Posted on 03/15/2011 8:13:35 AM PDT by SE Mom
“Why would another earthquake be bad?”
There is enough radiation in that plant to kill the Japanese economy and it’s citizens and make parts of it a wasteland.
Crack the containment vessels so that the radiation leaks - and what do you think will happen???
Now do you understand why an earthquake could possibly be a problem.
Reading the dispatches from here
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/genpatsu-fukushima/
water cannons and hoses seemed somewhat partially successful, at least on the superficial level, but were withdrawn later in the evening due to concerns about radiation exposure to the personnel manning the water hoses and cannons. They want to study the effects.
Somewhere else — reuters, bbc maybe — i read that they want to send a us reconnaisance drone over the site to help assess. I conclude that it has been difficult to gather state of the art equipment to deploy at the site up until the present.
The yen spiked at 76.53 to the dollar in New York recently, now backing off a bit, but continuing a general trend that has been going on for the last couple of years (hmm, actually the last 40 years, but whatever). I would imagine that one concern at the banker level would be what happens in view of this crisis at the end of QE2 on June 30. The USA cannot count on the Japanese to buy any US bonds. Nor should the USA count on the Chinese if only because everyone is on alert. This is just more economic blowback. I guess this gives the USA a better prima facie excuse to broach consideration of a QE3. Maybe it is a shell game. Everyone needs (largely mideast) oil. Japanese will need (largely mideast) oil ASAP. Who will end up with the (laregely worthless) US paper dollars?
Are the mideast countries contributing any oil to Japan?
It seems either is possible and the variables appear endless. Every time I think I'm getting a grasp- some damned expert comes along and throws what I thought I'd learned into doubt.
That’s a little more information. It gives the radius of concern and how many cancer deaths in the area.
Hollywood libs don’t want people to know they go to japan to sell ham and garbage bags.
In japan a news reader is a news reader not a faux journalist. (or a journ-o-list)
83 year old rice farmer escapes the tsunami on her bike
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/16/dnt.tuchman.japan.woman.escape.bike.cnn
was a teenager when the US nuked Japan.
remember some of the experts we have been seeing on the news (beyond nuclear etc) are just left over communists from the anti-nuke organizations of the 70’s
Yep- and every time I have doubts about one of em- I go check their bio- 9 out of 10 are leftists..
But the thing that sticks out like a sore thumb in this latest accident is the common mode failure. The plants withstood the seismic event. They shutdown upon detection of that, the diesels started when offsite power went out, everything was running until the tsunami came ashore. Anyone who has ever designed a system knows that you always try to avoid common mode failure where you can, but here things obviously were inadequate. I think that is where the focus will be in the "lessons learned" to come from all of this. And, historically, the industry has been pretty diligent in applying those lessons. I think we'll see that again here.
I think Obama missed a big chance to show the world that he is a world class leader by either postponing his trip to SA, or changing it to go to Tokyo as a sign of support. Had he done either, I think the world would have looked up to him. Instead, going to SA, he is about as far away removed from the disaster physically as he can be. Any pronouncement he makes from SA will sound lame. The more noble sounding the language, the more lame it will seem.
Ok, thanks.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/17_34.html
Police failed to spray water to cool No.3 reactor
Japanese police have failed in their attempt to use water canon to cool the No.3 reactor at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The high-pressure water did not reach the reactor and the police squad has now evacuated to a safety zone.
The operation on Thursday evening followed efforts by the Self-Defense Forces using helicopters earlier in the day.
Thursday, March 17, 2011 20:06 +0900 (JST)
They really, really need some Apollo-13 level out-of-the-box thinking. And doing.
JMHO.
Get the US military in, ASAP.
JMHO.
Bring in the Russian team for logistics support (don’t let them run the show, they don’t know squat about BWRs).
JMHO.
High radiation levels detected 18.6 miles from stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, outside 12.4-mile evacuation zone http://nyp.st/fZ2Myt
Supposedly the US government told the maker of the RAD sticker that all current inventory and all future inventory is being redirected. It measures radiation.
UPS has stopped shipping to Japan.
Agreed. Now it's known that safety reports were fudged. All this time we've been under the impression the Japanese ethic was to be on top of things. Apparently they're far from it.
I am only seeing service delays referenced on the UPS website
http://www.ups.com/content/jp/en/about/news/service_updates/20110311_earthquake.html
Service Delays Expected in Japan
Service Update
Updated Thursday, March 17, 2011
Our thoughts are with all the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
Service delays can be expected in parts of Japan after a major earthquake, followed by a Tsunami, hit the country on Friday, March 11.
Due to extensive damage to the transportation infrastructure, please note temporary service suspension in Northern Japan.
UPS has resumed its pick-up and delivery services in Eastern Japan, however some delays can be expected. In addition, the UPS Service Guarantee has been suspended for these affected areas. Please contact your local Customer Service Representative for more information.
UPS Japan will continue to do its utmost to ensure packages reach their final destinations as rapidly as possible.
UPS is monitoring the situation and will provide further updates as necessary. Please check this website for regular updates.
As our Customer Service Centre in Japan is experiencing high call volume, we would like to urge customers in Western Japan who wish to Schedule a Pickup to do so via our website to avoid further delays.
That is very very bad news, hope the report in incorrect. I thought the wind was blowing out to sea?
We have several FReepers who are way more knowledgeable in this field. I would like to see them hypothesize about your question. I'm just a "jack-of-all-trades", layperson.
If you can believe this report , things could get much worse (souce is questionable).
Just conjecture on my part:
The workers rig temporary but sustainable cooling for the reactors and pools. Reactors 5 & 6 are brought online to provide power. Repairs, cleanup begins and decisions made about what to do with the more seriously damaged reactors.
If the increasing radiation levels drive the crews away before any cooling is put in place, the amount of radioactive particle emissions may greatly increase. In a matter of weeks, most of the nation of Japan could be affected as well as parts of China, Russia and the Aleutian Chain of islands in Alaska.
We should start hearing calls of "Do Something" from other nations. Previously unthinkable options to stop the source of generation will be considered. If these options are exercised, they either work, lessen it, don't effect it, or worsen the situation.
There's a chance that no one wants to take a risk of making things worse, so things at the site continue to evolve on their own. In that case, we enter a realm of many unknowns.
There are so many unknowns that it's really hard to even make a wild guess as to what the final outcome could be. As things develop, outcomes also change.
I sincerely believe that they're going to get a handle on this. If not soon, then later when more extreme measure are tried. That said, I'd think it's wise to be prepared. Not only because of this event, but because you never know when you will not be able to get to the grocery store or the police can't get to your place in time to stop some breaking into your home.
Also, educate yourself about what to do and not do, and about what is effective or not. Include all types of emergency situations in your search for information. It's also helpful to print some of this information out and put it in a binder, in-case you need to refresh your memory. Educating yourself, and making a few preparations will ease the anxiety and actually put you in a better position if things actually do get bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.