OMG Earthquake?

[Señor Hoff]

EPA to raise limits for radiation exposure while Canada turns off fallout detectors Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031963_radiation_exposure.html#ixzz1IgOfZPdd

Canada tries to out-stupid the USA

Ah, the fascination of watching this tragic comedy of errors unfold in the U.S. government almost cannot be exceeded. But Canada is sure trying. Its own nuclear monitoring network has simply been shut off, and its website now reads "Please note that as of March 25, 2011, the frequency of data collection by NRCan using the mobile surveys has been decreased due to the low levels of radiation being detected."

Seriously, see the bottom of the page: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/ed-ud/...

Yep, since they're detecting low levels of radiation, this is apparently justification for turning off the monitors altogether, which of course is the kind of brilliant early warning plan that could have only been dreamed up by a brain-dead bureaucrat.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031963_radiation_exposure.html#ixzz1IgPA3500

[Wetcoaster]

TEPCO is now claiming that it has finally contained the radioactive water leaking from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the ocean.

Engineers have stopped highly radioactive water leaking into the sea from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant, the facility's operator said on Wednesday, a breakthrough in the battle to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

However, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) 9501.T still needs to pump contaminated water into the sea because of a lack of storage space at the facility.

"The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped," a TEPCO spokesman told Reuters.

Desperate engineers had been struggling to stop the leaks and had used sawdust, newspapers and concrete as well as liquid glass to try to stem the flow of the highly-contaminated water.

Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit its northeast coast, leaving nearly 28,000 people dead or missing, thousands homeless, and rocking the world's third-largest economy.

Samples of the water used to cool reactor No. 2 were 5 million times the legal limit of radioactivity, officials said on Tuesday, adding to fears that contaminants had spread far beyond the disaster zone.

The government is considering imposing radioactivity restrictions on seafood for the first time in the crisis after contaminated fish were found.

India also became the first country to ban food imports from all areas of Japan over radiation fears.

Workers are still struggling to restart cooling pumps — which recycle the water — in four reactors damaged by the earthquake and tsunami.

Until those are fixed, they must pump in water from outside to prevent overheating and meltdowns. In the process, that creates more contaminated water that has to be pumped out and stored somewhere else or released into the sea.

TEPCO has offered "condolence money" to those affected in the Fukushima region where the plant is based. But one city rejected the money and local mayors who came to Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan demanded far more help.

"We have borne the risks, co-existed and flourished with TEPCO for more than 40 years, and all these years, we have fully trusted the myth that nuclear plants are absolutely safe," said Katsuya Endo, the mayor of Tomioka town.

He was one of eight Fukushima prefecture mayors who went to Kan to demand compensation and support for employment, housing and education for the tens of thousands of crisis evacuees.

There is a total of 60,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water in the plant after workers poured in seawater when fuel rods experienced partial meltdown after the earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan on March 11.

TEPCO on Monday had to start releasing 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive seawater after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water. The release will continue until Friday.

Asked about media reports some countries had complained about Japan's dumping seawater back into the ocean, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said Japan was trying to adhere to its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to avoid contamination of the ocean.

The dumping of the contaminated water was being done in the face of a national emergency and would not have a significant impact on human health, he said.

FIVE MILLION TIMES LEGAL LIMIT

Radioactive iodine of up to 4,800 times the legal limit has been recorded in the sea near the plant. Caesium was found at levels above safety limits in tiny kounago fish in waters off Ibaraki Prefecture, south of Fukushima, local media reported.

Iodine-131 in the water near the sluice gate of reactor No. 2 hit a high on April 2 of 7.5 million times the legal limit. The water, which was not released into the ocean, fell to 5 million times the legal limit on Monday.

TEPCO said it had started paying token "condolence money" of 20 million yen ($238,000) each to local governments in towns near the reactors to aid people evacuated from around its stricken plant or affected by the radiation crisis.

