Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Blah Blah Blah, getting a bit sick of the same re-hashed shit on TV. EACH AND EVERY DAY, an estimated 24,000 kids under 5 die simply becasue they can't get clean water.

http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/

it's not like they've been banging on about it for months. i know it seems impossible, but it's only been about 72 hours since it happened. i seriously doubt anyone here really gives a fuck right now about libya, the royal wedding, or obama's latest contradictions. (ie...the same rehashed shit each and every day that cnn/bbc shows)

the places where kids die every day from lack of clean water...those are places that are well practised in life and death, and being without power, battery operated phone chargers, conbeni bento, hand warmers, subways, flush toilets that wash your ass for you.

so stfu and be grateful that you live in a place where you even have a tv to watch rehashed news on to begin with. and if they news is so irritating to you, then go read a book. or change the channel even!

[Coligny]

A bit less of an alarmist report...


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/14/japan.us.navy.radiation/

One thing aboot this, usually military sensor are super sensitive. Without precise numbers we can tell much from this information. Plant safety sensor can be triggered by minor things and few month ago a guy in england triggered a nuclear alert because of his cat who got an X-ray scan and was triggering police sensors.

So yeah, certainly some choppers came back positive... but I don't think they will glow in the dark tonight or we will wake up face to face with giant spiders tomorrow.

[Coligny]

the places where kids die every day from lack of clean water...those are places that are well practised in life and death

Yup this logical fallacy got a name (that I can't remember anyway) but basically, it's not because the shit hit the fan harder in some other place that it should change the view here. Event unrelated.

And cutting power in a huge density urban zone can turn ugly quite fast, you can't shit in the woods when there is no woods...

[omae mona]

A bit less of an alarmist report...


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/14/japan.us.navy.radiation/

Thanks for posting that. What is driving me nuts in particular about the pseudo-science reporting about this issue is that I can't find a single report anywhere which talks about the AMOUNT of radiation or radioactive material. And that's all that matters. They neither mention the amount of what has been released so far, nor the worst case scenario of what could be released.

There is radiation around us all the time, in nature, and due to man-made processes too. So how much is coming out of Fukushima? Personally I don't care if there is a meltdown which creates a massive radioactive steam cloud that drifts down to my home in Tokyo and wraps us up in all its radioactive goodness, if it's actually less radioactive than my glow-in-the-dark Pokemon watch. It's the amount that matters, not how dramatic the images on TV are.

And all reports I have seen from actual scientists and people who actually know how nuclear power plants work say the same thing. Even in the worst case, there can't be any radiation that affects anybody's health down in Tokyo. The 20km evacuation zone is sensible, as anybody outside of that will not possibly suffer any negative health effects.

Is anybody aware of actual scientific information that indicates a meaningful health risk to anybody not living right near the power plant?

[canman]

Ak where are your relatives? I think you mentioned Hirosaki but I'm not sure. If there is anything I can do let me know.
NHk just reported there was probably a core meltdown at reactor 3. Nice to know but they said it rather matter of fact. I think it might be worse than they stated.

[MrUltimateGaijin]

Don't forget that a meltdown does not mean radioactive material is going to be released.

[legion]

Lurker you hit it dead on. I'm sorry for those of you in Tokyo who have to go without power for a few hours, but the TV coverage of how put out the people are is quite sickening. I have students who still can't contact family and have no idea what is going on, while others are still hold up in school gymnasiums, with little or no food, privacy, water or bathing facilities, and people are so stressed about losing power for a few hours. Sorry but that is low on the priority list.

I hear you on that, all things considered it's not really much of an issue.

It has also brought home to us how much we take for granted, and how much we waste. When all this settles down I hope we have learnt we don't need to leave all the lights on all the time everywhere.

[FG Lurker]

NHk just reported there was probably a core meltdown at reactor 3. Nice to know but they said it rather matter of fact. I think it might be worse than they stated.

The core melting isn't an issue as long as the containment holds, which it is or we would likely have a bigass fire going on there a-la Chernobyl (which really didn't have any containment to speak of.)

Considering these plants have come through a quake and a tsunami that were both larger than they were designed for I think the current situation is pretty damn good. It's going to suck as far as power generation goes until something gets figured out but otherwise things are going well -- even better than one would expect given the circumstances.

[FG Lurker]

For those in Tokyo wondering which blackout group you belong to apparently this site will tell you based on your postal code:

http://noveliba.jp/teiden/

[AssKissinger]

Ak where are your relatives? I think you mentioned Hirosaki but I'm not sure. If there is anything I can do let me know.
NHk just reported there was probably a core meltdown at reactor 3. Nice to know but they said it rather matter of fact. I think it might be worse than they stated.

See PM. They're fine. The whole place is just waiting on the relief.

[ttjereth]

Hi folks, long time no see ("You last visited: 12-10-2008 at 12:36 AM" ), hope everyone is doing well under the circumstances.

Just figured I'd post a link to a very well written and informative post on the Nuclear Plant Situation over on the Something Awful forums (of all places to find calm, logic and reason. Of course the thread later degenerates into the same nonsense as always, but the first FAQ post is brilliant).

