Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[Mulboyne]

the moment earthquake happened at Aeon of Tagajo, Miyagi pre.

And after this at the same place.....

The store has now reopened. Operating outside from the rooftop carpark:

[Catoneinutica]

[CrankyBastard]

[Greji]

[Coligny]

Ya forgot the usual punch line, "if you don't forward this email to 4523 people you don't know, we will kill this unicorm"

Interesting email circulating about after the quake and tsunami in the US. Honto ka na?




Ten Things to Learn from Japan

[Greji]

Ya forgot the usual punch line, "if you don't forward this email to 4523 people you don't know, we will kill this unicorm"

You right. I thought it would be overkill.....

[Doctor Stop]

From the article, I'm getting the feeling that this is CYA from upper-levels in case something goes wrong later.

I think it's simply a case of being stupid while American.

[Ganma]

[Mulboyne]

[nottu]

[pheyton]

Wow, very smart move by that mayor to broadcast something like this. If you go to the city's site you can finds tons of useful information, including city accounts to donate to for the survivors. It would be great if other cities copied their model of asking for help and how to donate.

If someone can drive supplies up I'd definitely be willing to donate.

[PileOWank]

[Mulboyne]

[YThq]DkPTJB0Zqds[/YThq]

An eccentric old boy in East Matsushima decided to make his own evacuation centre around ten years ago. The local people used to tease him, saying there wasn't much point building it where he did because no tsunami was going to come their way. They are now very thankful he did put it together. Nearly 80 people ended up spending the night at his shelter as around 700 of their neighbours lost their lives.

The Asahi has the story here (Japanese)

[Mike Oxlong]

[SIZE="4"]Prime Minister Kan Caused Nuclear Plant Explosion? [/SIZE]
Visit to Fukushima Delayed Controlled Release of Vapor

[Mike Oxlong]

[damn name]

I wish people speculating (and the press) would add qualifiers about the events early on in this emergency. Many early reports and speculation about accidents turn out to be wrong in the full investigations completed later.

Venting is venting, so I don't see a correlation between Kan's visit and the explosion.

There was a comment earlier in this thread about back up batteries only lasting 8 hours. Those batteries are for instrumentation and control. The internal cooling system of a reactor could not be powered by batteries.

One lightly reported event from three weeks ago raised my eyebrows more than anything so far. And it was about the Tokaimura nuclear plant in Ibaraki, the site of the criticality accident over 10 years ago at the reprocessing facility.

There is only one operating reactor at the plant and it shut down automatically during the quake. There was no tsunami damage, yet two of the three diesel backup generators for the cooling systems failed. The third backup generator is operating the cooling system before decay heat can be reduced enough to extract the fuel rods. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/13/uk-japan-quake-tokai-idUKTRE72C2RL20110313

That causes me some real anxiety.

Other random comments are:

I haven't seen this being reported, but it may have been - Japan uses 5 mSv/yr as the maximum contamination, based on a range of 5-50 mSv/yr set in the 1984 International Commission on Radiological Protection standards.

The standards were increased to 10-50 mSv/yr in 1992, but Japan didn't change. The rest of the world uses a maximum exposure of at least double the Japan standard.

[Coligny]

[Coligny]

I don't remember if we already spoke aboot this crap at the daini plant:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/30/japan.daini/index.html?eref=edition_asia

[TL/DR] TEPCO said smoke was detected in the turbine building of reactor No. 1 at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant around 6 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) on 30 of march.

[damn name]

Hi Coligny

1. Reactor core isolation cooling (RCIC) pumps are different than residual heat removal (RHR) pumps. The power requirements of the RHR are substantially higher. The RCIC pumps are for steam only (low power to drive steam pump) used in normal shutdown. Pumping water is very different than steam.

The Emergency Core Cooling System (remember that there was a Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA)) uses the RHR system. The RHR system is run by generator.

"The emergency core cooling systems (ECCS) provide core cooling under loss of coolant accident
conditions to limit fuel cladding damage. The emergency core cooling systems consist of two high
pressure and two low pressure systems. The high pressure systems are the high pressure coolant
injection (HPCI) system and the automatic depressurization system (ADS). The low pressure systems
are the low pressure coolant injection (LPCI) mode of the residual heat removal system and the core
spray (CS) system." My emphasis added.

Here is a simplified description of the Mark I system: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/teachers/03.pdf

2. I thought it would be obvious that having 2 out of 3 diesel backup generators failing without water damage is troublesome. We don't know why they failed. The installation standards need to be reevaluated ASAP and any similar installations being used now for other online reactors should be tested immediately.

