Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 1056

@all Got to Go...This is really a fantastic platform! Thanks for letting me back track a little tonight!
by smoss 5/9/2011 3:39:37 AM

I know. I had a similar metaphor in my mind when I first saw that.
by radioguy 5/9/2011 3:39:42 AM

@smoss We all need to backtrack to keep track.
by radioguy 5/9/2011 3:40:07 AM

@Ralph Unger Exactly. Never.
by radioguy 5/9/2011 3:40:34 AM

AREVA was behind the MOX, they make it and want to sell it.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 3:41:52 AM

Nice to think of plutonium being shipped half way around the world.It would not be hot yet, so the terrorists would not even have to risk their health in getting it.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 3:43:29 AM

@smoss take care
by bo 5/9/2011 3:50:16 AM

supersites.earthobservations.org

@Nancy This is a pretty clear visualization of the acceleration vectors of the quake, showing how much stuff moved and in what direction.
by radioguy via Supersites.earthobservations.org 5/9/2011 4:06:10 AM

The waves are back in the tippycam. Breezy.
by radioguy 5/9/2011 4:29:25 AM

supersites.earthobservations.org

Look at this, paired with the one below. Look at the hit Iwaki and Chiba took, and the aftershocks in blue below.
by radioguy via Supersites.earthobservations.org 5/9/2011 4:36:03 AM

chopper has flown oiver the plant a couple of times
by marie rich 5/9/2011 5:01:43 AM

pointscope01.jp
TippityTeppytycam 2011/05/09 13:01 JST
by alblee via Pointscope01.jp 5/9/2011 5:02:08 AM

pointscope01.jp
TippityTeppytycam 2011/05/09 14:01 JST
by alblee via Pointscope01.jp 5/9/2011 5:02:23 AM

au.news.yahoo.com

Japan, U.S. plan nuclear waste storage in Mongolia: paper
Reuters, May 9, 2011, 10:25 am, via West Australian Newspapers Limited

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and the United States plan to jointly build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Mongolia to serve customers of their nuclear plant exporters, pushing ahead despite Japan's prolonged nuclear crisis, the Mainichi daily said on Monday.

A Trade Ministry official said Japan, U.S. and Mongolia officials, at a meeting shortly before Japan's March 11 earthquake, informally discussed possible construction of a nuclear waste storage facility for countries with nuclear power plants but no spent fuel storage capability of their own.

He said there were no concrete plans at this time but the ministry would consider such a project if Mongolia were interested.

The Mainichi said the facility would allow Japanese and U.S. nuclear plant exporters, which include joint ventures and units of General Electric, Hitachi and Toshiba, to better compete with Russian rivals that offer potential nuclear plant customers spent fuel disposal in a package.

Mongolia plans to have its first nuclear power plant by 2020 and to build nuclear fuel production capacity to tap its rich uranium resources, undeterred by the crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power complex, a senior official at the state-owned MonAtom LLC said in April.

MonAtom represents the Mongolian government in mining and developing the country's uranium resources.

The trade ministry official denied the Mainichi's report that the three countries had originally planned to sign a deal on the spent fuel disposal project in February but it was postponed as Japan's Foreign Ministry opposed the schedule, citing a lack of consensus among Japanese ministries.

The Mainichi said a new date had not been set in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, which triggered cooling system malfunctions at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and led to radiation leaks into the atmosphere and the sea.

Engineers are still struggling to bring the plant under control.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
by alblee 5/9/2011 5:07:11 AM

Have we seen this? Sorry if redundant...

www.post-gazette.com

Japan Reaffirms Nuclear Energy Use
Monday, May 09, 2011
By MARTIN FACKLER, The New York Times

TOKYO -- Japan remains committed to nuclear power despite the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Prime Minister Naoto Kan indicated Sunday, as workers moved closer to repairing the crippled plant by opening the doors of a damaged reactor building... ... ...
by alblee 5/9/2011 5:48:51 AM

CNN I-Report pics of an anti-nuclear protest in Tokyo yesterday: ireport.cnn.com
by bo 5/9/2011 5:52:58 AM

@Alblee that was up yesterday I think. Many folks here have been hoping that Fukushima would be a turning point in Japan, and that this would force a turning point around the world, but if that is going to happen it is going to have to come from the Japanese people. It will not come from the Japanese government.
by bo 5/9/2011 5:54:28 AM

