Earthquake in Japan....9.0...ouch!

[Kristoph]

New tsunami warnings just issued powerful aftershocks or something. Was on sky news and peope told stay in and don't drink tap water and cover mouth and nose with wet cloth.

Guessing because of the smoke from this;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:YQGkS.jpg

 

[badcompany]

Because there aren't a hundred news sites you could use for that, are there. Ever noticed the title of this board is 'general discussion'? It's not a news RSS, in spite of how some people treat it. It's an immense newsworthy issue, it will invite opinion.

Agree there are loads and loads of news feeds to visit

 

[Jonnycoupe]

When the Chernobyl reactor exploded there was a risk from a secondary steam explosion due to the water beneath the reactor getting superheated by the nuclear material.

Is that a possibility here?

There is a difference that water moderates these reactors, in chernobyl the water simply cooled it (with a poorer chemistry to allow more radiation activations) and graphite moderated the reactivity. Of course the graphite remained local to the fuel and contiue to creat massive amounts of heat until the graphite actually set fire!

Now the containment building appears to have gone pop and the cooling system is leaking Im not sure there is anything left of significant radiation concern to explode, just the core to melt into a big puddle in the core catcher which obviously is the big potential of radiation release

 

[The Running Man]

Sounds like captain hindsight now, but why was Japan allowed to build so many nuclear facilities when there is a fault line so close and such a high chance of earthquake and tsunamis - surely something like this was predicted given the high density of quakes recorded in the vicinity previously?

 

[PlacidCasual]

Certainly a big over pressurisation event but in any power statio there will be many things that can cause an explosion like that, especially if it has been damaged by a quake.

Have any of the news broadcasts said whether the exploding containment building is the unit that suffered loss of coolant issues?

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Its going to raise some questions with the recent 'nuclear renaiisance'.

 

[Kenai]

I think it's worth bearing in mind that the Japanese will be going about this incident far more 'honestly' shall we say and responsibly, than the operators of Chernobyl did.

I would imagine many of the safety measures being implemented such as warning not to drink the water are more precautionary than anything, the eyes of the world are upon them so they need to be seen to be doing absolutely everything they can (and should), even if a proper full on meltdown isn't particularly likely.

The other thing to bear in mind, is the media will be hyping this up, this is something genuinely exciting / fear inducing for once and they will do everything in their power to whip people into frenzy. I really don't see anything happening on the scale of Chernobyl.

 

[Lysander]

In a move of massive hypocrisy, here's my RSS:

Japan nuclear plant update: Hourly radiation leaking from Fukushima is equal to amount permitted in one year, official tells Kyodo

https://twitter.com/x/status/46502003022630912

 

[Andr3w]

Maximum respect to the men and women still at the Fukushima plant battling to prevent meltdown. I'm sure they've all by now had a pretty serious dosing and know damn well that they have.

Hopefully they will be wearing proper suits full of charcoal etc so nothing gets through to the skin.....hopefully

 

[hola_adios]

Because there aren't a hundred news sites you could use for that, are there. Ever noticed the title of this board is 'general discussion'? It's not a news RSS, in spite of how some people treat it. It's an immense newsworthy issue, it will invite opinion.

Yes, there are hundreds, and the nice people of OcUK are posting the important updates on this thread, making information selection easier. And there is a big difference between opinions, jokes, trolling and just trying to pick up a "fight" .

At this stage comments like the one regarding Activision a computer game and the current events, is of dubious taste, and that is my opinion.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

What are they saying in terms of milli Sievert dosage?

http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1194947392290

Dose: less than 1 sievert​

Usually asymptomatic​

​

​

• Symptoms mild (or absent)​

• Episodic nausea, vomiting​

in first 48 hours in 1%-10%​

• Mildly depressed WBC at​

2-4 weeks​

• No foetal effects if effective​

dose less than 100 milli sievert​

[(100,000 micro sievert)
• Counselling needed ifpregnant and effective
dose more than 100 milli
sievert (100,000 micro sievert)


You'd be suprised how much dosage workers are allowed compared to what is considered safe for 'normal people'

 

[Cosimo]

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is trying to confirm a report that an explosion occurred at a nuclear power station in quake-hit Fukushima Prefecture.

The agency said on Saturday that a person at the Fukushima Number One nuclear station reported that an explosion was heard and smoke was seen near one of the reactors at around 4PM.

The power station operator Tokyo Electric Power Company told the agency that 4 people were injured.

Video of the reactor in question shows the outer wall of the building that houses the reactor has disappeared.

Prefectural authorities say the power company informed them that the ceiling of the building collapsed after an explosion.

Tokyo Electric Power had been releasing air from the container of the reactor to lower pressure.

Pressure inside the container had been rising after the reactor's cooling system broke down due to power failure.

Radioactive substances have been detected near the reactor.

Saturday, March 12, 2011 18:08 +0900 (JST)

 

[LOAM]

Source?

Came from an official broadcast VIA sky news, who said that aftershocks were expected to cause more.

+ Japan have now requested UK assistance for the power plant (source sky news). I kind of feel that they now suspect its going to meltdown.

 

[Lysander]

Source?

This is awful

Japanese officials order evacuations of several coastal areas and warn that aftershocks may trigger 2-meter tsunami waves

Keep an eye on this:

http://twitter.com/#!/BreakingNews

 

[badcompany]

Its going to raise some questions with the recent 'nuclear renaiisance'.

Thing is we don't have any other option to meet our power demands and dwindling oil reserved, don't tell me about solar/wind as they are pathetic

 

[Jokester]

From the videos that's appeared it looks like one of the reactor buildings has completely blown up. Not looking good.

Edit: Can even see a shockwave coming out of the top of it.

 

[Kenai]

Let's not turn this thread into a nuclear vs renewables thread or indeed an argument about whether people should be posting jokes please, the ensuing massive debates will just completely derail the thread.

 

[Cosimo]

Keep an eye on the news advisory here:

http://english.kyodonews.jp/

 

[Glaucus]

Its going to raise some questions with the recent 'nuclear renaiisance'.

Hopefully not to many, but then again uneducated masses will panic on BS fed from the media.

They are totally different design with lots of safety features. Even if it melts down it shouldn't be a problem.

Air has been released from several of the reactors at both plants in an effort to relieve the huge amount of pressure building up inside.

Mr Kan said the amount of radiation released was "tiny".

Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate the area near the plants. BBC correspondent Nick Ravenscroft said police stopped him 60km from the Fukushima 1 plant.

Analysts say a meltdown would not necessarily lead to a major disaster because light-water reactors would not explode even if they overheated.

 

[mmj_uk]

Confirmed radiation leakage.