Now it's Japan's turn

[Footy Chick]

On the news reports, they said it was 160 times more powerful.

[JAS]

The Richter scale is a little difficult to fully comprehend.

Does anyone know how much more powerful the Japanese earthquake was compared to the one in Christchurch?

If you watch the clip I posted the guy from the British Geological Survey does say that the Japan quake was 8000 time stronger than the Christchurch one in terms of energy release.

Regards
JAS

[mighty_tiger_79]

not sure if its been posted

just heard on the news that they are expecting aftershocks to reach 7 on the richter scale

[fish]

Japan battles nuclear crisis

Japan is fighting to stave off multiple nuclear disasters this morning, after officials confirmed a radiation leak from a second atomic power plant and authorities battled feared meltdowns in reactors at Fukushima.

The Fukushima plant's operators have been pumping sea water into the ageing No. 1 and No. 3 reactors in a last-ditch attempt to stop them overheating, but the situation does not seem to have improved.

[Brucetiki]

Japan is now saying a nuclear meltdown is now 'highly likely'

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/explosion ... 6020455002

[A Mum]

Sharing because some may be interested/find this interesting...

This is from my cousin in Japan:

I just spoke to a guy I work with who is based out of Tokyo and on his iPhone he has an app for earthquake monitoring. It registered from 1am Sunday morning to 11:30pm Sunday evening 62 earth movements (after shocks) with just over 50% being 6.0 or above.

[Psyber]

So were the nuclear plants unsafe when they were built?
Or did they become unsafe sometime between then and now?

From the technical details that have been reported in the brief moments when the media are short of exciting pictures, it appears those reactors in Japan were reasonably sound design and up to date [in themselves] when they were built.
What was not sound before the Tsunami was building any nuclear generator in a geologically unstable situation or where Tsunamis are a risk any way.

It also appears that there was a failure to provide sufficient redundancy in the number of back up generators, and/or inadequate maintenance for them.
That failure caused the the explosions, which it appears would not have happened had immediate cooling been possible.

[dedja]

I wonder if Ziggy is regretting his stupid comments yesterday stating that we shouldn't worry about the damaged nuclear reactors and that they have stood up well under the circumstances.

Well Ziggy, tell the innocent millions that are at risk of severe radiation exposure that the power plants did their job. Sh!t happens I suppose.

[White Line Fever]

Not too many nuclear reactors are designed and built with a 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in mind.

The dangers is the fact you can't turn them off, they take along time to cool down and stop generating energy.

Chernobyl was a operater error.
Japan is one of the freak accidents that would be hard to avoid.

Give it time Australia will get nuclear energy.

More uranium than coal getting about...

[Brucetiki]

Another 6.0 aftershock has hit Tokyo

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/explosion ... 6020455002

[A Mum]

I'm lead to believe from my cousin in Japan that they have just evacuated all remaining workers from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

[Bat Pad]

I wonder if Ziggy is regretting his stupid comments yesterday stating that we shouldn't worry about the damaged nuclear reactors and that they have stood up well under the circumstances.

Well Ziggy, tell the innocent millions that are at risk of severe radiation exposure that the power plants did their job. Sh!t happens I suppose.

Can you provide a quote from a Nuclear Scientist who thinks that there is a possiblity that millions may be exposed to radiation? I'm not having a go, I'm interested.

[dedja]

I wonder if Ziggy is regretting his stupid comments yesterday stating that we shouldn't worry about the damaged nuclear reactors and that they have stood up well under the circumstances.

Well Ziggy, tell the innocent millions that are at risk of severe radiation exposure that the power plants did their job. Sh!t happens I suppose.

Can you provide a quote from a Nuclear Scientist who thinks that there is a possiblity that millions may be exposed to radiation? I'm not having a go, I'm interested.

You need a nuclear scientist to tell you that if a nuclear reactor meltdown occurs less than 200km north of a city of 12million in a country of around 130million that there might be a problem?

[Bat Pad]

No, but I'm yet to read or hear any nuclear meltdown is even possible yet alone likely in the situation occurring in Japan right now. And I'm not gonna take an alarmist media interested in ratings word for it.

[JAS]

I wonder if Ziggy is regretting his stupid comments yesterday stating that we shouldn't worry about the damaged nuclear reactors and that they have stood up well under the circumstances.

Well Ziggy, tell the innocent millions that are at risk of severe radiation exposure that the power plants did their job. Sh!t happens I suppose.

