Japan Earthquake and Tsunamis
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Firebird211
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This is just terrible. :sad1: Even more sickening than these turn of events is all of the stupid comments people are making on You Tube. This is widespread devastation, show some frickin respect, we are all on this rock together.
This is really terrible. Poor people. The earthquake and tsunami and now the danger of nuclear pollution. I hope that everything will be fine, because Fukushima reactors are BWR type, which is not the same as the reactor in Chernobyl, and who has released a cloud of graphite dust. Witnesses in Pripyat, a town near Chernobyl plant have seen that immediately after the explosion of air shining above the open reactor. In Fukushima, reactor vessel is not broke, just evaporated coolant and now there is no vapor cloud above the plant. I hope that everything will be fine.
Jusatele
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Mully, glad you checked in again, I have heard internet is out in may areas.
So many rumors on the news here about the power plants there, They now say 1 nuke plant has leaked and 2 others are having cooling trouble
and from the pictures I see I am afraid the death toll will be in the tens of thousands, it shows entire areas washed away. and say the wave went in 6 miles
I believe what is needed now is relief efforts, I see the US navy is now in the area heloing in supplies.
I am doing a search forvolunteering places now to see if there are opertunitties to get over there and help.
So many rumors on the news here about the power plants there, They now say 1 nuke plant has leaked and 2 others are having cooling trouble
and from the pictures I see I am afraid the death toll will be in the tens of thousands, it shows entire areas washed away. and say the wave went in 6 miles
I believe what is needed now is relief efforts, I see the US navy is now in the area heloing in supplies.
I am doing a search forvolunteering places now to see if there are opertunitties to get over there and help.
mullyman
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Dan025 said:
Not to downplay anything but it's a small area compared to the rest of the country. Lots of farmland up in that area. Total devastation though. Millions of people without electricity. Relief and rescue efforts are on full scale though. They will rebound from this.
Also, people need to stop freaking out about the nuclear reactor. From what I understand it's not as bad as CNN is making it out to be. They gotta get their numbers. Also, the World Health Organization has already issued a statement that there is very little chance of health problems from it. Don't believe every sky falling story that is out there. Trust me, a lot of it scares the shit right outta me too.
MULLY
mullyman
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Jusatele said:
My phone was out all Friday evening and most of Saturday. No problems with the net though. Matter of fact, my iPhone's net access is what kept me in touch with my wife on Friday. Now I know I will never go back to a regular cell phone. Skype, Twitter, and KakaoTalk were invaluable this weekend.
MULLY
jackthehack
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I question the concept of a "minor meltdown"....
CrackedPepper
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mullyman said:
Sadly, there are people who never waste an opportunity to push their agenda even in the face of tragedy. Wait and see how this becomes a clamoring for no nuclear power anywhere.
i dont think japan could replace nuclear power if they wanted to. too many people and not enough land, maybe a massive geothermal plant as they have plenty of geothermal activity but im not sure if that will ever happen. they may also be able to suplment there energy with wind power if they put a wind farm in the see of japan, the siberian winds have a big influance in the the northern parts of japan when the seasons are changing, but i dont know if any of that is practical. the winds are not as strong in the summer time.
any way there is nothing wrong with nuclear power, everyone has a complaint about everything. i think the japanese government sees the value of there nuclear power and the japanese poeple aren't as likely to protest as other cultures. maybe now the plants will be engineered to take a 10.0 which unimaginably strong instead of an 8.0 or whatever they were designed for.
any way there is nothing wrong with nuclear power, everyone has a complaint about everything. i think the japanese government sees the value of there nuclear power and the japanese poeple aren't as likely to protest as other cultures. maybe now the plants will be engineered to take a 10.0 which unimaginably strong instead of an 8.0 or whatever they were designed for.
mullyman
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Here is a link to a blog entry of someone that knows nuclear reactors and how they work. There seems to be a huge population of people all over the world freaking out about this. Let us, at least, be well informed and able to dispel any rumors or misinformation. The news agencies are only in business because they can scare people. They throw words like "meltdown" and "Cherynobl" around with total disregard. The nuclear reactor is the least of the problems up there right now. This is a long read but will at least fill in some blanks for you.
http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/
http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/
Firebird211
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Thanks for that link Mullyman. The media has been riding the meltdown pony, and milking it for all it's worth.
jackthehack
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First of all, let me state that I am in favor of nuclear energy, it is an important/necessary part of the renewable energy infrastructure we will need in the future should we expect to maintain our collective quality of life.
