OMG Earthquake?

[Don't.Mess.With.Kes<3]

I should really stop reading the news.....>http://bit.ly/e37oja

[Wetcoaster]

Continuing strong aftershocks:

1642: International Atomic Energy Agency tweets: "IAEA confirms 6.1 earthquake two hours ago in eastern Japan, Hamaoka nuclear plant (100km from epicentre) is unaffected:

1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0 within three minutes of each other.

1345: Reuters says a magnitude 6.0 tremor has struck - one of the largest of dozens of aftershocks felt in Japan over recent days. The agency says buildings in Tokyo were swaying.

Here is an updated list of the latest tremors, quakes and aftershocks - the ones that are 6.0 and above are noted in red:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Asia_eqs.php

The New York Times has just added additional photos to its gallery:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/12/world/asia/20110312_japan.html#1

An elderly man and woman have been rescued after being trapped for 96 and 92 hours in north-eastern Japan:

1525: Meanwhile, NHK television has more on the elderly man and woman found by rescue crews under collapsed buildings after more than three days. It reports that the man was pulled from the rubble in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture, 96 hours after the earthquake and tsunami. The woman, who is 70 years old, was found in the wreckage of her home in the town of Otsuchi in Iwate prefecture, 92 hours after the disaster. She is being treated for hypothermia at a hospital in nearby Kamaishi. Doctors say she is in a stable condition.

Edited March 15, 2011 by Wetcoaster

[Femme.Canuck]

http://www.theprovince.com/videos/index.html?v=1842574595

Just to add a little bit of hope into this thread. Miraculous rescue, to say the absolute least.

It was mentioned before, but a 4-month old baby was found alive, 3 days after the earthquake.

Edited March 15, 2011 by P.OneOh

[Sharpshooter]

Everything You Need to Know About Nuclear Power and the Fukushima Plant

Since the Japan earthquake hit, it seems like the story surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant has changed every 10 minutes, making it tough to keep up on the latest developments. Luckily there's no shortage of informed individuals and organizations keeping track of what's going on.

While the situation regarding the reactor explosions is still very serious, the general consensus seems to be that there's little threat of radiation exposure outside the nuclear reactor containment structures, and that any radiation emitted so far hasn't been severe. But many have also gone to great lengths to explain the general science behind the nuclear reactors. Here's the information you need from people who know...

BBC has a good visual breakdown of the Fukushima plant.

Blogger Jason Morgan reached out to Dr. Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT, who explained the fundamental components of the nuclear reactor core:

The plants at Fukushima are so called Boiling Water Reactors, or BWR for short. Boiling Water Reactors are similar to a pressure cooker. The nuclear fuel heats water, the water boils and creates steam, the steam then drives turbines that create the electricity, and the steam is then cooled and condensed back to water, and the water send back to be heated by the nuclear fuel. The pressure cooker operates at about 250 °C.

The nuclear fuel is uranium oxide. Uranium oxide is a ceramic with a very high melting point of about 3000 °C. The fuel is manufactured in pellets (think little cylinders the size of Lego bricks). Those pieces are then put into a long tube made of Zircaloy with a melting point of 2200 °C, and sealed tight. The assembly is called a fuel rod. These fuel rods are then put together to form larger packages, and a number of these packages are then put into the reactor. All these packages together are referred to as "the core".

(And for what its worth, Oehman thinks the chance of a full-scale meltdown occurring is slim.)

Boing Boing breaks down the reaction process:

The fission reactions that happen are all about proximity. In a fuel rod, lots of uranium atoms can crash into each other as they break apart. Pack the fuel rod into an assembly, and lots more atoms can affect one another-which means the reactions can release more energy. Put several fuel assemblies into the core of a nuclear reactor, and the amount of energy released gets even higher.

Proximity is also what makes the difference between a nuclear bomb, and the controlled fission reaction in a power plant. In the bomb, the reactions happen-and the energy is released-very quickly. In the power plant, that process is slowed down by control rods. These work like putting a piece of cardboard between two Jenga towers. The first tower falls, but it hits a barrier instead of the next tower. Of all the atoms that could be split, only a few are allowed to actually do it. And, instead of an explosion, you end up with a manageable amount of heat energy, which can be used to boil water.

