Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

[Basshappi]

To all those in Japan and elsewhere affected by these events my prayers go out for you all.

 

If we have any Forum members in those areas, hang tight and stay safe! Report in when you are able.

[Richard W]

Amen.

[Davo-London]

Terrible - Oregon coast is the first to feel the Tsunami!

 

Davo

[butcherNburn]

I'm not trying to make light of the situation.

http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web05/2011/3/11/9/the-headline-you-wont-be-reading-4991-1299853998-42.jpg

[b5pilot]

A tragic situation. Very sad.

[Rocky McDougall]

I have been watching the videos and I have never seen anything this bad, and now the news is reporting that one or more Nuclear Reactors are overheating. Japan needs our prayers.

Rocky

[Bottom End]

I read the same, it's interesting that Japan would otherwise be so well prepared, or engineered to minimize damage, but the reactor systems wouldn't be taken in to account.

 

Probably more media hype than actual danger, and I hope it stays that way.

[Richard W]

I'm not trying to make light of the situation.

http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web05/2011/3/11/9/the-headline-you-wont-be-reading-4991-1299853998-42.jpg

 

In fact the New York Times web site has a prominent article on this very subject. Government building regs in Japan about earthquake and tsunami survival are very strict, which is one reason the toll isn't worse than it is.

[TimR]

I read the same, it's interesting that Japan would otherwise be so well prepared, or engineered to minimize damage, but the reactor systems wouldn't be taken in to account.

 

Probably more media hype than actual danger, and I hope it stays that way.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12711707

[Paul K]

Oh, man. This thing is just blowing my mind. It just keep getting worse by the hour with the nuke thing going on. So what would have happened if building codes were lax? I can't even fathom it: it'd be like Haiti but with a 10x more dense population.

[Groove Mama]

Just by way of comparison, Japan's death toll is expected to run around 10,000, while Haiti's has been estimated at well over 200,000.

[Ross Brown]

Prayers to Japan

[Michele C.]

Today I learnt that an earthquake of that energy corresponds to 500.000 cubic kilometers of basaltic rock. Assume it is 10 km deep (because under 10 km the earth changes) and 50 km wide, it would mean that the front was 1.000 km long, make that some 600 miles.

In other words the sea was kicked by a foot long as from San Francisco to Seattle, the wave was 10m high travelling around 750 Km/h, about as fast as a commercial airplane. it's a pity that the emergency generators of the power plant were risen 6m and that left the plant without cooling in an emergency when the engines sank into water.

I found this site (powered by MIT students) very honest, deep and readable (at least if you have some background) http://mitnse.com/

If you want to know more than you want to know about radiation and health, this is a good reference http://www.unscear.org/

The UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. They published a 600 pages report on the Chernobyl accident, an accident that was much worse because it did not have any serious contaniner to confine the nuclear fuel, while Fukushima has 10 cm of steel inside 1m of concrete that we really hope will never crack. only in Soviet Russia they could choose that technology, it also had graphite as moderator to ease burning.

The short story about radiation is this: above a certain level (6 Sv) you are screwed and will just have time to call your friends on the phone. Between 0.5 and 2.5 we have a lot of experience based on the survivors to atomic bombs and their diseases. Under that we know nothing, because you might have one more cancer in a population that would develop 40 cases without radiation, so you really never know which one was which. You might look for a strange rise in some cases, but following Chernobyl it has not been possibile to distinguish such a rise from the usual fluctuations in numbers.

It has been possible to identify a number of thyroid cancers because they really stand out and we have two good news: most patients survive and it is easy to prevent taking iodine at the right time before exposure to a radioactive cloud.

In short we know that low levels of radiation will cause some harm, but we do not really know how much. Cells get injured by radiation and can repair themselves and get back in shape, repair themselves imperfectly and possibly become mutant cells and cause cancer or they might die with or without global damage to the body. There is a treshold for repair, so nothing happens until levels are really substantial, after that it depends, before entering the zone in which we have the answers.

Ah, finally, radiation is not a substance, it has to be transported. You cannot be contaminated by light escaping from a light bulb factory (thanks to reindeerflotilla for this metaphor) you need to swallow a lit light bulb eating something that has been exposed to a cloud of radioactive material, or you need to be outside under a cloud of radioactive material while it is passing by.

Yuck, sorry i meant to make it short when I started.

[fingertalkin]

Let me start by saying that this is a terrible tragedy that seems to be getting worse by the minute. The temperatures are cold and there is no power compounded by everything else. It sucks for those people and then you have people like the "UCLA girl" making stupid comments....google it if you don't know what I am talking about. I pray that this turns out no worse than expected. Kind of morbid in reality though.

 

My problem with the situation is the media coverage and misinformation that is being spewed. I have heard so many different stories on how this nuclear problem is way worse than Chernobyl to only then hear that it isn't even on the same level and not even the same type of radiation.

 

I am getting EXTREMELY tired of the slant the media puts on everything from politics to natural disasters. It is to the point where they are useless as t..s on a bull......f it, I can't even write about it anymore.

[Paul K]

I am getting EXTREMELY tired of the slant the media puts on everything from politics to natural disasters.

 

Indeed. It often depends on whether they're protecting their assets or promoting fear to keep us tuned in. Alternatives that inform are around, but one needs to hunt them out. Try salon.com

 

I also respect Rachel Maddow's show. Her ducks are usually in a row; good research is done before hand, and she does a good job of framing the discussion by first making sure all agree to the common facts.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Believe or not, I am currently employed as a Rad Health Engineer at the Hanford site. I work with people with MAs and PhDs in this field and have access to some pretty amazing resources.

 

I've been watch HeadlineFoxNetworkNews and ChrisO'RiellyOlbermann on an on-and-off basis. The thing that kills me is the lack of detail while absolutely gushing in reporting. Like the fallout hitting the west coast in 9 to 10 days. They are claiming "750 Rads." Rads per what? Per hour? Per cubic meter? Per person?

 

Sorry, Mr. and Ms. America, but the constituents in this country are so amazingly ignorant as to how radiation, nuclear reactors and nuclear emergencies work, coupled with the vast lack of technical expertise delivered "minute-by-minute" by the media makes me long for the days where I could protect myself from the Soviet pre-emptive attack by hiding under my desk at St. Bart's.

 

It took MONTHS to figure out exactly what happened at Chernobyl. Years later and we are still trying to grasp excatly what happened. This is going to be no different.

 

I regret that despite the current administrations desrie to restart our nation's nuclear program, we will instead spend the next 30 years worshiping at the alter of wind turbines that cost more to run than the electricity they make or solar fams that will waste square miles of desert.

 

Personally, if the gummit wanted to build an artifical island, three feet tall in the middle of Puget Sound and put a boiling water reactor on it, I'd protest that.

 

I get a choice between Chicken Little and the guy on Anaimal House yelling "Remain Calm!!! All Is Well!!!"

[luckypro]

watch live about earthquake japan at http://earthquakejapan.us/2011/03/17/nhk-wourld-tv/