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

[Jonnycoupe]

What is the worst that can happen with the nuclear plant? a Chernobyl style event?

Shouldn't be that bad. I havent actually looked at what type of reactor has the problems in Japan at the moment but Chernobyl had the wrong people controlling it that ignored xenon poisoning such that it went super critical and they couldn't get the temperature down, also it has a positive temperature conefficient such that the hotter the primary circuit the more reactivity it became. Its a game of playing with control rods... not good.

It was in essentially a shed, as soon as the core melted and released radiative coolant it boiled off and escaped from the building. Anywhere now will have a proper containment layer such as concrete reinforced building with various layers and ceramic tiled core catcher for the molten reactor to prevent a similar escape.

 

[AGD]

I am really concerned about the Nuclear reactor, which I believe would require urgent international input to prevent a huge disaster.

Let's not get carried away. Yes it's very worrying, but officials say that there is no immediate thread of a radiation leak.

 

[explicit4u]

any major news on other affected countries? i cant get on most sites.

I don't think the earthquake has had any major impacts on other countries yet, but the tsunami is expected to hit just about every country within the pacific ocean. 53 countries in total on alert.

 

[Raikiri]

This was recorded 2 days earlier!

http://www.nowpublic.com/environmen...video-tsunami-alert-honshu-coast-2764943.html

A 7.2 is equivilent to a 938 kiloton yield, 8.9 is 336 megatons, that's 356x more powerful.

Not quite the same is it?

 

[Cosimo]

They've declared a nuclear emergency.

 

[Redrum]

Live in Japan do you? Been to Japan have you?

We see much worse when earthquakes hit the west coast of the US. I admit, my wording probably seemed careless, so I apologise. It is obviously a serious situation, but Japan deals with these things a lot better than we might do is all I'm saying.

I do. The thing you have to bear in mind is it's a big country that covers a lot of area due to its shape. I think the direct damage from the earthquake is not too serious, but it's the damage from the tsunami that has made this very serious. But, because of the size of Japan, there are areas that are not affected, just like there are in America when a natural disaster strikes.

You are right though in that the buildings are very well prepared for earthquakes. One of the schools I work at has just spent about 6 months doing reinforcement work to protect against earthquakes. Anyway, I think as you said, your wording was just a bit careless and you've admitted that so I hope people will stop attacking you now.

 

[hola_adios]

It just doesn’t stop:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html

Thanks for the link, easy to see here:

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

 

[Craig1981]

You have to admire their buildings etc, to withstand an 8.9 earthquake is quite something.

Their certainly dealing with it better than we would be able to. I expect an 8.9 earthquake across a large part of the UK would crush our society for years to come.

 

[RedTen]

They've declared a nuclear emergency.

Got a source or link please?

 

[Westyfield2]

Helicopter footage shows people failing to outrun the water in their cars .

Seriously, these are so common for Japan it's a non issues really.

This Tsunami is chuffing big though.

I have a relative on a cruise ship somewhere between japan and the phillipines. Supposed to be flying out of japan in a week or so. I doubt a wave would have much of an impact on a cruiseliner would it.. would it?

They have all these fancy ballast and stabiliser gyroscope systems these days . If a gurt big wave hit a ship broadside they'd be screwed, but the captain will know it's coming and steer into it and all is well .

 

['Wes]

Their certainly dealing with it better than we would be able to. I expect an 8.9 earthquake across a large part of the UK would crush our society for years to come.

We don't have to worry about harsh natural disasters though, so there would be no point investing in developing structures to withstand an earthquake.

 

[AGD]

Their certainly dealing with it better than we would be able to. I expect an 8.9 earthquake across a large part of the UK would crush our society for years to come.

That is expected. They have regular earthquakes so by law have to build their buildings to withstand them. We don't have earthquakes very much and almost never have large earthquakes - therefore it would not be worth the extra cost to safeguard all our buildings against them.

 

[Cosimo]

Reported as the 7th most powerful earthquake ever.

 

[Cosimo]

Got a source or link please?

Been reported on Sky News.

 

[Craig1981]

We don't have to worry about harsh natural disasters though, so there would be no point investing in developing structures to withstand an earthquake.

Good point, well made

 

[Redrum]

I thought the after shocks had finally stopped but I just got a big one! The earthquake alarm on my phone just went off - 4 hours late

 

[e36Adz]

This is just getting more and more common now, seems like every other day a huge natural disaster hits somewhere.

 

[Cosimo]

Got a source or link please?

Just had the report in, they are having trouble cooling it.

 

[RedTen]

Just had the report in, they are having trouble cooling it.

Thanks, scary stuff.

 

['Wes]

.[/QUOTE]

I hope this doesn't become another Chernobyl.​