Wetcoaster
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BBC Live reports:
0636: The fire at reactor 4 may have been caused by a hydrogen explosion, the IAEA says Japanese authorities have told it.
0709: There is a fire at a spent fuel pond of a reactor and radioactivity has been released into the atmosphere, says the IAEA according to AFP news agency.
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A fire broke out at reactor 4 as the radiation levels continue to rise. The government is now acknowledging serious levels of radioactivity (400 times the annual legal limit) which is at a level affecting human health and expanding the affected zone from a radius of 20 to 30 kms. There is concern that the latest explosion has damaged the containment vessel of reactor 2.
Per BBC Live:
0207: Addressing the nation, Prime Minister Naoto Kan says that "there is a high risk of futher (sic) radioactive material coming out".0210: The premier also urges people within 19 miles (30km) of the Fukushima complex in the area "to remain indoors".0241: And Mr Kan also confirms earlier reports that a fire has broken out at Fukushima's reactor 4.0303: Radiation is 400 times the annual legal limit near Fukushima's reactor 3, the Kyodo news agency reports.0306: Winds over the stricken nuclear plant are blowing slowly towards the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, Reuters reports.0309: Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says: "Now we are talking about levels that can impact human health. I would like all of you to embrace this information calmly. These are readings taken near the area where we believe that the release of radioactive substances is occurring. The further away you get from the power plant or reactor the value should go down".0331: A fire which broke out Tuesday at Fukushima has now been extinguished, media reports say.0337: A low level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo in 10 hours, Reuters is quoting the French embassy in the Japanese capital as saying.0355: The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says that Japan's nuclear safety agency says it suspects the explosion may have damaged the vessel that holds the number two reactor. That would make it a more serious incident than the two previous explosions at Fukushima that were thought just to have damaged the buildings that housed the reactors. -
The latest BBC updates on the continuing problems with reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The fuel rods had been fully exposed earlier. There have just been reports moments ago of an explosion and perhaps problems with the suppression pool which is a critical issue for containment. Tepco now reports there have been evacuations of some workers from the site.
2124: Work resumed early on Tuesday morning to pump sea water into reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi to prevent its fuel rods inside from overheating. As of 0300 local time on Tuesday, pressure inside the reactor container had dropped and it was believed seawater had been pumped in succesfully, Tepco said, according to the Kyodo news agency. However, Tepco admitted that it had not yet been able to confirm that water levels inside the reactor had risen. The fuel rods were fully exposed at 2300 local time on Monday.2126: Engineers were having difficulty injecting seawater into the reactor because its vents - necessary to release pressure in the containment vessel by allowing radioactive steam to escape - had stopped working properly, the New York Times reports. However, by Tuesday morning they had succeeded in opening a malfunctioning valve, reducing pressure in the container vessel. They then resumed flooding the reactor with water.2129: Tepco said water levels inside the containment vessel were not immediately rising to the desired level, possibly because of a leak. Nevertheless, an official told a news conference: "We do not feel that a critical event is imminent."2145: In fact, just after posting the below entry, the Kyodo news agency reported that Mr Edano had told reporters that although engineers had been able to pump sea water into reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi, it remained unstable.2208: However, there has been no sharp rise in radiation levels at reactor 2, Mr Edano adds.2308: An explosion is heard at Fukushima's second reactor, the Kyodo news agency reports.2311: The news agency said the blast was heard at 0610 local time on Tuesday (2110 GMT Monday). No other details were immediately announced.2316: Kyodo now says that the suppression pool may have been damaged at the second reactor.2320: A spokesperson from Tokyo Electric says said some staff have been evacuated from the site.And continuing problems with reactor 3
2207: Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, has said a partial defect has been found inside the containment vessel of reactor 3 at the Fukushima Daaich nuclear power plant, the Kyodo news agency reports. He has also said the reactor is "not necessarily in a stable condition". Early on Tuesday morning, officials said pressure inside the container had dropped and sea water was being pumped in to cool the fuel rods. -
Things seem to be reaching a critical point at Reactor Number 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as the situation is reported deteriorating by the New York Times a few minutes ago. It is being reported that officials are in panic mode.
