Soma
Tools of the Path => Action [Public] => Topic started by: Nichi on March 12, 2011, 01:27:24 AM
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Earthquake Science: The Japanese Quake Explained
Published March 11, 2011
FoxNews.com
A powerful tsunami spawned by the largest earthquake in Japan's recorded history slammed the eastern coast Friday, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people as widespread fires burned out of control. Tsunami warnings blanketed the entire Pacific, as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the 2:46 p.m. quake was a magnitude 8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s. Geologist Harley Benz told Fox News it was the fifth largest earthquake in the last hundred years.
What caused the gigantic Japanese earthquake, and will it be followed with other quakes? Here are answers to these and other questions.
What caused the earthquake?
The massive earthquake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, occurred as a result of faults on or near the subduction zone -- the interface plate boundary between the Pacific and North America plates, the USGS said.
The Pacific plate thrusts underneath Japan at the Japan Trench, and dips to the west beneath Eurasia; these rocky plates cover the planet like a giant jigsaw puzzle and creep past one another at a very slow rate. The Pacific plate moves approximately westwards with respect to the North America plate at a velocity of 3.2 inches per year.
The release of energy as the the two plates move past each other is what causes the earthquakes.
What does magnitude 8.9 mean?
"It's comparable in size to the earthquake in Chile last year, that was a magnitude 8.8. And very similar kinds of ruptures in both cases," Robert Williams, a geologist with the USGS told Fox News.
Magnitude measures the energy released at the source of the earthquake. Since magnitudes are given on a logarithmic scale, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake would release 10 times as much energy as a 6.0-magnitude temblor. Geoscientists also look at an earthquake's intensity, which measures the strength of shaking produced by the earthquake at a certain location and is determined from the effects that shaking has on people, structures and the environment.
What's the potential for future aftershocks? And foreshocks?
The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days.
"There was a 7.2 on March 9, not far from the epicenter of the magnitude 8.9. It looks at this point like that was a foreshock of the 8.9 event," Williams told Fox News. The foreshocks continued with a further three earthquakes greater than 6.0 magnitude on the same day.
A 4.5 magnitude earthquake recently hit Hawaii as well, but experts say it is unrelated to the gigantic Japanese quake.
"There's been a series of small earthquakes near the big island of Hawaii where this event happened, and it may be related to the volcanic eruption that's been taking place for several days," Williams said.
There have been dozens of large aftershocks since, however, and hundreds of small ones with more to come.
"We've got 35 [aftershocks] now greater than magnitude 5 -- and there's probably hundreds of magnitude 3 and 4." There have been 13 greater than magnitude 6, he said.
"Over the next month, there will be thousands of aftershocks -- many of them felt," he said.
Is there a possibility of an even larger aftershock?
"There's always a slight chance of a larger earthquake," Williams said. "But I'd say it's a very low possibility. What we are seeing so far is that there's a very good chance of magnitude 6 and 7 earthquakes to continue, in an aftershock sequence."
What was the world's deadliest earthquake?
While the death toll in Haiti is still unknown, the deadliest earthquake in history struck that struck Shaanxi, China, in 1556, killing an estimated 830,000 people.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/11/earthquake-science-japanese-quake-explained/#ixzz1GIj85Pb7
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Residents ordered to evacuate after Japan nuke plant is rocked by giant earthquake
Move comes after state of emergency declared at two nuclear facilities
* Cooling system failed at Fukushima No. 1 plant after quake
* Fire reported at Onagawa nuclear facility
TOKYO — The Japanese government has issued an evacuation order to thousands of residents near a nuclear power plant rocked by the giant 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit the Pacific Rim nation Friday.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said the order applied to more than 2,800 people followed an government emergency declaration at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant northeast of Tokyo after its cooling system failed in the wake of the quake.
The agency said workers are currently scrambling to restore cooling water supply at the facility, but that there was no prospect for an immediate success.
The plant, which is in Onahama city, about 170 miles northeast of Tokyo, experienced a mechanical failure in the backup power generation system to supply water needed to cool the reactor. The reactor core remains hot even after a shutdown.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that the plant was not in immediate danger of radiation leak.
Secretary speaks
"We launched the measure so we can be fully prepared for the worst scenario," Edano added. "We are using all our might to deal with the situation."
Meanwhile, an administrator at the Tohoku Electric Power Co's nearby Onagawa facility said the process for the cooling reactor is "not going as planned," adding that "nuclear emergency situation" has been declared. The company asked people nearby to stay calm, the official TV news channel NHK reported.
Advertise | AdChoices
A fire broke out at the plant following the quake, the Kyodo news agency said. The blaze occurred in a turbine building and was quickly extinguished. Smoke was seen coming from the building, which is separate from the plant's reactor.
Another plant at Onagawa, which is in the worst-hit Miyagi prefecture and further north from the Fukushima facility, also is experiencing a water leak, though it is unclear whether the incident is signficant.
Emergency cooling
The four Japanese nuclear power plants closest to the epicenter of the quake have been safely shut down, the United Nations atomic watchdog said Friday. Eleven nuclear reactors were automatically shut down in the quake-affected area, the government said.
Live Blog: Latest updates on aftermath of Japan quake
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said: "Parts of nuclear plants were automatically shut down but we haven't confirmed any effects induced by radioactive materials outside the facilities."
The quake struck just under 250 miles northeast of Tokyo, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by more than a dozen aftershocks, one as strong as 7.1.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42025882/ns/world_news-asiapacific/
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TOKYO — The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that pounded the country's east coast and prompted advisories along Canada's West Coast.
Hundreds were believed to be dead following the disaster, according to reports from police, and the extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of Japan's coastline suggested the toll could rise significantly.
The Red Cross in Geneva said the wall of water was higher than some Pacific islands and a tsunami warning was issued for almost the entire Pacific basin.
Another unnerving report was that the Japanese government had ordered the evacuation affecting 2,000 residents near a nuclear plant in Fukushima.
Earlier the government declared an atomic power emergency but said no radiation leaks were detected among its reactors. The plant had shut down but a reactor cooling system failure had led to the evacuation order.
"An instruction has been issued to residents within a radius of three kilometres to evacuate and those within three to 10 kilometres to stay indoors," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.
"This is an evacuation instruction just for precaution, and there has been no radiation leak from the reactor."
Meanwhile, the Philippines and Indonesia issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami, which struck Asia in 2004.
There were several strong aftershocks. In Tokyo, there was widespread panic. An oil refinery near the city was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.
"People are flooding the streets. It's incredible. Everyone is trying to get home but I didn't see any taxis in Ginza, where there are usually plenty," said Koji Goto, a 43-year-old Tokyo resident.
There were no reports of any Canadians being injured or killed. There are 1,512 Canadian citizens registered with the embassy in Tokyo.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a tsunami advisories for the B.C. coast.
Advisories, one threat level below warnings, are issued when a potential tsunami "may produce strong currents or waves dangerous to those in or near water," but when "significant widespread inundation" is not expected.
The first waves were expected to hit North American shores as early as 6 a.m. local time, although just how big or severe they would be was not known.
Prime Minister Harper and his wife, Laureen, offered their condolences to the victims in Japan, and his office said they were keeping an eye on developments on the West Coast.
"We are closely monitoring the potential threat of a tsunami resulting from today's earthquake in Japan," said a statement from the Prime Minister's office.
"Canada will stand by the people of Japan during this difficult moment."
The 8.9-magnitude quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, caused many injuries and sparked fires, while the tsunami prompted warnings to people to move to higher ground in coastal areas.
"The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan," Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters.
About 4.4 million homes were without power in northern Japan, media said. A hotel collapsed in the city of Sendai and people were feared buried in the rubble.
A ship carrying 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo News Agency added.
Electronics giant Sony Corp., one of the country's biggest exporters, shut six factories, as air force jets raced toward the northeast coast to determine the extent of the damage.
The Bank of Japan, which has been struggling to boost the anemic economy, said it would do its utmost to ensure financial market stability as the yen and Japanese shares fell.
The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed, pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 per cent in reaction to the news.
"I was terrified and I'm still frightened," said Hidekatsu Hata, 36, manager of a Chinese noodle restaurant in Tokyo, where buildings shook violently. "I've never experienced such a big quake before."
The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century.
TV footage showed a muddy wall of water carrying debris across a large swath of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai, which has a population of one million. Ships in once coastal area were lifted from the sea into a harbour where they lay helplessly on their side.
Sendai is 300 kilometres northeast of Tokyo and the epicentre at sea was not far away.
TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed and cars were turning around and speeding away.
Kyodo said there were reports of fires in Sendai where waves carried cars across the runway at the airport.
"The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks," Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo. "It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago."
The quake was the biggest since records began 140 years ago, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.
The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
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St Louis, near the center of the US, was "moved" an inch, concomitant to the quake.
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Now.
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 010
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1432Z 11 MAR 2011
THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
... A WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT ...
