Indeed, damn dog is loyal as ****.. Stood by his friend like a freaking hero, protecting his buddy... Damn talk about heartfelt... <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/J3TM9GL2iLI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yeah, obviously the radiation levels right by the accident are dangerous. Nobody is downplaying that at all. I'm just wondering what the situation is in Tokyo etc. GE and TEPCO have a lot more to lose if the situation gets much worse. If they lie to the public about radiation levels being "safe" then they have a 10 year window to change laws etc. and figure out how to cover their a$$es.
You wanna talk about radiation blast??? Come meet me after eating 2 gorditas, mexican pizza and cinnamon sticks with Big Red large drink at Taco Bell and you'll see some radiation from my ass, hahahah!!!!
Sorry, but this is driving me crazy. Everything I have read and heard says GE has ZERO liability. The liability is on the operator, TEPCO. TEPCO is 100% backed by the Japanese government. Further, any liability GE MIGHT have is insured. They have no reason to cover anything up even if they could. GE designed a plant to specs that only had it surviving a 7.9 earthquake and 25 foot tsunami and this thing survived a 9.0 quake (more than 10x stronger), but the 30 foot waves damaged the generators for the pumps. The plant has survived far above and beyond what its specs had called for. Also, this is NOT going to be some sort of explosive meltdown. The level of panic is insane with people loading up on iodine in California.
I might have missed some reports, but I don't think they ever gave the impression that things were under control. They failed to give out information about pretty serious stuff until it was more or less too late ("So the containment structure in #2 might be damaged. Oh BTW, #4 has been on fire for a couple of hours and is putting out radiation."). Though on the other hand, they're probably pretty busy and don't always have time to give out information in a timely matter. Don't think there would be a "everything is under control" signal until all the reactors are under cold shutdown (ala the signal that was given from the other Fukushima plant). Which hasn't really come close to happening so far. Doubt the Japanese government is downplaying things, or doing it much. All TEPCO I think. IIRC, one of the Japanese government officials (might have been the PM, but thinking it was a lower position) was pissed that he wasn't informed about what was going on. He had to find out information via TV reports. Don't really trust TEPCO much, but then again, they're the only ones with the info. Hard to trust other sources if they don't have access to the same information. Hopefully if there is a full meltdown, the radiation will be contained within the plant more or less (i.e., no explosions or whatever would put the radiation into the atmosphere). Where are these numbers coming from? I know it is tough to really say exactly how many people died due to Chernobyl, but 1M+ seems more than anything I've seen. I was looking at it a couple of days ago (given all the comparisons to Chernobyl), and I think WHO, the UN, and a couple of other agencies came up with 4,000-9,000 deaths: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4216102.stm Now that has been disputed, which is fine (not like there is an accurate way to figure this all out). IIRC, Greenpeace, who seemed to strongly reject those numbers, put the figure at around ~200K I think: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4917526.stm Also, what's the source for the "70 people killed within hours"? I see different numbers here and there, but never as many as 70. Wiki says 28 died from acute radiation exposure. More (50ish?) died within 3 months. But don't see anything saying 70 within a few hours. (And not sure why skeptics would think that it wasn't that bad. One look at the radiation levels would put that argument to rest...although knowledge about radiation certainly wasn't very good back then...or even today for that matter) Regarding US vs Japanese reports, I much prefer Japanese reports at this point. US news has often been delayed, usually filled with errors, and often sensationalized. If I'm not mistaken, a nearby town found traces of radiation in their water supply (believe it was Cessium-137?). While not good, I believe the Japanese headline point out that these trace amounts were below the "acceptable" limits for safety. That last fact was omitted in the US headline IIRC. Stuff like that is what bothers me. Of course, information from TEPCO is hard to understand as it is (often contradictory and/or vague remarks), so even if the media reported things properly, it would be difficult to understand exactly what was going on. The evacuation from last night was one such example (some reports said everyone evacuated, some said that some workers stayed behind, some said that the workers only went inside buildings, etc.). And getting proper radiation levels has been frustrating throughout (400 millissieverts or 400 microsieverts, make up your mind because that is a BIG difference). Couple more links: http://resources.nei.org/documents/japan/Used_Fuel_Pools_Key_Facts_March_16_Update.pdf Info about the Used Nuclear Fuel Storage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Sounds like maybe there is some sort of containment, or maybe I'm misreading it? http://bravenewclimate.com/ This site has actually been pretty good every step of the way. Sums up things nicely, and has some nice graphs and charts of reactors designs, etc. edit: So they're trying the helicopter thing, but doesn't seem that effective (my impression from the video, not from officials). Video link for anyone interested (probably been posted before): http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv
I was having difficulty understanding how grave the situation had become, but this helped me put things in perspective: <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5sakN2hSVxA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Settle down. I am hearing conflicting news from all over and never said anything was 100%. I dont know about you but I'm actually in Tokyo and every bit of positive or negative information affects me directly. Even if everything is "safe", i'm starting to think it might be better to assume the worst and be safe than take a chance on what the tube is telling me.
