Japan Earthquake

Japan Earthquake | Page 1478

@ariadne Yeah, I guess that is a result of western-anglo-Lazy approach to words and names. But lets be real, words and names should not have 2 i's in a row:) LOL
by RBeaner 6/2/2011 4:15:08 PM

Friday, June 3, 2011
Life insurers to hasten payments to families of missing
Major life insurers are considering bringing forward the start of insurance payments to the next of kin of policyholders still listed as missing in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, possibly to sometime in June, industry sources said Thursday.
search.japantimes.co.jp
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:21:45 PM

Friday, June 3, 2011
March 9 foreshock should've led to Big One alert: expert
Authorities could have issued a warning over the March 11 earthquake had they treated an earlier quake as a foreshock and closely analyzed the aftershocks that followed, according to a Tohoku University associate professor.
search.japantimes.co.jp
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:23:10 PM

Friday, June 3, 2011
School radiation cleanup slammed
Parents flunk ministry over soil-removal policy shift
Despite the education ministry's recent move to set a new nonbinding target to reduce the radiation children in Fukushima Prefecture are exposed to at schools, experts, local educators and parents don't feel reassured.
search.japantimes.co.jp
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:26:12 PM

Fukushima in Our Food
As the crippled reactors in Japan continue to emit radiation into the environment, the risk grows that it will appear in our food. Radiation has already been detected in trace amounts in milk across the U.S., and in strawberries, kale and other vegetables in California.
www.foodprocessing.com
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:28:14 PM

@RBeaner If we want to be read and respected we must at the very least spell correctly, especially in regards to something as important as the place names of Fukushima and Daiichi. It can be easy to dismiss an entire article if the very basic level of conducting research to determine accurate spelling has been ignored. This can lead one to the impression that the other facts presented in the article may be equally inaccurate as well. I am happy to proofread articles for anyone on this site. As you can see, I have very strong feelings about the importance of spelling and grammar! :)
by ariadne 6/2/2011 4:28:49 PM

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution leads expedition to measure radioactive contaminants in Pacific
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will lead the first international, multidisciplinary assessment of the levels and dispersion of radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean off the Fukushima nuclear power plant—a research effort funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

"This project will address fundamental questions about the impact of this release of radiation to the ocean, and in the process enhance international collaboration and sharing of scientific data," said Vicki Chandler, Chief Program Officer, Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. "It is our hope that through this adverse event, we can increase our current knowledge about various natural and man-made sources of radioactivity in the ocean, and how they might ultimately impact ocean life and health around the world."
www.eurekalert.org
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:29:34 PM

@ariadne @all Let me know whenever you need any help with that.
by Pedro Jesus 6/2/2011 4:31:19 PM

Friday, June 3, 2011
Tohoku, Tokyo residents lash out at Diet backbiting
"If those politicians have time to get in each other's way, I want them to come to Fukushima and stabilize the nuclear plant's situation," said a 25-year-old businessman from Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, where the radiation-leaking Fukushima No. 1 plant is located. The man, who declined to be named, now lives in an evacuation center in Tamura, also in Fukushima.
search.japantimes.co.jp
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:36:57 PM

@Panserbjorne9 good article "School radiation cleanup slammed". They should institute Binding targets. Say 20 mSv/yr for 3 months (through 6/11) and 10 mSv for 3 months (through 9/11) then 5mSv through december and back to 1 mSv starting in January 2012. These people are crying out for guidance, and they just aren't getting it.
by RBeaner 6/2/2011 4:37:04 PM

@RBeaner that's what struck me as well. it's all well and good to talk about a limit, but there are no boots on the ground to assist with clarity/meeting it. Just talking in circles
by Panserbjorne9 6/2/2011 4:38:28 PM

Here's Arnie Gundersen's testimony to the NRC on record at the NRC (scroll to document-page 146) : pbadupws.nrc.gov Yall've probably seen the shoddy treatment he got giving it : www.youtube.com
by Ian 6/2/2011 4:43:27 PM