Emergency Cooling Effort at Reactor Is Failing, Deepening Japanese CrisisBy HIROKO TABUCHI, KEITH BRADSHER and MATT WALDTOKYO — Japan’s struggle to contain the crisis at a stricken nuclear power plant worsened early Tuesday morning, as emergency operations to pump seawater into one crippled reactor temporarily failed, increasing the risk of a wider release of radioactive material, officials said.With the cooling systems malfunctioning simultaneously at three separate reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station after the powerful earthquake and tsunami, a more acute crisis developed late Monday at reactor No. 2 of the plant. There, a series of problems thwarted efforts to keep the core of the reactor covered with water — a step considered crucial to preventing the reactor’s containment vessel from exploding and preventing the fuel inside it from melting down.The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said late Monday that efforts to inject seawater into the reactor had failed. That caused water levels inside the reactor’s containment vessel to fall and exposed its fuel rods. The company said its workers later succeeded in infusing seawater in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday morning, but fuel rods were exposed for at least several hours.Workers had been having difficulty injecting seawater into the reactor because its vents — necessary to release pressure in the containment vessel by allowing radioactive steam to escape — had stopped working properly, they said.But Tuesday morning Tokyo Electric announced that workers had succeeded in opening a malfunctioning valve controlling the vents, reducing pressure in the container vessel. It then resumed flooding the reactor with water.The company said water levels were not immediately rising to the desired level, possibly because of a leak in the containment vessel. Still, a Tokyo Electric official said the situation was improving."We do not feel that a critical event is imminent," he told a press conference.The release of pressure appears to avert the immediate risk that the containment vessel would explode, creating a potentially catastrophic release of radioactive material into the atmosphere. But if the vessel is cracked and is not holding water properly, the risks of a large scale release of radioactive material would remain high.In reactor No. 2, which is now the most damaged of the three at the Daiichi plant, at least parts of the fuel rods have been exposed for several hours, which also suggests that some of the fuel has begun to melt. Government and company officials said fuel melting has almost certainly occurred in that reactor, which can increase releases of radioactive material through the water and steam that escapes from the container vessel.In a worst case, the fuel pellets could also burn through the bottom of the containment vessel and radioactive material could pour out that way — often referred to as a full meltdown."There is a possibility that the fuel rods are heating up and starting to melt,” said a Tokyo Electric spokesman told a late-night conference on Monday, televised on public broadcaster NHK. “It is our understanding that we have possible damage to the fuel rods,” he said.By Monday night, officials said that radiation readings around the plant reached 3,130 micro Sievert, the highest yet detected at the Daiichi facility since the quake and six times the legal limit. Radiation levels of that magnitude are considered elevated, but they are much lower than would be the case if one of the container vessels had been compromised.Industry executvies in touch with their counterparts in Japan Monday night grew increasingly alarmed about the risks posed by the No. 2 reactor.“They’re basically in a full-scale panic” among Japanese power industry managers, said a senior nuclear industry executive. The executive is not involved in managing the response to the reactors’ difficulties but has many contacts in Japan. “They’re in total disarray, they don’t know what to do.”The venting problems made it impossible for a time to administer the emergency remedy the plant operator had been using to control heat at the three crippled Daiichi reactors, all of which experienced failures in their electronic cooling systems. That remedy involves pumping in seawater to cool the fuel rods, then opening vents to release the resulting steam pressure that builds in the container vessel. When the vessel is depressurized, workers can inject more seawater, a process known as “feed and bleed.”The extreme challenge of managing reactor No. 2 came as officials were still struggling