A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR
JAPAN / RUSSIA
TAIWAN / YAP / PHILIPPINES / MARSHALL IS. / BELAU /
POHNPEI / CHUUK / KOSRAE / INDONESIA / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /
NAURU / SOLOMON IS. / KIRIBATI / HOWLAND-BAKER /
HAWAII / TUVALU / PALMYRA IS. / VANUATU / TOKELAU / JARVIS IS. /
WALLIS-FUTUNA / SAMOA / AMERICAN SAMOA / COOK ISLANDS / NIUE /
FIJI / NEW CALEDONIA / TONGA / MEXICO /
KERMADEC IS / FR. POLYNESIA / PITCAIRN /
GUATEMALA / EL SALVADOR / COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / ANTARCTICA /
PANAMA / HONDURAS / CHILE / ECUADOR / COLOMBIA / PERU
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0546Z 11 MAR 2011
COORDINATES - 38.3 NORTH 142.4 EAST
DEPTH - 24 KM
LOCATION - NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU JAPAN
MAGNITUDE - 8.9
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL PER
MANUS PG 2.0S 147.4E 1206Z 0.47M / 1.6FT 60MIN
LOMBRUM MANUS IS PG 2.0S 147.4E 1205Z 0.49M / 1.6FT 60MIN
BETIO TARAWA KI 1.4N 172.9E 1225Z 0.21M / 0.7FT 24MIN
NAURU 0.5S 166.9E 1156Z 0.20M / 0.7FT 24MIN
NAWILIWILI KAUAI 22.0N 159.4W 1343Z 0.76M / 2.5FT 12MIN
HILO HAWAII 19.7N 155.1W 1342Z 1.04M / 3.4FT 60MIN
KAWAIHAE HAWAII 20.0N 155.8W 1333Z 0.92M / 3.0FT 52MIN
DART 51407 19.6N 156.5W 1337Z 0.15M / 0.5FT 14MIN
KAHULUI MAUI 20.9N 156.5W 1327Z 1.74M / 5.7FT 52MIN
KAUMALAPAU HAWAII 20.8N 156.9W 1340Z 0.31M / 1.0FT 12MIN
HONOLULU OAHU 21.3N 157.9W 1314Z 0.66M / 2.2FT 52MIN
BARBERS PT HI 21.3N 158.1W 1308Z 0.70M / 2.3FT 64MIN
TERN FR. FRIGATE US 23.9N 166.3W 1224Z 0.38M / 1.2FT 16MIN
JOHNSTON US 16.7N 169.5W 1206Z 0.20M / 0.7FT 72MIN
DART 52402 11.7N 154.2E 0931Z 0.29M / 0.9FT 22MIN
DART 46403 52.7N 156.9W 1127Z 0.09M / 0.3FT 60MIN
LEGASPI PH 13.1N 123.8E 1116Z 0.25M / 0.8FT 58MIN
KWAJALEIN MH 8.7N 167.7E 1111Z 0.55M / 1.8FT 48MIN
NIKOLSKI AK 52.9N 168.9W 1109Z 0.27M / 0.9FT 64MIN
HANASAKI HOKKAIDO J 43.3N 145.6E 0656Z 1.83M / 6.0FT 24MIN
MIDWAY 28.2N 177.4W 1048Z 1.27M / 4.2FT 12MIN
TOSASHIMIZU SHIKOKU 32.8N 133.0E 0946Z 0.84M / 2.8FT 28MIN
ADAK AK 51.9N 176.6W 1034Z 0.35M / 1.2FT 22MIN
YAP FM 9.5N 138.1E 1013Z 0.15M / 0.5FT 88MIN
DART 21415 50.2N 171.8E 0845Z 0.27M / 0.9FT 52MIN
WAKE US 19.3N 166.6E 0928Z 0.39M / 1.3FT 14MIN
NAHA OKINAWA JP 26.2N 127.7E 0901Z 0.25M / 0.8FT 60MIN
SAIPAN US 15.2N 145.7E 0916Z 0.65M / 2.1FT 30MIN
OMAEZAKI HONSHU JP 34.6N 138.2E 0818Z 1.42M / 4.6FT 56MIN
DART 21419 44.5N 155.7E 0716Z 0.40M / 1.3FT 20MIN
DART 21413 30.5N 152.1E 0659Z 0.76M / 2.5FT 32MIN
DART 21401 42.6N 152.6E 0643Z 0.67M / 2.2FT 40MIN
DART 21418 38.7N 148.7E 0619Z 1.08M / 3.5FT 06MIN
LAT - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)
LON - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)
AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).
PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.
NOTE - DART MEASUREMENTS ARE FROM THE DEEP OCEAN AND THEY
ARE GENERALLY MUCH SMALLER THAN WOULD BE COASTAL
MEASUREMENTS AT SIMILAR LOCATIONS.
EVALUATION
SEA LEVEL READINGS CONFIRM THAT A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED
WHICH COULD CAUSE WIDESPREAD DAMAGE. AUTHORITIES SHOULD TAKE
APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS THREAT. THIS CENTER WILL
CONTINUE TO MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT AND
SEVERITY OF THE THREAT.
A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE FIRST WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
LARGEST. TSUNAMI WAVE HEIGHTS CANNOT BE PREDICTED AND CAN VARY
SIGNIFICANTLY ALONG A COAST DUE TO LOCAL EFFECTS. THE TIME FROM
ONE TSUNAMI WAVE TO THE NEXT CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO AN HOUR, AND
THE THREAT CAN CONTINUE FOR MANY HOURS AS MULTIPLE WAVES ARRIVE.
FOR ALL AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS
WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL
ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE
LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN
SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR.
LOCATION FORECAST POINT COORDINATES ARRIVAL TIME
YAP YAP_IS. 9.5N 138.1E 0952Z 11 MAR
PHILIPPINES PALANAN 17.1N 122.6E 1002Z 11 MAR
LEGASPI 13.2N 123.8E 1033Z 11 MAR
DAVAO 6.8N 125.7E 1100Z 11 MAR
MARSHALL IS. ENIWETOK 11.4N 162.3E 1021Z 11 MAR
KWAJALEIN 8.7N 167.7E 1053Z 11 MAR
MAJURO 7.1N 171.4E 1132Z 11 MAR
BELAU MALAKAL 7.3N 134.5E 1032Z 11 MAR
MIDWAY IS. MIDWAY_IS. 28.2N 182.6E 1035Z 11 MAR
POHNPEI POHNPEI_IS. 7.0N 158.2E 1036Z 11 MAR
CHUUK CHUUK_IS. 7.4N 151.8E 1041Z 11 MAR
KOSRAE KOSRAE_IS. 5.5N 163.0E 1051Z 11 MAR
INDONESIA GEME 4.6N 126.8E 1057Z 11 MAR
BEREBERE 2.5N 128.7E 1105Z 11 MAR
WARSA 0.6S 135.8E 1117Z 11 MAR
MANOKWARI 0.8S 134.2E 1125Z 11 MAR
PATANI 0.4N 128.8E 1131Z 11 MAR
JAYAPURA 2.4S 140.8E 1142Z 11 MAR
SORONG 0.8S 131.1E 1143Z 11 MAR
PAPUA NEW GUINE MANUS_IS. 2.0S 147.5E 1131Z 11 MAR
KAVIENG 2.5S 150.7E 1132Z 11 MAR
VANIMO 2.6S 141.3E 1142Z 11 MAR
WEWAK 3.5S 143.6E 1154Z 11 MAR
RABAUL 4.2S 152.3E 1202Z 11 MAR
KIETA 6.1S 155.6E 1212Z 11 MAR
AMUN 6.0S 154.7E 1219Z 11 MAR
MADANG 5.2S 145.8E 1223Z 11 MAR
LAE 6.8S 147.0E 1301Z 11 MAR
PORT_MORESBY 9.3S 146.9E 1437Z 11 MAR
NAURU NAURU 0.5S 166.9E 1157Z 11 MAR
SOLOMON IS. PANGGOE 6.9S 157.2E 1228Z 11 MAR
FALAMAE 7.4S 155.6E 1230Z 11 MAR
MUNDA 8.4S 157.2E 1247Z 11 MAR
GHATERE 7.8S 159.2E 1256Z 11 MAR
AUKI 8.8S 160.6E 1317Z 11 MAR
HONIARA 9.3S 160.0E 1322Z 11 MAR
KIRAKIRA 10.4S 161.9E 1326Z 11 MAR
KIRIBATI TARAWA_IS. 1.5N 173.0E 1236Z 11 MAR
KANTON_IS. 2.8S 188.3E 1337Z 11 MAR
CHRISTMAS_IS. 2.0N 202.5E 1451Z 11 MAR
MALDEN_IS. 3.9S 205.1E 1526Z 11 MAR
FLINT_IS. 11.4S 208.2E 1621Z 11 MAR
HOWLAND-BAKER HOWLAND_IS. 0.6N 183.4E 1251Z 11 MAR
HAWAII NAWILIWILI 22.0N 200.6E 1307Z 11 MAR
HONOLULU 21.3N 202.1E 1321Z 11 MAR
KAHULUI 20.9N 203.5E 1327Z 11 MAR
HILO 19.7N 204.9E 1346Z 11 MAR
TUVALU FUNAFUTI_IS. 7.9S 178.5E 1338Z 11 MAR
PALMYRA IS. PALMYRA_IS. 6.3N 197.6E 1354Z 11 MAR
VANUATU ESPERITU_SANTO 15.1S 167.3E 1416Z 11 MAR
ANATOM_IS. 20.2S 169.9E 1511Z 11 MAR
TOKELAU NUKUNONU_IS. 9.2S 188.2E 1417Z 11 MAR
JARVIS IS. JARVIS_IS. 0.4S 199.9E 1435Z 11 MAR
WALLIS-FUTUNA WALLIS_IS. 13.3S 183.8E 1435Z 11 MAR
FUTUNA_I. 14.3S 181.8E 1448Z 11 MAR
SAMOA APIA 13.8S 188.2E 1453Z 11 MAR
AMERICAN SAMOA PAGO_PAGO 14.3S 189.3E 1500Z 11 MAR
COOK ISLANDS PUKAPUKA_IS. 10.8S 194.1E 1500Z 11 MAR
PENRYN_IS. 8.9S 202.2E 1533Z 11 MAR
RAROTONGA 21.2S 200.2E 1634Z 11 MAR
NIUE NIUE_IS. 19.0S 190.0E 1535Z 11 MAR
FIJI SUVA 18.1S 178.4E 1537Z 11 MAR
NEW CALEDONIA NOUMEA 22.3S 166.5E 1538Z 11 MAR
TONGA NUKUALOFA 21.0S 184.8E 1605Z 11 MAR
MEXICO ENSENADA 31.8N 243.2E 1650Z 11 MAR
PUNTA_ABREOJOS 26.7N 246.4E 1738Z 11 MAR
CABO_SAN_LUCAS 22.8N 250.0E 1815Z 11 MAR
SOCORRO 18.8N 249.0E 1825Z 11 MAR
MAZATLAN 23.2N 253.6E 1904Z 11 MAR
MANZANILLO 19.1N 255.7E 1930Z 11 MAR
ACAPULCO 16.9N 260.1E 2005Z 11 MAR
PUERTO_MADERO 14.8N 267.5E 2140Z 11 MAR
KERMADEC IS RAOUL_IS. 29.2S 182.1E 1656Z 11 MAR
FR. POLYNESIA PAPEETE 17.5S 210.4E 1714Z 11 MAR
HIVA_OA 10.0S 221.0E 1753Z 11 MAR
RIKITEA 23.1S 225.0E 1921Z 11 MAR
PITCAIRN PITCAIRN_IS. 25.1S 229.9E 2008Z 11 MAR
GUATEMALA SIPICATE 13.9N 268.8E 2156Z 11 MAR
EL SALVADOR ACAJUTLA 13.6N 270.2E 2202Z 11 MAR
COSTA RICA CABO_SAN_ELENA 10.9N 274.0E 2215Z 11 MAR
PUERTO_QUEPOS 9.4N 275.8E 2241Z 11 MAR
CABO_MATAPALO 8.4N 276.7E 2243Z 11 MAR
NICARAGUA CORINTO 12.5N 272.8E 2223Z 11 MAR
PUERTO_SANDINO 12.2N 273.2E 2229Z 11 MAR
SAN_JUAN_DL_SUR 11.2N 274.1E 2239Z 11 MAR
ANTARCTICA CAPE_ADARE 71.0S 170.0E 2230Z 11 MAR
THURSTON_IS. 72.0S 260.0E 0129Z 12 MAR
PANAMA PUNTA_BURICA 8.0N 277.1E 2254Z 11 MAR
PUNTA_MALA 7.5N 280.0E 2340Z 11 MAR
PUERTO_PINA 7.4N 282.0E 2350Z 11 MAR
BALBOA_HTS. 9.0N 280.4E 0201Z 12 MAR
HONDURAS AMAPALA 13.2N 272.4E 2259Z 11 MAR
CHILE EASTER_IS. 27.1S 250.6E 2303Z 11 MAR
ARICA 18.5S 289.7E 0251Z 12 MAR