It faces a huge bill for the damage caused by its crippled reactors, but said it must first assess the extent of damage before paying actual compensation.

"We are still in discussion as to what extent we will pay on our own and to what extent we will have assistance from the government, TEPCO executive vice-president Takashi Fujimotohe told a news conference.

Fishermen from neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture saw prices for flounder and sea bream tumble by 65 per cent as buyers shunned their catch. Their union said they, too, would see compensation from TEPCO and from the government.

India on Tuesday announced a three-month ban on imports of processed foods, fruits and vegetables from the whole of Japan, becoming the first country to introduce a blanket ban.

The world's costliest natural disaster has caused power blackouts and cuts to supply chains, threatening Japan's economic growth and the operations of global firms from semiconductor makers to shipbuilders.

http://www.vancouversun.com/Japan+stops+radioactive+leaks+into+from+crippled+nuclear+plant/4558476/story.html#ixzz1Ihv8CEkI

[TheDominator]

so should i stop eating sushi? am i going to grow extra limbs any time soon

Edited April 6, 2011 by TheDominator

[vancanfan]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

another earthquake (7.4) just hit japan and a tsunami alert has been issued

[Femme.Canuck]

Heres some footage from the latest aftershock which is (for right now) being said it was a 7.4 quake off the coast of Miyagi-- one of the largest aftershocks. A tsunami alert has been issued

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=ndnsubss&VID=23396851

According to JMA a 1m high tsunami is forecast for Miyagi-ken, a 50cm tsunami forecast for Iwate, Fukushima, Aomori, Ibaraki. Initial indications say there are no additional damage to Fukushima-1 from the new quake per TEPCO. Fukushima-2 nuke plant reported normal.

Some injuries are now being reported from the latest aftershock. Widespread power outages also reported in Aomori, Iwate & Akita after quake.

Edited April 7, 2011 by P.OneOh

[Captain Bob]

Heres some footage from the latest aftershock which is (for right now) being said it was a 7.4 quake off the coast of Miyagi-- one of the largest aftershocks. A tsunami alert has been issued

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=ndnsubss&VID=23396851

According to JMA a 1m high tsunami is forecast for Miyagi-ken, a 50cm tsunami forecast for Iwate, Fukushima, Aomori, Ibaraki. Initial indications say there are no additional damage to Fukushima-1 from the new quake per TEPCO. Fukushima-2 nuke plant reported normal.

Some injuries are now being reported from the latest aftershock. Widespread power outages also reported in Aomori, Iwate & Akita after quake.

The aftershocks just don't stop, it's quite scary.

[Barney Stinson]

7.4

tsunami warming

[Bieksa(not really)]

Yeah, big quake in Japan. I heard its 6, which is not as bad as the 9 March 11.

It felt scary, and the news I heard is that another nuclear power plant has lost power! and has lost cooling(power).

I am sure I read over the past few weeks that the other nuclear power plants were built from more modern

technology and would be safe in another earthquake! WTF!!

I don't think that TEPCO and the Japanese gov have been honest about this whole thing!

And I am constantly reminded of the images from a little-seen Akira Kurasawa film (I think produced by Spielburg) that warned

Japan about having nuclear power plants on this island nation that is prone to earthquakes, and expecting a big earthquake.

[Captain Bob]

Yeah, big quake in Japan. I heard its 6, which is not as bad as the 9 March 11.

It felt scary, and the news I heard is that another nuclear power plant has lost power! and has lost cooling(power).

I am sure I read over the past few weeks that the other nuclear power plants were built from more modern

technology and would be safe in another earthquake! WTF!!

I don't think that TEPCO and the Japanese gov have been honest about this whole thing!

And I am constantly reminded of the images from a little-seen Akira Kurasawa film (I think produced by Spielburg) that warned

Japan about having nuclear power plants on this island nation that is prone to earthquakes, and expecting a big earthquake.

