Yeah, i was watching that and it made me very uneasy. As much as I love Japan, I think it's probably best to get my family out of here. Apparently the US Army is transporting people to South Korea out of Atsugi and some commercial planes from Narita. It's probably for service family members etc. first. I wonder if this extends to all citizens in the area.
yeah, just read that. they remain that there is little to no threat in areas outside the 50 mile radius as of now but for family members who want to leave for the sake of peace of mind, they will cover all costs etc.
most telling is that they must drop the water from about 1000ft up.....b/c the radiation levels are so dangerous close to the reactors
only the Japanese would produce a video that explained radiation to kids using a metaphor like, well, you have to watch it... <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5sakN2hSVxA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Next up...a rain dance... Kind of ironic that too much water caused this and now they can't get enough.
According to the IAEA the situations at reactors 1-3, where reactors are being cooled with seawater, are reasonably stable, meaning they shouldn't be getting any worse. Reactor 4, where the spent nuclear fuel pool is located, remains a major safety concern. Looks like they might be close to restoring outside power to the cooling systems too. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-japan-nuclear-iaea-idUSTRE72G7BJ20110317
Japan apparently has asked Germany to send them some kind of robots. I only got a German source, but it's been confirmed by the German government. Spoiler [22.21 Uhr] Die japanische Regierung bittet in Deutschland um technologische Unterstützung: Nach Informationen der "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" (Freitagausgabe) hat das Land ferngesteuerte Roboter angefragt, um sie in der havarierten Atomanlage Fukushima einzusetzen. "In Deutschland stehen solche Roboter in den kerntechnischen Anlagen zur Verfügung", sagte Christoph Unger, Präsident des Bundesamts für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (BBK). Sobald genaue Anforderungen aus Tokio vorlägen, werde in den Bundesländern nachgefragt, wer solche Roboter liefern könnte, sagt Unger. http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,751401,00.html
Are they actually covering the costs? I thought I read that people would still have to pay (maybe reimburse the cost later?). I think it probably is the US (and other countries) being extra cautious, especially given how little information they have to go on. I was watching Katz talk about this, and he was talking about how Japan urged their citizens to leave Africa/Middle East, the US, etc., during past events (Egypt, 9/11, etc). Plus, if people can leave Japan, probably best even despite the nuclear reactor situation (more food and supplies available for people who can't leave Japan). As for the robots, I wonder what they'd actually do. Certainly tough to have a robot that can take those levels of radiation, but also be able to navigate through some of the wreckage. And then it would...do something I guess. Maybe it would just provide confirmation for some things (e.g., water levels?). Although I guess the helicopter was able to do some of those things, and if they get power back, perhaps some of their instruments will help as well. The IAEA report does sound encouraging. Be interesting to see how the next 24 hours go, especially if they can get power back and maybe start using some of the pumps again. On another note, one bad result of the "OMG CHERNOBYL!" reporting: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42135438/ns/health-health_care/ People experiencing sickness due to taking potassium iodide. In the US. Where this is completely unnecessary (even if radiation from Japan came to the US, probably be pretty negligible). Happening in other countries too. Hopefully nothing too bad happens in Japan and they won't actually need some of these...because people 1000s of miles away have already purchased them all. edit: In fact, I think I read a man in China died from taking too many of these tablets. Too lazy to look for a source though, but wouldn't doubt it. Tablets might end up killing more people than the radiation.
we need to have like a giant bubble wrap cover ready for this kind of stuff . Actually I'm not kidding, even though radiation passes straight through it, it prevents the steam, smoke from dispersing to other wide spread areas. Even though you'll have one giant hot bed of radiation, the perimeter of safety would be much larger. still poses the question of what to do with it after
Considering the costs (and time) that would involved in doing that (assuming it would even be somewhat effective), I'd say it would probably just be better to improve the designs of the reactors/plants themselves. Use designs that don't rely on pressure so much (so little risk of an explosion), different fuels (easier to handle/store after use, maybe less radiation?), different techniques, etc., so that a lot of what is happening wouldn't be even possible. Well...a lot of that is already being done (or even done already), but going even further would be nice.
as one of the comments said, some good non-hysterical reporting here: Notice the pressure inside the Unit 1 reactor vessel: 0.185 MPa, which is 26.834 psi. Units 2 and 3 are lower, essentially atmospheric pressure, and Unit 4 isn’t even included in the report. The NRC has some hypothetical dose projections (that are in my opinion far too high, and I don’t believe them), but it isn’t difficult to see why the NRC has recommended evacuation for U.S. citizens. Help is on the way, and they hope to install and align emergency power soon. It wasn’t long after the tsunami that they had portable emergency diesel generators delivered, but the tsunami had cleared out all offsite power, including stepup transformers and connections. They literally had nothing to which to connect (that could be readily ascertained as the power source for any specific component). It was a jungle of cables. But it’s important that everyone realize what I have already said concerning this set of accidents. The main stream media (both print and television) continue to point towards avoiding a core melt event, as if it will announce itself with some sort of trumpet blast and melt through the earth. As I have explained, it doesn’t happen that way. The corium, if it makes it through the lower reactor vessel head, will disperse and cool from that dispersal, not even making it through the lower basemat of concrete. The cores for Units 1, 2 and 3 are already damaged. They are partially melted, and partially shattered and rubblized, sitting in the lower part of the reactor vessel. Most of the radiological source term that can be expected to be released from the core to containment has already been released. It is being held up inside hard containments and depleted via radioactive decay, plateout, etc. The work now has to do with mitigation of the radiological source terms, from water injection into the reactor coolant system, water washdown of plant components, and so on. If the semi-volatile fission products and alkali metals are in effluent, they will likely not re-evolve to the atmosphere in large quantities. Most importantly, for now, the Spent Fuel Pools deserve attention, and hopefully the operators will be able to mitigate zirconium fire events in the pools. The Japanese are performing heroically, and the main stream media will catch up in several days (or weeks). The current efforts are focused on radiological source term and thus dose mitigation, not the prevention of core melt events.
About The Captain’s Journal The Captain’s Journal is dedicated to the dissemination of conservative views, based on a solidly and consistently conservative world view, on matters political and military. The “Captain” is Herschel Smith, who hails from Charlotte, N.C., and who is not a member of the armed forces, but who is “Captain” of this web log. The “Captain” is a Christian, and offers news and commentary on warfare, policy and counterinsurgency. _____ The NRC has some hypothetical dose projections (that are in my opinion far too high, and I don’t believe them), but it isn’t difficult to see why the NRC has recommended evacuation for U.S. citizens. _____ What expertise does the 'Captain' have to doubt the NRC's does projections? How does a conservative blogger regurgitating news reports count as reporting?
If the generator hookups were wiped out, I'm wondering why they weren't replaced before bringing in the generators. And while I hope bringing in the new lines will help, I'm just wondering what will they hook that line up to. And even when they do get it all hooked up will the main pumps still work after all this? While I think the line is definitely needed, I don't think it's the magic bullet to solve all the problems. Bury Unit 4 and go back to attending 1-3, 5 and 6 until they can be permanently brought down or at least stabilized to a point that they can be buried. There is no saving this facility or even the nearby land. Minimize the damage is the most realistic thing they can do.
I was hearing on the news earlier that they are seriously looking at burying the fuel rods in the cooling ponds using a mixture of soil, lead and boron. From what I recall of Chenobyl they did something similar and used helicopters to air drop soil and cement on top of the reactor.
holy crap! <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="853" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cpt0WKZI9D8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