IQUIQUE 20.2S 289.9E 0256Z 12 MAR
ANTOFAGASTA 23.3S 289.6E 0302Z 12 MAR
CALDERA 27.1S 289.2E 0322Z 12 MAR
GOLFO_DE_PENAS 47.1S 285.1E 0324Z 12 MAR
COQUIMBO 29.9S 288.6E 0331Z 12 MAR
VALPARAISO 33.0S 288.4E 0345Z 12 MAR
CORRAL 39.8S 286.5E 0401Z 12 MAR
TALCAHUANO 36.7S 286.9E 0407Z 12 MAR
PUERTO_MONTT 41.5S 287.0E 0601Z 12 MAR
PUERTO_WILLIAMS 54.8S 291.8E 0904Z 12 MAR
PUNTA_ARENAS 53.2S 289.1E 1708Z 12 MAR
ECUADOR BALTRA_IS. 0.5S 269.7E 2338Z 11 MAR
ESMERELDAS 1.2N 280.2E 0009Z 12 MAR
LA_LIBERTAD 2.2S 278.8E 0030Z 12 MAR
COLOMBIA BAHIA_SOLANO 6.3N 282.6E 2353Z 11 MAR
TUMACO 1.8N 281.1E 0018Z 12 MAR
BUENAVENTURA 3.8N 282.8E 0036Z 12 MAR
PERU TALARA 4.6S 278.5E 0041Z 12 MAR
PIMENTAL 6.9S 280.0E 0145Z 12 MAR
LA_PUNTA 12.1S 282.8E 0146Z 12 MAR
CHIMBOTE 9.0S 281.2E 0152Z 12 MAR
SAN_JUAN 15.3S 284.8E 0200Z 12 MAR
MOLLENDO 17.1S 288.0E 0233Z 12 MAR
BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.
THE TSUNAMI WARNING WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ALSO ISSUE TSUNAMI MESSAGES
FOR THIS EVENT TO COUNTRIES IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC AND SOUTH
CHINA SEA REGION. IN CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION... THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.
THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.
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I saw another report which included Australia.
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I saw another report which included Australia.
We are supposed to be ok.
But I am hearing mixed reports about whether they have a nuclear disaster happening or not.
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A friend of mine is in Tokyo, shes ok.
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We are supposed to be ok.
But I am hearing mixed reports about whether they have a nuclear disaster happening or not.
Yes, same here --- I just saw a blurb that it's "under control", but another source says it's ongoing.
A friend of mine is in Tokyo, shes ok.
Good news!
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The death count on this is going to change a lot over the next few days - at first it was "100", but now they are saying 300-400... time will tell.
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Called John in San Diego ... He said that their local forecast is predicting nothing more than 3 feet, so they aren't too alarmed there.
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Tsunami swamps Hawaii beaches, brushes West Coast US
AP
By JAYMES SONG and MARK NIESSE, Associated Press – 29 mins ago
HONOLULU – Tsunami waves swamped Hawaii beaches and brushed the U.S. western coast Friday but didn't immediately cause major damage after devastating Japan and sparking evacuations throughout the Pacific.
Kauai was the first of the Hawaiian islands struck by the tsunami, which was caused by an earthquake in Japan. Water rushed ashore at least 11 feet high near Kealakekua Bay, on the west side of the Big Island, and reached the lobby of a hotel. Flooding was reported on Maui, and water washed up on roadways on the Big Island.
Scientists and officials warned that the first tsunami waves are not always the strongest and said residents along the coast should watch for strong currents and heed calls for evacuation.
"The tsunami warning is not over," said Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie. "We are seeing significant adverse activity, particularly on Maui and the Big Island. By no means are we clear in the rest of the state as well."
High waters reached the U.S. western coast by 11:30 a.m. EST Friday, after evacuations were ordered and beaches closed all along the coast.
Fishermen in Crescent City, Calif., — where a tsunami in 1964 killed 11 people — fired up their crab boats and left the harbor to ride out an expected swell.
Sirens sounded for hours before dawn up and down the coast, and in Hawaii, roadways and beaches were empty as the tsunami struck. As sirens sounded throughout the night, most residents cleared out from the coasts and low-lying areas.
"I'm waiting to see if I'll be working and if I can get to work," said Sabrina Skiles, who spent the night at her husband's office in downtown Kahului in Maui. Their home, across the street from the beach, was in a mandatory evacuation zone. "They're saying the worst is over right now but we keep hearing reports saying 'don't go anywhere. You don't want to go too soon.'"
The tsunami, spawned by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan, slammed the eastern coast of Japan, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people as widespread fires burned out of control. It raced across the Pacific at 500 mph — as fast as a jetliner — although tsunami waves roll into shore at normal speeds.
President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is ready to come to the aid of Hawaii and West Coast states as needed. Coast Guard cutter and aircraft crews were positioning themselves to be ready to conduct response and survey missions as soon as conditions allow.
It is the second time in a little over a year that Hawaii and the U.S. West coast faced the threat of a massive tsunami. A magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile spawned warnings on Feb. 27, 2010, but the waves were much smaller than predicted and almost no damage was reported.
Scientists acknowledged they overstated the threat but defended their actions, saying they took the proper steps and learned the lessons of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami that killed thousands of people who didn't get enough warning.
Many islands in the Pacific evacuated after the warnings were issued, but officials told residents to go home because the waves weren't as bad as expected.
In Guam, the waves broke two U.S. Navy submarines from their moorings, but tug boats corralled the subs and brought them back to their pier. No damage was reported to Navy ships in Hawaii.
The warnings issued by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center covered an area stretching the entire western coast of the United States and Canada from the Mexican border to Chignik Bay in Alaska.
In the Canadian pacific coast province of British Columbia, authorities evacuated marinas, beaches and other areas.
In Alaska, a dozen small communities along the Aleutian Island chain were on alert, but there were no reports of damage from a wave just over 5 feet.
Officials in two coastal Washington counties used an automated phone alert system, phoning residents on the coast and in low-lying areas and asking them to move to higher ground.
"We certainly don't want to cry wolf," said Sheriff Scott Johnson of Washington's Pacific County. "We just have to hope we're doing the right thing based on our information. We don't want to be wrong and have people hurt or killed.
In Oregon, sirens blasted in some coastal communities and at least one hotel was evacuated in the northern part of the state. Restaurants, gift shops and other beachfront business stayed shuttered, and schools up and down the coast were closed.
Rockne Berge, owner of By The Sea Motel in Port Orford, on Oregon's southern coast, said he saw a band of wet sand about 50 yards wide — an indication of a wave larger than usual. People found viewpoints on bluffs above the beach to watch the waves, he said.
"It looks like a mall parking lot at a Christmas sale," he said.
In Santa Cruz, Calif., retreating waves broke loose a couple of boats and a dock, but surfers who raced to the beach to catch the waves were undeterred.
"The tides are right, the swell is good, the weather is good, the tsunami is there. We're going out," said William Hill, an off-duty California trooper.
