.
The estimated 4000 casualties may occur during the lifetime of about 600 000 people under consideration. As about quarter of them will eventually die from spontaneous cancer not caused by Chernobyl radiation, the radiation-induced increase of about 3% will be difficult to observe. However, in the most highly exposed cohorts of emergency and recovery operation workers, some increase in particular cancers (e.g., leukemia) has already been observed.
Confusion about the impact has arisen owing to the fact that thousands of people in the affected areas have died of natural causes. Also, widespread expectations of ill health and a tendency to attribute all health problems to radiation exposure have led local residents to assume that Chernobyl related fatalities were much higher than they actually were.
'Several hundred thousand' may not have died, but
More than 350 000 people have been relocated away from the most severely contaminated areas, 116 000 of them immediately after the accident. Even when people were compensated for losses, given free houses and a choice of resettlement location, the experience was traumatic and left many with no employment and a belief that they have no place in society.
Stackexchange is awesome, by the way. It started with StackOverflow for programming questions and such, but they have a ton of sister Q&A sites with lots of very qualified and competent people moderating and answering questions.
one big problem with chernobyl is that no one knew about it until it was too late thanks to the secretive USSR government. that is obviously not happening here, it's the reverse where they're shoving the info down our throats.
another problem is that thyroid cancer is curable, so they don't count under deaths due to radiation.
and lastly, level 7 is a revision. the worst of the leaks has already passed, they passed in the first week of the earthquake.
My family is starting to get worried and is saying that we should drink only bottle water, cuz of the ton of radioactive water that is being dumped in the sea.
Are there any info where I can prove that there is / there is not any real threat?
On April 15 2011 06:28 terrOne wrote: My family is starting to get worried and is saying that we should drink only bottle water, cuz of the ton of radioactive water that is being dumped in the sea.
Are there any info where I can prove that there is / there is not any real threat?
They're worried about water in Italy being contaminated?
On April 15 2011 06:28 terrOne wrote: My family is starting to get worried and is saying that we should drink only bottle water, cuz of the ton of radioactive water that is being dumped in the sea.
Are there any info where I can prove that there is / there is not any real threat?
The Mediterranean is about the LAST place where that radiation would get to...
You should be worried about that fat corrupt fuck Berlusconi, not the radiation...
Try a map showing the thousands of miles that seperate Italy and Japan. Then point out the route water would have to take to get to Italy. Then point out that any radioactive water would disperse as it travels, the currents of water in the Pacific which will keep it all in the biggest ocean on the planet, how the media likes to create panic in an effort to sell newspapers etc etc.
Your family has nothing to worry about. Hell, people in Korea and CHina have nothing to worry about, neither do people on the West side of Japan. I wouldn't be going for any skinny-dipping off the coast of Fukushima or Ibaraki right now, but the rest of the world is fine. The media needs to calm the feck down and stop selling stories like this, because people are buying instead of reading the label. This is the same as people going out and buying iodine tablets in Iowa and Britain, for goodness sake. I shudder to think what it would be like if these people were actually here. Get informed people.
A video of the tsunami. According to the comments underneath the people at the end did make it to safety, but still a very tense watch.
We went to help clean some properties in the east of the prefecture, and we could see the water had reached up to about five metres above sea level. Talking to an old man there (who did a damn sight more work then we did, farmer muscles ftw) he said the quake itself wasn't too scary, but when the tsunami came he feared for his life. The water just came up in a wall of water and debris and he did not know if he was going to live.
Cleanup if getting along fairly quickly. People haven't been able to even consider rebuilding yet - if they lost their home then they are homeless for the duration. A lot of people have just left for family elsewhere in Japan. The people who have stayed are cleaning the towns with some help from volunteers. They clean their own homes then come together to clean neighbours homes and public buildings. About 100 people came to help clean an elementary school last week which was kinda cool, and they got a lot done. A lot of construction workers are up further north for now, where it was worse hit, but they are getting roads and homes cleared. Now they have piles of mud and debris along the coast, ready to be taken to dumps or furnaces. That will have to wait until they can get the heavy machinery in to move it.