I don't think this was posted before, but it may have been hidden in one of those horrendous short link things so many people seem to love for unfathomable reasons.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3396817

[kagemusha]

I hope everyone here in the forum is well and safe. Been working for the paper three days, 24 hours now and the sights are very disturbing.
You can't praise enough the Japanese people. In our countries you'll hear about looting raping and other sports as soon as much much minor disasters strike (Christchurch, New Orleans and so on). Here in Northern Japan we are witnessed in many cases to humanity at its best.
To all living around the disaster zone - a second big earthquake is highly probable not to mention the clusterfuck at the reactor. Find another place and stay away for the next week at least.

[Coligny]

WTF is the emperor (not) doing ?

With nobody trusting the politicians it would have been a good time to speak up a bit...

Side side note. Forum need reorganisation. Split between quake/ nukular/ Tsunami /Volcano /OMG the krauts again... Might be a good idea to include ICE section.

[Mulboyne]

Side side note. Forum need reorganisation. Split between quake/ nukular/ Tsunami /Volcano /OMG the krauts again... Might be a good idea to include ICE section.

Probably some changes needed. Ultra has put up that "Earthquake update" post as a permanent front for now. It points to the latests posts in this thread but we may want to split this one off, at least into a specific thread for recent events and maybe more.

[Osakadave]

Nah, '95 was in Kansai and everyone knows that anything that doesn't directly affect Tokyo doesn't matter.

Note that similar effort was aimed at a US evacuation.

[fast_dave]

For those of you currently in Japan, you've truely earned the title of Fuckedgaijin

Stay safe brothers and sisters and may Our Blessed Lady of Flight Reservations look over you!

fast_dave in the PRK

[Samurai_Jerk]

Tell that to the mass transit operators... it's not because you don't solve all problems that you should solve none...

Not the same thing. Staggered start times would solve the morning rushhour problem when the trains are most crowded becuase that's a once day between certain hours problem.

[ketchupkatsu]

Jus another 'Merican FB post

[CrankyBastard]

Tepco finally got their English page up and running.
Blackout schedule http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031406-e.html

[Bucky]

TEPCO statement on Fukushima preparedness:

"Japanese nuclear facilities are built to exacting safety standards. They are designed to withstand powerful seismic events, such as earthquakes. In this earthquake ­the strongest recorded over the past 100 years in Japan­ the containment structures of Fukushima Daiichi maintained their structural integrity. These facilities were designed to withstand tsunamis within a range of assumed strength. In this event, however, the force of the tsunami exceeded the assumed range and flooded diesel generators at Fukushima Daiichi power station, thus precipitating the loss of power for the reactor cooling systems."

Found on the NBR forum

[Coligny]

Yahoo Japan quake maps have switched to a new color scheme... light olive green for the land (ok...) and beige-ish for the sea... I know the tsunami water was muddy... but this is a bit sinister...

[Coligny]

TEPCO statement on Fukushima preparedness:


Found on the NBR forum

I my high school this king of statement in a test would have got me few week ends of retention time...

I remember the day when my history teacher reeking of smokes and coffe (a bit trailer trash in her style but with an IQ way over her pay grade) asked my mother if we had heating at home because she deduced that I was only coming to her class because it was warm in winter and if we'd continue like this she'll teach with windows open so only the motivated people would stay...

[Mulboyne]

There has just been a deeply unsatisfactory TEPCO press conference following the latest explosion at Fukushima. The press aren't asking great questions but TEPCO isn't helping by being very short on answers.

[Bucky]

There has just been a deeply unsatisfactory TEPCO press conference following the latest explosion at Fukushima. The press aren't asking great questions but TEPCO isn't helping by being very short on answers.

Mulb, I wonder, with greater worldwide media scrutiny if the Japanese government and agencies like TEPCO will be held a little more accountable than they would be by just the Japanese media?

[L S]

Mulb, I wonder, with greater worldwide media scrutiny if the Japanese government and agencies like TEPCO will be held a little more accountable than they would be by just the Japanese media?

Mulboyne and Captain (if he is ever on anymore) have better insight, but my take is they will be held more accountable in the long run but the deck is still stacked against the foreign press for anything that matters right now. It's easy to obfuscate when events are happening so quickly.

[Iraira]

Gilbert Gotfried just got fired from his position as the voice of the Alflac duck for tweeting jokes about the tsunami.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/14/entertainment/main20043084.shtml?tag=stack

[Osakadave]

Third explosion may have actually damaged the reactor vessel.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/14/japan-scrambles-as-reactor-container-damaged/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8382139/Japan-crisis-third-explosion-raises-spectre-of-nuclear-nightmare.html

[MrUltimateGaijin]

Mulb, I wonder, with greater worldwide media scrutiny if the Japanese government and agencies like TEPCO will be held a little more accountable than they would be by just the Japanese media?

how accountable were they after the toukaimura clusterfuck?

[Bucky]

Gilbert Gotfried just got fired from his position as the voice of the Alflac duck for tweeting jokes about the tsunami.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/14/entertainment/main20043084.shtml?tag=stack

Among his reported jokes:

among them: "I fucked a girl in japan. She screamed 'I feel the earth move and I'm getting wet,'" and "I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'They'll be another one floating by any minute now.'"

Hardy har har:shake:

[Iraira]

Add 50 cent, Paul Watson, and of course, Ishihara to the list of stupid idiots who need a major ass kicking.