Latin American governments ordered islanders and coastal residents to head for higher ground. First affected would be Chile's Easter Island, in the remote South Pacific, about 2,175 miles west of the capital of Santiago, where people planned to evacuate the only town. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa declared a state of emergency and ordered people on the Galapagos Islands and the coast of the mainland to seek higher ground.
The tsunami warning was issued Friday at 3:31 a.m. EST. Sirens were sounded about 30 minutes later in Honolulu alerting people in coastal areas to evacuate. About 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.4 million population resides in Honolulu, and as many as 100,000 tourists are in the city on any given day.
On Friday, the Honolulu International Airport remained open but seven or eight jets bound for Hawaii have turned around, including some originating from Japan, the state Department of Transportation said. All harbors are closed and vessels were ordered to leave the harbor.
Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management has created refuge areas at community centers and schools, and authorities on Kauai island have opened 11 schools to serve as shelters for those who have left tsunami inundation zones.
A small 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island just before 5 a.m. EST, but there were no reports of damages and the quakes weren't likely related, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey said.
Dennis Fujimoto said early Friday that the mood is calm but concerned on the island of Kauai while people readying for the tsunami.
Long lines formed at gas stations and people went to Wal-Mart to stock up on supplies.
"You got people walking out of there with wagonloads of water," he said.
The worst big wave to strike the U.S. was a 1946 tsunami caused by a magnitude of 8.1 earthquake near Unimak Islands, Alaska, that killed 165 people, mostly in Hawaii. In 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in southern Chile caused a tsunami that killed at least 1,716 people, including 61 people in Hilo. It also destroyed most of that city's downtown. On the U.S. mainland, a 1964 tsunami from a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Prince William Sound, Alaska, struck Washington State, Oregon and California. It killed 128 people, including 11 in Crescent City, Calif.
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Associated Press Writers contributing to this report include Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Denise Petski in Los Angeles, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle, Nigel Duara in Seaside, Ore., Jeff Barnard in Crescent City, Calif., Rob Gillies in Toronto, Alicia Chang in Pasadena, Calif., Michelle Price and Carson Walker in Phoenix. Niesse contributed from Ewa Beach, Hawaii.
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Quake brings modern Tokyo to a standstill
AP
By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press – 3 mins ago
TOKYO – Japan's huge earthquake brought super-modern Tokyo to a standstill Friday, paralyzing trains that normally run like clockwork and stranding hordes of commuters carrying mobile phones rendered largely useless by widespread outages.
The magnitude-8.9 quake off Japan's northeastern coast shook buildings in the capital, left millions of homes across Japan without electricity, shut down the mobile phone network and severely disrupted landline telephone service. It brought Tokyo's train system to a halt, choking a daily commuter flow of more than 10 million people.
"This is the kind of earthquake that hits once every 100 years," said restaurant worker Akira Tanaka, 54.
He gave up waiting for trains to resume and decided — for his first time ever — to set off on foot for his home 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of the capital. "I've been walking an hour and 10 minutes, still have about three hours to go," he said.
Tokyo prides itself on being an orderly, technologically savvy, even futuristic city. Residents usually can rely on a huge, criss-crossing network of train and subway lines, but authorities were forced to scan the entire web for quake damage and canceled nearly all train service for the day.
Tens of thousands of people milled at train stations and hunkered down at 24-hour cafes and hotels.
Mobile phone lines were crammed, preventing nearly all calls and text messages. Calls to northeastern Japan, where a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami washed ashore after the quake, generally failed to go through, with a recording saying the area's lines were busy.
Unable to rely on mobile phones, lines of people formed at Tokyo's normally vacant public phone booths dotting the city.
Osamu Akiya, 46, was working in Tokyo at his office in a trading company when the quake hit. It sent bookshelves and computers crashing to the floor, and cracks appeared in the walls.
"I've been through many earthquakes, but I've never felt anything like this," he said.
Japan's top telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. set up an emergency phone line and a special Internet site for people to leave messages for family and friends.
Up to 90 percent of calls were being restricted to prevent telecom equipment from being overloaded, NTT spokeswoman Mai Kariya said. The company was checking on damage to towers and cables, and details were not immediately available.
Tokyo commuter trains and subways, as well as the superfast bullet trains, all shut down, according to East Japan Railway Co. A handful of subway lines resumed service, but only after six hours.
Normally when Tokyo trains suffer rare problems, they are running again within an hour. But the railway company announced that nearly all service would not resume for the rest of the day, sending crowds that were milling at train stations pouring into the streets.
The Tokyo suburb of Yokohama offered the community's main concert hall as an emergency place to stay overnight, and planned to offer blankets and other amenities, Yokohama Arena official Hideharu Terada said.
"There has never been a big earthquake like this, when all the railways stopped and so this is a first for us," Terada said. "People are trickling in. They are all calm."
In downtown Tokyo, Tomoko Suzuki and her elderly mother stood at a crowded corner, unable to get to their 29th-floor condominium because the elevator wasn't working. They unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi to a relative's house and couldn't find a hotel room.
"We are so cold," said Suzuki. "We really don't know what to do."
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Associated Press writers Yuri Kageyama and Tomoko A. Hosaka contributed to this report.
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Quake leaves apocalyptic scene in Japan (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-20110312,0,2015595.story)
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Shit! one of the nuclear power plants has exploded.
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Shit! one of the nuclear power plants has exploded.
Oh my god -- that's as bad as a detonation of a missile, yes?
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Potentially there could be a meltdown, and on the ground they are have excluded people at 60 km, although officially it says 20 km. But all the reports from the PR people are saying a meltdown is unlikely. I certainly hope so, else it could be quite nasty. Nonetheless this is a 'light reactor' whatever that means, and thus they don't believe the worst case would be too bad.
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Meltdown? (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake)
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Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth's axis (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T1)
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I keep reading that multiple reactors are at the crisis point: can you imagine how the people there must feel? Dizzy from one devastation, needing to flee the next ... which will ruin their homeland indefinitely.
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Yes, it sounds like the authorities are trying to put a good spin on a very nasty situation.
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Bracing for next quake; 10,000 feared dead (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-crisis)
Also, the wind is expected to change and to move the radiation to the Pacific.
Unconfirmed - 2 meltdowns are in progress.
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13.03.2011, Midday GMT:
A partial meltdown is likely under way at one nuclear reactor, a senior Japanese official has said, as operators
frantically tried to keep temperatures down at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant's other units following a devastating earthquake and tsunami that may have killed as many as 10,000 people.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on Sunday that a partial meltdown in Unit 3 of the Fukushima facility was "highly possible".
"Because it's inside the reactor, we cannot directly check it but we are taking measures on the assumption of the possible partial meltdown," he said.
About 170,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area covering a radius of 20km around the plant.
They say reactor No. 3 is undergoing partial meltdown. Even if full meltdown occurs, it would not be like a detonation of a nuclear warhead. There will be release of energy and radiation, and radioactive contamination, but no shock-wave that is a main destructive factor during the nuclear explosion.
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Talk about the moment when, as buildings and cars go sailing down the street, you only have each other! "Each other" being whoever is in voice-shot!
(Copy and paste this url into your browser to pull it up)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=1605260179420&comments
The man who posted it said this:
I want to show everyone the news media we are being presented with here in Japan. I think it's quite different from what you see on CNN and other Western news outlets. One thing about Japan--there are professional cameramen EVERYWHERE! It reminds me of the Vietnam war, and how it was the first time the US got real-time, color footage of a war zone. Since the quake, we've had lots of steady, HD video playing non-stop, showing you exactly what it would be like to witness the disaster first hand. Watch it in full-screen, and please share on your wall!!
Length: 6:21
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By Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon
FUKUSHIMA, Japan | Sun Mar 13, 2011 1:06pm EDT
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan struggled on Monday to avert a nuclear disaster and care for millions of people without power or water, three days after an earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 10,000 people or more in the nation's darkest hour since World War Two.
The world's third-largest economy opens for business later on Monday, a badly wounded nation that has seen whole villages and towns wiped off the map by a wall of water, leaving in its wake an international humanitarian effort of epic proportion.
A grim-faced Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the crisis at Japan's worst since 1945, as officials confirmed that three nuclear reactors were at risk of overheating, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak.
"The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," Kan told a news conference.
"We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis."
As he spoke, officials worked desperately to stop fuel rods in the damaged reactors from overheating. If they fail, the containers that house the core could melt, or even explode, releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.
The most urgent crisis centers on the Fukushima Daiichi complex, where all three reactors are threatening to overheat, and where authorities say they have been forced to release radioactive steam into the air to relieve reactor pressure.
The complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was rocked by an explosion on Saturday, which blew the roof off a reactor building. The government did not rule out further blasts there but said this would not necessarily damage the reactor vessels.
Authorities have poured sea water in all three of the complex's reactor to cool them down.
FEARS OVER OTHER REACTORS
The complex, run by Tokyo Electric Power Co, is the biggest nuclear concern but not the only one: on Monday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Japanese authorities had notified it of an emergency at another plant further north, at Onagawa.
But Japan's nuclear safety agency denied problems at the Onagawa plant, run by Tohoku Electric Power Co, noting that radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi complex had been detected at Onagawa, but that these were within safe levels at a tiny fraction of the radiation received in an x-ray.
Shortly later, a cooling-system problem was reported at another nuclear plant closer to Tokyo, in Ibaraki prefecture.
Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, where the roof was ripped off, is 40 years old and was originally set to go out of commission in February but had its operating license extended by 10 years.
Prime Minister Kan said the crisis was not another Chernobyl, referring to the nuclear disaster of 1986 in Soviet Ukraine.
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The whole thing is so powerful
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The whole thing i so powerful
A good lesson on how fragile and vulnerable our civilisation is. A quake, a wave, and world's third largest economy is shattered.
Now they are going to have to ration electricity - there will be two-hour blackouts around Japan on rotation.
