Earthquake in Japan

[paulw]

Here's some before and after fotos of the efected..

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm

[UtwigMU]

This NY Times article provides most insight into Fukushima accident.

[Brian Ellis]

Now worse with a second explosion http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/wo...ia/index.jsonp apparently similar to the first one. Also, a new tsunami is about to hit. albeit estimated to be smaller at 3 m but this will still be bad as sea walls were destroyed by the initial one.

The only new thing I learnt from Utwig's link is that the diesels were in the basement where they were flooded by tsunami water. This makes sense and explains why they shut down after one hour (ie when the tsunami hit). In the Areva/EPR design, the diesels are in separate buildings remote from the reactors and at the same level. It does not make sense to have them under the reactor level, especially with hindsight.

The whole Fukushima Dai Ichi design seems to have been conceived for minimum cost. OK, no one expected such a powerful quake (now graded at 9.0) nor a 10 m tsunami but I feel a better design would have caused fewer problems.

Here in Cyprus, we don't have nuke, just three oil-burning conventional power plants with a total capacity of 1300 MW. All three are dotted along the S. Coast. 100-300 km from this same coast, we have the Cyprian arc fault, where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. As a rule, most quakes along the arc have a magnitude <6, but major ones are not unknown. Large tsunamis are rare, the last about 1600 years ago when Salamis and Kourion were destroyed. If a big'un struck us now, the whole island would be without power for an almost indefinite period. Scary!

[Sasq]

#2 rector is now apparently also in trouble

[VJ]

The images of the earthquake are just horrifying... While you can construct buildings to cope with heavy earthquakes, the tsunamis just take it all out... Something that shifts a coastline 2.4 m... Everything you have and know is gone, and you can't ask your neighbour for help because he is in exactly the same situation...

And it does not seem to end soon: aftershocks, the nuclear problems, vulcano in the south getting more active... And then there are idiots on the internet that seem to find it justified!

In Belgium, there is talk of extending the use of the nuclear powerplants with another 10 years, and they are already 40 years old...Initial plans were to stop using nuclear power by 2020, but there are fears we have no alternative means of power generation. Europe has warned Belgium about possible power problems if it decommissions its powerplants...

[Evildead666]

Quite a lot of Reactors in the UK and France are coming to their EOL's, even if they would want to prolong their usage.

They have to outweigh the risks with the money, money, money.
Money seems to win a lot.

[Dr Mordrid]

News here is that 3 reactors have cores that are partly melted, but the containment is holding. The USS Reagan (supercarrier) had to move & some crew & deck had to be washed down because a hot plume blew by.

[Evildead666]

BBC is reporting in their tweet feed that Japan has formally asked for help from the IAEA.
Could this be because they have no more solutions, or are unable to cope ?

Also that the Reactor 2 is back in trouble, with exposed rods again.
Wouldn't like to see them try to vent a third time.

[cjolley]

Wouldn't like to see them try to vent a third time.

Beat having the containment vessel explode


First vid on this is just surreal:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/14/gotta-watch-ireporters-capture-scope-of-quake/?iref=NS1

[Technoid]

and to pour salt in the wounds the NIABY crowd is gonna use this as fuel for their insane crusade against atomic power.

[cjolley]

http://www.slate.com/id/2288212/

If Japan, the United States, or Europe retreats from nuclear power in the face of the current panic, the most likely alternative energy source is fossil fuel. And by any measure, fossil fuel is more dangerous. The sole fatal nuclear power accident of the last 40 years, Chernobyl, directly killed 31 people. By comparison, Switzerland's Paul Scherrer Institute calculates that from 1969 to 2000, more than 20,000 people died in severe accidents in the oil supply chain. More than 15,000 people died in severe accidents in the coal supply chain—11,000 in China alone. The rate of direct fatalities per unit of energy production is 18 times worse for oil than it is for nuclear power.
Even if you count all the deaths plausibly related to Chernobyl—9,000 to 33,000 over a 70-year period—that number is dwarfed by the death rate from burning fossil fuels. The OECD's 2008 Environmental Outlook calculates that fine-particle outdoor air pollution caused nearly 1 million premature deaths in the year 2000, and 30 percent of this was energy-related. You'd need 500 Chernobyls to match that level of annual carnage. But outside Chernobyl, we've had zero fatal nuclear power accidents.

