Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 642

13,130 dead 13,718 reported missing NHK www3.nhk.or.jp
by kgriff 4/11/2011 7:56:18 PM

@radioguy probably. They are a big player in designs, fuel and plants. A commercial operator with an agenda, of course.
by vasra 4/11/2011 7:59:51 PM

OK...off to the station. I'll be back in inna bit.
by radioguy 4/11/2011 7:59:55 PM

Although there's not much new there that I can find. Maybe good to glance over. I always look at every day's update, when it's uploaded to scribd. Their progression analysis has been improving.
by vasra 4/11/2011 8:01:09 PM

@vasra They were. We saw the export authorization. Back in 2007 13gm of leftovers got close enough to criticality to cost two workers their hands. (Tokai was supposed to be closed down by 2006 after the 1999 disaster.)
by radioguy 4/11/2011 8:01:31 PM

by ifz via Pointscope01.jp 4/11/2011 8:01:34 PM

Good day to you all, I'm done for today. Keep your chin up in these troubled times!
by kaykodh 4/11/2011 8:03:49 PM

@sims Yes, the only new bit I could find was the control of dairy/crop up to 50km which came from official Japanese sources. Good to know that there's not much else new there. I need other eyeballs, don't trust my own :)
by vasra 4/11/2011 8:05:58 PM

translate.google.com
by Majjham Zazen 4/11/2011 8:09:51 PM

Japan officially raises Fukushima to Level 7, same as Chernobyl
by Majjham Zazen 4/11/2011 8:09:59 PM

Brainstorming solutions. search.japantimes.co.jp
by Scilla 4/11/2011 8:10:26 PM

Sorry here is the Japanese link
by Majjham Zazen 4/11/2011 8:10:58 PM

i56.tinypic.com
Grey-scaled and enhanced best I could for the steam, of which there is little.
by radioguy via I56.tinypic 4/11/2011 8:11:03 PM

www3.nhk.or.jp
by Majjham Zazen 4/11/2011 8:17:15 PM

@Sin Thank you so much for the Concerned Scientist report.first time ever seeing one that meantions current hapenings "7.1 EQ" so this is brandfresh and they get to ask questions we all wanted to know !!!!
by Veen Oui 4/11/2011 8:19:06 PM

@Majjham Zazen Thanks for that.
by es 4/11/2011 8:20:02 PM

@all I have removed the link that was causing problems and messages relating to it
by elainekirk 4/11/2011 8:20:50 PM

Takesato Watanabe is a media scholar at Doshisha University in Kyoto. He praises both NHK and Japan's commercial media for their job in reporting on the earthquake and tsunami.

"But about the nuke accident," he comments, "I think NHK do know the facts, what's happening, but they are not reporting well, and private broadcasters, they don't have any staff who understand the nuke accidents scientifically."

Watanabe argues that Japanese media have not been critical enough because they themselves are part of the network of vested interests that includes power companies and government regulators.

He says that for decades, NHK and other Japanese media have conveyed the nuclear lobby's message that nuclear power is necessary for Japan and nuclear accidents are unlikely. He points out that NHK's funding must be approved by Japan's diet, or parliament. www.wbez.org
by Sin 4/11/2011 8:22:40 PM

Interesting... Again I ask - why the sudden move to raise it 2 points?
"A spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan's nuclear safety watchdog, said on Tuesday that the level of the Fukushima incident was still a 5 and that he was unaware of any move by the government to raise the level." www.reuters.com
by jay 4/11/2011 8:26:51 PM

@jay Japan has absolutely no interest in the incident level at Fukushima being raised to a "7". As far as the reason for raising the level to a "7", I could personally think of a number of good reasons.
by James Ward 4/11/2011 8:32:32 PM

@Markfm That is what I was told when I asked the same question last week. It seems to be correct. Mox was only added in Sept. so supposedly no mox in the SFP. But the document leaked from the NRC that Fairwinds posted today states that containment on #3 is breached. They didn't elaborate how it was breached but heat signatures around the reactor well show small hot spots so maybe the cap gasket is leaking or damaged?
by Nancy 4/11/2011 8:34:53 PM

@James Ward "TEPCO might know, but they don't play well with others." I almost shot coffee out my nose. :-) How true.
by Nancy 4/11/2011 8:35:48 PM

@Sin That is really concerning, the way they couched this news in pretty dire terms. This seems like a new style of language. There could be even more radiation in the future does not sound good at all...
by Nancy 4/11/2011 8:38:37 PM

Hi, just butting in, long term watcher here. I am curious about the apparent pattern of earthquakes globally atm. I live in Greece and do quite often check out EQ mapping site in more 'normal' times as we have a lot of tremors here in Greece where I live. I use this site www.emsc-csem.org. My impression is that apart from a 6.0 in Crete on April 1st it is actually much quieter here than normal. I am more used to seeing quite a few 3 and 3.5+ quakes in the Aegean region and certainly the Greek mainland. The pattern around the ring of fire is pretty marked currently and I am certainly prepared to a accept that the series stretching across the US is out of the ordinary. Someone mentioned earlier that an absence of small 'tension relieving' quakes in a seismically active region might indicate that a big one is coming. Anyone know anything about that? Excellent work here all. I am definitely scientifically challenged, aka clueless, but am managing to learn quite a bit.
by Aegean_contingent 4/11/2011 8:39:19 PM