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I'm thinking more like in personal terms. The most important thing would be to stay alive. The downfall of economy wont kill anyone...most likely. I'm always imagining what would i do in a real catastrophic situation, where would i run or hide, what if i was stuck in that car...
A good lesson on how fragile and vulnerable our civilisation is. A quake, a wave, and world's third largest economy is shattered.
Now they are going to have to ration electricity - there will be two-hour blackouts around Japan on rotation.
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I'm thinking more like in personal terms. The most important thing would be to stay alive. The downfall of economy wont kill anyone...most likely. I'm always imagining what would i do in a real catastrophic situation, where would i run or hide, what if i was stuck in that car...
I thought about that too, Taimi -- what would it be like watching my car and my house sail off? Would I have the stuff to hang onto my life and my sanity?
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I haven't thought that far, like my car and house sailing off. The most precious thing I can imagine, would be my life. Then later if you have food and water, then your ok.
I thought about that too, Taimi -- what would it be like watching my car and my house sail off? Would I have the stuff to hang onto my life and my sanity?
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I haven't thought that far, like my car and house sailing off. The most precious thing I can imagine, would be my life. Then later if you have food and water, then your ok.
I was thinking of that video - watching everything floating by - wondering if the building I was standing on was going to get washed away, too. But yes, what then? Where to rest one's head?
Supposedly, the folks in the devastated regions are without food and water. What they have to deal with per the radiation is on top of it all - it's a nightmare.
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3:45am A volcano on the southern island of Kyushu has begun to spew ash and rock, the country's weather agency has announced.
Shonmoedake mountain is more than 1,500km from the epicentre of Friday's earthquake, and it's not yet clear if the eruption is linked to the earlier seismic activity.
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I'm thinking more like in personal terms. The most important thing would be to stay alive. The downfall of economy wont kill anyone...most likely. I'm always imagining what would i do in a real catastrophic situation, where would i run or hide, what if i was stuck in that car...
It all depends on the kind of emergency and where you are at the moment of crisis. I am very confident in my physical capacity so I always feel I could find a way to survive, however it would be different if I were also trying to save others.
But from the clips I have seen of this wave, there would be no escape. It came so fast and powerful, you couldn't cling or outrun for survival. At such moments, my approach is to face death fully and ready, not clinging to the grass clumps around the hole.
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By The Associated Press, Sunday, March 13, 10:41 PM (40 mins ago)
TOKYO — Nuclear officials confirm hydrogen explosion at Unit 3 of Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
– 16 mins ago
TOKYO – Tokyo Electric Power Co. says three workers have been injured and seven are missing after an explosion at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary says a hydrogen explosion occurred Monday at the facility's Unit 3. The blast was similar to an earlier one at a different unit at the facility.
Yukio Edano says people within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius were ordered inside following the blast. AP journalists felt the explosion 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.
Edano says the reactor's inner containment vessel holding nuclear rods is intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment and public.
More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area in recent days.
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Geologists say that the quake shifted the whole Japan 2.4 metres from its previous position.
(http://www.polls.newsvine.com/_vine/images/users/900/boyle/6256408.jpg)
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A good insight into the nature and prospectives of the nuclear problems in Japan (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-reactor.html?_r=1&hp)
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But from the clips I have seen of this wave, there would be no escape. It came so fast and powerful, you couldn't cling or outrun for survival.
http://www.youtube.com/v/yIYG5GctqCQ
I heard that this quake was 8,000 times greater than the one which hit Christchurch in NZ, and that the tidal wave travelled at 800km/hr - seems hard to believe somehow, but there you are.
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http://www.youtube.com/v/yIYG5GctqCQ
I heard that this quake was 8,000 times greater than the one which hit Christchurch in NZ, and that the tidal wave travelled at 800km/hr - seems hard to believe somehow, but there you are.
The original quake in Japan is now upgraded to be 9.0 on the Richter scale, that makes it one of the fifth greatest earth quakes ever, since measurements started.
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".....but the US said it had moved one of its aircraft carriers from the area after detecting low-level radiation 100 miles (160km) offshore."
Japan quake: Fresh explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant
BBC News
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the core container at the reactor was still intact.
A second explosion has hit a Japanese nuclear plant that was damaged in Friday's earthquake, but officials said the reactor core was still intact.
A huge column of smoke billowed from Fukushima Daiichi's reactor 3, two days after a blast hit reactor 1.
The latest explosion, said to have been caused by a hydrogen build-up, injured 11 people, one of them seriously.
Soon afterwards, the government said a third reactor at the plant had lost its cooling system.
Water levels were now falling at reactor 2, which is to be doused with sea water, said government spokesman Yukio Edano.
A similar cooling system breakdown preceded the explosions at reactors 1 and 3.
Evacuations
Japanese officials are playing down any health risk, but the US said it had moved one of its aircraft carriers from the area after detecting low-level radiation 100 miles (160km) offshore.
"We headed towards where the tsunami hit land, close to the little village of Higashiro. We had to pick our way through a sea of mud.
"What should have been a road was covered in broken branches, a squashed tractor and lots of electricity cables that had been brought down. The destruction goes on and on.
"The seashore was in the distance behind a row of trees. Here the waves toppled houses; they lie at crazy angles. Trees have been smashed into the buildings. A motorcycle lies twisted and bent.
"Inside the houses, the furniture has been turned to matchsticks, possessions tossed everywhere, and on a few walls are portraits with the faces of those who once lived here, now stained by the waters which filled everything."
* 'Everything is gone'
Technicians have been battling to cool reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since Friday, following the quake and tsunami.
In other developments:
* Two thousand bodies have been found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture, Japanese media are reporting
* The central bank said it would pump 15 trillion yen ($182bn; £113bn) into the economy to prop up markets, but the Nikkei slumped more than 6%
* Prime Minister Naoto Kan postponed planned rolling powercuts, saying they may not be needed if householders could conserve energy
The BBC's Rachel Harvey in the port town of Minamisanriku says everything has been flattened until about 2km inland.
It looks unlikely that many survivors will be found, she adds.
Japanese police have so far confirmed 1,597 deaths, but the final toll is expected to be much higher.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from the area around Fukushima Daiichi plant.
At least 22 people were said to be undergoing treatment for radiation exposure.
Powerful aftershocks
The government said radiation levels were below legal limits after Monday's explosion. Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the plant, said the reactor's containment vessel had resisted the impact.
The search for survivors goes on in the coastal city of Sendai
The operators say the thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores have so far remained intact.
Even if the fuel rods do go into meltdown there should not be a release of radioactive clouds, they say.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says radiation has been detected outside the plant, but at low concentrations.
At one point it rose to a level similar to that one is exposed to during an X-ray, our correspondent says.
Experts say a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl in the 1980s is highly unlikely because the reactors are built to a much higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures.
Earlier, the prime minister said the situation at the nuclear plant was alarming, and the earthquake had thrown Japan into "the most severe crisis since World War II".
The government advised people not to go to work or school on Monday because the transport network would not be able to cope with demand.
The capital Tokyo is also still experiencing regular aftershocks, amid warnings that another powerful earthquake is likely to strike very soon.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of relief workers, soldiers and police have been deployed to the disaster zone.
Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami in the tens of billions of dollars.
The disaster is a huge blow for the Japanese economy (the world's third largest), which has been ailing for two decades.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan.
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51654000/gif/_51654030_japan_quake_sendai_464x412_v4.gif)
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It's on fire ...
JAPAN NUCLEAR EMERGENCY
* Explosions in three reactors at Fukushima plant
* Fourth reactor on fire
* Containment chamber damaged at reactor 2
* Radiation levels at plant rise more than four fold
* 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone
* People living within 30km to stay indoors
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12740843
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The latest developments in Japan look very serious. The worst thing that can happen is when one of the reactors blows open - it is the Chernobyl scenario.
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A fire which broke out at the plant has apparently been extinguished, Kyodo news agency and other media quoted the power station operator as saying. The fire broke out earlier on Tuesday following an explosion in the building housing the number-four reactor of the plant.
::) Mary and Joseph! what next?
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::) Mary and Joseph! what next?
Kyodo News (http://english.kyodonews.jp/) - the fastest update on developments.
Japanese have been struggling to cool the reactors down. Basically, the sequence of events has been as follows: quake made the reactors to shut down - graphite rods were downed and the chain reaction slowed. It means that reactors were kept at the heat production level of 5-6%.
Tsunami flooded the basement and the secondary power supply (diesel generators) was lost along with the cooling system.
Reactors began to heat up and release hydrogen. The first detonation occurred at the reactor no. 1 when a sufficient amount of hydrogen accumulated under the roof and self-detonated when mixing with air.
At this stage Japanese began to pump sea-water into the cooling system of reactors - it was an utter emergency measure, and it means that all three reactors will have to be decommissioned in any outcome. As the sea water heats up, the steam needs to be gradually released to the atmosphere.
The second explosion occurred when the rector no. 3 was left for several hours without cooling and began to emit hydrogen.
The third and foruth explosions occurred when the cooling systems of reactor no. 2 and no. 4 failed. However, the latest detonations are worse as one of them seems to have ruptured either the cooling system or safety container around the reactor leading radiation to leak.
The worst case scenario #1 is when the cooling is lost at any of the reactors, and it begins to collect hydrogen and other gasses inside - then the explosion could rupture the reactor and cause Chernobyl. Scenario #2 is when the cooling is lost, the nuclear fuel begins to burn and melts through the reactor (nothing could contain burning uranium).
Apparently, Japanese are literally fighting for survival now. Sea water was an improvisation and emergency measure, but it seems they would have to keep improvising and charting the unknown.
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One can add that the people working at the power plant must find the radiation leak and seal it off. The wind blows from north now and carries radiation toward Tokyo. It is a megapolis with 20 million people and there is no way to evacuate it.
Thus, probably at the cost of their lives (and certainly at the cost of their health) engineers and technicians must stop the leak and stabilise reactors.
They have nowhere to retreat.
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It seems that the sequence of technological break-downs has not been halted yet.
17.29 local time (half an hour before I post this) it was reported that water levels are dropping and the water is possibly boiling at spent nuclear fuel storage at the power plant (the temperature of the spent nuclear fuel is rising).
However, this problem is immeasurably easier to solve than to deal with malfunctioning reactors.
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This could be the beginning of a worst kind of nightmare:
TEPCO unable to pour water into No. 4 reactor's storage pool for spent fuel
Radiation too high for TEPCO personnel to stay in Fukushima nuke plant control rooms
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I said to my friend that she should leave Tokyo just in case, but looks like shes not going to do that. She was studing there, final exams already done, now she is just waiting for the final ceremony. She is supposed to come back in April.
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Wow ... she should fly home today.
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Even on the outskirts of the thing, relief and rescue are being held back. Decontamination required for those on the outskirts ... what must this mean for those near the heart of it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110315/ap_on_re_us/us_us_japan
This kills me:
".....While he said there was no danger to the public, the commander recommended military personnel and their families at Yokosuka and Naval Air Facility Atsugi limit their outdoor activities and seal ventilation systems at their homes as much as possible....." (But there's no danger to the public? Please.)
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Reactor Design in Japan Has Long Been Questioned (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16contain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1)
Probably a moot point now.
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This could be the beginning of a worst kind of nightmare:
Yes.
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The plant is apparently getting too 'hot' (radioactive) to work in. Even so, the only way to deal with the events is at the spot. That's how they managed to build a sarcophagus around a broken reactor at Chernobyl.
Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, held a brief conference about the nuclear situation, these are the key points.
- An appeal not to panic buy fuel especially in areas not affected by the quake, they think the containment vessel on Reactor No3 has been damaged
- Radioaction levels have fluctuated throughout the day, at one point all staff were evacuated for safety due to a dramtic increase in radiation at the front gate.
- Tempratures are rising in reactors number 5/6 and in the spent fuel rod tank in reactor no 4.
- They are considering the option of spraying water onto the heating reactors from the air.There are issues getting water into Reactor numbe 4 containment pool.
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Broken reactor is at the bottom of the ruins of the building:
(http://www.ukrainianweb.com/images/chernobyl/chernobyl_reactor.jpg)
Sarcophagus as it looks now:
(http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b0120a86da3e8970b-pi)
Men worked in 3-5 minute shifts to build it. Helicopters that flew only once over the broken reactor and dropped boric acid in there had to be thrown away immediately.
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Japanese tried to use army helicopters for dropping water on reactors, but suspended operations due to high levels of radiation over the power plant.
Many police officers have volunteered to work on the power plant in order to save their country.
Anonymous brave men (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16workers.html?hp)
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Possible?
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/03/11/videos-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-caused-by-haarp-evidence/ (http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/03/11/videos-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-caused-by-haarp-evidence/)
Never heard of this HAARP thing before.
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Now when I start to think about it, by childhoods disease (myasthenia gravis) could have been caused by radiation. Estonia was also afected by Chernobyl catasthrophe somewhat. I did a little reasearch on the internet and it seems pretty likely.
It is an autoimmune disease. I found and article where infants tyhmus gland were radiated on purpose, to stop it from enlargening - which was actually normal as much as i understandd, but the doctors didn't know it back then). These children had autoimmune diseases later. Also there was one article about Belarus and increased cases of myasthenia gravis in that area after Chernobyl.
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Certainly possible - I recall they detected radiation effects as far as France after Cher went up (or down, as the case may be).
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From what I hear on this morning's news, the Japs have thrown up their hands mostly, and are putting the problem in God's hands.
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From what I hear on this morning's news, the Japs have thrown up their hands mostly, and are putting the problem in God's hands.
Yes, the situation seems increasingly out of their hands.
Al-Jazeera 4:57am
More on that "US nuclear chair" - who has now been named as Gregory Jaczko, the chief of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, currently giving a report to Congress.
He says all the water has gone from the spent fuel pools at reactor No.4 in Fukushima No.1 facility, Japan's most troubled nuclear plant. This means there is nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and ultimately melting down.
The outer shell of the rods could also ignite, with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area, he says.
Gregory Jaczko did not say how the information was obtained, but the NRC and US Department of Energy both have staff on site at the Fukushima complex of six reactors.
He says officials believe radiation levels are extremely high, and that could affect workers' ability to stop temperatures from escalating.
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I hope they're widening their evacuation zones/efforts. Or perhaps that is just wishful thinking.
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They don't know what to do, and I gather they don't what will happen.
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Now, snow ...
(http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2011/03/17/1226023/103199-snow-in-minamisanriku.jpg)
Here is a thoughtful article:
Body Blows to Test Japanese Spirit (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/body-blows-to-test-japanese-spirit/story-fn84naht-1226023106212)
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Possible?
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/03/11/videos-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-caused-by-haarp-evidence/ (http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/03/11/videos-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-caused-by-haarp-evidence/)
Never heard of this HAARP thing before.
What HAARP is about (http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/faq.html)
If there were a causal connection between the earth quake and ionospheric research, its mechanism would be currently completely unknown. With my knowledge about earth quakes (tectonic plates moving and colliding) I am hard-pressed to see a connection with research of upper layers of atmosphere.
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They tried dropping sea water from helicopters on heating reactors, but apparently to no avail (lack of precision and mass). It looks very desperate - trying to cool reactors from the altitude of 100-300 metres.
They showed on TV several fire and rescue trucks ready to go and start pouring water in from water cannons. That activity is bound to give workers/policemen high doses of radiation. Brave guys, these Japanese!
Looking at these men preparing for their mission, I remembered a story about Japanese police anti-terrorist unit. To my knowledge, they are pretty much the only ones who have ever accomplished hostage rescue unarmed. They were told that going in armed would pose very high risk to hostages. So they went in unarmed. They took serious casualties, but rescued nearly all hostages.
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They took serious casualties, but rescued nearly all hostages.
And why is that so admirable? What makes the lives of the hostages more precious then those of the rescuers?
Brave men died so some probably mediocre can live on. Stupid way to do natural selection.
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And why is that so admirable? What makes the lives of the hostages more precious then those of the rescuers?
Brave men died so some probably mediocre can live on. Stupid way to do natural selection.
So are brave men going to die because somebody hoped that tsunamis in Fukushima region would be maximum 6 metres high. The same way will brave men die over and again to rescue some person who did not think his actions through or to save a situation caused by some superficial character.
This is what the human life is all about. Welcome to the real world and you try to escape that...! ;)
However, it all does not take away anything from those who do their job regardless.
You talk about natural selection - well, we all are merely passing by in this life.
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I think it is wise to list a few facts about what is happening at the Fukushima power plant. There are four active reactors and two dormant with used nuclear fuel-cells.
What happened?
When the Earth quake hit the plant the automatic secure system released the active fuel-cells in the four running reactors. So far so good. But at the same time, their electricity supply was shut down. Much because the earth-quake was seven times intense than what the plant was built for. Let that sink in – this earth-quake last week was one of the three most intense earth-quakes since the 18th century, worldwide.
Well, at the plant they started the backup electricity system that is run by diesel engines. The electricity is very much needed to cool the nuclear fuel-cells. All went well until the Tsunami hit the Fukushima power plant, the wave flooded the plant and the diesel generators short circuited.
Heh, suddenly the situation was out of control and now we can watch the result. All four active reactors are damaged and it is quite sure that this breakdown will be recorded as the most severe nuclear catastrophe in history.
But is this dangerous for the population? I would say a general No, to that. The radioactivity goes up with the heat from the fuel-cells and then moves with the upper air layers away from the island. Precipitation in the form of rain or snow may increase the risk on the island of Japan, and there has been snow lately. But the radio-activity levels for the population will not be harmful. The problem with the radio-activity is more an International problem than a local one.
However, all the rescue workers at the plant are at high risk for over doses, and it is rumors that a sort of Kamikaze worker’s, now get enlisted to do maximum time in the reactors. The radio-activity is uneven and outburst of cesium and other active particles can come suddenly. This together with a high risk for explosions makes it almost impossible to do manual work within the plants today. Not unless you are ready to die (The old warrior stance).
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They tried dropping sea water from helicopters on heating reactors, but apparently to no avail (lack of precision and mass). It looks very desperate - trying to cool reactors from the altitude of 100-300 metres.
The radio-activity was too high above the reactors for such operations, so they had to resign. It is a desperate action, but there was no lack of precision what I know.
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The radioactivity goes up with the heat from the fuel-cells and then moves with the upper air layers away from the island.
This is why the helicopters had to retire, the activity was far too high above the reactors. Even 20 seconds up there would give you a life-time dose of radio-activity. The military helicopters are not built for excluding air streams.
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I heard they covered the helicopters with lead and the men were dressed up in special gear. They had only 50% success, as the distance above was too great to be sure of accuracy. I thought I heard they only did four sorties, and tow hit, two didn't.
I still haven't heard what a 'meltdown' will mean. They are saying it will create a huge radiation ball, which will then move according to the wind. If the wind blows it over Tokyo, then the consequences could be very serious. If it blows it out to sea, it will likely go over Canada and north US, but apparently it will be very low radiation by then.
What I haven't heard is what happens to the molten matter after it releases this radiation ball. How long it goes on for, how they deal with the molten stuff, likelihood of a chain-reaction explosion?
The main hope now is that the water treatment will offer enough time for them to get the power on to the plant, which they can then use start the cooling system. I hope they succeed.