a decent, sober overview of some of the things that could happen. note that he's not assigning any likelihood score, just discussing possible scenarios. Ex-Sandia engineer talks about some of the worst things that could happen in Japan Dr. Michael Allen, vice provost for research and dean of graduate studies at Middle Tennessee State University, spent much of his early career at Sandia National Labs studying nuclear reactor accidents of the worst kind and performing simulations to better understand how bad things happen -- including core meltdowns. Like many others with roots in the nuclear industry, Allen is watching the events unfold in Japan with keen interest and concern. He said there's no question there's been at least a partial melting of fuel cores at three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, likely a breach in one reactor pressure vessel, exposed spent fuel rods in strorage pool, and other damage incurred by last week's earthquake and tsunami and the sequence of nuclear events since then. Allen wouldn't say if he thinks the crisis in Japan will become the worst nuclear accident in history or whether he believes a full-scale meltdown is inevitable, although he described how it could happen. The situation, he said, is far from over. "I'm concerned about Japan because I think this is a really bad accident and concerned about their people, their infrastructure," Allen said today in a telephone interview. "I don't think this is an accident that is going to go away anytime soon." Allen has been at MTSU since 2007, but earlier in his career he worked more than 14 years at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, where -- among other assignments -- he headed the federal lab's work on "severe accident phenomenology." That work included using a research reactor to actually melt the core of another reactor to better assess how the core relocates in an accident, as well as the release of fission products. He also conducted hydrogen and steam explosions at desert test sites outside Albuquerque, using reactor fuel simulants to assess the results. Much of his research directly addressed accident scenarios in which the nuclear fuel is no longer submerged in water, a situation that Japanese workers have been battling for days at the Daiichi reactor complex. Allen agrees with reports that explosions caused by a hydrogen buildup likely blew the roof off the outer containment buildings at least two of the reactor sites, exposing pools that store highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods to the environment. But, based on reports he's heard or read, he thinks the explosion that occurred March 14 at the Daiichi Unit 2 reactor was a steam explosion inside the reactor pressure vessel that probably occurred when part of the exposed fuel core melted and allowed some of the liquefied fuel or super-hot fragments to drop into the water below. "When that happens, you're going to have a massive steam explosion, which creates extremely high pressure in the reactor pressure vessel," Allen said. As has been noted in various news reports, the pressure dropped inside the reactor and radiation levels outside the unit rose significantly at about that time. That, he said, would seem to support conjecture that the vessel protecting the nuclear core may have been damaged or possibly ruptured and released some of the radioactive constituents. "I've done many of these experiments," he said. "When you drop a molten core into water, there's a big explosion." The worst of the worst could come if Japan can't come up with a way to sufficiently cool down the reactor fuel cores. That has reportedly become increasingly difficult with workers evacuating the sites -- at least temporarily -- because of high radiation fields. "These things play out over a long period of time, longer than people would think," Allen said. "You have an earthquake that lasts maybe a minute, a tsunami that lasts maybe 15 minutes. But these things could go on for months. You could lose all six of the reactors." If workers are unable to get additional cooling water into the reactor vessel, the molten fuel core will collapse into the water in bottom of the vessel. Eventually the heat from the decaying fuel would boil away the water that's left, leaving the core sitting on the vessel's lower head made of steel. Should that happen, "It'll melt through it like butter," Allen said. That, in turn, would cause a "high-pressure melt injection" into the water-filled concrete cavity below the reactor. Because the concrete would likely be unheated, the reaction created by the sudden injection of the reactor's ultra-hot content would be immense, he said. "It'll be like somebody dropped a bomb, and there'll be a big cloud of very, very radioactive material above the ground," Allen said, noting that it would contain uranium and plutonium, as well as the fission products. Should these events happen, the best outcome would be if the winds are blowing east and push the radioactive plume over the Pacific Ocean, he said. "It (the radioactivity) will fall out in the ocean and everything will be fine," he said. The worst case, Allen said, would be if winds pushed a radioactive cloud south toward Tokyo and Japan's highly populated cities. If that were to happen, he said, the consequences would likely be greater than the 1986 accident at Chernobyl, where an entire area of Ukraine had to be evacuated because of the radioactive conditions that increased the risk of developing cancer. Allens holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M, a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of California at Davis. In addition to his positions at Sandia and MTSU, he has worked for the Defense Department, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, and Texas Tech University.