Also, I would have to agree that the mainstream media in general tends to go overboard in their reporting of any sort of disaster scenario.
That being said, I would first question the sanity of building nuclear reactors in tectonically active/tsunami prone locations unless they are engineered to withstand the most powerful event EVER recorded + 5-10%, rather than the 8.2 level per the cited article states the plants in question were built to. This goes equally for any other construction anywhere else that might need to withstand other types of natural forces, e.g., one built in the American Midwest should be engineered to withstand an F5 tornado, or on the Gulf Coast a Cat 5 hurricane.
I have to take the cited article with a grain of salt as it reads like something that the government would put out to try to calm/placate the general populace to avoid panic; I'm not a nuclear scientist, and can't refute everything said, but there are several factual errors in the reportage, which should make one take the post in it's entirety somewhat askance:
- "Building a nuclear bomb is actually quite difficult (ask Iran)" No it's not. If you have enough fissionable material, a very strong piece of pipe/tubing, and sufficient explosives to blow the fissionable material together at speed, you will achieve "critical mass". i.e., a Hiroshima type explosion.
- The author seriously downplays/underestimates the potential ill-effects to one's health that releases of radioactive Celsium/Iodine isotopes can be. Go on the net and research the after-effects of Chernobyl...
- There is not enough granular, detailed information that has been made publicly available to make the assumptions the author makes about the condition of secondary/tertiary containment systems in the plant. If the initial hydrogen explosions blew the outer shell/systems to smithereens, it is rather foolhardy to ASSUME there was no collateral damage to other critical systems.
If you live within a couple of hundred kilometers of the plant and can state "I am not worried about Japan's nuclear reactors", you are a blithering idiot. Note that the MIT author of the post is ca. 10,750 kilometers away. Hopefully everything will turn out OK, but the loss of electric power generation from the effected nuclear power plants will play hell on the Japanese economy for some time to come.
Also, I would have to agree that the mainstream media in general tends to go overboard in their reporting of any sort of disaster scenario.
That being said, I would first question the sanity of building nuclear reactors in tectonically active/tsunami prone locations unless they are engineered to withstand the most powerful event EVER recorded + 5-10%, rather than the 8.2 level per the cited article states the plants in question were built to. This goes equally for any other construction anywhere else that might need to withstand other types of natural forces, e.g., one built in the American Midwest should be engineered to withstand an F5 tornado, or on the Gulf Coast a Cat 5 hurricane.
I have to take the cited article with a grain of salt as it reads like something that the government would put out to try to calm/placate the general populace to avoid panic; I'm not a nuclear scientist, and can't refute everything said, but there are several factual errors in the reportage, which should make one take the post in it's entirety somewhat askance:
- "Building a nuclear bomb is actually quite difficult (ask Iran)" No it's not. If you have enough fissionable material, a very strong piece of pipe/tubing, and sufficient explosives to blow the fissionable material together at speed, you will achieve "critical mass". i.e., a Hiroshima type explosion.
- The author seriously downplays/underestimates the potential ill-effects to one's health that releases of radioactive Celsium/Iodine isotopes can be. Go on the net and research the after-effects of Chernobyl...
- There is not enough granular, detailed information that has been made publicly available to make the assumptions the author makes about the condition of secondary/tertiary containment systems in the plant. If the initial hydrogen explosions blew the outer shell/systems to smithereens, it is rather foolhardy to ASSUME there was no collateral damage to other critical systems.
If you live within a couple of hundred kilometers of the plant and can state "I am not worried about Japan's nuclear reactors", you are a blithering idiot. Note that the MIT author of the post is ca. 10,750 kilometers away. Hopefully everything will turn out OK, but the loss of electric power generation from the effected nuclear power plants will play hell on the Japanese economy for some time to come.
Graffiti62
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Heya Mully--
I'm really glad to hear that you're all right. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that you were the first person that came to mind when we all heard about the quake, and we were all relieved when we received the post that you were present and accounted for. I also very much hope that if you or any of your friends have relatives in the areas that were hit hard by the quake and the tsunami that they've been in touch with them to ensure that they're all right.
