8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Japan + Tsunami and Alerts

Japan Earthquake Update (15 March 2011, 15:30 UTC)
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.

wot.

I suppose my fears of more earthquakes and aftershocks were justified. Looks like mother nature doesnt want to give Japan a break.
Just to note, I haven't heard any more news about the power plants. The last thing I heard was them discussing how they would resubmerge the used fuel rods (which, there seems to be about 40 years worth stored in some reactors).

I suppose my fears of more earthquakes and aftershocks were justified.

You kidding? As if everyone and their mother doesn't know aftershocks follow major earthquakes.

In other news, the sun will rise tomorrow.

You kidding? As if everyone and their mother doesn't know aftershocks follow major earthquakes.

In other news, the sun will rise tomorrow.

But not all after shocks are as powerful as these ones, hence why I made my statement.

In other news:

Surgeon General Claims it was wise for people to be prepared by buying Potasium Iodine while other officials say anything between its unnecessary to the people are being foolish.
"U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin was in the Bay Area touring a peninsula hospital. NBC Bay Area reporter Damian Trujillo asked her about the run on tablets and Dr. Benjamin said although she wasn't aware of people stocking up, she did not think that would be an overreaction. She said it was right to be prepared." - http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Sur...31559.html

High radiation levels are making it difficult to deal with the power plant and fuel rod issues.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/1...SS20110316
Workers have evacuated the area, although I've heard that they did return.

And it seems definite that this is a major disaster:
"Noting that a level 4 incident involves ''only local radiological consequences,'' it said the ongoing crisis is ''now closer to a level 6, and it may unfortunately reach a level 7'' -- a worst case scenario with extensive health and environmental consequences."
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78374.html

I have to say that with every video and photo I continue to see on the news, I am more and more in awe over the power and destruction of mother nature. I obviously don't live in Japan, nor do I really know anyone that lives there, but my heart sinks every time I see this stuff. I cannot even fathom experiencing such a thing.

We should stop making it seem like there are so many aftershocks. There have been two, a 6.1 in Eastern Honshu and a 5.6 in Fukushima. Though I think we would've heard more from the Fukushima one, considering the situation as of present.

And I think the evacuation of the operators were just safety measures to ensure the combat force for this long fight. The safety of them (and possibly their children) are valuable to the industry as a whole.

At 8:34am local time white smoke was seen billowing out of Fukushima Daiichi 3. Efforts to determine the cause of this development were interrupted as all workers had evacuated to a safe area due to rising radiation readings. Readings from a sensor near the front gate had fluctuated for some time, although Edano said that on the whole there was no health hazard. Earlier in the morning readings had ranged between 600-800 microsieverts per hour, but at 10am readings rose to 1000 microsieverts per hour. Readings began to fall again from around 10:54.

Which is one millisievert,
>> In order to provide some perspective on worker doses to this point, radiation sickness sets in at roughly 1000 millisieverts
Which is 1 sievert; and:

Symptoms of acute radiation (within one day):[13]
0 – 0.25 Sv (0 - 250 mSv): None
0.25 – 1 Sv (250 - 1000 mSv): Some people feel nausea and loss of appetite; bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen damaged.
1 – 3 Sv (1000 - 3000 mSv): Mild to severe nausea, loss of appetite, infection; more severe bone marrow, lymph node, spleen damage; recovery probable, not assured.
3 – 6 Sv (3000 - 6000 mSv): Severe nausea, loss of appetite; hemorrhaging, infection, diarrhea, skin peels, sterility; death if untreated.
6 – 10 Sv (6000 - 10000 mSv): Above symptoms plus central nervous system impairment; death expected.
Above 10 Sv (10000 mSv): Incapacitation and death.

For the sake of comparison, this is the worst case scenario: "Typical dose near Chernobyl reactor 4 and its fragments, shortly after explosion: ≈ 10,000–300,000 mSv/hr"
That's 10 sieverts/HOUR, we're still at 1 millisievert per hour, tops.

