News: Japan's Earthquake

[Calax]

The things you learn from facebook...

 

 

Apparently my cousin was deployed (navy) to Japan LITERALLY the week before the earthquake hit. Right now they're on voluntary evacuation, nobody has really left, but are set to redeploy back to the states or just to sea (I think).

[obyknven]

Epic Fail

 

The radiation released by the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant already rivals and in one sense exceeds the Chernobyl catastrophe according to Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, even as media spin downplays the severity of the crisis despite the fact that the problems at the plant show no signs of abating.

 

Iodine-131 released in the first 3-4 days of the crisis was about 20 percent of that released from Chernobyl during a ten-day period, whereas the amount of Caesium-137 released amounted to about 50 percent, according to the institute's Dr Gerhard Wotawa.

 

Despite the fact that the story appears under the euphemistic Reuters headline, Japan radiation release lower than Chernobyl, as Tyler Durden points out, when you consider the fact that the amount of Caesium-137 released at Fukushima in the first 3-4 days of the crisis amounted to 50% that released by Chernobyl over 10 days, the real run rate of the radiation released at Fukushima is now about 120-150% the figure released by the Chernobyl explosion - and that's not even factoring in ongoing radiation leaks from Fukushima, which many experts have estimated could go on for much longer.

 

As the New York Times reported, "Experts....suggest that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants could go on for weeks or even months." Even if Fukushima technicians manage to stop radiation leakage after one month, estimated Caesium-137 emissions would be at least 500 percent more than those released by Chernobyl, whereas iodine-131 levels could be 200 percent worse.

[Tale]

Wait, the Austrian weather service is a credible source on Japanese nuclear issues?

[Pidesco]

Tyler Durden?

 

Edit: Oh... http://www.zerohedge.com/

[Calax]

And yet according to my current geology teachers ex-boss (who is an exec in the Nuke industry) they've stopped the leakage. And the Iodine only has an 8 day half life. Give it a month and the Iodine will be low enough that it's once again at the level of background radiation.

 

Heck, at this point the government of Japan and the WHO have concurred that the radiation levels are at the point where it's safe to drink the tap water.

 

Also, for the record, Reactor four was almost completely empty of fuel rods.

[Gorgon]

I don't know if I would trust anything coming from official sources if I lived in Tokyo, I mean they would withhold information to avoid a panic if they had to. No wonder people are hamstering water.

[Calax]

Well, the tap water was unsafe for CHILDREN in terms of radiation, however if somebody says "unsafe for this portion of the population" everyon'es just gonna go for the bottled stuff anyway.

 

And it's not just Tokyo that said it was now safe, but also the World Health Organization.

[Gorgon]

What about ground water, seems to me you could dig wells pretty easily, the water supply was from lakes out of convenience more than anything else. Unless it's already polluted with something else.

[Walsingham]

You chaps may be interested in some of the stories of nuclear accidents at sea. I couldn't find the one I wanted, but this one about the

is pretty good.

[Calax]

What about ground water, seems to me you could dig wells pretty easily, the water supply was from lakes out of convenience more than anything else. Unless it's already polluted with something else.

That's where the 8 day half life on the Iodine comes in. Also, a lot of the radiation was unfortunately absorbed into the local crops, so nothing that was grown in that area is edible.

[Tale]

You chaps may be interested in some of the stories of nuclear accidents at sea. I couldn't find the one I wanted, but this one about the

is pretty good.

Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford should work together more often.

[Walsingham]

You chaps may be interested in some of the stories of nuclear accidents at sea. I couldn't find the one I wanted, but this one about the

is pretty good.

Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford should work together more often.

 

It's not the film. I haven't seen the film.

[Tale]

You chaps may be interested in some of the stories of nuclear accidents at sea. I couldn't find the one I wanted, but this one about the

is pretty good.

Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford should work together more often.

 

It's not the film. I haven't seen the film.

What film?

[Gorgon]

There was a film. The documentary on Discovery was better though. It was one of those deals with bad actors interspaced with narration.

[Walsingham]

ASfter having such a shout out with Orogun I thought it was only sporting to post this article, which begins:

The situation at the quake- and tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan was brought under control days ago. It remains the case as this is written that there have been no measurable radiological health consequences among workers at the plant or anybody else, and all indications are that this will remain the case. And yet media outlets around the world continue with desperate, increasingly hysterical and unscrupulous attempts to frame the situation as a crisis.

 

Here's a roundup of the latest facts, accompanied by highlights of the most egregious misreporting.

 

The Reg basically goes on to say that the nuke plant is basically fine, and that the habit of posting everything in terms of official safe level multiples makes it sound a hell of a lot scarier than it is. They also have been recently pointing out that this is an example of nuclear power WORKING. Because here we had an ancient 1950s designed reactor coping non-catastrophically with a disaster far beyond any envisaged. Modern reactors, they argue, would be even better.

[Calax]

Although it could have been much worse if Reactor four hadn't been offline at the time and basically empty of fuel rods.

[obyknven]

The Chernobyl accident emitted much more radioactivity and a wider diversity of radioactive elements than Fukushima Daiichi has so far, but it was iodine and caesium that caused most of the health risk

Edited March 28, 2011 by obyknven

[Tigranes]

above: ...from the New Scientist, by the way.

[Walsingham]

I love that phrase "some researchers think" bloody pseudo scientific rumour mongering.

[Calax]

I just laugh because one of the very same organizations that that article is using to give itself authority (the WHO) is saying everything is safe.

[Gorgon]

I love that phrase "some researchers think" bloody pseudo scientific rumour mongering.

My favorite is 'studies show'. 90% of the time it means 'I'm talking out of my ass'

[Tale]

Japan can't get a break.

[obyknven]

It's a god time to invide Japan!

Edited April 8, 2011 by obyknven

[Calax]

Uh, they'd just do the same thing that they would have done in WW2.

[Guest The Architect]

I love that phrase "some researchers think" bloody pseudo scientific rumour mongering.

My favorite is 'studies show'. 90% of the time it means 'I'm talking out of my ass'

 

Studies show that people who say "studies show" are full of ****.