Reactor #2 At Fukushima Detonates (third reactor explosion...now fourth!)

Originally posted by yourmaker

Originally posted by SMR
Reports coming from CNN Anderson Cooper. Hearing word all 50 workers have left and suspended operations.
No confirmation yet but that's what he is hearing right now.

"FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility."

What is that supposed to mean? Did the powerplant continue to operate even after it was compromised by the earthquakes and tsunami? And what exactly caused most of the devastion; was it the tsunami or the earthquake?

Forgive my ignorance but I have been busy the last few days and barely kept up with current events........

Originally posted by OldCorp
How can we tell if the radiation is being measured in micro or milli? So far, I haven't seen anyone use the "u'" symbol for micron.

Micron is a millionth and milli is a thousandth isn't that correct?

edit on 3/15/2011 by OldCorp because: (no reason given)

Yes, micro is millionth and milli is thousandth.

The usual notation for micro is a Greek letter mu, i.e. μ. Milli just uses an m. In cases where you don't want to look up mu in the ascii character map it's common to press u.

On some machines ALT-230 gives you a mu character. On others it might be ALT-181.

I saw pictures of the powerplants and i can't believe they would put them that close to the sea.

To make matters worse they were only earthquake "proof" up to 6.5 richter? Japan is known as a seismic area so wtf would they be so reckless?

Originally posted by EarthCitizen07
I saw pictures of the powerplants and i can't believe they would put them that close to the sea.

To make matters worse they were only earthquake "proof" up to 6.5 richter? Japan is known as a seismic area so wtf would they be so reckless?

I think that may be 6.5 on the Japanese scale, which equates to 7.9 on the Richter scale. See here for example:

boingboing.net...

Still woefully inadequate in hindsight of course.

I just watched a vid about a US nuclear reactor which turned out to be built right on a fault line. I think they said they didn't know it was there when they built it.

Originally posted by SMR
CNN now confirming.
Workers evacuated from damaged nuclear power plant
Workers at Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant have suspended their operations and been evacuated, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Wednesday.

Wow this is horrible, hearing the same news on CTV right now. So if nobody's there trying to cool the reactors down, doesn't that mean a full on meltdown is only a matter of time? One which will be sooner rather than later?

This just keeps getting worse, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan...

Originally posted by WielderOfTheSwordOfTruth

Originally posted by SMR
CNN now confirming.
Workers evacuated from damaged nuclear power plant
Workers at Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant have suspended their operations and been evacuated, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Wednesday.

Wow this is horrible, hearing the same news on CTV right now. So if nobody's there trying to cool the reactors down, doesn't that mean a full on meltdown is only a matter of time? One which will be sooner rather than later?

This just keeps getting worse, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan...

Hold those thoughts, several sources are reporting that the workers have been moved back in to continue cooling the reactors, they were moved out when there was a spike in radiation levels, it has since dropped and they have moved back to resume their work.

Wish them well.

live.reuters.com...

Originally posted by WielderOfTheSwordOfTruth

Originally posted by SMR
CNN now confirming.
Workers evacuated from damaged nuclear power plant
Workers at Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant have suspended their operations and been evacuated, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Wednesday.

Wow this is horrible, hearing the same news on CTV right now. So if nobody's there trying to cool the reactors down, doesn't that mean a full on meltdown is only a matter of time? One which will be sooner rather than later?

This just keeps getting worse, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan...

Possibly 6 reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant.

I came across this amazing graphic, 2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are plotted visually and audibly on a world map. LINK
This is NOT to downplay the travisty happening in Japan right now but to broaden our scope of how much nuclear waste we've been submitted to since 1948...

At this point I cant trust anything said about this situation. So many things are being said and retracted.
At this point we need a live cam and decide for ourselves. I expect a full meltdown at this point and hope for the best for the people of Japan

Japan JUST took another 6.0 off it's coast...

Magnitude 6.0 M
Date-Time 16 Mar 2011 03:52:05 UTC
16 Mar 2011 12:52:05 near epicenter
15 Mar 2011 18:52:05 standard time in your timezone

Location 35.795N 140.803E
Depth 25 km
Distances 70 km (43 miles) SSE (156 degrees) of Mito, Honshu, Japan
96 km (60 miles) E (81 degrees) of TOKYO, Japan
142 km (88 miles) S (184 degrees) of Iwaki, Honshu, Japan

Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 13.6 km; Vertical 0.0 km
Parameters Nph = 424; Dmin = 248.2 km; Rmss = 0.66 seconds; Gp = 50°
M-type = M; Version = 9
Event ID US c00023zp

For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

National Earthquake Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey
neic.usgs.gov...

