8.9 Quake hits near Northeastern Coast of Japan

[NASpurs]

A whole town of 9,500 people are missing. That's just incredible.

[Obstructed_View]

They also told them to stop drinking tap water six or seven hours ago.

I found an article that says that the potential for Chernobyl comes from the cooling pool for the reactors, which must be constantly circulated or it will boil all the water away and release the cesium in a cloud bigger than the one from the Chernobyl fire. I closed the window and can't find the damn link, but I'll post it up as soon as I do.

EDIT: Here's the link. It's written by a guy who's a wonk for an anti-nuclear site, so consider the source.

http://www.accuracy.org/release/thre...ster-in-japan/

[NASpurs]

Updates

-The NHK is reporting that a strong quake has hit Fukushima in Northern Japan.

-A Jiji report says three workers have suffered radiation exposure near Fukushima nuclear plant

-And in confirmation of what was being speculated earlier, Japanese authorities have told the IAEA they are making preparations to distribute iodine to people living near the nuclear power plants. Iodine can be used to help protect the body from radioactive exposure.

[symple19]

yeah, the quake was apparently a 6.0

[symple19]

[NASpurs]

Gizmodo has a collection of videos of the incident and they update their collection has the videos come in. There's a video with a siren going off which is kind of eerie.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5780964/the-jap...live/gallery/1

[symple19]

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia...pan-earthquake

more good info

[baseline bum]

Updates

-The NHK is reporting that a strong quake has hit Fukushima in Northern Japan.

-A Jiji report says three workers have suffered radiation exposure near Fukushima nuclear plant

-And in confirmation of what was being speculated earlier, Japanese authorities have told the IAEA they are making preparations to distribute iodine to people living near the nuclear power plants. Iodine can be used to help protect the body from radioactive exposure.

Is NHK reporting the thing with iodine? I hope it's nothing more than a precautionary measure after what happened in Chernobyl. The thyroid absorbs iodine, and thus the point of taking the pills is to saturate it with safe iodine to limit the absorption of the radioactive isotopes that may be in the air. The Chernobyl disaster sent thyroid cancer rates in children through the roof when there was no action and not even any warning for at least 3-4 days. The need for iodine pills would be a very very bad sign.

[Obstructed_View]

There was a doctor on Fox an hour or so ago who said that distributing iodine is a common strategy around nuclear power plants. I don't think it hurts people otherwise. If they're telling people not to drink the water, then it was probably a logical next step.

A 6.0 right on top of those folks can't be a good development. , I don't know how the people in the control room survived that explosion.

[Obstructed_View]

A whole town of 9,500 people are missing. That's just incredible.

The Sumatra tsunami hit a lot of sparsely populated places that were hundreds of miles away. This one hit a number of densely populated areas within seconds, many of which still are inaccessible by rescue teams. If the death toll is less than 100,000 it'll be miraculous. Don't be surprised if it's more than Sumatra.

[NASpurs]

Some people are such idiots

[NASpurs]

The Sumatra tsunami hit a lot of sparsely populated places that were hundreds of miles away. This one hit a number of densely populated areas within seconds, many of which still are inaccessible by rescue teams. If the death toll is less than 100,000 it'll be miraculous. Don't be surprised if it's more than Sumatra.

I'm confused. I thought the tsunami hit the northern part of Japan which isn't as populated as the rest of Japan. I thought Japan was going to get away with maybe just a few hundred of deaths at the most. That's incredible if it reaches 100,000!

[symple19]

Japan is very densely populated, even outside of Tokyo. Not sure about 100 g's, but certainly it will be 10 g's+. Will probably take a looong time to get an accurate number

[Obstructed_View]

I'm confused. I thought the tsunami hit the northern part of Japan which isn't as populated as the rest of Japan. I thought Japan was going to get away with maybe just a few hundred of deaths at the most. That's incredible if it reaches 100,000!

No, you're right. Northern Japan isn't as densely populated as the rest of Japan, particularly a place like Tokyo, but you have to remember that Japan has nearly the same population as the US in an area the size of Montana, much of it along the coastlines. If it hits 20 or 30 towns up there with an average of several thousand dead per town, it could really get ugly fast. There are also currently a lot of people that are probably trapped, or injured, or cold, and there are a lot of fires burning.

