Massive Earthquake and Tsunami strikes Japan

[Mathalamus]

it took a large earthquake to make a partial meltdown. im not concerned about nuclear safety. they have it well in control.

 

[Singularity]

it took a large earthquake to make a partial meltdown. im not concerned about nuclear safety. they have it well in control.

Link to video.

Sorry to say this. But nothing about this fills me with a shred of confidence.

1) They build the plant on the coast next to one of the largest oceanic fault zones in the world.
2) The generator used to provide backup power for the cooling system was choked by a Tsunami.

That just spells failure in my book. No other way to look at it. And the same people is responsible for making it alright again.

 

[Mathalamus]

well, where else can they put it? mount Fuji? and what else can they really use? importing more ol will not be a permanent situation. and thorium power plants are not practical yet.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Word is the earthquake moved Japan by 8 feet, and shifted the Earth on its axis by 4 inches.

 

[ZeletDude]

You mean the earthquake which moved Japan east 8 feet.

 

[Verbose]

well, should i start packing?

(Calgary may receive some radiation in 10 days or so.)

Considering the winds blew the fall-out from Chernobyl to Scandinavia, which by comparison is only a hop and skip from the Ukraine, and we were apparently fine, I don't think anyone on the other side of the Pacific, like half the distance of the world away, should be too concerned.

 

[Mathalamus]

Word is the earthquake moved Japan by 8 feet, and shifted the Earth on its axis by 4 inches.

interesting. that's a large movement.

 

[Silurian]

From The BBC

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Tokyo says a meltdown at reactor 3 would be potentially more serious than at the other reactors, because it is fuelled by plutonium and uranium, unlike the other units which carry only uranium.

From The register (also reported on the BBC)

Yet another reactor in Japan's Fukushima nuclear-power complexes has lost its cooling, bringing the total number of problematic reactors in northeastern Japan after Friday afternoon's megaquake to six.

Not sure whats happening at the other four

 

[Mathalamus]

wow, that nuclear plant has issues.that woudl be terribad.

 

[Formaldehyde]

According to the news reports, they have been using emergency pumps to cool the core with seawater in at least one reactor almost since the disaster first occurred. I wonder where all that contaminated seawater is going. It is just low-level nuclear waste since it wasn't in the reactor that long, but it is still going to apparently be a prodigious amount if they have been constantly pumping it in. Are they just dumping it back into the sea or did they jury-rig a closed loop system? Or was this done for just a very brief period? Are the main cooling systems working now?

It is aggravating so few details are being released.

 

[innonimatu]

According to the news reports, they have been using emergency pumps to cool the core with seawater in at least one reactor almost since the disaster first occurred. I wonder where all that contaminated seawater is going. It is just low-level nuclear waste since it wasn't in the reactor that long, but it is still going to apparently be a prodigious amount if they have been constantly pumping it in. Are they just dumping it back into the sea or did they jury-rig a closed loop system? Or was this done for just a very brief period? Are the main cooling systems working now?

It is aggravating so few details are being released.

I assumed that they're pumping in water just to make up for the evaporation, at least in the reactor where the building blew. So they already have a "disposal" method at work...

 

[Formaldehyde]

That is apparently not the case:

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci--japan-quake-reactor-20110313,0,6721506.story

Japanese officials have begun pumping seawater into a second nuclear reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant 140 miles north of Tokyo to cool the reactor core in a last-ditch effort to stave off a core meltdown.

The action indicates that the reactor's normal backup cooling system has failed and is no longer able to supply fresh water to the core. Officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant, have been struggling to keep six shut-down nuclear reactors cooled because seawater from the tsunami that followed Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake damaged the diesel generators that power the circulating pumps.

An explosion Saturday night at the No. 1 reactor destroyed the cooling system there and officials had little choice but to begin injecting seawater laced with boron directly into the reactor containment vessel. Seawater is highly corrosive, particularly when heated, and injecting it into the reactor means the company is, for all practical purposes, abandoning the reactor for all future uses.

 

[Scratch]

I don't know if the earthquake was actually a cause, but Shinmoedake volcano has erupted.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I think it is at least related. Moving the country by 8 feet is going to result in a lot of tectonic plate movement, as the article pointed out. The earlier eruption this year is also likely related.

 

[Holycannoli]

Word is the earthquake moved Japan by 8 feet, and shifted the Earth on its axis by 4 inches.

Ahh that's why I'm a little dizzy this weekend, the earth's axis shifted.

But seriously, 8 feet is a lot.

 

[choxorn]

I think 8 feet is about the same that plate tectonics would move on their own in about 32 years. So yes, that's quite a lot.

 

[NickyJ]

8 feet? That's huge! No wonder I can see Japan from the East Coast!

 

[J-man]

Word is the earthquake moved Japan by 8 feet, and shifted the Earth on its axis by 4 inches.

Right after the quake and tsunami of boxing day 2004 there were similar reports in the media, which later turned out to either false or grossly exaggerated. Which is a reason to be skeptical of such news reports, even if it was a huge quake.

I think it is at least related. Moving the country by 8 feet is going to result in a lot of tectonic plate movement, as the article pointed out. The earlier eruption this year is also likely related.

From what I've read those things are unrelated.

And the increased radiation at Onagawa nuclear plant is not from the plant itself but from Fukushima. Dutch source: http://nos.nl/artikel/225439-geen-storing-bij-reactor-onagawa.html

Edit: fixed a typo

 

[Singularity]

Right after the quake and tsunami of boxing day 2004 there were similar reports in the media, which later turned out to either false grossly exaggerated. Which is a reason to be skeptical of such news reports, even if it was a huge quake.



From what I've read those things are unrelated.

And the increased radiation at Onagawa nuclear plant is not from the plant itself but from Fukushima. Dutch source: http://nos.nl/artikel/225439-geen-storing-bij-reactor-onagawa.html

I agree here. Although military grade GPS satellites had to be re-calibrated to fixed landmarks in Japan I doubt we would know for sure quite yet. At least the part about earth's axis getting a kick.

But that japan will move in relation to the pacific plate along the subduction zone is clear. And the mechanics of a megathrust earthquake like the one you had in Indonesia and now in Japan will do that to the landmass that springs free of the subduction plate. Here is a good image of the complicated plate tectonics surrounding Japan:

 

[emzie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12725646

Totally horrifying... when the camera pans inland and you see cars driving on roads?