[PA Engineer]

Oops - right you are...

I knew what you meant. ;-)

I'm trying to remember my days working with tank farms and I don't know if Japan's codes are similar to the US or if there has been multiple systemic failures. I remember many tank installations had fire loops with onsite water tanks and back up generators with separate diesel ground storage tanks(don't remember the grade). They are saying (correct me if I'm wrong) that 4 million homes are without power in Tokyo. I'm wonder if both power and water have been cut to this facility and/or onsite systems are down. What a disaster.

[silverleaf]

All of their nuclear plants are shut down, basic power and other supplies to a city of 4 million is going to be a big project, with another month or more of aftershocks ahead

[stormer]

Yeah - I was more of an O-chem guy. I’m assuming that Japanese facilities are generally going to be pretty sophisticated. But given the scale of event, not hard to see how systems get overwhelmed. I cannot imagine what the human cost is going to be. I had a student who was from Kobe - very difficult for her to even articulate the terror and despair.