Sumatra didn't feel like there was going to be that many casualties and it went from 75,000 to 200,000 alarmingly fast.

[NASpurs]

No, you're right. Northern Japan isn't as densely populated as the rest of Japan, particularly a place like Tokyo, but you have to remember that Japan has nearly the same population as the US in an area the size of Montana, much of it along the coastlines. If it hits 20 or 30 towns up there with an average of several thousand dead per town, it could really get ugly fast. There are also currently a lot of people that are probably trapped, or injured, or cold, and there are a lot of fires burning.

Sumatra didn't feel like there was going to be that many casualties and it went from 75,000 to 200,000 alarmingly fast.

I just find it incredible how a technological advanced country like Japan can have towns wiped out like that. I understand how Sumatra can but Japan? Wow. I don't know why I equate being technologically advanced makes you immune to disaster like the one you mentioned but I'm guessing it must help some.

[xeromass]

Stop panicking. Situation is worse than TMI, but far from Chernobyl level drama.

Building that blew up wasn't much more than a warehouse to keep the workers&equipment dry. Explosion was almost certainly either pressure release (steam) or ignition of hydrogen.

Reactor in question was built in 1970 (GE Mark I BWR) and is relatively small (440 MW of electrical power), so they simply didn't bother with pouring tons of concrete over it. Main containment for this type is under the now missing roof, hopefully (relatively) undamaged. While we're at it - there is no engineer in the world that would willingly design a square pressure vessel. Too much weak spots. They're usually either spherical or cylindrical.

Radioactivity monitoring data are online for both Fukushima installations, but the data for Daiichi site is not being updated since the earthquake (yup, unfortunate & a bit fishy)

Fukushima-Daiichi

Fukushima-Daini

There was a e this morning, they either vented the pressure or had some rainfall. Either way, radiation levels were in range of a solid rainstorm.

And general site with info:

http://www.nuctrans.org/Nuc_Trans/lo...apan/japan.htm

Update:

From BBC news-stream:

Noriyuki Shikata, deputy cabinet secretary for public relations for the Japanese prime minister tweets: "Blast was caused by ac ulated hydrogen combined with oxygen in the space between container and outer structure. No damage to container."

Best possible scenario, there is high possibility that cooling piping is still OK.

[Chomag]

It's amazing how much the JP government and the media is downplaying it. I guess I understand though that they don't want a mass panic. I'm just having a hard time buying what they are saying.

Now some reports are saying that there was no radiation... unreal and stupid.

[NASpurs]

This is a link to a NHK stream for anyone who wants to watch some Japanese news

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-gt..._medium=social

[NASpurs]

I think something major happened in that news stream and the station went into a late breaking/alert kind of deal. They played some chime/sound alert and the graphics were flashing. It was like watching a game show. The Japanese sure love graphics on their shows.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

No, you're right. Northern Japan isn't as densely populated as the rest of Japan, particularly a place like Tokyo, but you have to remember that Japan has nearly the same population as the US in an area the size of Montana, much of it along the coastlines. If it hits 20 or 30 towns up there with an average of several thousand dead per town, it could really get ugly fast. There are also currently a lot of people that are probably trapped, or injured, or cold, and there are a lot of fires burning.

Sumatra didn't feel like there was going to be that many casualties and it went from 75,000 to 200,000 alarmingly fast.

I'm sorry, did you just say Japan has roughly the same population as the US??

Since when is 125 million (give or take a few mil) nearly the same as 300 million??

[SpursNextRomanEmpire]

I was really hoping that when I woke up something bad hadn't happened at the nuclear station...

[xeromass]

NHK World english stream, but video quality sucks:

http://watchtvlivestreaming.com/tvlive/6810

edit:

Better stream:

http://jibtv.com/program/?page=0

[AmericanPsycho]

Nuclear power is still the way to go I say.

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

[Obstructed_View]

I'm sorry, did you just say Japan has roughly the same population as the US??

Since when is 125 million (give or take a few mil) nearly the same as 300 million??

It's not. The thing I looked up quickly said Japan's population was 300 million. It's still a load of people in a small space. Did you have a point or were you just going to be a because I made a mistake?