So far, we're looking at nausea and loss of appetite if the radiation were about a thousand times stronger, so long as we sit there in the radioactive zone the whole day. Cancer, tumour and genetic damage among other stochastic effects of radiation requires prolonged (year(s)) periods of exposure to radiation. Let's hope they'll know better than to raise cows in Fukushima after this accident.

I hate Mr Maddow, but the interviewee has interesting information.
[video=youtube;sjdgHqY2K-4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjdgHqY2K-4&feature=player_embedded[/video]

And the water containing the fuel rods may be boiling now.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78318.html

Please, get the nuclear plants in control ;_;

It seems that different sources give completely different views of the situation of Japan.

Updates on the plant have been so erratic =S On the one hand, you have the States and France saying that information on the plant have been downplayed quite a bit by Japan, while the UK and Japan have been saying that the current measures are adequate. Different media have been saying that the radiation from the plant has been gradually growing, and it's assumed that the water in reactor 4 has been boiling and is evaporating, as well as reactor 3...

Water is evaporating in all of them, because that is completely normal. The steam is usually pumped into a turbine elsewhere.

No, I mean to the point where the rods are completely exposed to air.

Water is evaporating in all of them, because that is completely normal. The steam is usually pumped into a turbine elsewhere.

The water evaporating is the water used to store the used, and highely radio active, fuel rods that are no longer useful for electricity production.
And once this water is gone, we risk the fuel rods quickly overheating, corroding and then finally releasing massive levels of radiation.

The media and foreign embassy fear mongering in Japan is starting to get a little ridiculous.

Regarding the water:

At about 7 p.m. EDT, NISA spokesman Takumi Koyamada said the temperature reading from the used fuel pool on Wednesday was 84 degrees Celsius and that no change had been reported since then. Typically, used uranium fuel rods are stored in deep water pools at temperatures of about 30 degrees Celsius.

Regarding radiation:

At 4 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, a radiation level of 75 millirem per hour was recorded at the plant’s main gate. At 4 p.m. EDT, the reading at one plant site gate was 34 millirem per hour. By comparison, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual radiation dose limit for the public is 100 millirem. Radiation readings are being taken every 30 minutes.

Unless a new earthquake strikes about now, actually I shouldn't have jinxed it, things are looking pretty good.

No, actually it's not looking good. For some reason the seawater from the helicopters didn't seem to do much. Temperatures have also been steadily rising to over 50 celsius over at unit 5 & 6.

Radiological Contamination

17 people (9 TEPCO employees, 8 subcontractor employees) suffered from deposition of radioactive material to their faces, but were not taken to the hospital because of low levels of exposure
One worker suffered from significant exposure during 'vent work,' and was transported to an offsite center
2 policemen who were exposed to radiation were decontaminated
Firemen who were exposed to radiation are under investigation

Injuries

2 TEPCO employees have minor injuries
2 subcontractor employees are injured, one person suffered broken legs and one person whose condition is unknown was transported to the hospital
2 people are missing
2 people were 'suddenly taken ill'
2 TEPCO employees were transported to hospital during the time of donning respiratory protection in the control centre
4 people (2 TEPCO employees, 2 subcontractor employees) sustained minor injuries due to the explosion at unit 1 on 11 March and were transported to the hospital
11 people (4 TEPCO employees, 3 subcontractor employees and 4 Japanese civil defense workers) were injured due to the explosion at unit 3 on 14 March

im confused now. is it the active reactor or is it the cooling spent fuel the problem, in japan ?

We should stop making it seem like there are so many aftershocks. There have been two;

LOLWUThttp://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/r...35_eqs.php

Or:

[video=youtube;xylDxj6-9dY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xylDxj6-9dY[/video]

im currently in tokyo for vacation, (what perfect timing) and i've felt atleast a good 30 aftershocks/earthquakes and they dont seem like its gonna be calming down anytime soon.

1418 GMT: The official number of dead and missing from Japan's earthquake and tsunami has topped 15,000. The number of confirmed dead rose to 5,692 while the official number of missing increased to 9,522, the National Police Agency said in its latest update. A total of 2,409 people were injured in the disaster.