@Panserbjorne9 in the US, and I assume elsewhere, nuclear workers are assigned "control Levels". These are more like speed bumps than speed limits. All nuclear (monitored with TLD's) workers are assigned a control level of 5 mSv/yr. On an idividual case by case basis, for example a specific higher radiation job, their control level will be bumped up to 7.5 mSv or 10 mSv all the way to 17.5 mSv. Iv'e never seen higher to give a safety margin from the Legal limit.
by RBeaner 6/2/2011 4:44:03 PM

@ariadne I agree with correcting spelling and grammar, that's why I proposed it for comment and edit. It wasn't (isn't) a final product.
by RBeaner 6/2/2011 4:45:38 PM

@Pedro Jesus @ariadne @all
I set up a menu item on the site under Community called Organize. If you, like ariadne, want to help out, comment in there so we can give you a login with the appropriate permissions.

I also set up a category for Peer Review on the same menu. Anything posted in it appears nowhere else.
by radioguy 6/2/2011 4:54:52 PM

I found this simulation study docs.google.com with the title "Evaluation of Technological Appropriateness of the Implemented Accident Management Measures for BWR by Level 1 and Level 2 PSA Methods" by M.Kajimoto, M.Sugawara, S.Sumida, K.Funayama, F.Kasahara, N.Tanaka and M.Hirano, Institute of Nuclear Safety (INS), Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC), Fujitakanko Toranomon BLDG.7F, 3-17-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-0001 Japan (2001). The authors conclude “the present study examined the effectiveness of accident management countermeasures in terms of the Level 1 PSA and Level 2 PSA for the BWR-3 Mark-I, BWR-4 Mark-I, BWR-5 Mark-II and ABWR in Japan. The results indicated that accident management countermeasures implemented to BWRs in Japan were effective to reduce core damage frequency and containment failure frequency. The core damage frequencies and containment failure frequencies for BWRs were estimated to be lower than 3x10-7 (1/R.y) and 6x10-8 (1/R.y), respectively. In addition, containment failure frequencies that lead to early large release were significantly reduced with AMs for BWRs.”

The events in Fukushima tragically demonstrate the value of such simulations in the face of actuality!
by Peter Melzer 6/2/2011 5:45:45 PM

EPA data says 67% Chance of Plutonium in Riverside California; Review says 98%+ pissinontheroses.blogspot.com
Mystery of plutonium over the Pacific Ocean translate.google.com Chubu University professor Takeda Kunihiko, formerly of the Nuclear Safety Commission says "EPA data very valuable"
by Bobby1 6/2/2011 5:47:44 PM

@Peter Melzer Anyone who had put together a simulation including both a 9.0 and a 15 meter tsunami would have been slammed with "Get real. Come ON. What are the odds?" Hmmm... I'd say approaching 100% on that coast eventually.
by radioguy 6/2/2011 5:48:29 PM

@Bobby1 Wow.
by radioguy 6/2/2011 5:49:13 PM

@radioguy, This study does not even consider the causes of accidents. It simply says that the implemented measures were adequate to take care of any consequences.
by Peter Melzer 6/2/2011 5:50:59 PM

@Peter Melzer In other words, once again like BP Deepwater Horizon, disaster plans which take as ther starting point that we are so clever nothing will go wrong. Why is it that didaster plans never seem to consider the fact that disasters leave everything in chaos?
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:03:57 PM

@Bobby1 Thanks for that. Good read. I understand the BerkeleyNUC readings far better now, and that analysis is spot-on regarding the massage on those plutonium numbers. They rolled March 11 through the 15th into one and used THAT? The tsunami was the 11th, the explosions the 12th and 13th, so with the time to reach here figured in, every bit of the suspected plutonium sampled came from the 15th day. Wow.
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:08:39 PM

@radioguy Right, there is no way any of the plutonium could have reached the States before the 15th. Lying with statistics, as they say.
by Bobby1 6/2/2011 6:12:11 PM

@radioguy, as to unprecedented earth quake strengths, this Mainichi Daily News post mdn.mainichi.jp with the title "No. 1 reactor pressure vessel likely damaged immediately after quake" published online May 26, reports that “at the reactor, the magnitude 9.0 quake registered an intensity smaller than envisaged under its quake-resistance design.”
by Peter Melzer 6/2/2011 6:14:31 PM

The double-slip nature of that quake had to be hard on pipes and connections.
" It first ruptured mainly westward from its epicenter -- 32 kilometers (about 20 miles) below the seafloor -- toward Japan, shaking the island of Honshu violently for 40 seconds.

