Japan: 9.0 Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Reactor Status #5

[Quiche]

"Blinding" Blue Light/Flash Seen During 7.4 Earthquake In Japan
http://youtu.be/WFe1QwvxHQg?hd=1

Not sure what that is-but it doesn't look good!!:waitasec:

Hopefully it was transmission lines striking together... not a transformer, that wouldn't have lasted so long.

 

[Elphaba]

That area can't get a break... Bless their battered souls.

 

[peeples]

that looked too bright for power lines......

 

[Quiche]

Challenges Mount at Fukushima, But Threat To Human Health Remains Low

Quote: Reactors have five barriers to prevent the release of radioactive material: a fuel pellet, zirconium cladding around the fuel, the reactor pressure vessel, the containment vessel, and the outer shell of the building. So according to the NRC, all that remains to keep the fuel from the outside environment in reactor no 2 is the containment vessel and the outer shell of the building. Everything else has been breached.

Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/20...at-to-human-health-remains-low/#ixzz1Irfobmos

Lots of conflicting information today.

 

[Quiche]

that looked too bright for power lines......

I think those videos are of Sendai-- a good distance away from a nuke plant. So, thankfully-- it's not neutrons, imo.

eta: Onagawa power plant is abt. 52 miles away from Sendai. fwiw

 

[dsntslp]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/japan.nuclear.leaks/index.html

Cosmic Log: Japan aftershocks not shocking

Thursday's quake knocked out several power lines at the Onagawa nuclear power plant north of Sendai, which has been shut down since the tsunami. One remaining line was supplying power to the plant and radiation monitoring devices detected no abnormalities. The plant's spent fuel pools briefly lost cooling capacity but an emergency diesel generator quickly kicked in.

 

[coastal]

Tsunami warning lifted after large Japan quake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42473172/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Thank all the Gods for that small mercy!

 

[Daisyjane]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/83921.html VIENNA, April 7, Kyodo

Radioactive materials released from Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant had spread around the entire northern hemisphere in the two weeks following the March 11 quake and tsunami disaster, a Vienna-based international nuclear watchdog said Thursday. The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization said minute traces of radioactive substances spread around the hemisphere by around March 25 after moving across the Pacific Ocean and other places. It said the amounts of such substances were far below levels that could affect human health.

The organization runs 63 monitoring stations around the world, including one in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture in Japan. The Takasaki station detected radioactive substances on March 12, followed by detection in eastern Russia on March 14 and in the west coast of the United States two days later. The radioactive materials then crossed the Atlantic and reached Iceland on March 22, it said.

According to a simulation by a German research institute, a path of the radioactive materials involved moving from Fukushima to the United States on air currents before they were dispersed from northern Canada to the Arctic Sea to spread around the hemisphere.==Kyodo

 

[hockeymom]

Schools closed in South Korea due to radioactive rain fear.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42469812/ns/world_news-asiapacific/


Of course authorities say there is not enough radiation to be harmful to humans. ( I wish I had a dollar for everytime we hear that said!)

 

[Daisyjane]

Lots of info and photos here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374520/Cars-houses-severed-feet-shoes-The-vast-field-debris-Japan-earthquake-tsunami-thats-floating-U-S-West-Coast.html

A vast field of debris, swept out to sea following the Japan earthquake and tsunami, is floating towards the U.S. West Coast, it emerged today.

More than 200,000 buildings were washed out by the enormous waves that followed the 9.0 quake on March 11. There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water.

But even more grizzly are the predictions of U.S. oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who is expecting human feet, still in their shoes, to wash up on the West Coast within three years.

'I'm expecting parts of houses, whole boats and feet in sneakers to wash up,' Mr Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has spent decades tracking flotsam, told MailOnline.

Several thousand bodies were washed out to sea following the disaster and while most of the limbs will come apart and break down in the water, feet encased in shoes will float, Mr Ebbesmeyer said. 'I'm expecting the unexpected,' he added.

