8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Japan + Tsunami and Alerts

The volcano? It's not much yet but it could get a hell of a lot worse.

pretty sure the volcano already erupted.

pretty sure the volcano already erupted.

I mean the situation with the volcano could get worse, since he was listing off problems in Japan.

Way to go arguing over spilled milk.

Things seem fine now, don't they? Only threat I remember was from the explosion of Unit 2 in Daiichi and the fire in Unit 4.

Somewhere else but relevant, I guess:

An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude was reported today at 13:31 UTC in Eastern Honshu, Japan. The Hamaoka nuclear power plant is sited an estimated 100 kilometres from the epicentre.

IEC confirmed with Japan that the plant continues to operate safely.

Units 1 and 2 are decommissioned, Unit 3 is under inspection and not operational, and Units 4 and 5 remain in safe operational status after the earthquake.

The threat is to contain the radiation and making sure that it doesn't spread any further.

In the long run, Japan is fucked in the long run for electricity. The seawater being flooded into the Fukushima-Daiichi plant will permanently corrode any metal it's in contact with, meaning the cores and anything else will need to be replaced completely. The plant produces over a full gigawatt more electricity than any plant in operation in the US, to give a scale of how important it is.

And, the news is in; after 3 cores have experienced problems, various nuclear officials are saying it's around a level 6 on the INES. Official word is, that there is no scale number assigned, since the situation isn't over yet. It still might progress, and long-term effects can't be measured.

and long-term effects can't be measured.

Which we all hope is as minimal as possible, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Anyway, the good news is that I haven't seen any news (no new fires, explosions, etc.), but the bad news is that I also havent heard anymore news lately.

In other news, people are preparing to protect themselves from radiation poisoning.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/14...velopers/#

Call them crazy if you must, but I'd rather prepare myself and look stupid, than risk looking dumb and dead.

In the long run, Japan is pineappleed in the long run for electricity. The seawater being flooded into the Fukushima-Daiichi plant will permanently corrode any metal it's in contact with, meaning the cores and anything else will need to be replaced completely. The plant produces over a full gigawatt more electricity than any plant in operation in the US, to give a scale of how important it is.

The first 3 reactors at Daiichi will never run again, they're just too damaged to be worth replacing when newer more efficient & higher capacity designs could be constructed instead, but they had a decent lifespan (36-40 years), and there were already plans to build more (units 7 & 8, each at 1.4GW, would more than cover the loss of 1-3), so it's not an entirely unexpected change.

Japan has a fair number of nuclear reactors offline for inspection and repairs - presumably more effort will be putting those into operation soon, but there's still going to be less electricity availability over the next few years. People will just have to tighten up a little on their electricity use, and things will work out.

Just heard on MSNBC that workers are evacuating the area around reactor 4 due to high levels of radiation.

This was after they were trying to put out the fire that never ends. It's the 3rd time today that they had to deal with fire on reactor 4. Plus Fukushima is now upgraded from a 4 to a 6 on the nuclear scale (Chernobyl was a 7). I really do hope that they're able to get everything under control.

I really wonder how the whole region can recover from this whole mess...

Recent reports by TEPCO indicate that an oil leak in a cooling water pump was the cause for the fire that burned for approximately 2 hours on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning (local time), another fire broke out, but it is reported the fire is not at the spent fuel pool. The cause is still unknown.

What were they trying to cool at Unit 4?

What were they trying to cool at Unit 4?

I would believe the oil was the fuel or lubricant of the pump... at least I would believe that if it didnt burn for 2 hours... And that doesnt explain all the fires.

Clearly a conspiracy. Fuelled by Obama's agenda.

Clearly a conspiracy. Fuelled by Obama's agenda.

Unless you have proof, please leave. We dont need to turn a discussion over Japan's disaster into an Obama thread.

Clearly a conspiracy. Fuelled by Obama's agenda.

Lol, Rick. You make me laugh.




Anywho... Keith didn't want to post this, but I thought it was a beautiful, yet extremely sad depiction of how things are over there.




=/

Though, it's the kind of pictures you see with any disaster.

I fail to see the beautiful, even as a work of photography. But ok.

Another earthquake just struck, it was powerful enough to make Tokyo buildings to sway, so I'm guessing higher than 6 on the Richter scale.

I fail to see the beautiful, even as a work of photography. But ok.

It shows the reality of what's going on in Japan. That's what makes it beautiful.

Yeah, the latest earthquake turned out to be a 6.0, and the epicenter was near Chiba.

Yeah, the latest earthquake turned out to be a 6.0, and the epicenter was near Chiba.

This is what it says on MSN Japan :

Time of the Earthquake : 2011/3/16 13:14 (About 5 minutes AFTER you posted that previous post, so I don't think this is the one...?)
Quake Location : Fukushima
Magnitude : 5.6


Unless there was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake afterward. I don't see any other ones on MSN Japan.