to keep the cores of two other reactors, No. 1 and No. 3, covered with seawater. There was no immediate indication that either of those two reactors had experienced a crisis as serious as that at No. 2.The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that the Japanese government had formally asked for assistance as it responds to the crisis in Fukushima. As part of a wider response, the United States has already dispatched two experts in boiling-water reactors, the type used at Daiichi. They are in Tokyo offering technical assistance to the Japanese, the commission said in a statement. The commission is considering further assistance, including providing technical advice, it said.The situation at Daiichi was also complicated on Monday by another problem when the outer structure housing reactor No. 3 exploded earlier on Monday. A similar explosion destroyed the structure surrounding reactor No. 1 on Saturday. Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the skeletal remains of the reactor building and thick smoke rising from the building. Eleven people had been injured in the blast, one seriously, officials said.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier Monday evening that the release of large amounts of radiation as a result of the explosion at No. 3 was unlikely because the blast did not compromise the steel containment vessel inside the No. 3 reactor. But traces of radiation could be released into the atmosphere, and about 500 people who remained within a 12-mile radius were ordered temporarily to take cover indoors, he said.“I have received reports that the containment vessel is sound,” Mr. Edano said. “I understand that there is little possibility that radioactive materials are being released in large amounts.”Mr. Edano and other senior officials did not address the escalating crisis at reactor No. 2 later Monday or early Tuesday.But the situation a reactor No. 3 was being closely watched for another reason. That reactor uses a special mix of nuclear fuel known as MOX fuel. MOX is considered contentious because it is made with reprocessed plutonium and uranium oxides. Any radioactive plume from that fuel would be more dangerous than ordinary nuclear fuel, experts say, because inhaling plutonium even in very small quantities is considered lethal.In screenings, higher-than-normal levels of radiation have been detected from at least 22 people evacuated from near the plant, the nuclear safety watchdog said, but it is not clear if the doses they received were dangerous.Technicians had been scrambling most of Sunday to fix a mechanical failure that left the reactor far more vulnerable to explosions.The two reactors where the explosions occurred are both presumed to have already suffered partial meltdowns — a dangerous situation that, if unchecked, could lead to a full meltdown.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?hp
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Japanese nuclear engineer Masashi Goto who was involved in building the Fukushima nuclear plant says that Toshiba knew there would be dangers from an earthquake and tsunami as the design was not robust enough. Also the "worst case scenario" by the government is actually much worse due to the nature of the nuclear fuel.
1422: Japanese engineer Masashi Goto, who helped design the containment vessel for Fukushima's reactor core, says the design was not enough to withstand earthquakes or tsunamis and the plant's builders, Toshiba, knew this. More on Mr Goto's remarks to follow.1426: Mr Goto says his greatest fear is that blasts at number 3 and number 1 reactors may have damaged the steel casing of the containment vessel designed to stop radioactive material escaping into the atmosphere. More to follow.1431: More from Japanese nuclear engineer Masashi Goto: He say that as the reactor uses mox (mixed oxide) fuel, the melting point is lower than that of conventional fuel. Should a meltdown and an explosion occur, he says, plutonium could be spread over an area up to twice as far as estimated for a conventional nuclear fuel explosion. The next 24 hours are critical, he says.Minutes ago this report on the situation of Reactor 2 at Fukushima:
1918: Technicians have resumed injecting seawater into the stricken reactor 2 at Fukushima after a steam vent of the pressure container was opened, Kyodo news agency reports citing Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco).
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Incredible before and after comparison shots of a number of affected areas. You can move the slider to get an idea of the total devastation.