Think of fossil fuel as the incandescent bulb tech and nuclear as the CFL tech of power generation.
With care, it's still better than the old way, and will eventually be overtaken by the LED tech of power generation, whatever that turns out to be.

[Evildead666]

The second Fukushima reactor has had an explosion, third in 4 days.
Radiation levels have quadrupled, equating to eight times the level one would get in a year normally.

Thats all three.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

0056: The official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has topped 2,400, the AFP news agency is quoting police as saying.
0055: Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent for The Guardian tweets: "Looking for latest info on radiation levels and wind direction before deciding whether to go reporting today. #tsunami #meltdown"
0052: Details are now emberging about radiation levels after the blast at Fukushima's reactor 2 at 0610 local time (2110 GMT Monday). Tokyo Electric officials say that one hour of exposure at the nuclear plant would be equivalent to eight times at what a person might experience naturally during the year.
0023: A further UK search and rescue team of 12 has now arrived in Japan.
0019: The Tokyo Stock Exchange falls more than 4% shortly after opening, the AFP reports.
0013: An article in the Japan Times says: "The radioactive fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 power station were fully exposed at one point Monday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said, raising the possibility that it suffered a partial core meltdown."
2340: Tokyo Electric officials are now holding a news briefing. They say the blast at reactor 2 happened "near the pressure vessel". They also confirm that some staff at the nuclear power plant are being evacuated.
2333: More details on the reported blast at Fukushima's reactor 2. The explosion is feared to have damaged the reactor's pressure-suppression system, Kyodo says. It adds that "radiation tops legal limit" after the explosion.
2320: A spokesperson from Tokyo Electric says said some staff have been evacuated from the site.
2316: Kyodo now says that the suppression pool may have been damaged at reactor 2.
2311: The news agency said the blast was heard at 0610 local time on Tuesday (2110 GMT Monday). No other details were immediately announced.
2308: An explosion is heard at Fukushima's second reactor, the Kyodo news agency reports.

[Evildead666]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfv1QtE71EE

A cnn piece on the new probs at reactor 2

[Evildead666]

Clarification on radiation levels bit. :

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/15_17.html

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels reached 8,217 microsieverts per hour near the front gate of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power station at 8:31 AM Tuesday.

Anyone in this kind of environment would be exposed to more than 3 years' worth of naturally occurring radiation within a single hour.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 09:29 +0900 (JST)

and

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/15_13.html

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says an explosion was heard early Tuesday morning at the No.2 reactor of the disaster-hit Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant.

Agency officials told reporters that the blast was heard at 6:10 AM local time on Tuesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano earlier told a news conference that a reactor facility, called the suppression pool, has been damaged.

But agency officials said they have no detailed information yet about the report.

They said that depending on where the damage is done, either liquid or air could leak out of the suppression pool.

The suppression pool is linked to the reactor containment vessel and is designed to prevent radioactive material from leaking outside.

Experts say a breach to this crucial facility has raised the possibility of a radioactive leak.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency also said that nuclear fuel rods inside the No.2 reactor are exposed above water by about 2.7 meters. That's about half the length of the fuel rods.

Agency officials said that radiation levels around the nuclear power plant reached 965.5 microsieverts following the explosive sound.

They say the figure later dropped slightly to 882 microsieverts.

The officials said they believe the rise in radiation level is due to the breach in the suppression pool, but that they cannot say for sure. They said they are monitoring the situation closely.

The officials added that the monitored level of radiation would not immediately pose a health threat.

Tokyo Electric Power Company that operates the power station briefly evacuated workers from the facility following the sound of the blast.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 09:26 +0900 (JST)

NHK-TV:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

[Sasq]

apparently even the mayor of Tokyo has tweeted that its heavens retribution.

Though as he was my old mayor, and I know something of him, I can state he can cheerfully be ignored, most people do.
That and he is a xenophobic little prick whom I wouldn't piss on if he was on fire.