Japan: 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Reactor Status #4

[nursebeeme]

Do we know if the electric companies are regulated?

here is an entire research paper on it:

http://ipu.msu.edu/research/publications/pdfs/Public Utility Industries in Japan.pdf

also includes the recent privatization

 

[Quiche]

Scientist who studied nuclear worst-case scenarios talks about Fukushima worst-case scenario

Quote: To a certain extent, we know what happens when a reactor core melts, and we know what happens when nuclear fuel gets exposed from beneath a water bath. We know what happens in those situations because we've intentionally made them occur, and studied the results.

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/17/scientist-who-studie.html?dlvrit=36761


(We're really not hearing much about the cores and their status, are we?)

 

[QueenD]

Dang when I left yesterday #3 thread just got started, now we are on #4. I have a lot of reading to do.

 

[Wise Old Owl]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/17/japan-nuclear-crisis-tsunami-aftermath

Didn't I question icebergs or chunks of icebergs just the other day?

 

[burbqueen]

Our government isn't gonna say anything we haven't heard already. People can't be allowed to go into a state of panic. There is nothing happening yet to warrant concern on American soil. The Japanese government is flat out lying to their people and to the world. They are trying to keep their citizens calm and don't want to anger the atomic energy big wigs around the world. IMO the are hoping for containment cause if all the plants fail then people will really rethink nuclear power.

 

[Wise Old Owl]

Finally found names:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/corpinfo/overview/p-leader-e.html

Don't know but it seems they are all Japanese to me. I was curious to see if there were any "foreigners" on the board.


ETA: Here's more:

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/board.asp?ticker=9501:JP

This last link provide a little more information. I don't know why I'm researching this - guess it just gives me something to do.

 

[nursebeeme]

from that research paper link I posted I have gathered that the japan society of public utility economics regulates privately owned utilities in Japan fwiw

 

[mimi56]

I'm cautiously pessimistic. Trying not to get too panicked, however.

Same here, although I just ran a quick errand and saw two men standing in a front yard nearby and they were wearing white coverall jumpsuits and masks!!! I was about to freak until I realized they were house painters! So I guess I'm a little on edge.

 

[nursebeeme]

Workers were trying to connect a 1-km (0.6-mile) long power cable from the main grid to restart water pumps to cool reactor No. 2, which does not house spent fuel rods considered the biggest risk of spewing radioactivity into the atmosphere.
One official from the plant operator told a late night briefing the cable could be connected within hours. Other officials said it was unclear if water pumps at reactor No. 2, which sustained less damage from a series of explosions, would work.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110317/ts_nm/us_japan_quake

 

[Dr. Know?]

Well, yes, I am worried some. My 5 precious grandchildren, daughter and husband are headed to San Diego for a trip that was planned months ago. I'm more worried of an earthquake right now than the possible exposure to radiation. So yeah, I'm worried.

I'm heart broken for the people of Japan and what they are going through. Their country has been hit terribly hard with one disaster after the other.

I'm angry with the downplay/lies that TEPCO is releasing at the moment and anxious for the US to tell what really is going on soon! That's all.

 

[ScorpRising]

from that research paper link I posted I have gathered that the japan society of public utility economics regulates privately owned utilities in Japan fwiw

JSPUE or They spewin something but it's not the truth... :waitasec:

 

[vjlaw]

And not only the West. About 40 years after the St. George, Utah, testings, charts were released showing where the radiation wound up, carried by the prevailing winds. No, not much made it the 1300 miles to southeast Kansas, where I grew up, but yes, my home county - Labette - was the one chart area in our state which was inundated with high levels.

It took years to find out, but that probably explains why, as a toddler, I was treated for an enlarged thyroid. I actually was shipped to KU Med Center in KCK for a week, to let the experts have a gander. Maybe I'm not so worried because I've already lived through having been, perhaps, personally touched by the consequences of our quest to conquer the atom.

I should say though that I do worry for all of you who have children - for the very old and for the very young. But, for me, not so much.

My kids are adults now but there are so many things that can be harmful to their future I guess people just have to pick what they worry about. My oldest had to go through x-rays quite often in her first year of life. The x-rays were around her hips so I made sure there weren't as many x-rays as docs wanted to do. The future of the kids today looks better than what they may have looked for the kids our age with all the testing. And the same with the Japanese kids and their future. Their parents and grandparents werre doused with a horrible amount of radiation and the kids of those people had a future. I just think right now, there are thousands of kids who desperately need food and water so they can even have a future. The immediate needs of the people seem to be ignored in the press. jmo

 

[Wise Old Owl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110317/ts_nm/us_japan_quake

Operation extension cord. I just keep getting a picture of some comdey sketch where they are trying to get power and need to plug in two extension cords and finally get there and when they go to plug them in - the cords are like 8 inches too short and don't reach.

I know I know - I'm just feeling really strange today.

 

[tehcloser]

It's NOT the end of the world, but one of these days.....greed is going to do it. You can name the poison that does it, but it was because of greed. Ok, I'll TRY to shut up now.

 

[PassTheMotrin]

Same here, although I just ran a quick errand and saw two men standing in a front yard nearby and they were wearing white coverall jumpsuits and masks!!! I was about to freak until I realized they were house painters! So I guess I'm a little on edge.

Don't freak until you see Hazmat suits.

 

[Quiche]

Okay, now that Tepco is so transparently obfuscating, I have to question everything that has come down the pipeline of info for days and days... How many times I have been to Kyodo News, ugh! They're just a mouthpiece! :furious:

 

[tehcloser]

Quiche.........but what else have we got?

 

[tk71texas]

Radiation detectors at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports were triggered when passengers from flights that started in Tokyo passed through customs, the New York Post reported.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-17/tokyo-passengers-trigger-u-s-airport-detectors-n-y-post-says.html


let the panic begin.......

 

[tehcloser]

The government has instructed local governments to conduct tests for radioactivity levels in domestically produced foods using a provisional standard set up by the government for the first time ever, as a result of the evolving nuclear crisis at a Fukushima power plant crippled by last Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake, ministry officials said Thursday.

''Although all the local authorities are required to conduct the tests, they will mainly be enforced on the fresh foods produced in municipalities related to the (nuclear power plant) accident,'' said Kohei Otsuka, vice minister for health, labor and welfare.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/79062.html

 

[nursebeeme]

Http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12775846

very good map