As per CNN:

A strong quake hit off Miyagi, Japan, today, triggering a tsunami warning. Workers were evacuated from the nuclear plant damaged by last month's 9.0 quake

[Bieksa(not really)]

My friend translated from a news briefing in Japanese that another power plant had lost power. Another friend said that he

saw an explosion in the news video of the earthquake, but others (i) didn't see it, but we saw footage of a town (my friend

.said Sendai) with half of the town in darkness.

When I am with Japanese friends and we are watching a news briefing together, I have to go by what they say. It is stressful for everybody.

I thought it was safe enough to come back and come back to work. When I left in March, I only had a couple of small bags I had taken

with me when I went to stay with friends, so ....

[Aquiace]

What the heck is this?

There was a huge bright light in the distance when the quake hit, then disappeared as the electricity all went off.

[Bieksa(not really)]

What the heck is this?

There was a huge bright light in the distance when the quake hit, then disappeared as the electricity all went off.

I think that's the explosion my friend said he saw. Is there video?

By the way, how is your family? Are they still in Gunma?

[Master 112]

I didn't know aftershocks could be so powerful...

Edited April 7, 2011 by One one two

[Aquiace]

I think that's the explosion my friend said he saw. Is there video?

By the way, how is your family? Are they still in Gunma?

You probably won't believe me if I tell you. I had a dream this morning about an earthquake. People trapped under rocks and others stranded. It was very disturbing so I couldn't get back to sleep. I got out of bed around 7:15-7:30 and decided to go online. At 7:32 the earthquake hit.

They are fine, but scared as you can imagine. Ironically, the kids are less worried than their mom. They've already gone back to sleep. Tomorrow is the first day of school after March break. It's weird how kids in Japan love school so much more that we do.

[Wetcoaster]

Tsunami warnings for the northeast coast of Japan issued after a strong earthquake late on Thursday have been lifted, NHK public television reported on Friday.

[aGENT]

Tsunami warnings for the northeast coast of Japan issued after a strong earthquake late on Thursday have been lifted, NHK public television reported on Friday.

Well at least THAT'S good news!

[Wetcoaster]

Last month's massive earthquake that devastated Japan's northeast shifted the seabed near the epicenter by 24 meters (79 ft), the coast guard said.

The 9.0 magnitude quake was one of the biggest ever recorded.

The movement is four times larger than any previous land shift recorded in Japan.

The largest quake in Japan's recorded history also elevated the seabed off the coast of Miyagi prefecture by 3 meters, the coast guard said on Wednesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/us-japan-seabed-idUSTRE73607620110407

[lateralus]

What the heck is this?

There was a huge bright light in the distance when the quake hit, then disappeared as the electricity all went off.

I'm guessing that is a transformer exploding, the light is probably from arcing.

Would make sense that after you see this light the power went off.

[Bieksa(not really)]

I believe you!

It's been so terrible! People, whoever I've been been with, tell me that I have been talking in

my sleep, and once yelling about the earthquake. I have never been told before that I talk in

my sleep before. Lots of people tell me they have nightmares every night.

But I hope that your dream is not right in people being buried or killed.

But, again, I don't know what is going on. Was my friend right when she said another

nuclear power plant has lost power?.

I've been back for 3 days, and haven't sussed things out yet, Conditions re water and food

seem very difficult but not intolerable

[Wetcoaster]

As well as the evacuation after the recent 7.4 earthquake of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there are now concerns about another explosion from the build up of hydrogen gas. Nitrogen is being pumped in to try to minimize the risk.

Japan pumped nitrogen gas into a crippled nuclear reactor on Thursday, trying to prevent an explosive buildup of hydrogen gas as the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years stirred atomic safety debate and inspections in the United States.

Engineers worked through the night injecting nitrogen into the containment vessel of reactor No.1 at Fukushima Daiichi power plant, following success in stopping highly radioactive water leaking into the sea at another reactor in the complex.