@Aegean welcome, there has been a lot of discussion re quakes today hasn't there? I am sorry you were waiting in mod you are now approved to post
by elainekirk 4/11/2011 8:41:32 PM

@radioguy would there be any motivation for them to run MOX before they had approval? What does a reactor facility do regarding bringing in new fuel? Is it shipped right before they put it in? Is it benign in that transported state? Do they store new unused fuel on site? I never thought about any of this before. If there was a profit motive to run MOX before they had approval, TEPCO has falsified documents before.
by Nancy 4/11/2011 8:41:45 PM

@James Ward I'm just finding it interesting that NISA wasn't aware of the move. If it's based on 10 PBq/hr being released some time ago and subsequently reduced, you'd think there would be more calm communication and unity among the agencies involved, since the immediacy has passed. The somewhat suprise announcement makes me wonder if there has been a new development or realization.
by jay 4/11/2011 8:42:40 PM

@radioguy They use the gate to move from the reactor well to sfp, from looking at them it is under water the entire time that way. www.houseoffoust.com
by Nancy via Houseoffoust 4/11/2011 8:43:48 PM

by ifz via Pointscope01.jp 4/11/2011 9:01:12 PM

they go through a permitting process to be able to run m o x fuel it was a big deal with number 3 was approved for it
by Markfm 4/11/2011 9:01:25 PM

@Elaine - thanks. I'm concerned about the impact of future (tomorrow or 2 years time) quakes at Fukushima especially given that this is obviously a long term problem. If the facility was built to withstand a 7.9 what can it withstand now? Presumably less than that is pretty likely. I'm not understanding deeply enough to consider the actual containment structure but I would guess that it's strength to withstand shaking must depend to some extent on how stably it is supported and surely that has been compromised. As quakes of up to 6 are hardly uncommon in this region and it wouldappear (if I am understanding what I have read here properly) it is possible or even likely that there are already cracks in one or more containment vessels - would this be why the seriousness status is being upgraded, because the containment is no longer viable in even quite normal seismicity (if that is confirmed) or would that only happen if actual damage of that proportion has already occurred. Perhaps it is academic and this swathe of land is out of all useful commission for a long time to come as at Chernobyl and the only questions now are how far afield the damage extends. Sorry if I am a bit basic in my understanding, I am truly no scientist. But this quake pattern thing is worrying me a lot especially the implication that a quieter period can be a bad sign for a region.
by Aegean_contingent 4/11/2011 9:02:54 PM

@Aegean_contingent we share your concerns. only wish there was more data to arrive at more definitive levels. but your speculations and concerns sound accurate
by marie rich 4/11/2011 9:05:44 PM

@marie, thanks, that's sort of what I am looking for, some affirmation that I am roughly on the right track here along with everyone else. I've neither got the time nor background knowledge to follow the nitty gritty data properly but I've been doing my best to grasp this.
by Aegean_contingent 4/11/2011 9:09:35 PM

@Nancy That was my concern; whether some of these other reactors were getting ready for conversion or for some reason they might have had more on hand, but in a sense it's a moot point when you have all that fuel in the SFPs. Plutonium is not the only uber-toxic substance in that stuff.
by RadioGuy 4/11/2011 9:13:26 PM

@Aegean_contingent sounds like you've got it. The overiding message to take is that it is a seriuos and very complicated situation. you should move to other scrbd page for wider ranging discussions. there's an engineer on right now. He might be able to answer questions far better than I. www.scribblelive.com
by marie rich 4/11/2011 9:14:45 PM

thanks @Marie, checking that out now.
by Aegean_contingent 4/11/2011 9:21:00 PM

I have a simple explanation for the low quality pics.. It is the images the operator is seeing while piloting the drone.. Not the actual footage but a low resolution transmission of the actual footage. It is common in FPV to transmit a low res feed so you can fly and a separate recorder on board for higher quality footage.. So this may only be the first set of shots.
by NHK Listener 4/11/2011 9:25:08 PM

NHK data blog on Fukushima Daiichi radiation measurements: www9.nhk.or.jp
by es 4/11/2011 9:27:09 PM

@es Seems low
by NHK Listener 4/11/2011 9:29:34 PM

@NHK Listener Yeah, conservative me thinks.
by es 4/11/2011 9:35:00 PM

Not sure if this was posted www.meti.go.jp
by NHK Listener 4/11/2011 9:36:48 PM

Government's doomed £6bn plan to dispose of nuclear waste www.independent.co.uk

'Unusual Event' Declared At Nuclear Plant In Washington www.huffingtonpost.com

Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities, Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk blogs.forbes.com
by George Gibb 4/11/2011 9:39:33 PM