PopSci broke down the safety systems normally found in nuclear power plants:

At the onset of the earthquake, the plant automatically shut down the fission process, which normally would leave the coolant systemboth the main one and a backup generatorstill operational. But the tsunami wiped out power to the plant, which took down the main coolant system, and a wave destroyed the diesel-based backup system. Even though the fission had stopped, coolant is still very much required to keep the plant safe.

That's due to the heat that remains in the nuclear core, both from the recently-disabled but still-hot fuel rods and from the various byproducts of the fission process. Those byproducts include radioactive iodine and caesium, both of which produce what's called "decay heat"essentially residual heat that very slowly dissipates. If the core isn't continuously cooled, there's still enough heat that can still cause a meltdown even after it's been "turned off."

Al Jazeera shows us what would happen in a worst case scenario if a meltdown were to happen:

The NY Times also has a great interactive graphic breaking down the automatic shutdown system and meltdown threat.

The Atlantic clarifies the meaning of the term "meltdown" as it has been used in relation to the Fukushima power plant:

Of immediate concern is the prospect of a so-called "meltdown" at one or more of the Japanese reactors. But part of the problem in understanding the potential dangers is continued indiscriminate use, by experts and the media, of this inherently frightening term without explanation or perspective. There are varying degrees of melting or meltdown of the nuclear fuel rods in a given reactor; but there are also multiple safety systems, or containment barriers, in a given plant's design that are intended to keep radioactive materials from escaping into the general environment in the event of a partial or complete meltdown of the reactor core. Finally, there are the steps taken by a plant's operators to try to bring the nuclear emergency under control before these containment barriers are breached.

In the Three Mile Island accident, a partial core meltdown occurred in one reactor unit but remained largely within the plant's containment barriers and little radiation was released to the environment. The Chernobyl catastrophe, however, resulted in a massive environmental release of radiation following a core meltdown. An important distinction is that the Chernobyl plant lacked crucial containment structures found at the Three Mile Island and Japanese plants.

According to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, which rates the severity of nuclear power plant incidents on a scale from zero to 7, Chernobyl was rated a 7, the highest level of severity and the only such accident. Three Mile Island was ranked a 5, "an accident with wider consequences." Thus far, the Japanese nuclear emergency at Fukushima Daiichi has been rated a 4, an "accident with local consequences," but this is of course a preliminary estimate.

New Scientist tells us about the health risks involved with nuclear radiation exposure:

Apart from the damage caused by fires and explosions, accidents also release radioactive materials which can cause radiation sickness. Radiation exposure above a certain threshold, usually only received by workers and emergency teams in a stricken plant, causes acute radiation syndrome within hours of exposure. Depending on the dose of radiation this ranges from skin rashes, vomiting and diarrhoea, to coma and death.

Radiation damages DNA, especially as it assembles in dividing cells. That means tissues which contain many dividing cells, such as the gut lining, skin and bone marrow, are most at risk of damage. High enough doses also damage brain cells and such doses are invariably fatal.

Less severe damage can be treated, however. Gut damage disturbs fluid balance and can lead to blood infection; marrow damage means no blood cells are produced for clotting and fighting infection. If those problems can be managed, people can be kept alive long enough for gut and marrow to regenerate. A cloned human hormone that boosts white blood cell production sometimes helps; there is little else.

Brave New Climate has a diagram of the Fukushima reactor design, with an timeline of events provided by a confidential industry source:

Likely timeline of incident is:

a. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 were in operation at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant when the earthquake struck.

b. all three reactors were shut down and control rods were inserted when earthquake struck.

c. Cooling was maintained to remove decay heat

d. decay heat drops rapidly on reactor shut down (e.g a 3GW reactor will reduce to 200MW decay heat after 1s and 50MW after 1 hour… But takes long time (3-6months!) to reduce to negligible levels)

e. sometime (≈1hr) later tsunami struck and mains power was lost to coolant circuit on Unit 1

f. Diesel generators also failed when tsunami hit so cooling was run by backup batteries for 7-8 hours

g. Other emergency diesel generators brought in but insufficient to run pumps

h. loss of coolant leads to fuel rods no longer being cooled by two phase flow (it is a Boiing water Reactor) and eventually get hot enough to recat with steam to produce Hydrogen.