By "here" I mean on the Scrib.
by bo 5/9/2011 5:54:44 AM

And I would add that the protest in Tokyo yesterday drew 15,000 people, not 150,000

[Thanks for the rejoinders and clarifications,@bo. I do have a lot of catching up to do, heh heh. - Alblee]
by bo edited by alblee 5/9/2011 5:57:59 AM

Is that the biggest protest you have ever heard of in Tokyo?
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:00:31 AM

I have to step off the desk, folks... Be back when able to log in again later... Thanks!
by Alblee 5/9/2011 6:03:47 AM

@Ralph Unger not the biggest, but the most I have heard of is in this neighborhood, 10-20,000. I don't know if there were larger protests in the far past, but not since I have been to Japan.
by bo 5/9/2011 6:05:11 AM

Oh, and re-reading the CNN piece, it was 5,000
by bo 5/9/2011 6:05:45 AM

@Bo, Thanks, I kind of figured that, Small for Washington, but some of the the biggest in history for Japan, IIRC.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:06:33 AM

www.japanprobe.com
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:10:37 AM

Most US servicemen are not there. "If I remember right, by CNFJ/USFJ policy you MUST move on & not get involved." www.japanbases.com
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:13:53 AM

"YOMITAN, Okinawa — Tens of thousands of Okinawans swarmed to a sports complex at the Yomitan village center Sunday to express their opposition to constructing any new military base on Okinawa....Organizers estimated 90,000 people eventually took part. " Why ws that not losted in the article I cited? www.stripes.com
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:17:07 AM

The Okinawa issue has its own energy here. It is an extension of old colonialism. The GOJ is trying to push every US military base off of the main four islands and down to Okinawa. The Okinawans are very opposed to this kind of treatment. So there are a lot of pieces for Okinawans, and a lot of it has to do with marginalization by the government in Tokyo. I imagine there have been huge crowds at protests there, but this does not at all reflect the inclination to protest in Japanese society in general.
by bo 5/9/2011 6:22:32 AM

Gotcha, a regional issue.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:24:11 AM

Still those protests should have been mentioned in the article I cited. Kinda misinformation to exclude them , even if only regional.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:25:55 AM

Perhaps an example of the type of exclusionary marginalization that the Okinawans experience in Japanese society.
by bo 5/9/2011 6:28:24 AM

Well said, I have read other articles about that.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:28:59 AM

The Asia-Pacific Journal (Japan Focus) has had extensive coverage of Okinawa issues over the years. You can search "Okinawa" and you will find a treasure trove of articles. japanfocus.org
by bo 5/9/2011 6:30:22 AM

"Life in the shadow of a nuclear disaster" www.japantoday.com
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:32:30 AM

The Ghost Towns of a "Brighter Future"
by bo 5/9/2011 6:33:53 AM

"In Japanese, that word is “hibaku.” Survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still are called by a similar-sounding word, “hibaku-sha,” the “bombed ones.” For decades the label alone, which has connotations of irradiation, was a social death warrant, its bearers shunned and denied jobs and marriages for fear that they would somehow contaminate those around them, or spawn mutant babies."
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:34:47 AM

And now a new generation of "hibakusha"
by bo 5/9/2011 6:37:19 AM

It amazes me that experts can claim that Fukushima has only released XX% or the radiation that was released in Chernobyl. That is not a knowable statistic at this point. It will take years to be able to determine how much of the radiation originally present escaped.
by bo 5/9/2011 6:38:34 AM

A "Hero!" But I don't want him or his family near me?
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:38:37 AM

They have a good estimate, what makes it less then Chernobyl is, The evacuation, the seaward wind.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:39:47 AM

Actual releases are a lot more then the 10% they quote.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:40:22 AM

Human impact is a large part of the calculation, and Fukushima did not spread all over Europe.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:41:42 AM

Long term? One of my major concerns is groundwater contamination. They used LN2 to avoid that at Chernobyl, It has already happened at Fukushima and it happened in the first few days. Being on the coast, the effect should be minimal, but it one area where we cannot clean it up.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:44:00 AM

Won't a significant amount of the rad that went into the sea return to us via the food chain?
by bo 5/9/2011 6:47:31 AM

Notice that they only give seawater levels, not readings from the sediment. Which is where most seafood comes from. At least for me, I love shrimp.
by Ralph Unger 5/9/2011 6:49:00 AM