Originally posted by SMR
At this point I cant trust anything said about this situation. So many things are being said and retracted.
At this point we need a live cam and decide for ourselves. I expect a full meltdown at this point and hope for the best for the people of Japan

I agree, the news about this has been very vague and all over the place, my gut feeling the situation is worse than they're telling us, isn't it odd that they are excepting international help for search and rescue but want to handle the power plants on their own? Even though the situation is obviously slipping out of control.

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
Hold those thoughts, several sources are reporting that the workers have been moved back in to continue cooling the reactors, they were moved out when there was a spike in radiation levels, it has since dropped and they have moved back to resume their work.

Wish them well.

live.reuters.com...

edit on 15-3-2011 by Fractured.Facade because: (no reason given)

I wish them well too. If they leave the site that means their anti-radiation suits are not adequate to shield them from gamma rays? Alpha and Beta radiation is not so dangerous because you can wash it off later with soap and water.

Tell us are there suits with 100% protection? I know just about anyone can buy one of those online or at a military surplus store but I wonder if the cost is worth it because sooner or later the water and food will get polluted as well meaning you will die slowely and painfully. Not good! The only safe place is underground in some well confined bunker like the greenbriar resort or raven rock for example. The politicians don't really care because they will be protected; its the people that will get screwed from all these bad corporate decsions. I don't live in japan but I am still pissed off as hell!

Reuters is reporting that TEPCO have restricted access to their webcam at the plant. However this link seems to have been updated recently as it is showing 18:00 today:

www.tepco.co.jp...

But when I search for the page and get google to translate it shows an image from 3 hours earlier:

translate.google.co.uk...://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html&ei=kH-ATcziJM6WhQe-_diyBw&sa=X&oi=translate& ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEoQ7gEwBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtepco%2Bwebcam%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DB0S%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26pr md%3Divns


TEPCO have also released a picture of the #4 reactor:
www3.nhk.or.jp...

I am only trying to present what factual images I can. I have no desire to interpret what might be happening.


If you need a good guide for what is happening in each reactor this is pretty good:
en.wikipedia.org...

Of note are that reactor 3 may have some problems in the suppression ring at the bottom of reactor containment and a recent attempt to douse this building with helicopter water has been aborted.
Reactor 4 fuel rod storage is located at the top of the reactor containment but on a large ledge OUTSIDE the containment. There have been multiple reports that the water in the pool was boiling and later that there had been fires there. China and Korea have pledged Boric acid which is being described as a measure to prevent a criticality event (the fuel rods start to become a self sustaining nuclear reaction) as Japan has used all of its own supply.

Just woke up, was just watching the news. Last night they were saying this event was officially a level 4, but probably(on speculation) was already a level 5. Apparently through the night it got worse, they're now giving this event a level 6, does anyone else have confirmation of this or has heard this?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ea688312ded7.jpg[/atsimg]
INES

Chernobyl was a level 7, for comparison... This isn't good...

reply to post by WielderOfTheSwordOfTruth


Last I checked, Japan is calling it level 4, which the IAEA accepted. France is calling it level 6, someone else (finland?) is calling it level 5

Although it seems like it should be more than a 4, I think a 4 is probably an accurate rating. The radiation outside the evacuation zone is apparently well within safe limits......so far. This is still a local event and therefor a level 4 - of course it has the possibility to go higher and I have a feeling it probably will.

Has everyone seen the radiation map?

www.targetmap.com...

Please note that the measurements are radiation measurements, not dosage measurements, thus they are in nano Grays, not in micro/milli Sieverts.

An earlier link for GC now seems offline;
www.ustream.tv...

Other one still going and under 30.

BBC reporters on the ground live are showing video from 12 miles outside danger zone.
Supplies of food and water running out.
People complaining Gov have told them to stay indoors and feel forgotten and abandoned.

Also revealed that UK Gov have advised UK nationals to get out and plans are underway for evacuation help.

Link to follow.

I guess it doesn't help that there are so many different scales.
There needs to be a global scale for events like this. Confusion on certain events can only do harm and create panic when several numbers are thrown around.

Back on thread. I understand there are 47 Ronin being heroes at Daiichi (the The 50+ Radiation Workers who have volunteered for the suicide mission of remaining onsite, may their rebirth be fortunate), the Emperor has offered public prayers to the Nation, and cooling water is entirely absent in at least one spent rod pool. A radiation monitoring network has been activated by authorities in the US.

I'll go read the replies you've all posted since I've been gone.

I understand the Chinook helicopter pilots could not stand the radiation, and aborted before reaching the plant with their slingloads of coolant/suppressant. I am told remotely piloted autonomous vehicles will be tried next.

Grown men are crying, and my relatives are telling my wife "you can raise our children who survive when we die."

They smile when they say it. Japanese are brave, but I think this is way beyond heroism now.