As for bravery: there is a big difference between courage and intelligence - rarely do they coincide. Courage has a bad name in spiritual development schools, except for pursuing the Path. Typically the role of the 'hero' is a dead end, and by definition a social role. Nonetheless, bravery is acknowledged as a fine character trait - I mean, if you have to die a futile death, better to do it bravely.
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As much as i have read, they already have decades of work ahead to make it all "normal".
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What I haven't heard is what happens to the molten matter after it releases this radiation ball. How long it goes on for, how they deal with the molten stuff, likelihood of a chain-reaction explosion?
I can give you some facts on Chernobyl (I was in the Red Army when it blew, we were at the field exercises and withstood the edge of radioactive fallout, and they recruited volunteers from all units).
In Chernobyl, the reactor blew open and there was an uncontrolled release of heat and accelerating chain reaction (no nuclear explosion is possible, though, as the fuel has too low an enrichment level). When the first firemen got to the roof of 4th energy block, they could actually look into the reactor and see how uranium burned. It had an extraordinary purple colour - they who saw it died in the next 36 hours and were buried in tin coffins.
The chain reaction in uranium fuel produces plutonium that is as toxic as cyanide in addition to being radioactive. Some other elements are produced as well. The fire in the nuclear fuel created an ascending air current that took all that radioactive and poisonous stuff up and carried far away.
Soviets had basically only one option - to extinguish fires in surrounding buildings (at a huge cost in lives) and fill the reactor with sand, clay and boric acid to slow down the chain reaction, stop the leak of radioactivity and gradually put out the fire in the nuclear fuel. They had to fly helicopters right over the reactor and drop their sand, clay and boric acid payloads onto the reactor. In other words - simply bury it. The assessment is that the nuclear fuel and graphite kept burning for two weeks in Chernobyl. Having done that, they began erecting concrete sarcophagus.
For me, today's developments with helos show that Japanese are getting desperate - they simply have to fly in there. I interviewed one nuclear expert and his assessment was - they really have a little idea about what is happening there. What they know for sure is that temperatures keep rising and radioactive contamination levels of the plant as well.
Japanese have also another problem - their reactors seem to be intact and if anything is going to burn, then initially within the reactors. If the fuel and gaphite was to ignite, it is possible that the molten mass would break out of reactor and would have to be buried in fashion similar to Chernobyl. The worst option is if the spent fuel storage ignites - it is open, above the ground and has a high potential to contaminate large areas. In both cases Japanese would have to do what Soviets did at Chernobyl to check the disaster.
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Thanks for this E.
The latest I hear is that everything is much, much worse than anyone has been admitting to.
One disturbing news piece, was about expatriates, who number in many thousands, are desperately trying to escape Tokyo. But to leave, and then return, you have to get a 'Re-Entry permit' before you leave. So, now we have literally thousands of people lined for block after block to get their permits.
At present, only thing can save them - getting the power back to the cooling pumps.
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An extraordinary intervention by world financial bodies has sold off massive quantities of Japanese yen, to reduce the unstoppable rise of the yen against other currencies.
Not sure why this has occurred yet - previously I heard that the Japanese were bringing their money home to use in Japan.
just read:
"fuelling speculation and triggering the yen's appreciation on rumours that Japanese insurance companies are repatriating funds from abroad to brace themselves for a rise in insurance claims after the deadly quake."
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At present, only thing can save them - getting the power back to the cooling pumps.
Yes, it is aboslutely essential that they try to turn these pumps on again, but the chances are that fires, hydrogen explosions and sea water have damaged them and the piping.
I noticed that in today's news even Japanese admit that they might have to simply bury the whole station and cast concrete sarcophagus around every reactor.
I have been looking at Russian opinions on the disaster. Two reserachers who were in charge of finding a technical solution for Chernobyl have been flown to Japan already.
Russians seem rather convinced that in a day or two the whole thing will be so radioactive that the only option left is to bury it. That is after the reactors have been more or less stabilised - or not - depending on the radiation levels. After a certain point nobody can work there without getting a lethal dose of radiation in 20-30 seconds.
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I finally discovered something that had bypassed me - they actually make the electricity out of the heat of this stuff. It's from the steam, from the water pumped around the reactor.
So it's supposed to get hot - that's the whole idea. And while cooling it, they generate steam and thus electricity.
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They've upgraded their alert level from 4 to 5. (out of 7)
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They've upgraded their alert level from 4 to 5. (out of 7)
Russian experts assess it as deliberately downgrading the situation. It is a level of alert equal to that of Three Mile Island emergency in the US. However, these situations are not comparable. In the US they never lost control of cooling systems and were able to contain the event within the reactor.
In Japan all control of reactors has been lost and there are strong suspicions (based on detection of radioactive iodine outside the reactor) that the melting process of fuel rods is much more intensive than in the Three Mile Island.
To put things into perspective: registered radiation levels (one worker received a dose of 106 millisieverts) around the reactor no. 3 building are now 700,000 times higher than is normally next to a working reactor. However, the authorities express it like this:
At Fukushima Daiini unit 3 one worker received a radiation dose of 106 mSv. This is a notable dose, but comparable to levels deemed acceptable in emergency situations by some national nuclear safety regulators.
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What happened?
When the Earth quake hit the plant the automatic secure system released the active fuel-cells in the four running reactors. So far so good.
This is one of the significant differences compared to Tjernobyl.
The Soviet reactor was on full speed when the explosion happened. The Japanese reactors was released.
The situation in Fukushima is very serious, and they got 4 plants at risk for a melt down, and 2 plants unstable. Nevertheless, to compare with Tjernobyl is not adequate.
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I noticed that in today's news even Japanese admit that they might have to simply bury the whole station and cast concrete sarcophagus around every reactor.
If they are unable to cool the reactors, to bury them will be an option.
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They've upgraded their alert level from 4 to 5. (out of 7)
But Swedish (and other independent professionals ww) has all along said that it is a 6. And that the security zone should be 80 km and not 20 or 30 km (20 miles), as the Japanese authorities recommend.
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What I haven't heard is what happens to the molten matter after it releases this radiation ball. How long it goes on for, how they deal with the molten stuff, likelihood of a chain-reaction explosion?
No chain-reaction explosion is possible, despite that one of the four reactors contain Plutonium. The explosions that have occurred so far were a result of extreme heat in the heating of the surrounding water. In that heating process the H atom in the OH2 molecule simply gets loose and creates hydrogen gas, which is a highly explosive gas.
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There does seem to be minimizing going on by the Japanese public officials --- not that they would be the first to downplay events afoot. Meanwhile, as I understand it, the UK, the US, Canada, and New Zealand have all recommended/requested evacuation by their nationals from Tokyo and several miles to the west and south of Tokyo. I read something yesterday ... that some from a flight (Tokyo to Dallas/Fort Worth) were radioactive to a mild degree. (Don't know what happens following such a discovery: it leads to many other questions.)
From an airport in Bangkok:
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A good website explaining many things about the nuclear disaster (http://mitnse.com/2011/03/18/news-update-318/). It is maintained and constantly updated by the students of nuclear engineering of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Thanks E - that is informative.
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There have been breaking news that the inner core of reactor no. 3 may be breached. Thus, very dangerous radiation leaks are possible.
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Now radio-active water leaks all over the place. 1400 times higher radiation than normal is registered. I think the Japanese lost the initiative since day one, and now have lost it completely. And the activity indicates one, or several severe leaks.
After the explosions in the buildings, explosions that came early, and they tried with water bombing, I said:
"It is time for some Russian cementation."
Guess if I will be right?
This trying to cool down the reactors, postpone the stop of severe radio-active leaks.
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After the explosions in the buildings, explosions that came early, and they tried with water bombing, I said:
"It is time for some Russian cementation."
Guess if I will be right?
Very safe guess. :D
It is what Japanese have been talking about for well over a week already. Besides, there are no other ways and means to deal with contaminated areas and highly radioactive objects - you bury them.
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Guess if I will be right?
Then I added in the modify option "But do not hope that I have" or something like that, when saving the modified post my connection went down. I have figured out that this IT cable is not that good as the others, and this cable has some times given me these close downs.
So to sum it up: I do not want to be right in this case, but unfortunately it can be that bad.
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Very safe guess. :D
It is what Japanese have been talking about for well over a week already. Besides, there are no other ways and means to deal with contaminated areas and highly radioactive objects - you bury them.
Yes that must be an option, instead of this dibbling and dabbling with efforts to get the cooling going. Now the reactors differs in damagae, so perhaps they can cool one or two, but have to bury the rest of the reactors.
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I'm finding this whole affair confusing - we keep hearing mixed messages. But from what I have now heard, it is the concrete underneath that has possible cracked. I do hope they get on top of it before an awful disaster, but it's not looking positive at this time.
I suppose one positive side is that the Nuclear Industry is now completely on-the-nose. I heard in the US there has been no new investment in nuclear plants since their last incident, Three Mile Island. What is odd is that the nuclear was one area of cross-party agreement, for different reasons.
The Republicans liked it because it was a great weapon against their greatest fear - the rise of the Green movement, and their alternative energy agenda.
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The Republicans liked it because it was a great weapon against their greatest fear - the rise of the Green movement, and their alternative energy agenda.
In Germany, the accident has caused unprecedented rise of Greens that may strip Merkel and rightist parties of power.
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Why are they waiting to bury the compromised reactor-sites?
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In Germany, they have closed 7 plants because of the Japanes melt down, and now the owners of the German plants will sue the the German authorities. Two of these owners are Swedish companies.
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Why are they waiting to bury the compromised reactor-sites?