 

[Quiche]

Even as Disaster Unfolds, Plan Forms to Dismantle Reactors

Quote: “All things hinge,” said David Richardson, a president at Babcock & Wilcox, “on having safe access.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/asia/08toshiba.html


Well now, that's the catch, isn't it...

 

[Quiche]

Massive pumps departing U.S. for Japan nuclear plant

Quote: Each pump weighs 190,000 pounds and has a boom reach of over 227 feet, and can pump water and concrete at massive rates. They will be loaded aboard enormous Russian cargo jets Friday.

and

There are only two such pumps in the world, said Putzmeister spokeswoman Mary Roberts.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/07/japan.concrete.pumps/

 

[Niner]

Schools closed in South Korea due to radioactive rain fear.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42469812/ns/world_news-asiapacific/


Of course authorities say there is not enough radiation to be harmful to humans. ( I wish I had a dollar for everytime we hear that said!)

re bold - no kidding hockeymom!! :banghead:

and again - would like to thank EVERYONE that has posted links and explainations - THANKS!! :seeya:

 

[dsntslp]

Inside Japan's Evacuation Zone "It's Eerie Here".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42478877/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Awww, The pic of the dogs just tears at my heart! Those dogs look so much like my own (in my avatar). How sad

OT: 3-31-11 HaLeigh had 8 pups btw and is doing well. Adji (the big guy in my av) is the dad and the girl on his right is HaLeigh (the mom). Yes, life goes on...

 

[dsntslp]

EDITORIAL: Kan owes world explanation for pumping radioactive water in sea

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104060144.html

 

[dsntslp]

Photos: Japan tries to move on after quake, tsunami

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2011/04/world/hires.gallery.japan.forward/index.html?hpt=C2

As always, apologies for any repeats.

 

[Daisyjane]

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/84063.html

Radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods at the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture following the strong earthquake late Thursday, the nuclear safety agency said Friday. While the spent fuel pools at the Onagawa plant and the Higashidori nuclear power station in Aomori Prefecture, both operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co., lost their cooling functions for 20 to 80 minutes after the quake, the temperature hardly rose, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. A small amount of contaminated water spilled on the floor was observed inside the buildings at all three reactors at the Onagawa plant, which has suspended operations since the mega earthquake and tsunami last month, according to the agency.

In all, water spilled or leaked at eight sections of the plant as a result of the 11:32 p.m. quake, according to Tohoku Electric. As much as 3.8 liters of water leaked at one of them, with the highest level of a radioactive isotope -- 5,410 bequerels per kilogram -- found in the spilled water on the floor beside a spent fuel pool in the building housing the No. 1 reactor. Read more at link above

 

[scandi]

re bold - no kidding hockeymom!! :banghead:

and again - would like to thank EVERYONE that has posted links and explainations - THANKS!! :seeya:

Niner, I hope you are feeling well and think about you often ;}

I also want to thank everyone for keeping us abreast here. It is so easy to get caught up in ongoing cases :innocent: and not keep up here.

 

[Quiche]

Program Inside Nuclear Plants?

...cannot be solely the result of tsunami-caused breakdowns, bungling or miscommunication. Inexplicable delays and half-baked explanations...

and

The most logical explanation: The nuclear industry and government agencies are scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities...

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2...s-program-inside-nuclear-plants#ixzz1IwkdQ8I6

Really, Fox News? :waitasec:

 

[Daisyjane]

Program Inside Nuclear Plants?

...cannot be solely the result of tsunami-caused breakdowns, bungling or miscommunication. Inexplicable delays and half-baked explanations...

and

The most logical explanation: The nuclear industry and government agencies are scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities...

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2...s-program-inside-nuclear-plants#ixzz1IwkdQ8I6

Really, Fox News? :waitasec:

I guess it's more comfortable to blame a crisis on some secret conspiracy than to admit that it was a random act of nature plus human errors:

Conspiracy=those foreign guys are up to something, way over there
Random act and human error=it could happen to anyone in their own back yard