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The New York Times is reporting that experts say radioactive releases in Japan could last months as result of the problems with the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
March 13, 2011Radioactive Releases in Japan Could Last Months, Experts SayBy DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALDWASHINGTON — As the scale of Japan’s nuclear crisis begins to come to light, experts in Japan and the United States say the country is now facing a cascade of accumulating problems that suggest that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants could go on for weeks or even months.The emergency flooding of stricken reactors with seawater and the resulting steam releases are a desperate step intended to avoid a much bigger problem: a full meltdown of the nuclear cores in reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. On Monday, an explosion blew the roof off the second reactor, not damaging the core, officials said, but presumably leaking more radiation.Later Monday, the government said cooling systems at a third reactor had failed. The Kyodo news agency reported that the damaged fuel rods at the third reactor had been temporarily exposed, increasing the risk of overheating. Sea water was being channeled into the reactor to cover the rods, Kyodo reported.So far, Japanese officials have said the melting of the nuclear cores in the two plants is assumed to be “partial,” and the amount of radioactivity measured outside the plants, though twice the level Japan considers safe, has been relatively modest.But Pentagon officials reported Sunday that helicopters flying 60 miles from the plant picked up small amounts of radioactive particulates — still being analyzed, but presumed to include cesium-137 and iodine-121 — suggesting widening environmental contamination.In a country where memories of a nuclear horror of a different sort in the last days of World War II weigh heavily on the national psyche and national politics, the impact of continued venting of long-lasting radioactivity from the plants is hard to overstate.Japanese reactor operators now have little choice but to periodically release radioactive steam as part of an emergency cooling process for the fuel of the stricken reactors that may continue for a year or more even after fission has stopped. The plant’s operator must constantly try to flood the reactors with seawater, then release the resulting radioactive steam into the atmosphere, several experts familiar with the design of the Daiichi facility said.That suggests that the tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated may not be able to return to their homes for a considerable period, and that shifts in the wind could blow radioactive materials toward Japanese cities rather than out to sea.Re-establishing normal cooling of the reactors would require restoring electric power — which was cut in the earthquake and tsunami — and now may require plant technicians working in areas that have become highly contaminated with radioactivity.More steam releases also mean that the plume headed across the Pacific could continue to grow. On Sunday evening, the White House sought to tamp down concerns, saying that modeling done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had concluded that “Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Territories and the U.S. West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity.”But all weekend, after a series of intense interchanges between Tokyo and Washington and the arrival of the first American nuclear experts in Japan, officials said they were beginning to get a clearer picture of what went wrong over the past three days. And as one senior official put it, “under the best scenarios, this isn’t going to end anytime soon.”The essential problem is the definition of “off” in a nuclear reactor. When the nuclear chain reaction is stopped and the reactor shuts down, the fuel is still producing about 6 percent as much heat as it did when it was running, caused by continuing radioactivity, the release of subatomic particles and of gamma rays.Usually when a reactor is first shut down, an electric pump pulls heated water from the vessel to a heat exchanger, and cool water from a river or ocean is brought in to draw off that heat.But at the Japanese reactors, after losing electric power, that system could not be used. Instead the operators are dumping seawater into the vessel and letting it cool the fuel by boiling. But as it boils, pressure rises too high to pump in more water, so they have to vent the vessel to the atmosphere, and feed in more water, a procedure known as “feed and bleed.”When the fuel was intact, the steam they were releasing had only modest amounts of radioactive material, in a nontroublesome form. With damaged fuel, that steam is getting dirtier.Another potential concern is that some Japanese reactors (as well as some in France and Germany) run on a mixed fuel known as mox, or mixed oxide, that includes reclaimed plutonium. It is not clear whether the stricken reactors are among those, but if they are, the steam they release could be more toxic.Christopher D. Wilson, a reactor operator and later a manager at Exelon’s Oyster Creek plant, near Toms River, N.J., said, “normally you would just re-establish electricity supply, from the on-site diesel generator or a portable one.” Portable generators have been brought into Fukushima, he said.Fukushima was designed by General Electric, as Oyster Creek was around the same time, and the two plants are similar. The problem, he said, was that the hookup is done through electric switching equipment that is in a basement room flooded by the tsunami, he said. “Even though you have generators on site, you have to get the water out of the basement,” he said.Another nuclear engineer with long experience in reactors of this type, who now works for a government agency, was emphatic. “To completely stop venting, they’re going to have to put some sort