Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[Osakadave]

barrn, I can likely help set you up, although I know more people Osaka way.

[AssKissinger]

.
Things are getting really testy here in Hachinohe, without gas, or kerosene, and no sign of it. There are rumors that gas stations have gas and people are lining up for hours, and tempers are really starting to flare. Add on top of that the never ending aftershocks, the real worry of radiation fallout, and I worry that some people are getting close to the breaking point.
We got 10cm of snow last night which just adds to people's woes, and makes it even more difficult to get around on foot or by bicycle.
It really is a bizarre situation, and all I can do is sit around in the cold, wait for either the highways to open, the trains to start running, and fuel and food to be delivered. Fortunately we were excluded from the Tohoku Denryoku's rolling blackouts, thank god for little mercies.

Are the troops in Misawa doing anything besides watching TV?

[Kanchou]

I started running to work to save the gasoline (not even 2km anyway) and my boss wants me to wear a cheap cotton surgical mask to protect myself from fallout.

Spring for an NBC-rated gas mask and I'll think about it.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

This aussie and her family are staying put for the time being.

This Russian global multicultural citizen has just informed her bosses that she'd like to go back to Japan for a half year minimum to work with the company's colleagues and dealers for the rebuilding process.

(i did get back to denmark about an hour ago to fucking media waiting in the arrivals hall to ask about my 'horrific experience'. how they found out i was on the flight from frankfurt to billund, i have no idea, since not even i knew that i had a seat on the flight until 30 minutes before takeoff. they got a very polite fuck off from me.

[cstaylor]

Uh oh...

Police eye using water cannon to cool Fukushima's No. 4 reactor

[Takechanpoo]

U.S airplane is flying above Yokota Air Base continuously for a long time. Probably it is investigating radiation amount.

[Coligny]

This Russian global multicultural citizen has just informed her bosses that she'd like to go back to Japan for a half year minimum to work with the company's colleagues and dealers for the rebuilding process.

(i did get back to denmark about an hour ago to fucking media waiting in the arrivals hall to ask about my 'horrific experience'. how they found out i was on the flight from frankfurt to billund, i have no idea, since not even i knew that i had a seat on the flight until 30 minutes before takeoff. they got a very polite fuck off from me.

Ok, but at least did you moon them ?

[Crystal Skull]

Well, just watched some propoganda on NHK News.

They compared the amount of radiation in the air today in several prefectures, and compared them to events such as an x-ray or a plane flight from Tokyo to NY.

They stated that in a prefecture there was 21.4 (micro something) an hour, where as an x-ray exposes you to 50 (micro somethings)...so don't be so worried, because your exposure is less than half of what you would get from a normal x-ray!

Yer...if you were getting an x-ray every fucking hour!

24 hours exposure...24 x 21.4 = 513.6 micro somethings a day!

That's 10 fucking x-rays a day! Would you like 10 fucking x-rays a day Miss NHK announcer?

[wuchan]

U.S airplane is flying above Yokota Air Base continuously for a long time. Probably it is investigating radiation amount.

Source?

If they were flying out OPSEC rules would prevent them from doing it all at once. On the other hand may be helping, or doing all the work, to clean up this mess.

[Coligny]

Source?

If they were flying out OPSEC rules would prevent them from doing it all at once. On the other hand may be helping, or doing all the work, to clean up this mess.

Hummm... from what I know aboot Take...

I'd say maybe Mark 1 eyeballs...

(sort of can trust him for plane identification)

[Coligny]

Just felt another shaky...

Source: me
confirmation: cat turd on the floor (check)
(damn he's getting more and more sensitive by the minute)

[waruta]

Just felt another shaky...

Source: me
confirmation: cat turd on the floor (check)
(damn he's getting more and more sensitive by the minute)

Fuck, here we go again...

[Coligny]

Sit Rep aboot network submarine links:

http://gigaom.com/broadband/in-japan-many-under-sea-cables-are-damaged/

GUYS GUYS !!!!! my village is on the map !!!

[Taro Toporific]

Sit Rep aboot network submarine links...
...GUYS GUYS !!!!! my village is on the map !!!

Gee, what is it like to live in a [color="Magenta"]Breast Cancer Ribbon[/color] village?

[Bucky]

Canadian medical team stops by for visit in Tokyo then heads home:

The Canadian Medical Assistance Team (CMAT) says it has been stuck in Tokyo for several days, unable to reach the hardest-hit areas in the northeastern part of the country because of the escalating risks of a nuclear disaster at several power plants.
A spokesperson for CMAT says they are not officially equipped for a nuclear emergency.

Calling the situation frustrating, Bill Coltart says radiation levels might rise to a potentially dangerous level and they don't want to endanger the team's health.

"Emergency operations were being suspended due to excessively high radiation in the area. Based on this and our further discussions with the United Nations on site coordination centre in Tokyo we made the decision it's just too unsafe to have our team continue operating there," he told CTV News in a telephone interview from Tokyo Tuesday night.