Our own Kyle VanHemert looked into how bad the radiation leaks really are:

While it could get really bad really fast if one of the reactors themselves were to crack open-a full meltdown would release significant amounts of radioactive elements like iodine-131 that disperse rapidly in air and water, greatly increasing the chances for birth defects, thyroid cancer, and other problems-health experts are currently cautiously optimistic. As of this weekend, radiation levels in the plant's control room were 1,000 times higher than normal but only eight times above normal in areas surrounding the plant. According to Ron Chesser, director of the Center for Environmental Radiation Studies at Texas Tech University, both of those levels are technically safe for humans, who absorb an average of 360 millirems of radiation per year from cosmic rays and manmade sources. Still, three elements in particular- iodine-131, strontium-90 and cesium-137-are worrisome because they mimic substances found naturally in the body.

Treehugger puts the obvious into clear termsnuclear power plants can't explode like bombs:

Thankfully, it is physically impossible for a nuclear power plant to explode like a nuclear bomb. It simply doesn't have the right kinds of materials: A fission bomb uses highly enriched uranium or plutonium (90%+ of U-235 or Pu-239), while a nuclear power station generally uses Uranium that is only enriched to around 5% (sometimes up to 20% in smaller research reactors). A nuclear power station also lacks all the other mechanisms that are necessary to create a nuclear explosion (like for example the implosion or gun-type assembly configurations that allow supercritical mass to be reached).

Edited March 15, 2011 by Sharpshooter

[Wetcoaster]

BBC has updated its photo gallery of the disaster:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12743417

[Wetcoaster]

BBC report from a correspondent on the ground in the areas hardest hit in north-eastern Japan.

1801: The BBC's Alistair Leithead has been in Minami Sanriku, one of the worst affected areas. There is little to do with the miles and miles of destruction than to begin clearing up, he says. Residents have no power, clean water, phones or fuel but are improvising, pooling their resources and "doing what Japan does, stoically getting on with surviving".

1805: "There is little left but roofs piled high, the wooden shards of the homes ripped up, and the odd family photo protruding from the mud," says our correspondent. "The aftershocks go on, there is snow and it is getting colder and the thousands cut off have a daily battle just to live."

[Wetcoaster]

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) press release

Press Release (Mar 15,2011)

Damage to the Unit 4 Nuclear Reactor Building at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station

At approximately 6:00am, a loud explosion was heard from within the power station. Afterwards, it was confirmed that the 4th floor rooftop area of the Unit 4 Nuclear Reactor Building had sustained damage.

After usage, fuel is stored in a pool designated for spent fuel.

Plant conditions as well as potential outside radiation effects are currently under investigation.

TEPCO, along with other involved organizations, is doing its best to contain the situation. Simultaneously, the surrounding environment is being kept under constant surveillance.

[Wetcoaster]

British search and rescue teams are searching for survivors in the badly hit town of Ofunato in Iwate prefecture. The interactive image linked below shows the scale of what they are facing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12745746

Sniffer dogs are being used to help locate trapped victims:

Followed up by electronic listening devices:

With the piles of debris, damaged buildings and continuing aftershocks it is a dangerous task for search and rescue teams.

[luineul]

More photos:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12743417

Video of a store in Tokyo during the quake:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12717701

Man found alive 96 hours after the tsunami:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12742746

The survivor stories are comforting, but there's still so much wreckage everywhere...

[Wetcoaster]

BBC Live is now reporting:

2037: The US-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) has said it agrees with the assessment of France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) that the incident at Fukushima should be classified as level 6 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), one below Chernobyl. Following a number of explosions and a fire at the plant which released dangerous levels of radiation, ISIS said the situation had "worsened considerably" and was now closer to a level 6 event. "It may unfortunately reach a level 7," it added.