of equipment back in service,” he said. He asked not to be named because his agency had not authorized him to speak.The central problem arises from a series of failures that began after the tsunami. It easily overcame the sea walls surrounding the Fukushima plant. It swamped the diesel generators, which were placed in a low-lying area, apparently because of misplaced confidence that the sea walls would protect them. At 3:41 p.m. Friday, roughly an hour after the quake and just around the time the region would have been struck by the giant waves, the generators shut down. According to Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant switched to an emergency cooling system that operates on batteries, but these were soon depleted.Inside the plant, according to industry executives and American experts who received briefings over the weekend, there was deep concern that spent nuclear fuel that was kept in a “cooling pond” inside one of the plants had been exposed and begun letting off potentially deadly gamma radiation. Then water levels inside the reactor cores began to fall. While estimates vary, several officials and industry experts said Sunday that the top four to nine feet of the nuclear fuel in the core and control rods appear to have been exposed to the air — a condition that that can quickly lead to melting, and ultimately to full meltdown.At 8 p.m., just as Americans were waking up to news of the earthquake, the government declared an emergency, contradicting its earlier reassurances that there were no major problems. But the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, stressed that there had been no radiation leak.But one was coming: Workers inside the reactors saw that levels of coolant water were dropping. They did not know how severely. “The gauges that measure the water level don’t appear to be giving accurate readings,” one American official said.What the workers knew by Saturday morning was that cooling systems at a nearby power plant, Fukushima Daini, were also starting to fail, for many of the same reasons. And the pressure in the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi was rising so fast that engineers knew they would have to relieve it by letting steam escape.Shortly before 4 p.m., camera crews near the Daiichi plant captured what appears to have been an explosion at the No. 1 reactor — apparently caused by a buildup of hydrogen. It was dramatic television but not especially dangerous — except to the workers injured by the force of the blast.The explosion was in the outer container, leaving the main reactor vessel unharmed, according to Tokyo Electric’s reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency. (The walls of the outer building blew apart, as they are designed to do, rather than allow a buildup of pressure that could damage the reactor vessel.)But the dramatic blast was also a warning sign of what could happen inside the reactor vessel if the core was not cooled. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that “as a countermeasure to limit damage to the reactor core,” Tokyo Electric proposed injecting seawater mixed with boron — which can choke off a nuclear reaction — and it began to do that at 10:20 p.m. Saturday.It was a desperation move: The corrosive seawater will essentially disable the 40-year-old plant; the decision to flood the core amounted to a decision to abandon the facility. But even that operation has not been easy.To pump in the water, the Japanese have apparently tried used firefighting equipment — hardly the usual procedure. But forcing the seawater inside the containment vessel has been difficult because the pressure in the vessel has become so great.One American official likened the process to “trying to pour water into an inflated balloon,” and said that on Sunday it was “not clear how much water they are getting in, or whether they are covering the cores.”The problem was compounded because gauges in the reactor seemed to have been damaged in the earthquake or tsunami, making it impossible to know just how much water is in the core.And workers at the pumping operation are presumed to be exposed to radiation; several workers, according to Japanese reports, have been treated for radiation poisoning. It is not clear how severe their exposure was. -
There have been numerous and continuing aftershocks since the big quake (and a number of preceding it). Here is a graphic of the number of quakes over the past hour (red), day (yellow) and week (blue) off Japan:
And a list of earthquakes from around the world over the last week - noted how many are near Japan beginnng on March 9. There were 23 recorded before the big one and and just over 250 recorded since the big one:
Latest Earthquakes Magnitude 5.0 and Greater in the World - Last 7 daysMagnitude 5 and greater earthquakes located by the USGS and contributing networks in the last week (168 hours). Magnitudes 6 and above are in red. (Some early events may be obscured by later ones on the maps.)The most recent earthquakes are at the top of the list. Times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Click on the word "map" to see a ten-degree tall map displaying the earthquake. Click on an event's "DATE" to get a detailed report.http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php
From the Japan Meteorological Agency:
The activities of aftershocks of "The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake" has been very active. As of 15:10JST 14 March, the aftershocks larger than magnitude 7.0 occurred 3 times, and those larger than 6.0 occurred 44 times. The aftershocks have occurred in the large area off the coast of Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki Prefectures. When compared to past cases, the activity of aftershocks is very high.http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/News/2011_Earthquake_02.html
This makes search and rescue and recovery operations extremely hazardous as debris may shift or damaged structures collapse as the workers do their jobs.