Some amazing visuals with use of slider bars. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html?hp
Singapore newspaper has tracked/translated a blog from one of the workers inside the plant: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_646210.html [rquoter] ONE lone voice has emerged from the group of heroic workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which runs the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, where workers are scrambling to cool the nuclear plant and avoid a meltdown. Michiko Otsuki - a female worker at Tepco - has written on her blog, speaking up for her 'silent' colleagues who remained behind at the plant. She had been quoted a little in some overseas English reports but The Straits Times Online tracked and translated her blog to find out her full story when she first posted on popular Japanese social networking site Mixi. By Thursday however, her post had been taken down, but the entry had already been reproduced by several online blogs and in Japanese language forums. Ms Otsuki is one of the 800 employees evacuated from the plant on Monday, leaving 50 workers behind to battle the nuclear crisis. On Tuesday, she addressed the growing criticisms levelled at Tepco. 'People have been flaming Tepco,' she said. 'But the staff of Tepco have refused to flee, and continue to work even at the peril of their own lives. Please stop attacking us.' Tepco, which powers Japan's capital and largest city Tokyo, is one of the main players in the world of Japanese nuclear power, with a history of safety violations. Even Prime Minister Naoto Kan, frustrated that an explosion featured in the news had not been reported to the Prime Minister's office, is reported to have burst into an executive meeting at the company and demanded what was going on. However, Ms Otsuki's blog post gives the world a glimpse of the tireless, faceless crew - now dubbed the Fukushima 50 - who are working on the frontline to stop the nuclear crisis from escalating, risking the effects of radiation. In the most severe cases, radiation can lead to higher chances of developing cancer, or even death. 'As a worker at Tepco and a member of the Fukushima No. 2 reactor team, I was dealing with the crisis at the scene until yesterday (Monday).' 'In the midst of the tsunami alarm (last Friday), at 3am in the night when we couldn't even see where we going, we carried on working to restore the reactors from where we were, right by the sea, with the realisation that this could be certain death,' she said. 'The machine that cools the reactor is just by the ocean, and it was wrecked by the tsunami. Everyone worked desperately to try and restore it. Fighting fatigue and empty stomachs, we dragged ourselves back to work. 'There are many who haven't gotten in touch with their family members, but are facing the present situation and working hard.' Battling On 'Please remember that. I want this message to reach even just one more person. Everyone at the power plant is battling on, without running away. 'To all the residents (around the plant) who have been alarmed and worried, I am truly, deeply sorry. 'I am writing my name down, knowing I will be abused and hurt because of this. There are people working to protect all of you, even in exchange for their own lives. 'Watching my co-workers putting their lives on the line without a second thought in this situation, I'm proud to be a member of Tepco, and a member of the team behind Fukushima No. 2 reactor. 'I hope to return to the plant and work on the restoration of the reactor.' But her pleas seem to have gone unheard. The original post has now been taken down and she has instead posted an apology: 'I am very sorry, but I have locked the post as it was being used in a way I had not intended it to be. 'Having seen what's happening on the ground, my message to all of you remains the same. But others have changed the contents of the post and used it for the wrong reasons, like fanning fear amongst others, and I have therefore decided to lock my post. 'I am praying from the bottom of my heart for the safety of your loved ones. I am sorry it (the blog post) has turned out this way.' [/rquoter]
Very bad sign today -- Chinooks dropping loads of water on the reactor like it was a forest fire. That is desperation.
even US is urging Americans who are living in Japan to leave... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/sc_nm/us_nuclear_usa
yes and no- they're trying to deal with the spent fuel rods, not the reactor itself. still, seems not to have worked.
I'm hoping this is the US just exercising a "Just in case" option, and this isn't actually a sign that things are about to get worse...
