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

On Friday, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Japan causing a catastrophic loss of life and serious damage to several automotive facilities.

Toyota is reporting that no one was injured at any of their plants or corporate offices but the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Miyagi, and Iwate factories are offline. The latter two plants build the Toyota Yaris and Scion xB / xD.

Honda has announced serious damage was caused at two of their research and development centers as well as the Tochigi factory and Honda Engineering complex. Tragically, one person was killed and more than 30 people were injured. The company is still accessing the situation and will suspend operations until next week.

Nissan appears to be one of the hardest hit as the company is reporting significant damage at six different facilities. Additionally, over 2,300 vehicles suffered damage while awaiting shipment.

Suzuki says there doesn't appear to be any damage to their facilities and all personal have escaped unharmed. However, the company is having difficulties establishing communications with the affected areas so things could change.

Subaru hasn't released many details about their situation, but the company has reportedly halted operations for the time being.

Mazda says they were relatively unaffected as the company's factories and headquarters didn't suffer any damage. As a sign of respect, the company will cease operations until March 17th.

Over the next few days, the automakers will access their situation and adjust plans accordingly. Sadly, Japan's ports and electrical infrastructure have suffered significant damage so it could be months or years before everything returns to normal.

Source: Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Suzuki and Nissan


Read more: http://www.worldcarfans.com/1110314...e-and-tsunami-shutter-factories#ixzz1GadFJIzm

:(

Now I'm very upset!
 
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People lining up for food/water in Japan

Now thats what I call organised..... Who recalls what what the lines looked like in Haiti?
 
Pretty horrific, imagine if it happened to us, I'd get the feeling the country would be almost destroyed and would never recover.
 
It is when the design presentation of the builds stated that quakes above 7.9 would not occur in the fault zone seems to be the biggest problem. The risk assessment has not reflected what has happened on the site of the power plants :(. The fact they have withstood so much and the Tsunami.... We dont know which caused the most damage yet.....

I'm not sure about the newer reactors but the older ones that they are having problem with were engineered for a PGA of 0.125 IIRC which is roughly equivalent to what you'd expect from above a Magnitude 7 quake at a depth of upto 10km - which even in that part of the world is a pretty high level to work towards.

During the original quake they measured PGA at almost 0.35 in the vicinity of Fukushima No. 1 (this is more than 90km from the epicenter) its a miracle things haven't turned out much worse.
 
admittedly no.

A major difference is that the Fukushima reactors have a hard reinforced concrete containment vessel around the reactor and Chernobyl didn't. Then you can look at things like they're different designs that use different moderators, which is important should the core be exposed to the atmosphere.
 
Pretty horrific, imagine if it happened to us, I'd get the feeling the country would be almost destroyed and would never recover.

If an 8.9 magnitude quake occurred at a shallow level under London I very much doubt there would be many buildings still standing for almost 300 miles - the amount of energy in that quake was 300,000 greater than the biggest inland quake in the UK and around 4000 greater than the biggest ever recorded in the British Isles.
 
Quote:
BREAKING NEWS: Radiation twice the maximum seen so far detected at nuke plant Monday

but what is the half-life of the radiation?

as far as i understand its around 15 secs, so unless your in the area of the reactor, there is no real risk. ie in the gas that is being released is Nitrogen-16, so within a few mins its just steam
 
but what is the half-life of the radiation?

as far as i understand its around 15 secs, so unless your in the area of the reactor, there is no real risk. ie in the gas that is being released is Nitrogen-16, so within a few mins its just steam

Depends whats released into the atmosphere (or groundwater) theres a whole raft of potential toxins/heavy metals that potentially could be released.
 
Where do you think the water is currently going considering the level keeps dropping below the fuel rods?....

Errm, I don't know, hence asking? As I've said several times now, I've not seen any of the press conferences from Tepco, or any of the Japanese guys say whats happening.

If you're trying to be sarcastic, yes, water turns into steam, and then, the condensor isn't working because the pumps aren't working, so theres just too much heat and no way to bring it back down. So they pump in more water, and more and more, but eventually that would leave you with ever increasing levels of steam, increasing pressure, and a more dangerous situation.

I've not seen any of the official statements cover two key things, how they are managing steam/gas/pressure levels in the core as they add water nor, even more importantly, whats going on with the actual pumps that should have been working. Are they just done, no way to fix them, or are they actively fixing them as fast as possible.
 
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:(

Now I'm very upset!

It's the same for most business' there though, whether directly affected by the Earthquake/Tsunami or not.

My Father works for a very big IT firm and forwarded me an e-mail from his team in Tokyo this morning.

- Hundreds of their employees are unaccounted for... this may be in part just due to lack of communications available.

- Parts of Tokyo still don't have power and the government has asked people not to travel, for one because of safety with most road signals out and for business' to save electricity by no operating.

- Many people can't even get to work because there are blackouts and seriously reduced services on trains.

- There are still Earthquake aftershocks occurring, which naturally is unsettling for everybody.


So I think it's quite clear that even if people wanted to work, it's not really possible right now.
 
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