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A BBC correspondent has arrived in one of the hardest hit areas that is virtually flattened and says it is unlikely many people survived:
0736: In the Miyagi port of Minamisanriku alone, some 10,000 people are still missing - more than half the population - after the massive tidal wave tore through the town. The BBC's Rachel Harvey paints a picture of the devastation from a hillside overlooking the town, describing a scene of total devastation for about 2km inland from the coastline. Part of a hospital can be seen, as well as a government building, where the lowest three floors are all showing signs of the tsunami's impact. Other than that, she says, the whole area is just flattened.
0744: Japanese police have so far confirmed 1,597 deaths from Friday's quake and tsunami, but the final toll is expected to be much higher. Our correspondent in Minami Sanriku says it looks unlikely that many survivors will be found there. Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies had been found on the shores of Miyagi region of north-east Japan. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from the area around Fukushima nuclear plant.
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BBC reporting not everyone believes the government line about safe levels of radiation:
0650: Japan's government is insisting that radiation levels across the country are safe, says the BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo, but a German businessman has told our correspondent that some foreign firms are starting to move their expatriate staff south - or out of the country altogether - because they don't have confidence in what the government is saying any more.
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A US aircraft carrier of the coast of Japan and helicopters flying missions received doses of radioactivity.
The Pentagon was expected to announce that the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, which is sailing in the Pacific, passed through a radioactive cloud from stricken nuclear reactors in Japan, causing crew members on deck to receive a month’s worth of radiation in about an hour, government officials said Sunday.The officials added that American helicopters flying missions about 60 miles north of the damaged reactors became coated with particulate radiation that had to be washed off.There was no indication that any of the military personnel had experienced ill effects from the exposure. (Everyone is exposed to a small amount of natural background radiation.)http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14plume.html?_r=1&ref=asia
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Several hours after the tsunami hit Japan.darwin?
When did this happen?
Here is the news report site with other pictures:
http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2011/03/11/9572-video-hawaii-tsunami-surges-hitting-big-island/
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The Tokyo stock market has dropped significantly across most sectors. I heard a report that only the construction sector is holding steady while manufacturing has taken a massive hit along woth nuclear and other power stocks.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange plunged in early trading on Monday as investors reacted to the consequences of a massive natural disaster that is still unfolding.The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 619 points, or six per cent, at 9,635 about four hours after the market opened at 9 a.m. Monday local time (8 p.m. ET Sunday).The Bank of Japan initially said Monday it would inject 7 trillion yen ($84 billion Cdn) into the money markets, "the largest amount ever," to ensure the financial system continued to operate normally.But about three hours after the market opened, it boosted that to 15 trillion yen (about $178 billion Cdn).Other Asian markets were off but just a fraction of the losses in Tokyo. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell and Singapore's Straits Times index were both down about 0.5 per cent.The tsunami and earthquake that hit Japan on Friday about the time the market closed may have killed more than 10,000 people. It has caused a massive disruption to transportation in the northeastern part of the country, and led to severe damage to several nuclear plants.The electricity shortage caused by the damage has forced leading Japanese car companies — Toyota, Honda and Nissan —to close for an indefinite period, and electricity companies are warning of rotating blackouts on Monday to conserve power.However, the Tokyo exchange said Sunday that it would keep its normal hours on Monday.On Monday morning, the Bank conducted a same-day funds-supplying operation totalling 7 trillion yen, and a future-day-start funds-supplying operation totalling 3 trillion yen. The Bank said it will do its utmost to continue ensuring stability in the financial markets and securing smooth settlement of funds, including providing liquidity.On Friday, the Nikkei fell 200 points to about 10,254.The 1995 earthquake that devastated Kobe cost $132 billion US, said Sheila Smith, an expert in Japan Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank.http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/03/13/asian-markets-mondya-tsunami.html
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Perhaps the water pump station will have its electricity shut off as well?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
I've also been getting information from my family in Gunma prefecture. There's a lot of big local news that isn't being covered, but I can understand why with the looming crisis in Fukushima.
Gas lines have exploded in her local town yesterday and a section of it is on fire right now. There's been fire trucks and helicopters circling all day. But that kinda takes a backseat to a potential nuclear disaster.
They're scheduled to shut down power in 1 hour from now that will last for 6 hours. They also sent a notice to everyone that they are cutting off water too (why????)
