Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake, Tsunami Rocks Northeastern Japan

[commadore]

Yeah, Fukushima Daiichi (#1) is similar to TMI. Remember, Chernobyl didn't have a containment vessel for the reactor, thus why the widespread radiation spread. Also, Chernobyl was the combination of stupidity/incompetence and unsafe designs that lead to the disaster. More likely than not, any release of radiation from Fukushima Daiichi's core will be contained.

From what I have read, the #1 reactor was going to be decommissioned this month anyways (been in operation since the early 70s), but I doubt they wanted the extra cleanup this tsunami dealt them.

Apparently, there's fears in the government there that there's is, or was, a meltdown of the reactor cores of units 1 and 3, but because the reactors aren't safe yet, they haven't gotten close enough to them to see.

There's also issues with Fukushima Daini (II) with the cooling pumps in units 1, 2 and 4 stopping. There doesn't appear to be any danger from there that I have heard of. Tokai Nuclear Power Plant also had coolant problems in unit #2, with a pump having stopped working, but another pump was working; however 2 of the 3 diesel generators are out of order as of right now. Onagawa NPP had a fire in the turbine section, but doesn't seem to have damaged the reactors there; then there was an elevated level of radiation there, but they think that came from Fukushima Daiichi and there was no issue with Onagawa. It seems like there are several people who have been affected by radiation from Fukushima Daiichi, but I haven't seen to what extent.

Right now, the Japanese are doing everything they can to prevent the worst-case scenarios with their power plants and, so far, they are succeeding. The only good thing that I can think of that will come out of this is better understanding of how to respond to nuclear emergencies at power plants.

From everything I have seen online, Fukushima #1 unit 1 is a definite Three Mile Island, but nowhere near a Chernobyl. Yeah, a Hydrogen explosion blowing the roof off the containment building during a coolant loss is bad, but if (as stated) the containment vessel is intact, it's a minor annoyance compared to the earthquake and tsunami.
They're flooding the core with seawater and boric acid, then they will fill the entire containment building to keep it cool. Not good for the reactor, but apparently the core is already ruined, so it ain't gonna make things much worse.

http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/438/fallout.jpg

This image is all over the net, hope its not true.

I don't see how it could be. The figures they are quoting exceed anything ever delivered in Pacific nuclear bomb tests. That would also be from an uncontained total meltdown which this is very unlikely to become. Chernobyl was not a light water reactor nor was it housed in a containment building. I suspect strongly this is a piece of scary artwork.

EDIT - The logo in that map is from a private Australian company that I suspect has nothing to do with it. They not only make no mention of it on their website I can't imagine how a private company that appears to specialize in mostly industrial situations would have access to such detailed data.

[newtothis2]

This link was posted on my FB page by a friend. It's amazing, this place was rocked for over 24 hours with tremors of various magnitudes. No wonder the damage is so severe and is still happening.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... ia_eqs.php

[Boggy Man]

Here are a couple of links to the geological impacts of the devastating 8.9 earthquake in Japan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world ... ismic.html
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... =cosmiclog

Here is a site with an interactive map that you can zoom in on to see the locations and info of the individual earthquake epicenters:

http://www.globaltvbc.com/weather/radar/index.html

The map starts over southwestern BC and northwestern Washington. You have to click on the "layers" menu and select "None", click on the "Overlays" menu and select "Earthquakes", and then scroll across the Pacific Ocean to Japan (it helps to zoom out first). You can zoom in on the area of each earthquake, and when you put the pointer over each dot, you get the info on that particular earthquake.

Boggy Man

[Billie Bonce]

This link was posted on my FB page by a friend. It's amazing, this place was rocked for over 24 hours with tremors of various magnitudes. No wonder the damage is so severe and is still happening.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... ia_eqs.php

Don't forget that many earthquakes with (relatively) low magnitude happen in Japan daily. Always. Most of them could be registered by sensitive devices only.

[Mynock]

The first sentance of this article gives you an idea of how strong this quake was....just incredible....

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... =cosmiclog

This week's earthquake caused the main island of Japan to shift as much as 13 feet to the east, seismologists say.

[Duncan Edwards]

As if it wasn't all bad enough it just keeps getting worse. In spite of all the misery that is being heaped on Japan the same people who rebuilt an entire nation from the rubble of WWII are going about their calm, disciplined, teamwork driven ways and hanging in there. They will ultimately make it all okay and the world seems to know that.

One thought that keeps coming back to me over and over is what will it be like when "The Big One" hits the US west coast? The rush of ambulance chasing lawyers blocking the highways will screw things up bad enough. Every man for himself and the law of the jungle will prevail. Am I getting carried away or is it too much to hope for anything but anarchy and violence amidst the ruin?

[Billie Bonce]

Am I getting carried away or is it too much to hope for anything but anarchy and violence amidst the ruin?

I remember Chernobyl very well, and I'm afraid to think how it would like if something like that would happen here today (I don't even think about an earthquake). Those days our people were controllable. And totally dependent on public traffic. Today... no, seriously, looking around and knowing how people behave daily in my city with registered population of 2.8 million and actual population estimated around 5 million... I'm afraid to imagine that...

[Mynock]

As if it wasn't all bad enough it just keeps getting worse. In spite of all the misery that is being heaped on Japan the same people who rebuilt an entire nation from the rubble of WWII are going about their calm, disciplined, teamwork driven ways and hanging in there. They will ultimately make it all okay and the world seems to know that.

One thought that keeps coming back to me over and over is what will it be like when "The Big One" hits the US west coast? The rush of ambulance chasing lawyers blocking the highways will screw things up bad enough. Every man for himself and the law of the jungle will prevail. Am I getting carried away or is it too much to hope for anything but anarchy and violence amidst the ruin?

I like to think taht for every asshole stealing a TV, there'll be a doctor working around the clock to treat the wounded. The media loves to hype the hell out the most negative aspects of any tragedy, that's why you see so much more of the bad then the good. You want an example--look how freaked out everybody is over Fukushima. The situation is bad, yes, but every news report you hear makes you believe half of Japan is going to go up in a giant mushroom cloud any minute now, which is simply not the case. Is it bad? Yea. Is it going to get worse? Oh yea. My guess is that powerplant is going to be a hot zone for at least the next few decades. Is it the end of Japan as we know it? Of coarse not.

[Fred588]

Regarding what will happen when a big quake happens here, I think we got an indication with the Katrina hurricane. There were, indeed, some people looting and creating mayhem.Some of them, shockingly, had been police officers before it happened. But, for the most part people did what they could, when they could, and as best they could. People for hundreds of miles around took in refugees, some of them for months.

I do think we could do a great deal more to prepare for emergency relief when these things happen. I know first hand that we did better a couple of years later when another hurricane hit this area. The building I work in served for several weeks as a refuge for some very ill people. That storm was a lot smaller, of course, but the response was FAR more energentic and focused. We are definitely NOT prepared for a really big earthquake hitting near a major city. I don't think we have the will right now to do much of anything until it happens. I hope that changes before it happens.

As if it wasn't all bad enough it just keeps getting worse. In spite of all the misery that is being heaped on Japan the same people who rebuilt an entire nation from the rubble of WWII are going about their calm, disciplined, teamwork driven ways and hanging in there. They will ultimately make it all okay and the world seems to know that.

One thought that keeps coming back to me over and over is what will it be like when "The Big One" hits the US west coast? The rush of ambulance chasing lawyers blocking the highways will screw things up bad enough. Every man for himself and the law of the jungle will prevail. Am I getting carried away or is it too much to hope for anything but anarchy and violence amidst the ruin?