Surprisingly, the fault then ruptured eastward from the epicenter, up toward the ocean floor along the sloping fault plane for about 30 or 35 seconds."
www.grindtv.com
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:27:45 PM

1.bp.blogspot.com
@Bobby1 from a link in the article.
by radioguy via 1.bp.blogspot 6/2/2011 6:31:26 PM

@radioguy : imagine, today, 8 hours ago, tepco has changed the format of the historical readings (csv data sheets).
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:32:52 PM

Really...
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:33:18 PM

off to look...
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:33:39 PM

@radioguy : maybe i'm paranoid, but it seems they are watching us and want to bother me.
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:34:14 PM

@radioguy Yikes!
by Bobby1 6/2/2011 6:34:59 PM

@radioguy : you won't see much difference, but the column number have changed and they added the year to the date. i can not see yet if the data itsself has changed, but at least i have to rescript the plotting program.
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:36:08 PM

@Bobby1 Are those right? It looks right, but wow. Even if you remove the 5x qualifier becasue the samples were diluted out by 4 inactive days, it's still over 3,000,000 atoms.
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:36:59 PM

@Edano Yes I'll check mine too.
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:38:00 PM

@radioguy Three million atoms seems like a lot too. It's hard to see how at least a few of them wouldn't stick in the lungs.
by Bobby1 6/2/2011 6:40:56 PM

@radioguy at least, for me it means a lot of unforseen work. i really wonder why they did that.
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:41:15 PM

@all: any new unfounded rumors ?
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:41:42 PM

heehee
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:41:50 PM

i can see, edano did not lose his job today. that's good news.
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:42:51 PM

Isn't Kan's no-confidence vote on the agenda for today?
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:44:15 PM

@radioguy ; yes, he won.
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:44:31 PM

Kan survives no-confidence motion at last minute

By Takuya Karube
TOKYO, June 2, Kyodo

Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence motion in the lower house of parliament on Thursday after announcing his intention to quit once he makes tangible progress in containing a nuclear crisis and rebuilding Japan following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Kan's last-minute announcement on his political fate after a year in office changed the minds of many lawmakers who had planned to vote in favor of the motion.

''I want the younger generation to take over my duties after I fulfill the role I should play'' in reconstructing Japan, Kan said at a meeting of his ruling party shortly after noon, just ahead of the vote. english.kyodonews.jp
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:46:08 PM

"announcing his intention to quit once he makes tangible progress in containing a nuclear crisis and rebuilding Japan following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami"

Does that mean he's gonna be there forever?
by radioguy 6/2/2011 6:47:40 PM

@radioguy exactly. hundred years at least.
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:48:12 PM

another life-time job:

TEPCO plans to plug all potential leaks

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, plans to plug all potential leaks of highly radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in June.

TEPCO submitted its plan to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency after finding in April and May that highly radioactive water was flowing into the sea via seaside concrete maintenance pits. The water apparently came from turbine buildings of the plant's No.2 and 3 reactors.

The utility says it identified 5 concrete tunnels and 39 pits around the plant as possible points from which radioactive water could flow out to the sea.

The firm says it filled all the tunnels and some of the pits with concrete, and that it will finish work at 17 of the pits and repair cracked seawalls in June.
TEPCO is under pressure to also find places to store an increasing amount of contaminated water in the turbine buildings, as the current rainy season is raising fears of overflows. The utility plans to install a water purification system to recycle the water.

Thursday, June 02, 2011 19:31 +0900 (JST)
www3.nhk.or.jp
by Edano 6/2/2011 6:53:14 PM