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So we go from OMG SNOW to OMG Windy.
What's next - OMG SUN?
Depending upon what happens in Japan over the next few days and the jet stream maybe - "OMG Radioactive Cloud".
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It was based on a false report from a Japanese Search and Rescue helicopter over the ocean.Official Tsunami warning canceled, but apparently there was an announcement saying a 3m wave was on its way.
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where are u getting ur news?
Some news links for those who prefer to not get the simplified CNN or Faux News garbage which is designed for 'Murican mush heads who have attention spans of a gnat.
NHK's English language televison news - it is being broadcast online:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
Streaming Japanese news broadcast in English is available at JIBTV:
http://jibtv.com/program/index.aspx?page=0
Also BBC's Asia/Pacific coverage is very good:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12711226
BBC broadcasts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
CBC's News is much superior to CNN.
CBC special coverage of the quake and its aftermath:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/11/f-japan-earthquake-topix.html
Here is one of the best graphics showing the earthquake effects that I have seen. Helps to understand the reports from various areas of Japan:
CBC has an interactive map of Japan using Google earth and interactive clicks for videos of the affected areas:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/11/f-japan-earthquake-topix.html
The Vancouver Sun has a special on-line section which is quite good:
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NHK World reports on the latest at the Fukushima Plant 1 and the explosion(s) at Reactor 3.
Another Fukushima nuclear plant blast injures 11What appears to be another hydrogen blast has occurred at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima. No damage to the reactor chamber has been reported, but 11 people have been injured.The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says what it believes was a hydrogen blast occurred at 11:01 AM on Monday at the No.3 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. The agency says it has so far observed no abnormal rise in radiation around the compound of the plant.The company says the blast injured 11 people.The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has advised anyone remaining within 20 kilometers of the power plant to take shelter inside buildings as soon as possible. About 600 people are thought to be still in the area.A similar hydrogen blast occurred at the No.1 reactor at the same plant on Saturday.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that he has received a report that the latest blast has left the container of No.3 reactor intact. He said the likelihood of large volumes of radioactive materials being dispersed in the air is low.Video footage shows that the top of the building housing the reactor has been blown off, as in Saturday's blast.Fears of an explosion grew when the water level of the No. 3 reactor dropped, exposing fuel rods, and a reaction with the steam generated a large amount of hydrogen. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says that even if the top of the building has blown off, the reactor chamber will not be affected.Monday, March 14, 2011 12:30 +0900 (JST) -
As rescue workers are beginning to get into the worst affected areas, the body count is rising.
Some 2,000 bodies were found today on two shores in Miyagi Prefecture, 1,000 on the Ojika Peninsula and 1,000 at Minamisanriku - Japanese news agency Kyodo.
Police have confirmed 1,597 deaths to date, not including between 200 and 300 bodies in Sendai which recovery teams have so far been unable to reach, Japan's Kyodo news agency reports. At the same time, some hopeful news has come out of Minamisanriku, the town where 10,000 people were believed to be missing. Kyodo says it has unverified information that "many" residents were evacuated to the neighbouring town of Tome.
Even if the better news about the missing people of Minamisanriku is confirmed it is sobering to read on Kyodo this morning that "tens of thousands" of people remain unaccounted for.
US search and rescue teams are "on the ground" in Misawa, northern Japan, the White House says. They number 144 people and 12 dogs trained to detect survivors trapped under rubble, and have 45 metric tonnes of rescue equipment with them, AFP reports.