[Coligny]

2. I thought it would be obvious that having 2 out of 3 diesel backup generators failing without water damage is troublesome. We don't know why they failed. The installation standards need to be reevaluated ASAP and any similar installations being used now for other online reactors should be tested immediately.

Thanks for your post, sorry if I focus on good news for once...

Like one of the previous message where we were happy to 'just' have an oil fire... I'm happy to have at least one out of 3 generator working... that's much better than none at all...

[Mike Oxlong]

[SIZE="4"]Defiant Japanese boat captain rode out tsunami[/SIZE]

Susumu Sugawara looks bemused and a little embarrassed at all the attention he's getting.

The 64 year old has become a local hero on the Japanese island of Oshima. Smashed boats adorn the coastline of this once-idyllic tourist spot, but Sugawara's pride and joy, "Sunflower" is intact and working overtime transporting people and aid to and from the island. It can hold around 20 people at a time.

When the tsunami came, everyone ran to the hills. But Sugawara ran to his boat and steered it into deeper waters. "I knew if I didn't save my boat, my island would be isolated and in trouble," he tells CNN.

As he passed his other boats, used for fishing abalone, he said goodbye to them, apologizing that he could not save them all.

Then the first wave came. Sugawara says he is used to seeing waves up to 5 meters high but this was four-times that size.

"My feeling at this moment is indescribable," he says with glistening eyes. "I talked to my boat and said you've been with me 42 years. If we live or die, then we'll be together, then I pushed on full throttle."

"Here was my boat and here was the wave," he says, holding one hand low and the other stretched high above his head. "I climbed the wave like a mountain. When I thought I had got to the top, the wave got even bigger."

Sugawara's arms flail wildly as he describes the top of the wave crashing down repeatedly onto his boat. "I closed my eyes and felt dizzy. When I opened them, I could see the horizon again, so I knew I'd made it."

Then the next wave came. Sugawara can't remember if there were four or five waves, but he says he did not feel afraid, he was just focused on steering his boat.

Suddenly the sea was completely calm and he knew he had beaten the tsunami. Sugawara stayed at sea until dark, pumping water from the boat's engine room. He believed his island had been destroyed by the wave. He says he didn't cry but felt angry and utterly helpless. He didn't know if his family had survived.

Trying to get back to Oshima, he had to navigate carefully past wrecked houses, boats and other debris that floated past him. The island of Oshima was in complete darkness; the only way he could find his way was with the guide of raging fires at Kesunnuma -- 5 kilometers (3 miles) away.

For twenty days, he has been making hourly trips to the mainland. For the first two weeks at least he provided almost the only connection with it. Without Sugawara and the Sunflower, the island would have been completely cut off.

He doesn't ask passengers for money if they have none. Those that can, pay just 300 yen (US$3.5) towards fuel...

[Yokohammer]

[cstaylor]

So ... I'm still looking for the long line of TEPCO execs who are stepping up to offer support ...

You'll be waiting a long time for that. They couldn't even be bothered with storing extra dosimeters at secured locations.

[Coligny]

Defiant Japanese boat captain rode out tsunami

Actually the only way for a boat to survive a tsunami is to ride it straight ahead... Takes brass balls, and certainly might not work well with anything bigger than a Perry Class Frigate...

(would not try this with a still under warranty aircraft carrier...)

[Mulboyne]

[cstaylor]

We don't know why they failed.

It's spelled "TEPCO".

[cstaylor]

Kyodo news is announcing that higher radiation levels outside of the 30km zone have been found (again).

NEWS ADVISORY: Above-limit radiation found just outside 30 km area around Fukushima plant

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/

[Mike Oxlong]

[vmo]21881702[/vmo]

I think that it is clear Arnie Gunderson is not in favor of nuclear power. This probably influences his viewpoint. But he is doing the type of analysis that is so lacking in most of the mainstream press. Note, the arguments he brings to bear here are the type that bring very significant claims to the table that can be logically evaluated, cross referenced, and even tested.

As best I can tell, the ultimate claim here is that conditions for the workers at the plant are more serious than we are being told, and they are almost surely having to deal with a lot more than we are being made aware of.

via Anarchy Japan

[Greji]

I'm still looking for the long line of TEPCO execs who are stepping up to offer support ...

They're out trying to get free keitai's from Sohn.....

[Coligny]

[vmo]21881702[/vmo]



via Anarchy Japan

So much for the warm shutdown.

Supposed to have received 100 tons of boric acid 2 weeks ago with the first AN225 trip from France... Hope Tepco put some more on their amazon wish-list...