"It is necessary to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel and eliminate the potential for a hydrogen explosion," an official of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) told a news briefing.

The possibility of another hydrogen explosion like those that ripped through reactors No.1 and No.3 early in the crisis, spreading high levels of radiation into the air, was "extremely low," he said.

But TEPCO suspected that the outside casing of the reactor vessel was damaged, said the official.

"Under these conditions, if we continue cooling the reactors with water, the hydrogen leaking from the reactor vessel to the containment vessel could accumulate and could reach a point where it could explode," he added.

A second TEPCO official said 6,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas would be pumped into reactor No.1 and the utility was preparing nitrogen gas injections for reactors No.2 and No.3 in the six-rector plant as a safety precaution.

Although TEPCO succeeded after days of desperate efforts to plug the leak at reactor No.2, they still need to pump 11.5 million liters (11,500 tonnes) of contaminated water back into the ocean because they have run out of storage space at the facility. The water was used to cool overheated fuel rods.

Nuclear experts said the damaged reactors were far from being under control almost a month after they were hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

In Vienna, the head of a U.N. scientific body said the Fukushima accident is not expected to have any serious impact on people's health, based on the information available now.

Wolfgang Weiss, chairman of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), also said the Fukushima disaster was less dramatic than Chernobyl in 1986 but "much more serious" than Three Mile Island in 1979.

Asked what health consequences he expected from Fukushima, he said: "From what I know now, nothing, because levels are so low."

"We have seen traces of iodine in the air all over the world now but they are much, much, much lower than traces we have seen at similar distances after Chernobyl," Weiss added.

Growing concerns in nearby South Korea and China over radioactive fallout from Japan were underscored when China's health ministry reported trace amounts of radioactive iodine in spinach in three Chinese provinces.

The government is preparing to revise guidelines for legal radiation levels, designed for brief exposure to high levels of radiation in emergencies and not cumulative absorption, for people living near the damaged plant.

Workers are struggling to restart cooling pumps -- which recycle the water -- in four damaged reactors.

Until those are fixed, they must pump in water to prevent overheating and meltdowns, but have run out of storage capacity for the seawater when it becomes contaminated.

Radioactive iodine detected in the sea has been recorded at 4,800 times the legal limit, but has since fallen to about 600 times the limit. The water remaining in the reactors has radiation five million times legal limits.

Martin Virgilio, a top official for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said at a House of Representatives hearing that the NRC did not believe that the core of Fukushima's reactor No. 2 had melted down.

Earlier, a Democratic lawmaker had said the NRC informed him the core had become so hot it had probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel. Lawmakers also grilled the NRC on whether the U.S. nuclear power industry was doing enough to ensure American reactors can withstand worst-case scenarios.

The NRC is conducting special inspections at two Illinois nuclear plants operated by Exelon Corp after routine checks in February found a problem with backup pumps that would be used to remove heat from the reactors in case of an accident.

COOLING REACTORS KEY

Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami left nearly 28,000 people dead or missing and thousands homeless, and rocked the world's third-largest economy.

It will likely take months to finally cool down the reactors and years to dismantle those that have been damaged. TEPCO has said it will decommission four of the six reactors.

Two Fukushima plants together provide 4 percent of Japan's electric power and local politicians warn that reopening them will be politically difficult.

The key to bringing the reactors under control is the extent of damage to the plant's cooling system, said analysts.

The Sankei newspaper reported that the government and TEPCO were considering building new cooling systems for three reactors to operate from outside the reactor buildings.

Japan's fishermen, who are part of the politically powerful agricultural lobby, made clear they were not assuaged by assurances that ocean radioactivity levels were low and safe.

"From now on, our fishermen will never cooperate with or accept nuclear power generation. I would like them to stop even those reactors that are now in operation right away," Ikuhiro Hattori, chairman of the Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, told NHK state television.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/us-japan-idUSTRE72A0SS20110406?pageNumber=1