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BBC Live latest time line on the most recent explosions at the Fukushima plant on Monday morning (Japan time) at Reactor 3. BBC is reporting some of the coolant pipes may have ruptured and the operators could not get enough coolant resulting in the explosion:
0105: A damaged nuclear power plant is still in an "alarming" state, Prime Minister Naoto Kan says.0218: Column of smoke escaping from Reactor 3 at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant - Japanese TV.0221: Urgent: Explosion at Reactor 3 - AFP.0224: "Hydrogen blast occurs at Fukushima nuke plant's No 3 reactor" - Kyodo.0225: Just to remind you: there were fears of a meltdown at Reactor 3 on Sunday. Also: an explosion occurred at Reactor 1 on Saturday but the core was reportedly not exposed.0227: There were two explosions at Reactor 3, the operator Tepco says - AFP.0232: Update on the explosion(s) at Reactor 3: "We believe it was a hydrogen explosion. It is not immediately known if it affected the reactor" - nuclear safety agency spokesman Ryo Miyake.0236: The wall of a building collapsed as a result of the blast(s) at Reactor 3 - Japanese TV.0239: The 600 people still living within 20km of the plant where the explosion(s) occurred are ordered to get inside buildings - Kyodo.0240: The governor of Tokyo orders radioactivity levels in the city to be measured - Kyodo.0242: Reactor 3 withstood the explosion(s), its operator says - Japanese news agency Jiji.0243: Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano has just spoken on TV. Says that water injection at Reactor 3 seems to be continuing, and the containment vessel is still safe.0247: Mr Edano said major radiation leaks were unlikely from Reactor 3.0328: Seven people are missing and three people have been injured by the explosion at the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant, the AFP news agency reports, quoting an official from Tepco, the company which operates the plant.0351: Full quotes from Yukio Edano on the explosion: "We believe that there is a low possibility that a massive amount of radiation has been leaked. But it is similar to the time when the hydrogen explosion took place in number 1 reactor (which exploded on Saturday). In the case of number 3 reactor, we can see higher level of radiation. We are now collecting information for the concentration of the radiation and the dose."0405: The central control room of Reactor 3 remains intact after the blast, the Japanese government says.0406: The Japanese government has just said there was no marked change in the radiation level after the blast at Reactor 3.0420: Number of injured in the nuclear plant blast is now known to be 11, the operator Tepco reports - Kyodo. -
The latest from BBC Live on the nuclear plants:
2327: Pumping seawater into damaged nuclear reactors in Japan should keep them from a catastrophic full-scale meltdown, but conditions are still so volatile that it is far too early to declare the emergency over, nuclear experts have told Reuters. It is probably the first time in the industry's 57-year history that seawater has been used in this way, a sign of how close Japan is to facing a major nuclear disaster, according to the scientists.
2330: The experts interviewed by Reuters warn it is still far too early to definitively say the day has been saved, especially as the information from the power company and the authorities is incomplete. But they say that with every hour that goes by, the chances of a major catastrophe are diminished - as long as water from the sea or elsewhere keeps reactor cores from overheating. Japanese authorities "appear to be having enough success to have forestalled a definite core melt accident that's difficult to control", said Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "After three days that is very good news." But still, he added, it is "a touch-and-go situation".
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It's the me first attitude of North America.....and more specifically, the U.S., though we have our fair share of those diots in Canada as well. Although, I tend to believe that Canadians would work together in a disaster situation as well, for the most part. Defnitely, in the smaller towns, and hopefully in the cities. We wouldn't be a calm and cool as the Japanese...but I think we'd be alright as well. I've seen the generosity of our community at large and the smaller sub-communities when they work together.....
Might be a bit pollyanish of me, but I have faith in the 'better angels' of most Canadians....and i'm sure many Americans, as well.
So in your opinion CDC is not a representative cross section of Canadian society????
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Sounds like the Japanese are listening to their government and trying to reduce consumption of electricity which may reduce the planned power outages. It has been amazing watching the calmness of the population as they line up for rations, etc. Nothing like the North American idiots who have gone bonkers in the past during the oil shortages, etc.
2224: Planned power cuts in the north-east of Japan have been delayed, Japanese media said. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) had originally planned to begin the cuts at 0620 (2120 GMT), but has decided to delay them until about 1000 at the earliest.
2226: The delay in planned power cuts is due to smaller-than-expected demand, Kyodo News network is reporting Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) as saying.
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More nuclear plant problems just reported:
2227: Radiation levels at Fukushima 1 nuclear plant have again topped legal limits, Kyodo News network says.
OMG Earthquake?
in Off-Topic General
Posted · Edited by Wetcoaster
Continuing strong aftershocks:
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: