Japan Disaster! Hit By 9.0 Earthquake, Huge Tsunami, Nukes Meltdown

Now they are water bombing the reactors, seems extremely desperate. I It's far worse than I ever would have imagined or feared it could get just a few days ago. Very sad.

 

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78734.html

Tokyo police plan to use a water cannon truck to attempt to cool a spent fuel rod pool Thursday in a bid to contain the disaster at the troubled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in Japan.

In the face of the unprecedented nuclear crisis, the focus is now on how to cool the possibly overheating pools that store spent nuclear fuel rods at the No. 4 as well as No. 3 reactors.

Unless the spent fuel rods are cooled down, they could suffer damage and emit radioactive materials.

The government earlier studied a plan to deploy Ground Self-Defense Force choppers to spray water over the spent fuel pools, but the Defense Ministry said Wednesday afternoon it had given up on the idea due to the high radiation level.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, will operate a Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, possibly on Thursday, to take images of the inside of the building that houses the No. 4 reactor, according to Japanese government sources.

 

I live a couple of miles from a nuclear power plant. I've been watching the disaster in Japan unfold with much trepidation. I've been learning a lot more about the safety of American plants everyday.
Did you know that 25% of American plants are leaking or have previously had leaks!?! That the plants' licenses to operate are given renewals for 20 years...basically automatically!
Half of the plants in the US are over 30 years old, with most of the remaining over twenty years old!!!

Enough is enough. There are much better alternatives to nuclear energy.

 

http://cjonline.com/news/state/2010-10-11/wolf_creek_offline_to_repair_leak

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/16/2731176/area-nuclear-plants-not-immune.html

These are news stories about the plant that is near here. Just last October, the plant had an emergency shut down for a leak that posed "no radioactive danger". This is not the first, nor the only issue the plant has faced since it began in 1985. These plants are just not fail-safe. Is the US government being forthright in the information they give the public about these plants?

 

Well, it was a cool island while it lasted.

 

Don't say that.

Just because much of their eastern infrastructure lies in ruins and the nation is in a crisis that doesn't mean all is lost.

 

I was reading on AlJazeera this morning where they were planning to use retired or near retirement workers to work on the reactors as they figure their lifespan is just about used up. Its too dangerous now to work around there..
Every morninig I go to Aljazeera and read and every morning their problems just get worse and worse. Nucular power is shit....

 

Just seen pictures on the TV in the pub, they are clearing up and snow is still falling. This couldn't get any more fucked up if the martians landed and started raiding the nuclear plant for radioactive fuel for their spaceship.

 

Is Al Jazeera blocked in Iran? Makes me wonder if the people in charge of that country will still be so insistent in acquiring nuclear power now.

 

They have an incredibly long way to go, though.

It will never be what it was. We have to at least admit that. When you rebuild what has been there for so long, the newer stuff is always shittier and has less heart and soul in it... Or maybe that's just in this country. Maybe they'll do better than we do. I hope so. I kind of wanted to see Japan someday...

 

Fukushima nuclear plant owner falsified inspection records

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/fuk...spection-records/story-fn84naht-1226023073141

WTH!?!?

 

This ongoing catastrophe is unlike anything that I have seen in my lifetime or will likely ever see again.

If you wrote this as a movie script I would probably poo poo it for being too unlikely.

The recovery tasks seem overwhelming and exigent response from the international communities appear absolutely essential to somehow cool these rods pronto.

We're staring down the barrel of the real threats posed from a nuclear emergency.

I understand that the worst case scenario is that we could see several "dirty bomb" type explosions.

Consequences could be dire for the island and there's no idea of how the rest of the world could be affected as this has never occurred at such a scale.

We have to explore alternatives to nukes & oil or our problems will escalate to a point beyond control; such as with those 4 reactors.

 

People said similar things after 911.

I bet it will all have blown over in a few weeks. Maybe not though. who knows.

If it does though there will just be something else for the world to panic over.

That is the price we must pay for instant knowledge.

 

Monitors in Sacramento, California, have detected a small amount of radioactive material from the earthquake-struck nuclear power plant in Japan, an official with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization said. The exact amounts were not available, but were far less than what would be considered harmful to human health, the official said.http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/18/japan-quake-live-blog-nissan-monitoring-car-exports-for-radiation/?hpt=T2


How close is your home to a nuclear power plant? http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/nuclear_power_plants_locations/index.html?hpt=C2

 

California is thousands of miles away, I can't believe that. Not yet anyway.

 

Instant karma could be had for 1.99 a 20oz box.

 

This is a direct quote from CNN.com. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/18/japan-quake-live-blog-nissan-monitoring-car-exports-for-radiation/?hpt=T2

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42149170/ns/us_news-environment/?GT1=43001MSN.com calls amounts "tiny".

Will the cumulative amounts of radiation become harmful in the US. Reports are saying that the situation in Japan at these plants are very grave. How much worse will this become before it's stopped?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/18/japan.nuclear.reactors/index.html?hpt=C1