Topic: Japanese Quake and Pacific Tsunami

[Builder]

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.

[Michael]

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.

[Nichi]

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.

[Builder]

Geologists say that the quake shifted the whole Japan 2.4 metres from its previous position.

[Builder]

A good insight into the nature and prospectives of the nuclear problems in Japan

[Michael]

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.

[Jahn]

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.

[Nichi]

".....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.

[Nichi]

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

[Builder]

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.

[Michael]

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?

[Builder]

Mary and Joseph! what next?

Kyodo News - 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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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.

[Builder]

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