LIVE thread & Breaking News ~ Japan

Various | 15 March 2011

[SE Mom]

Latest news from Japan:

From the BBC-

1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.

1439: A 30km (18 mile) no-fly zone is in place around Fukushima, says the IAEA.

1436: The IAEA says Monday's blast at Fukushima may have affected the integrity of the containment vessel - there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks if happen.

1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0 within three minutes of each other.

Twitter-

-US Geological Survey counts 451 aftershocks since the initial earthquake struck Japan Friday. 238 of them registered magnitude 5.0 or more.

-Despite situations in Japan & Libya, spksmn Jay Carney says Pres Obama's 5-day trip to Brazil, Chile & El Salvador starting Fri night is on.

-FLASH: More U.S. military personnel in Japan testing positive for low-levels of radiation, relief missions to continue - Navy 18 minutes ago via web

[Palladin]

Great find!

The workers are very brave.

[Palladin]

You forgot the link.

[SE Mom]

Remember that the levels can go a good bit higher than “normal” and be considered quite safe. Normal is a relatively low number agreed upon by various nuclear groups across the world- but it’s not related to what’s “safe”.

[SE Mom]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367125/Japan-tsunami-Fukushima-Fifty-suicide-mission-battle-nuclear-meltdown.html

National television has interviewed relatives of the workers, who the plant operators insist on keeping anonymous, with one woman saying her father had accepted his fate ‘like a death sentence’.

A woman said her husband continued to work while fully aware he was being bombarded with radiation. He sent her an email saying: ‘Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while.’ The workers are known as the Fukushima Fifty because they rotate into contaminated areas in teams of that number.

[Springfield Reformer]

That’s certainly how one would read it, though it could just be a statement of policy/procedure.

However, it is theoretically possible some Japanese passengers had substantial exposure if they were close to Fukushima. The trace particulates they are picking up at the airport are in way too low a range to generate any immediate, visible symptoms, so a serious exposure, if any, would have to have happened at or near Fukushima, either a very hot local plume or an unshielded gamma event. Without more knowledge of their exact travel pattern, it’s hard to know.

Also keep in mind some symptoms of stress greatly resemble some stages of serious exposure (nausea, lightheadedness, etc.), and airport security would have to give any such complaints a worst case presumption, by design.

[zzeeman]

I asked about the widespread use of masks the last time I was in Japan (late 1998) and my hosts told me that people that were sick (cold, flu, etc.) wore them to prevent the spread of their infection to others. That seemed to be the party line about it, however a couple of other guys told me on the side that a lot of people wore them for the opposite purpose, i.e., to prevent catching the germs from others. So I assume that it is probably a mix across both motivations.

[fred2008]

http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/live-radiation-monitoring-from-west-la

Link for S. Cal. radiation monitor feed...

[newzjunkey]

Your flippant jingoism is repugnant. You are disgusting. Worse yet, you are not even alone in it on this thread! Take your “Jap”-bashing elsewhere!

[Drill Thrawl]

The nature of my work is to think ahead 3-4 steps.

Just 3? Geez. :-)

I'm In the same line of work for data DR. You "what if" until you get to the point of "if x ever happens just gimme a beer and let me kiss my butt goodbye"

[tet68]

What is it reading? 34 what?

[sissyjane]

So sad...

[justa-hairyape]

“The machine that cools the reactor is just by the ocean, and it was wrecked by the tsunami...

Wow. So they knew early on the severity of the situation ?

[WestCoastGal]

I tried to look up the manufacturer

Gamma Sensitivity
3340 CPM/mR/hr referenced to Cs-137. Smallest detectable level for I-125 is .02 µCi at contact. Timer can set 1 minute sampling periods from 1 to 10 minutes.
Operating Range
mR/hr - .001 (1µR) to 100 mR/hr CPM - 0 to 350,000
µSv/hr - .01 to 1000 CPS - 0 to 5000
Total/ Timer - 1 to 9,999,000 counts
Accuracy
mR/hr ±10% typical (NIST), ±15% max - 0 to 100
µSv/hr ±10% typical (NIST), ±15% max - 01 - 1000
CPM ±10% typical (NIST), ±15% max - 0 to 350,000
(Referenced to Cs-137)

Of course, I’m lost as to what that means.

anyone?

http://seintl.com/products/inspector%2B.html

[Marine_Uncle]

Accurate reporting shall dribble out. Including how as this post indicates, the Japanese simply did not do a good job of making their nuclear power plants as safe as they could have been. Even days back we read about how their systems keep the holding trays for spent fuel to high for easy access in case of reactor problems. Plus it is now coming out how they have not performed many of the upgrades on their systems that US facilities are required to do.

[WestCoastGal]

Monitoring in San Francisco

[tet68]

You’re sweet, thanks.
I’d guess it reads in either one.
Are you still on the coast? Be careful.

[McGruff]

...one woman saying her father had accepted his fate ‘like a death sentence’

Sad. But I thought this wasn't dangerous?

[WestCoastGal]

No - I’m in Texas now.

Had to bail out of California, but it will always be my home state. I lived there since I was 2, so it’s hard to give it up. Used to be a great place.

[SteveH]

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/pray_for_japan/

[WestCoastGal]

I found a website with the Channel 5 report on that radiation counter

http://www.enviroreporter.com/

It’s on the right side - he said if it gets into the 100’s there will be reason for concern.