2042: A level 6 incident is a "serious accident" which results in a "significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures". The 1957 Kyshtym disaster was classified as level 6. An explosion at a Soviet military nuclear waste reprocessing plant in the Russian Urals led to large off-site release of radioactive material.

Edited March 15, 2011 by Wetcoaster

[Captain Bob]

BBC Live is now reporting:

2037: The US-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) has said it agrees with the assessment of France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) that the incident at Fukushima should be classified as level 6 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), one below Chernobyl. Following a number of explosions and a fire at the plant which released dangerous levels of radiation, ISIS said the situation had "worsened considerably" and was now closer to a level 6 event. "It may unfortunately reach a level 7," it added.

[key2thecup]

Ive tried London Drugs, Shoppers drug mart neither have any potassium iodide left in stock, anyone know where to get some in Richmond?

Edited March 15, 2011 by key2thecup

[Buggernut]

Ive tried London Drugs, Shoppers drug mart neither have any potassium iodide left in stock, anyone know where to get some in Richmond?

Somebody is very paranoid.

[Wetcoaster]

Two workers at the Fukushima plant are missing and have been since Friday:

2120: Reuters has reported that two workers are missing at the Fukushima plant - they have not been named but Japan's nuclear safety agency said they had been in the turbine area of reactor four.

2154: More on those two workers reported to be missing from Fukushima. A national nuclear safety agency spokesman, Masami Nishimura, said they went missing on Friday, the day the quake and tsunami struck, not after Tuesday's explosion, AFP reports.

Edited March 15, 2011 by Wetcoaster

[Wetcoaster]

Ive tried London Drugs, Shoppers drug mart neither have any potassium iodide left in stock, anyone know where to get some in Richmond?

Per the BBC:

The authorities in the US and Canada have warned people there is need to rush to buy iodine tablets. Chemists along the western coast of North America have reported a soaring demand for the tablets, which prevent give the body sufficient iodine that is stops absorbing any externally which may be contaminated by radiation.

Officials say there is no risk from radiation in that region at present, and warn people could be exposing themselves to other health dangers by needlessly taking iodine supplements.

Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has downplayed the risk of radiation to people living on its Pacific Coast. "There is no evidence of a scenario that presents any risk to this country in terms of... radiation or nuclear fallout coming to Canada," he told reporters. Residents of the western province of British Columbia have been ignoring the advice of local health authorities and emptied pharmacies in Vancouver and Victoria of anti-radiation medicines such as potassium iodide, the AFP news agency reports.

[Wetcoaster]

A new fire at Fukushima reactor 4 in the last 20 minutes:

2152: AFP is reporting a new fire at the number four reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

2153: Flames are rising from the reactor, AP reports.

2157: Tepco says efforts are underway to tackle the fire inside the building which houses the number four reactor, Reuters reports.

2210: Tepco has confirmed that a fire broke out at reactor four in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Smoke is pouring from the reactor, a spokesman told reporters.

[Shift-4]

Ive tried London Drugs, Shoppers drug mart neither have any potassium iodide left in stock, anyone know where to get some in Richmond?

[Captain Bob]

Two workers at the Fukushima plant are missing and have been since Friday:

2120: Reuters has reported that two workers are missing at the Fukushima plant - they have not been named but Japan's nuclear safety agency said they had been in the turbine area of reactor four.

2154: More on those two workers reported to be missing from Fukushima. A national nuclear safety agency spokesman, Masami Nishimura, said they went missing on Friday, the day the quake and tsunami struck, not after Tuesday's explosion, AFP reports.

Pretty sure if I worked in that plant I'd go missing too.

[Terran]

Why is there no looting in Japan?

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/why-is-there-no-looting-in-japan/?hpt=T1

pretty good read

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

In the wake of Japan's deadly earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant explosions, we have witnessed the almost indescribable chaos that follows a disaster of this magnitude: loss of life, severe injuries, homelessness, lack of water, food and proper medical care, the physical destruction of towns and cities, and a growing fear of radioactive contamination from power plants that seem beyond anyone's ability to control.