Can you provide a quote from a Nuclear Scientist who thinks that there is a possiblity that millions may be exposed to radiation? I'm not having a go, I'm interested.

You need a nuclear scientist to tell you that if a nuclear reactor meltdown occurs less than 200km north of a city of 12million in a country of around 130million that there might be a problem?

See if this helps at all...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12722435

The interview they did with Prof Gerry Thomas was particularly interesting (some is quoted at the bottom of the article)...she's from the Chernobyl Tissue Bank...sadly it seem to be about the only thing on tv that hasn't been recorded and put on Youtube.

Regards
JAS

[Q.]

Japanese nuclear experts have been deliberately witholding information and even understated exposure levels for the first 3.5 days. The total lack of transparency on the matter is making it difficult to gauge the true extent of the danger posed.

[JAS]

Japanese nuclear experts have been deliberately witholding information and even understated exposure levels for the first 3.5 days. The total lack of transparency on the matter is making it difficult to gauge the true extent of the danger posed.

I'd have thought that the IAEA and the major powers would have other means of monitoring what's happening and wouldn't be totally reliant on the Japanese officials.

Lets face it does anyone really believe that if this happened in any other country, including our own, those governments wouldn't try and play it down, regardless of actual risk, to prevent panic especially with all the other events and destruction surrounding the problem. Most of the independant experts we've seen on tv have been saying that a) most of the radiation has been heading out to sea and b) most of it is something called 'iodine radiation' and has a very, very short half-life of only something like 8 days.

The word 'radiation' is like the word 'cancer'...many types, effects dependant on things like other health problems/age/level of exposure and not an automatic death sentence. For example if you have an old watch (more than about 10yo) with a luminous dial it's radioactive...that fact is from experience as one of many jobs I did was looking after aircrew watches and the packaging and paperwork needed just to send them for repair was a nightmare.

Of course nothing is helped by morons sending out fake text warnings...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12745128

Regards
JAS

[dedja]

No, but I'm yet to read or hear any nuclear meltdown is even possible yet alone likely in the situation occurring in Japan right now. And I'm not gonna take an alarmist media interested in ratings word for it.

I've been interstate the past 5 days and have hardly read a newspaper or seen or heard any media reports.

What I do know from reports is that the outer buildings on at least 3 reactors have been breached due to hydrogen explosions, caused by material on the nuclear fuel rods reacting with water because they are too hot. I also know that seawater has been pumped into the reactors to cool them down from dangerous levels, a last ditch attempt because once you flood a reactor with seawater it basically ruins the reactor core.

If the fuel rods can't be cooled down then there will be a greater risk that they will melt. If this occurs then not much will stop deadly radiation from spewing out of the reactor into the atmosphere.

What are the chances of this occurring? Probably no-one knows at the moment but even it it's 0.5% then that's too high.

There's a difference between media sensationalism and being concerned about a growing dangerous situation.

There is no doubt this is a very serious and risky situation ... to downplay the risks is irresponsible IMO.

Of course, Andrew Bolt today writes that all is fine and it's a complete media beat up. He even stated that Chenobyl only cost 65 lives. I'm sorry, that is plainly ridiculous.

The Japanese people have suffered much since Nakasaki and Hiroshima ... to suffer a massive earthquake, followed by a deadly tsunami, and then a potential nuclear calamity is outside the bounds of comprehension.

The way the Japanese take all this injustice with dignity is humbling.

We can only hope they can somehow recover from all this.

[fish]

The nuclear disaster is getting worse, with the fuels rods at one of the reactors now exposed to the air.

THERE is no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor No.4 at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, resulting in "extremely high" radiation levels, the chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned.

"In addition to the three reactors that were operating at the time of the incident, a fourth reactor is also right now under concern. This reactor was shut down at the time of the earthquake," said NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko.

"What we believe at this time is there has been a hydrogen explosion in this unit due to an uncovering of the fuel in the spent fuel pool," he said, noting the explosion happened several days ago but its effects were cause for concern.

"We believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool and we believe that radiation levels are extremely high which could possibly impact the ability to take corrective measures."

[Bully]

yes we are on the verge of a major disaster. Everyone is blaming the japanese but its not their fault this has happened!!! It was a once in 100 year earthquake 8.9!. I mean come on...they didnt make the earthquake happen.

But heads up for the japanese people not panicing at the shortage of food etc in the shops. What i mean is there is no mass fights for a bag of rice or a bottle of water like in third world countries. They are calm, they all line up and no pushing and shoving.

But lets hope they can fix this nuclear problem.