LIVE thread & Breaking News ~ Japan

Various | 15 March 2011

[SE Mom]

Latest news from Japan:

From the BBC-

1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.

1439: A 30km (18 mile) no-fly zone is in place around Fukushima, says the IAEA.

1436: The IAEA says Monday's blast at Fukushima may have affected the integrity of the containment vessel - there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks if happen.

1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0 within three minutes of each other.

Twitter-

-US Geological Survey counts 451 aftershocks since the initial earthquake struck Japan Friday. 238 of them registered magnitude 5.0 or more.

-Despite situations in Japan & Libya, spksmn Jay Carney says Pres Obama's 5-day trip to Brazil, Chile & El Salvador starting Fri night is on.

-FLASH: More U.S. military personnel in Japan testing positive for low-levels of radiation, relief missions to continue - Navy 18 minutes ago via web

[Tennessee Nana]

Hush yo mouf

Wez gotz pryoreetees...

[luckystarmom]

Don’t know if anyone has seen this posting about the Surgeon General saying it would be a good idea to get iodide.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Surgeon-General-Buying-Iodine-Appropriate-118031559.html

[fred2008]

My long post was taken from another forum. Missing was the original material I was referencing:

“Prior to the second full exposure of the rods around 11 p.m. Monday, radiation was detected at 9:37 p.m. at a level twice the maximum seen so far— 3,130 micro sievert per hour — near the main gate of the No. 1 plant, according to TEPCO.”

[BuckeyeTexan]

For those interested in the nitty-gritty details:

This document from TEPCO’s site contains lots of facts and figures about their nuclear facilities and specifically details the spent fuel storage at Fukushima Daiichi and Daini. (Amount of spent fuel storage, storage capacity, specific dimensions, types of equipment and accessories.)

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/challenge/energy/pdf-1/nuclear-e.pdf

This one describes their safety procedures.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/challenge/energy/nuclear/safety-e.html

This one describes the specific structures in use at TEPCO’s plants.
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/challenge/energy/nuclear/p-struc-e.html

[ken5050]

Looking forward to the book. Thanks for the heads up on the other one...stay in touch..

[winoneforthegipper]

Reuters via NHK reporting new fire at reactor 4 plant one.

[ken5050]

Waters in the eastern Pacific do not get warm enough to support tropical cyclones

THANKS!!!! Even better....now I can work GLOBAL WARMING into the plot..( it causes the Pacific waters to warm....hehehe..thus causing the cyclone..).guaranteeing me a BEST seller!!

[rustbucket]

In grad school, I once took a nuclear engineering course. Our class toured a nuclear reactor at Oak Ridge. I asked the tour guide what the education level of the operators running the reactor day to day was. He said that they all had high school educations. That was reassuring.

As I remember, what we saw was a small research reactor, not a big power generating reactor. While an undergrad I used to live about three blocks from a small research nuclear reactor. Never thought twice about it. And, no, I don’t glow in the dark.

[HollyB]

Thanks for the map, heartbreaking.

[SE Mom]

BTTT

[Errant]

No other technology comes close to that in terms of real, quantifiable, not pie-in-the-sky safety record.

Here is simple risk assessment formula that I think should be used in determining the catastrophe failure possibilities of a nuclear power plant. Simply take the number of planets humans inhabit and subtract 1. That's the only acceptable error rate that the world will accepted in the future after this catastrophe.

Find a way to meet that goal (and I know you can do it), and you can all quit your public works jobs and go back to building nuclear power plants, IMO.

[HollyB]

Iodide tablets are selling for big bucks on ebay - expired and all.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=iodide+tablets&_sacat=See-All-Categories

[SE Mom]

Surgeon General: Buying Iodine a “Precaution”
Conflicting messages appear in the effort to buy iodide tablets

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Surgeon-General-Buying-Iodine-Appropriate-118031559.html

[buzzer]

Kyodo reports that a fire broke out again in reactor 4 building

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-15/fire-breaks-out-in-japan-s-fujinomiya-after-quake-kyodo-says.html

[little jeremiah]

http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=182121&page=73

Japan’s government says flames are rising fromreactor at Dai-Ichi nuclear plant - AP

[little jeremiah]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78318.html

At 6:14 a.m., a blast occurred at the No. 4 reactor and created two square-shaped holes about 8 by 8 meters in the walls of the building that houses the reactor. At 9:38 a.m., a fire broke out there and smoke billowed from the holes.

The utility said it could not deny the possibility that the early morning explosion was caused by hydrogen generated by a chemical reaction involving the exposed spent nuclear fuel and vapor

[SE Mom]

Not looking too good there- I just saw some live footage from BBC- it’s a good deal more sinister looking than the other ones.

[little jeremiah]

Thanks for this thread.

It was getting really bad with so many threads, and people posting really stupid comments.

[SE Mom]

Per DRUDGE:

Tokyo Electric has alerted fire department, but building inaccessible due to radiation...

[lonevoice]

Stunning