Japanese Reactor blown up?

[Sickbag]

Not the containment vessel surely?
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Fuk-ushima!

[Not_Karl]

Calutron.

[Sickbag]

I've heard speculation that the earthquake inadvertently released a mass of stuxnet worms from their enclosures and they clogged the nuclear outlet pipes leading to a massive build up of pressure.
Could this be right?

[Ed]

Calutron.

god damn it, you beat me to it. Oh well:

Pancakes.

[Rabbi O'Genius]

A bit more worrying seen from here......but family and friends ok......so far

[rattler]

Certainly one of the top worries of the neighbouring countries right now (AFAIK a core meldown is what they try to prevent against time), but then the Japs themselves have other very serious problems to fight: Lost contact to 4 of my neighbours that were travelling Honshu, they were supposed to be around the most severely struck area when the tsunami rolled in, but then it could just be that with all comms lost we will hear theyre safe (and sane?) in a few days. I imagine this is the state of affairs for a great portion of the population over there.

Rattler

[Not_Karl]

1000 deaths... at least .
I hope you can make contact with your neighbours soon, Rattler!

[tds]

Fingers crossed for your friends, RO'G and Rattler.

Latest reports are saying that a nuclear 'incident' is unlikey. Obviously, the situation looks pretty dreadful regardless, but hopefully that's accurate.

[Ed]

Fingers crossed for your friends, RO'G and Rattler.

Latest reports are saying that a nuclear 'incident' is unlikey. Obviously, the situation looks pretty dreadful regardless, but hopefully that's accurate.

This is the ridiculousness of the media coverage: no 'nuclear event' can compare to the thousands upon thousands of deaths that will be attributed to a 30 foot wave roaming across the Japanese countryside.

I guess 'nuclear events' are more sexy than tsunamis and earthquakes......

[tds]

I agree with you on the relative scale, Ed, but it wouldn't exactly be a bonus. The footage I've seen of the tsunami coming inland is truly shocking.

[3WE]

1000 deaths... at least .

Dittos on well wishes to friends....

I hate to say this, but "only" 1000 deaths (and many of them from the tsunami) is an incredible testament to Japanese seismic engineering. This is a "top 10 earthquake in recorded history" and while there's a lot of damage, it seems like relatively few collapsed structures.

[Ed]

I agree with you on the relative scale, Ed, but it wouldn't exactly be a bonus. The footage I've seen of the tsunami coming inland is truly shocking.

No, not a bonus at all...but considering the worst case scenario of Chornobyl: no containment, operators did everything wrong, firefighters ill prepared, etc etc there were only an initial 31 deaths (2 operators + 29 firefighters), which was later raised to something on the order of 50 with some high dose 'liquidators'. So, you blow up the reactor (which was designed for weapons grade Pu production) which has no containment and you get....50 deaths.

50 from Chornobyl (nb: this Japanese nuclear event would not even register 1 death...from radiation anyway) versus thousands to tens of thousands from the event (and it will be many many thousands) seems insignificant and not worthy of reporting....it is just sexy. Water is not sexy...radiation is sexy. It is all about the soundbytes and whatever Anderson Cooper can get on camera in between his 'raves'.....

[Sickbag]

insignificant and not worthy of reporting....

Lets not mention it again then.

Carry on

[Ed]

insignificant and not worthy of reporting....

Lets not mention it again then.

Carry on

Keep Calm
and
Carry On

[Sickbag]

Earthquake strikes:
=Nuclear reactors close down automatically.
=Lack of power on national grid
= no power to pump coolant in reactors
=diesel generators on site start up automatically to power coolant pumps
Tsunami hits:
= diesel generators at nuclear plant swamped
=no power to pump coolant in reactors
=Meltdown.


Someone didn't think this one through.

[rattler]

I hope you can make contact with your neighbours soon, Rattler!

Done, this morning, all fine...

Rattler

[rattler]

I agree with you on the relative scale, Ed, but it wouldn't exactly be a bonus. The footage I've seen of the tsunami coming inland is truly shocking.

No, not a bonus at all...but considering the worst case scenario of Chornobyl: no containment, operators did everything wrong, firefighters ill prepared, etc etc there were only an initial 31 deaths (2 operators + 29 firefighters), which was later raised to something on the order of 50 with some high dose 'liquidators'. So, you blow up the reactor (which was designed for weapons grade Pu production) which has no containment and you get....50 deaths.

50 from Chornobyl (nb: this Japanese nuclear event would not even register 1 death...from radiation anyway) versus thousands to tens of thousands from the event (and it will be many many thousands) seems insignificant and not worthy of reporting....it is just sexy. Water is not sexy...radiation is sexy. It is all about the soundbytes and whatever Anderson Cooper can get on camera in between his 'raves'.....

errmmm....

50 *initial* deaths (actually, 56 deaths from *direct* radiation effects), but 200.000 or so affected.

The numbers are still discussed, here an example of an April 2010 count:

Last week, a few alternative and environmental news outlets drew attention to a newly published science book that put the cumulative death toll of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident at more than a million—a story that had particular resonance on the 24th anniversary of the reactor meltdown, the book’s publication date. But the story did not bleed out into the mainstream media, and even the progressive website Alternet seemed suspicious, calling the 1 million estimate an “astounding allegation” in its headline.