There are several reasons for that:
1) They still need to keep cooling the reactors as the fuel is still active there. The fuel in three stricken reactors could still burn for a week or more. Without cooling the reactor's core could be breached and there would be massive pollution;
2) They need to ensure that nothing is leaking out of reactor, its cooling systems and storage of spent fuel. Origins of all leaks must be established and, if possible, sealed off;
3) In order to build a sarcophagus, one needs a project and technical design that could withstand earth quakes and tsunamis (they're still there). It takes time to craft one: the disaster site must be thoroughly studied, assessments made, engineering solutions worked out for many problems
4) Resources for construction: it will be a massive work associated with radiation hazard. It takes time to assemble what one needs for accomplishing it.
All in all, Fukushima will remain a problem for years.
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A good technical PowerPoint presentation on what happened in Fukushima (http://pt.scribd.com/doc/51620957/Fukushima-Engineering-Presentation-03-20-11)
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There are several reasons for that:
1) They still need to keep cooling the reactors as the fuel is still active there. The fuel in three stricken reactors could still burn for a week or more. Without cooling the reactor's core could be breached and there would be massive pollution;
2) They need to ensure that nothing is leaking out of reactor, its cooling systems and storage of spent fuel. Origins of all leaks must be established and, if possible, sealed off;
3) In order to build a sarcophagus, one needs a project and technical design that could withstand earth quakes and tsunamis (they're still there). It takes time to craft one: the disaster site must be thoroughly studied, assessments made, engineering solutions worked out for many problems
4) Resources for construction: it will be a massive work associated with radiation hazard. It takes time to assemble what one needs for accomplishing it.
All in all, Fukushima will remain a problem for years.
Oh! Thanks for the illumination, E.
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It seems pretty official now - Japanese will scrap 4 reactors in Fukushima (http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/82098.html).
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Toxic plutonium seeping from Japan's nuclear plant
By YURI KAGEYAMA and MARI YAMAGUCHI
from BusinessWeek
TOKYO
Highly toxic plutonium is seeping from the damaged nuclear power plant in Japan's tsunami disaster zone into the soil outside, officials said Tuesday, as the government grew frustrated by missteps in the effort to stabilize the overheated facility.
Safety officials said the small amounts of plutonium found at several spots outside the complex were not a risk to humans but support suspicions that dangerously radioactive water is leaking from damaged nuclear fuel rods -- a worrying development in the race to bring the power plant under control.
"The situation is very grave," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Tuesday. "We are doing our utmost efforts to contain the damage."
A tsunami spawned by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake March 11 destroyed the power systems needed to cool the nuclear fuel rods at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Since then, three of the plant's six reactors are believed to have partially melted down, and emergency crews have grappled with everything from malfunctioning pumps to dangerous spikes in radiation that have sent workers fleeing.
Radiation seeping from the plant has made its way into produce, raw milk and even tap water as far away as Tokyo, prompting some nations to halt imports from the region. Residents within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius of the plant have been urged to leave or stay indoors.
The troubles have eclipsed Pennsylvania's 1979 crisis at Three Mile Island, when a partial meltdown raised fears of widespread radiation release. But it is still well short of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed at least 31 people with radiation sickness, raised long-term cancer rates and spewed radiation across much of the northern hemisphere.
A series of missteps and accidents, meanwhile, have raised questions about the handling of the disaster, with the government revealing growing frustration with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The Yomiuri daily newspaper reported that the government was considering temporarily nationalizing the troubled operator, but Edano and TEPCO officials denied holding any such discussions.
The nuclear crisis has complicated the government's ability to address the humanitarian situation facing hundreds of thousands left homeless by the twin disasters. The official number of dead surpassed 11,000 on Tuesday, police said, and the final figure is expected to top 18,000.
The urgent mission to stabilize the Fukushima plant has been fraught with setbacks.
Workers succeeded last week in reconnecting some parts of the plant to the power grid. But as they pumped water into units to cool the reactors down, they discovered pools of contaminated water in numerous spots, including the basements of several buildings and in tunnels outside them.
The contaminated water has been emitting radiation exposures more than four times the amount the government considers safe for workers and must be pumped out before electricity can be restored to the cooling system.
That has left officials struggling with two crucial but sometimes-contradictory efforts: pumping in water to keep the fuel rods cool and pumping out -- and then safely storing -- contaminated water.
Nuclear safety official Hidehiko Nishiyama called it "delicate work." He acknowledged that cooling the reactors took precedence over concerns about leakage.
"The removal of the contaminated water is the most urgent task now, and hopefully we can adjust the amount of cooling water going in," he said, adding that workers were building makeshift dikes with sandbags to keep contaminated water from seeping into the soil outside.
The discovery of plutonium, released from fuel rods only when temperatures are extremely high, confirms the severity of the damage, Nishiyama said.
Plutonium is a heavy element that doesn't readily combine with other elements, so it is less likely to spread than some of the lighter, more volatile radioactive materials detected around the site, such as the radioactive forms of cesium and iodine.
"The relative toxicity of plutonium is much higher than that of iodine or cesium but the chance of people getting a dose of it is much lower," says Robert Henkin, professor emeritus of radiology at Loyola University's Stritch School of Medicine. "Plutonium just sits there and is a nasty actor."
When plutonium decays, it emits what is known as an alpha particle, a relatively big particle that carries a lot of energy. When an alpha particle hits body tissue, it can damage the DNA of a cell and lead to a cancer-causing mutation.
Plutonium also breaks down very slowly, so it remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
"If you inhale it, it's there and it stays there forever," said Alan Lockwood, a professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University at Buffalo and a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group.
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... heavily
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/03/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html
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Nuclear experts: Many challenges, few options for Japanese
By Jim Barnett, CNN Senior Producer
April 7, 2011 7:32 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Union of Concerned Scientists spokesman: They "have no margin for error"
With strong aftershocks, scientists concerned about containment structures
Expert says huge hurdle is that every reactor at Fukushima Daiichi is in trouble
Engineers began injecting nonflammable nitrogen into the No. 1 reactor Thursday
Washington (CNN) -- Nuclear experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists said again Thursday there are many challenges ahead and few options left to Japanese workers trying to ease the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
"The fact they have to handle two spent fuel pools and three reactor cores with kid gloves, (they) don't have any margin for error," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and director of the group's Nuclear Safety Project.
"It's hard to say whether things will get better or things will get worse because they have so many challenges to face on so many places that it's going to be difficult to be 100% right all five times. So it is a bad situation over there."
At the damaged plant, engineers began injecting nonflammable nitrogen into the No. 1 reactor Thursday to counter a buildup of potentially explosive hydrogen. That work continued even after a strong aftershock rattled much of central Japan shortly before midnight, the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, reported early Friday.
Hydrogen buildup is a symptom of overheated fuel rods in the cores of the reactors, which plant workers have been struggling to keep under control since the earthquake and tsunami. The nitrogen injections are aimed at displacing oxygen in the reactor shell, reducing the possibility of an explosion, a chance Tokyo Electric called "extremely low."
"Now that there has been so much venting, over weeks, to try to control the pressure buildup in the containment, that nitrogen is not in the containment building as much as it needs to be. So, they're trying to re-inert the containment or refill the containments with nitrogen to guard against a hydrogen buildup and also oxygen buildup," said Lochbaum.
The scientists could not ever recall another time that nitrogen had been injected into a nuclear containment vessel.
"After the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, the hydrogen built up to the point where it did explode about 10 hours after the initial event. ...They had no control over it," Lochbaum said. "Because of that, in this country, we started putting in hydrogen recombiners, hydrogen inerting, hydrogen igniters and so on, to try to control it, but I don't know of anybody who has actually gotten into this situation and tried to put in nitrogen after the fact or to restore the nitrogen that was there originally," he added.
In Japan, a hydrogen explosion blew the roof and upper walls off the No. 1 reactor building two days after the quake, and another blast two days later blew apart the No. 3 building. A suspected hydrogen explosion is believed to have damaged the No. 2 reactor on March 15 as well.
The scientists expressed concern about the viability of the containment structures in light of Thursday's strong aftershocks, saying the plant was designed to withstand seismic forces but that was before the hydrogen explosions and addition of water.
"It's hard to judge how those structures will last during the aftershocks or new earthquakes. It's just too hard to speculate," Lochbaum said.
The scientists told reporters on a telephone conference call there is a limited amount of equipment to deal with the emergency.
Lochbaum said, "They're so far beyond where emergency procedures and preplanning have done that they're basically having to jerry-rig solution paths or potential solution paths for situations that were never anticipated.
"The other problem that's complicating it is nobody ever anticipated an accident on more than one reactor or more than one spent fuel pool at a site," Lochbaum said.
"The assumption all along was we'd have a problem at one reactor or one spent fuel pool, and we'd use the equipment from the others to help deal with the situation. Now you've got problems across the board, and you don't have that supplemental equipment that you can shift from one unit to the other to try to help you out. Everybody needs help, and there's just not enough equipment to deal with that."
The Union of Concerned Scientists is an independent nuclear-industry watchdog group that focuses on safety issues.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/07/japan.nuclear.options/
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Japan seems to be firmly in the crosshairs of the higher powers. Another quake, another nuclear plant rattled:
Radioactive spill in Onagawa plant (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110408p2g00m0dm094000c.html)
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Japan seems to be firmly in the crosshairs of the higher powers. Another quake, another nuclear plant rattled:
Radioactive spill in Onagawa plant (http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110408p2g00m0dm094000c.html)
Correction: Problems reported not only at Onagawa, but also at Higashidori nuclear power plant and Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing facility (http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/132203/20110408/nuclear-plants-in-onagawa-higashidori-lose-power.htm).
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Fukushima - level 7 incident (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/04/2011411233913766598.html)
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Fukushima - level 7 incident (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/04/2011411233913766598.html)
Surprise!?