I'm really glad to hear that you're all right. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that you were the first person that came to mind when we all heard about the quake, and we were all relieved when we received the post that you were present and accounted for. I also very much hope that if you or any of your friends have relatives in the areas that were hit hard by the quake and the tsunami that they've been in touch with them to ensure that they're all right.
O
OzziePete
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Hi there Mully
If this of any small consolation to what is happening in your country....
I was at a major sports event over this weekend (Sunday) at a stadium in Brisbane, Queensland. Australia. Packed to the rafters with 50K+ fans all singing and supporting their football team. Prior to the match starting, the players, officials and every one in the stadium stood as one and observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect for what has happened in Japan. You could have heard a pin drop...
Please pass it onto your friends that there was plenty of heartfelt sorrow at that time in the stadium. The Queenslanders have recently had their city of Brisbane half underwater due to floods and they are in the process of recovering from that. They know what natural disasters are like and expressed their condolences accordingly. Us travelling fans from the Central Coast of NSW were mightily impressed that even the half pissed yobbos amongst those in the stadium took it seriously.
If this of any small consolation to what is happening in your country....
I was at a major sports event over this weekend (Sunday) at a stadium in Brisbane, Queensland. Australia. Packed to the rafters with 50K+ fans all singing and supporting their football team. Prior to the match starting, the players, officials and every one in the stadium stood as one and observed a minute's silence as a mark of respect for what has happened in Japan. You could have heard a pin drop...
Please pass it onto your friends that there was plenty of heartfelt sorrow at that time in the stadium. The Queenslanders have recently had their city of Brisbane half underwater due to floods and they are in the process of recovering from that. They know what natural disasters are like and expressed their condolences accordingly. Us travelling fans from the Central Coast of NSW were mightily impressed that even the half pissed yobbos amongst those in the stadium took it seriously.
ORCRiST
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jackthehack said:
Well, I've actually worked in the defence industry.
"Building a nuclear bomb is actually quite difficult (ask Iran)" No it's not. If you have enough fissionable material, a very strong piece of pipe/tubing, and sufficient explosives to blow the fissionable material together at speed, you will achieve "critical mass". i.e., a Hiroshima type explosion."
Uh, yeah it is. If it was that simple, everyone would have nukes wouldnt they? The principle is easy, same as time travel. I think someone may have seen the "Manhattan Project" one to many times. The ability to construct a real working weapon (i.e. not a "dirty" bomb) is night and day difficult requiring the utmost precision in materials, construction and timing, where many, very carefully organized and timed events must happen within picoseconds of each other in the proper order, otherwise you should have just stayed home and used a few pounds of C4/HMX to begin with.
All things being equal, I'd trust the safety of Japanese nuclear reactors over any other reactors in the world except for maybe a couple of facilities here in the US.
But what do I know, I'm not a Nuclear physicist, I just play one on the internet.
ORC
I'm blown away by the videos and pictures of the damage. Just insane. I sincerely hope the death toll doesn't climb much higher than it already is. When you think about the fact that Japan is probably the most disaster-prepared nation on the planet, and you see deaths in the thousands, maybe 10s of thousands... it is just hard to comprehend how bad natural disasters can actually be.
As far as the nuclear stuff goes... I really hope that idiots don't use this as a stick to beat down nuclear power with. It has been misunderstood for so long that a lot of people are so irrationally afraid of it that until recently, they've actually prevented the constuction of newer, safer plants to replace our older reactors.
And yeah, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's very difficult to build a nuke. Otherwise videos like this wouldn't be silly jokes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3qoGEiWcU
Okay, I realize they're not building nukes in the video. But it's still funny.
As far as the nuclear stuff goes... I really hope that idiots don't use this as a stick to beat down nuclear power with. It has been misunderstood for so long that a lot of people are so irrationally afraid of it that until recently, they've actually prevented the constuction of newer, safer plants to replace our older reactors.
And yeah, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's very difficult to build a nuke. Otherwise videos like this wouldn't be silly jokes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3qoGEiWcU
Okay, I realize they're not building nukes in the video. But it's still funny.