The number is dramatically higher than the estimate of 4,000 deaths presented in a 2005 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Program—a figure that has often been criticized as being far too low and influenced by the IAEA’s pro-nuclear agenda.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Wild-Green/Chernoby ... z1GWgqMtMD

So, not to be taken lightly, whatever the true number in the end is, 4.000 or 250.000 or 1 Million, it surely is not "nglectable" in comparison to the 100+ of the direct Tsunami effect.

Rattler

[Ed]

I agree with you on the relative scale, Ed, but it wouldn't exactly be a bonus. The footage I've seen of the tsunami coming inland is truly shocking.

No, not a bonus at all...but considering the worst case scenario of Chornobyl: no containment, operators did everything wrong, firefighters ill prepared, etc etc there were only an initial 31 deaths (2 operators + 29 firefighters), which was later raised to something on the order of 50 with some high dose 'liquidators'. So, you blow up the reactor (which was designed for weapons grade Pu production) which has no containment and you get....50 deaths.

50 from Chornobyl (nb: this Japanese nuclear event would not even register 1 death...from radiation anyway) versus thousands to tens of thousands from the event (and it will be many many thousands) seems insignificant and not worthy of reporting....it is just sexy. Water is not sexy...radiation is sexy. It is all about the soundbytes and whatever Anderson Cooper can get on camera in between his 'raves'.....

errmmm....

50 *initial* deaths (actually, 56 deaths from *direct* radiation effects), but 200.000 or so affected.

The numbers are still discussed, here an example of an April 2010 count:

Last week, a few alternative and environmental news outlets drew attention to a newly published science book that put the cumulative death toll of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident at more than a million—a story that had particular resonance on the 24th anniversary of the reactor meltdown, the book’s publication date. But the story did not bleed out into the mainstream media, and even the progressive website Alternet seemed suspicious, calling the 1 million estimate an “astounding allegation” in its headline.

The number is dramatically higher than the estimate of 4,000 deaths presented in a 2005 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Program—a figure that has often been criticized as being far too low and influenced by the IAEA’s pro-nuclear agenda.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Wild-Green/Chernoby ... z1GWgqMtMD

So, not to be taken lightly, whatever the true number in the end is, 4.000 or 250.000 or 1 Million, it surely is not "nglectable" in comparison to the 100+ of the direct Tsunami effect.

Rattler

You might want to get better sources there....www.utne.com??? seriously?

2 operators + 29 firefighters + up to 25 liquidators from acute radiation exposure

It is extremely hard to correlate any subsequent deaths from cancer to Chornobyl due to the fact that there was no good record keeping prior to the event and therefore to baselines for epidemiological comparison...so, if they start recording 1 million deaths due to cancer, and the population is 3 million in the area, you have discovered...nothing, as the background fatal cancer incidence is about 30% over the population. You need to look for excess cancers in very specific cancers, which has never been shown. The only statistically significant cancer correlation that has been observed is in juvenile thyroid cancers, which are one of the most curable cancers there are.

Focus on the issues. Get informed. Thanks for playing.

Ed

[Not_Karl]

I hope you can make contact with your neighbours soon, Rattler!

Done, this morning, all fine...

Rattler

Glad to read .

[reubee]

1000 deaths... at least .

Dittos on well wishes to friends....

I hate to say this, but "only" 1000 deaths (and many of them from the tsunami) is an incredible testament to Japanese seismic engineering. This is a "top 10 earthquake in recorded history" and while there's a lot of damage, it seems like relatively few collapsed structures.

3WE, whilst it was a top 10 earthquake, the epicentre was 130km out to sea. As recents events showed in my home country,a 6.3 magnitude quake 10km from a big city did more damage than a 7.1 quake a few months earlier 40km from the same city. Despite the tough building standards, I'd venture that if this recent earthquake had occured closer to population centres there would be a lot of buildings on the ground as at 9.0 it would've been outside the design standards. Certainly with the quake here, the comments were that ours was close to the maximum standard that was designed to.

For the quake here, there were disaster relief teams from all around the world Australia, UK, USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, I don't know how many teams each country has that they can supply. Certainly the Japanese teams have returned home and a 1/3 of the other teams here are going to Japan as well. They will be exhausted.

[flyboy2548m]

You might want to get better sources there....www.utne.com??? seriously?

Ed

Ed, are you suggesting that an environazi magazine based in Minneapolis' Loring Park neighborhood and staffed almost exclusively by people with hyphenated and/or made up names might possibly be skewed? No way.

[OldSowBreath]

I think from now on, all nuclear reactors should be located far inland in some barren, god-forsaken place such as Indiana.

[Verbal]

[Ed]

You might want to get better sources there....www.utne.com??? seriously?

Ed

Ed, are you suggesting that an environazi magazine based in Minneapolis' Loring Park neighborhood and staffed almost exclusively by people with hyphenated and/or made up names might possibly be skewed? No way.

Ain't the internet grand?

[PurduePilot]

I'm failing to see the connection between environmentalists and the Third Reich...