But one heart-wrenching byproduct of disasters like this one has been missing in Japan, and that’s looting and lawlessness.

Looting is something we see after almost every tragedy; for example: last year's earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the floods in England in 2007, and of course Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. It happens when some people who've seen life as they know it get tossed out the window feel that all morality has been tossed out too. It's survival of the fittest and whatever you can get your hands on is yours, no matter who it belongs to.

But that's not happening in Japan.

Journalist and social commentator Ed West wrote in the UK Telegraph yesterday how struck he was by the Japanese culture throughout this ordeal. He observed how supermarkets cut their prices in the days following the quake and how vending machine owners were giving out free drinks as "people work together to survive." And West was most surprised by the fact that there was no looting.

Many have pointed to the popularity of Japan's distinctive Buddhist and Shinto religions as well as how the values of conformity and consensus are considered virtues in their culture. That's one explanation, but it probably has something to do with remaining true to your moral code even in the darkest hours.

Here’s my question to you: Why is there no looting in Japan?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Kim:

Because Japanese culture, unlike all other modern cultures, is based primarily on honor and dignity. Unlike our Katrina disaster, the Japanese don't see this as an opportunity to steal everything in sight. The so-called civilized world can learn much from the stoic Japanese.

Greg in Arkansas:

Two words: National pride. The people of Japan love their country and do what is best for the nation, unlike the United States where we love our country and do what is best for ourselves.

Natasha:

The Japanese are resourceful, innovative and disciplined people with a great sense of national pride. While they also have criminals and felons, it is not quite in comparison to the sleaze balls we have in our streets. It was disgusting to watch these scum bags loot stores in New Orleans during Katrina when they should have helped their fellow citizens in need. While watching the devastation in Japan is heart wrenching, it is so refreshing to see the civility of people within the calamity they are facing.

Larry in Georgetown, Texas:

Jack, I was blessed to visit Japan several years ago on business and was told that if I lost my wallet in downtown Tokyo that the person who found it would make it their mission to return it to me in tact. These people are very gracious and kind.

Carol:

Sociologists will tell you that the lack of looting is just the result of large numbers of people developing a more orderly society to cope with living in a smaller land mass. Personally, I've always thought it's because they're a more highly evolved race.

Joy:

It's the Japanese culture - very refined, dignified, disciplined and civilized. We should all learn from them. They're the types of people you help out willingly because you know that they'll make full use of any opportunity to get back on their feet.

Richard:

I don't really know. It would be easy to say that they are a very homogeneous society and perhaps in a way consider each other family. In any case they are to be applauded.

[Aquiace]

Ive tried London Drugs, Shoppers drug mart neither have any potassium iodide left in stock, anyone know where to get some in Richmond?

Guys, seriously don't start taking iodine supplements. You'll do more harm to yourself than good.

I'm really sick of all the fear-mongering. You'll get more radiation from normal cell phone use. Every time I turn on the news, they always ask "what's the worst case scenario?". That's like the only question they ask. We already know what the worst case scenario is because you repeated it 500 times already.

It baffles me really. People who are 500km away from this aren't panicking, yet people who are 8000km away who will most likely be affected in a way that it's statistically zero freak out.

It also concerns me that if ever disaster struck, even on a small scale we'd turn into Mad Max. We're so sheltered here that people just don't understand what hardship is, so we think anything that happens at all is the end of the world. People say the worst thing you can do in an accident is to panic. There are plenty of people who could remain calm, but given the history of the last few years it seems to me there are enough who would panic to cause us serious problems.

Sorry for the rant. I honestly think people have life so good here that we look for reasons to be afraid. Fear-mongering doesn't even exist in places with real hardship. You don't have to hear someone tell you, you live it. And it's not harmless because it leads to real world problems. It really becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I also honestly believe people have an addiction to fear. And it has nothing to do with caution because how many people do you know who actually have a 72-hour survival kit? It's like life here is so mundane that people actually hope something will happen out of some desire to feel alive.