By the by, shameless plug - if you haven't donated already please consider doing so. Charities like MSF and the Japanese Red Cross are obvious ones doing a lot of necessary and good work, and friends of mine have set up a small charity devoted to keeping a kindergarten working for the kids still in the area, despite the building being pretty much demolished. site is here: http://hearts4haragama.wordpress.com/
A video of the tsunami. According to the comments underneath the people at the end did make it to safety, but still a very tense watch.
We went to help clean some properties in the east of the prefecture, and we could see the water had reached up to about five metres above sea level. Talking to an old man there (who did a damn sight more work then we did, farmer muscles ftw) he said the quake itself wasn't too scary, but when the tsunami came he feared for his life. The water just came up in a wall of water and debris and he did not know if he was going to live.
I'm hearing more scary stories lately, mostly from friends in various places around Japan...
There are villages that are refusing to leave the evacuation area unless the entire village leaves, resulting in a bizarre bystander syndrome kind of situation.
Some families have killed themselves (wife and kids etc) after having lost their businesses.
Some shelters are so overwhelmed with supplies that people are being given choices of curry flavors, while others are still going on a couple rice balls a day.
There's a huge problem with Tepco employees' kids getting bullied.
Some are taking their protection gear off inside the evacuation area before leaving, because they're afraid they'll bring the radiation with them.
Some are telling people to stay away from people who've been in the evacuation area, because they're contaminated -- which is as depressingly silly as saying that touching an AIDS patient will give you HIV.
Until it became glaringly obvious that the nuclear plant situation was going to get worse (as in, until it was too late), people who were suggesting it would were getting their names rubbed off by the press. Now, people who are suggesting things will be okay are being forced to shut up.
There's a petition going around to encourage Tepco to scrap the power plants. Apparently they're still telling people that they're going to continue some of them once the crisis is over -- which Kaku here says is absurd.
Most of the people voluntarily going into the evacuation area to help the stranded animals are foreigners.
In Chile, the restoration situation is such that they've outsourced the efforts to private companies, and so they've built expensive roads and expensive highrises and all that -- but according to Al Jazeera, people are still homeless. I don't think the situation will be as bad in Japan, but Japan is a capitalistic nation, so...
They seem to be doing "unusual things" at the power plant where I have to guess hard for the reason behind those actions.
IAEA blog, 21 April Management of On-site Contaminated Water
Injection of approximately 17 000 L of coagulant (liquid glass) to the power cable trench of Unit 2 was carried out on 18 April and injection of approximately 7 000 L of liquid glass on 19 April. The transfer of stagnant water from the Unit 2 turbine building to radioactive waste treatment facilities commenced on 19 April.
Glass could be used to seal up that power cable trench, but there is always the risk of having cracks in it during the cooling process and if there is water in the "mold" (the trench) that risk is going to be increased. If that fails to produce a good seal they will have a hell of a time getting the glass back out to put something else in.
Also the evacuation zone - which seems pretty small at 10 km already - seems to be reduced by the government. Are there several types of evacuation zone? One "you must evacuate" and another "you should evacuate"?
IAEA Blog, 21 April Chief cabinet secretary, Mr. Edano, also announced a re-designation of the evacuation zone around Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant. He announced that "the size of the evacuation zone around the station would be reduced from 10 km to 8 km," and that "the order to evacuate based on the incident at Fukushima Daini nuclear power station would be lifted from areas farther than 8 km around the station."
It seems a strange move to reduce the evacuation zone since TEPCO plans to take nine months to get the situation under control and clean it up. Since there is still the "White "smoke" continues to be emitted from Units 2, 3 and 4.." message in the IAEA blog I would say it might be a good guess that the power plants are still leaking radiation into the surrounding area.
EPT
Cleanup if getting along fairly quickly. People haven't been able to even consider rebuilding yet - if they lost their home then they are homeless for the duration. A lot of people have just left for family elsewhere in Japan. The people who have stayed are cleaning the towns with some help from volunteers. They clean their own homes then come together to clean neighbours homes and public buildings. About 100 people came to help clean an elementary school last week which was kinda cool, and they got a lot done. A lot of construction workers are up further north for now, where it was worse hit, but they are getting roads and homes cleared. Now they have piles of mud and debris along the coast, ready to be taken to dumps or furnaces. That will have to wait until they can get the heavy machinery in to move it.![[image loading]](http://i56.tinypic.com/346qf04.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://sovietsouvenirs.com/catalog/images/radio/dosimeter_pm1603a-1-3.jpg)