CMAT says it will continue to prepare and stage its response from facilities in Metro Vancouver and Seattle, WA.

Members hope to return to Japan to continue relief efforts when the situation stabilizes. The agency is in the process of moving equipment and supplies from its warehouse in Toronto to the West Coast.

[Jack]

Canadian medical team stops by for visit in Tokyo then heads home:

I suppose the nuclear situation changes the calculus dramatically for teams not equipped for that purpose.

[Osakadave]

[ttjereth]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-quake-radiation-idUSTRE72E14R20110315

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-japan-quake-health-idUSTRE72E9DL20110316

One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts (mSv). One millisievert is 1,000 microsieverts.

Exposure to 100 mSv a year is the lowest level at which any increase in cancer risk is clearly evident. A cumulative 1,000 mSv (1 sievert) would probably cause a fatal cancer many years later in five out of every 100 persons exposed to it.

For cancer risks to be elevated, exposure would have to exceed 100 millisieverts in a year, experts say. To be lethal, the blast of radiation would have to top 5,000 millisieverts, delivered in just minutes or hours.

a single one sievert (1,000 mSv) dose causes radiation sickness such as nausea, vomiting, hemorrhaging, but not death. A single dose of 5 sieverts would kill about half of those exposed to it within a month.

* Exposure to 350 mSv was the criterion for relocating people after the Chernobyl accident, according to the World Nuclear Association.

*"Very acute radiation, like that which happened in Chernobyl and to the Japanese workers at the nuclear power station, is unlikely for the population," said Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the university of Hong Kong.

[Mulboyne]

Just had a drink in a late night bar. The owner wanted to take a photo of us all and someone said "Hey! Hibakusha Cheese!"

[ttjereth]

U.S. Embassy now recommends U.S. citizens evacuate the area and stay at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the plants...

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20110317-01.html

Creeping ever closer...

Also, radiation counts:
http://notice.yahoo.co.jp/emg/en/archives/np_jp.html

[IkemenTommy]

I just walked by the local drug store and there were stocking the shelves with tons of toilet paper and tissues.

[Coligny]

I just walked by the local drug store and there were stocking the shelves with tons of toilet paper and tissues.

Ok, but without enough porn it's going to be useless...

Meanwhile (no confirmation yet). Mizuho Bank ATM seems to have gone tits up nation wide.

[2triky]

So the latest news that I've read is that the police have arrived on scene to spray water on the no. 3 reactor with a water cannon truck. Any other relevant developments?

[IkemenTommy]

Ok, but without enough porn it's going to be useless...

Meanwhile (no confirmation yet). Mizuho Bank ATM seems to have gone tits up nation wide.

Yep, as soon as we overcome the toilet/tissue paper shortage.. next up in Ja-panic land will be ATM shortage. I urge everyone to withdraw today for the reason that tomorrow is payday for many people (20th being the payday but it falls on Sunday this month so the bank deposit will be tomorrow) and so you can predict what will happen.

[Bucky]

So the latest news that I've read is that the police have arrived on scene to spray water on the no. 3 reactor with a water cannon truck. Any other relevant developments?

Well, there is this:

[quote]A top US nuclear safety official said late on Wednesday that the situation in Japan was worse than officials there had suggested.

Gregory Jaczko, head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said his organisation believed one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima plant &#8211]

[Yokohammer]

So the latest news that I've read is that the police have arrived on scene to spray water on the no. 3 reactor with a water cannon truck. Any other relevant developments?

GE are in the process of preparing 10 gas-turbine generators for delivery to the Fukushima plant, I assume to provide electricity for the cooling system. Three are ready to be shipped.

I have a couple of little questions about this. Firstly, these are pretty major pieces of equipment than have to be shipped to Japan from the US and then set up. How long is that going to take? And second, why the fuck weren't similar facilities available within the country in the first place?

My incompetence/unpreparedness detector is reading off scale.

[Bucky]

Ok, but without enough porn it's going to be useless...

Meanwhile (no confirmation yet). Mizuho Bank ATM seems to have gone tits up nation wide.

confirmed:

Mizuho Bank said on Thursday that all of its automatic teller machines (ATM) throughout Japan and its Internet transaction system have stopped working.

A spokesman for Japan's second-largest bank said the reason for the outage was not known, although he doubted its was due to this week's power outages in the Tokyo area and eastern Japan or last week's massive earthquake.

[2triky]

Well, there is this:

I read that earlier. It's quite alarming but I'm still somewhat unsure if that assessment is well founded or not. Sh*t's all fugged up.

[2triky]

GE are in the process of preparing 10 gas-turbine generators for delivery to the Fukushima plant, I assume to provide electricity for the cooling system. Three are ready to be shipped.

That's obviously good news but I take it intermediate measures need to provide some measurable relief until that electricity can be routed to the cooling systems.

My incompetence/unpreparedness detector is reading off scale.

I'm beginning to fear your impression may not be far off the mark.

[legion]

GE designed reactors and everyone is beating up on the Japanese for the set up.

Remember the Widowmakers?