Posted on 03/12/2011 12:02:10 AM PST by rawhide
Just in:
Explosion at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi plant heard around 0630 GMT
NHK footage shows steam-like smoke coming from Tepco's Fukushima plant
(Excerpt) Read more at live.reuters.com ...
If you’ve ever worked in emergency management, as I have, or in a nuke setting, as I have, you would know that it really is important to know whether the sky is really falling or not, because some of your biggest collateral damage is going to come from panicbots who drive themselves or other, less sensible folks into harmful acts. This is serious, and that is exactly why self-control and realistic assessment is imperative.
Video does look like a hydrogen explosion. That would be bad.
BREAKING:
Japanese Gov’t Warns Residents of More Aftershocks, Tsunami of Up to 6.5-Feet
They are not taking advantage of the global audience out there while al jazaera and many others overseas are.
Fox is too cheap to report news. This is why CNN is the best because they spend the money to report news 24 hours a day. Fox thinks news occurs for only 8 hours a day.
IMHO the problem right now from the information point of view is that the Fukushima #1 containment vessel, which is what matters, is buried under debris in a radiactive area. So there might be not a direct source of objective information for days.
Let’s see how the other reactors shut down, especially the ones whose emergency systems were damaged by the tsunami.
Get KI pills
Agreed. That video looked exactly like a hydrogen explosion.
Just finished reading that on Drudge and figured it had already been posted back on the main board...
Living history, we are FRiend.
Prayers for Japan, and for all of us.
Looked about 2 1/2 hours ago. Not a normally stocked product. Got a Tincture of Iodine. Not for internal consumption. Probably the best way to use it is rub it on your skin outside your thyroid. Gonna look strange with that stain. Still researching the use of that product though. I have used a lot of it years ago for cuts and my thyroid areas got numb, so just rubbing it on your skin might be enough. Not a doctor and this is probably bad advice, but what else can we do. It will take them days to get the Potassium Iodide tablets distributed.
I agree
Fukushima N1 is a Boiling Water reactor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_Water_Reactor . If that was steam, its radioactive. Very, very bad.
So we suspend science for tonight. Whatever.
Fox is useless for stories like this. At least CNN attempts to “cover the world” like a 24 hr news channel even if they’re just rebroadcasting NHK World.
Tepco says explosion may have been hydrogen used to cool Fukushima plant - Kyodo
You’re right. The problem always comes when information isn’t forthcoming and we are left to speculate.
A couple of things seem indicative- upthread I read a post saying authorities are keep poeople from entering within 60 kilometers of the nuke site, and they’re advising iodine.
It’s hard to know what’s real at this point.
From your link:
(CNN) — The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.
“At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass,” said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).”
I just did some scrambling to figure out if I should run down to Walgreens at 1:35 am Seattle time. I am only basing it on Chernobyl - not sure if this Japanese reactor will be worse (more fuel rods I guess) or not (different type of design).
Anyway - at Chernobyl, ill effects of radioactive iodine extended to 200 to 300 miles or so. At least based on the one fairly scientific paper I read. With Seattle being over 4500 miles away - I think I’ll call it a night instead and not worry about it. Although - it could hurt to have it on hand.
I have a hypothyroid already (not working!), and it looked like use of KI in kids (like mine) can also cause it if you overdose. If mine runs in the family, I don’t want to make it worse by giving them KI. It sounds like KI is readily absorbed, so maybe I WILL buy some “just in case”. Although I imagine that 4500 miles is a HUGE buffer.
I recall in the little bit of rad training I took they made a point of saying not to freak out, but stop, note the measurement, and then back off from a hot zone. Time (well, a short time) and distance are your friend.
I have also checked out that site about a year ago and downloaded everything I could just to keep it safe for future reference.
It is extremely interesting.
Impossible to say with absolute certainty, but it would take an incredibly unlikely series of events to move any meaningful concentrations of particulate to any part of the west coast. I’m betting against it. You’re much more likely to catch some adverse dose from a TSA scanner or a brick in a building than anything from Japan. Yes, Virginia, bricks are radioactive. Most folks don’t know that.
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