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

Can they not predict these things with recent technologies? Surely in such a quake-volitile area they can record seismic activity and prepare as necessary? Seems strange to me that no one knew about this prior to it being a crisis.

I just saw on CNN that the radiation has come to the pacific west coast of the U.S. around the L.A. area... I also heard that humanitarian aid is being held off on because of the severe dangers of the radiation, is this true?

 

Man, that is scary...Here's the math:

1 Sv = 1000 mSv (millisieverts) < the unit used to describe radiation when it enters a person.

"Highest recorded radiation at reactor 2, Fukushima I: 8.2 millisieverts/8200 microsieverts
Highest recorded radiation at Fukushima I: 400 millisieverts/400,000 microsieverts" -
http://andyheather.posterous.com/radiation-levels-japan


"Effects to humans of acute radiation (within one day):
0–0.25 Sieverts: None
0.25–1 Sieverts: Some people feel nausea and loss of appetite; bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen damaged.
1–3 Sieverts: Mild to severe nausea, loss of appetite, infection; more severe bone marrow, lymph node, spleen damage; recovery probable, not assured.
3–6 Sieverts: Severe nausea, loss of appetite; hemorrhaging, infection, diarrhea, skin peels, sterility; death if untreated.
6–10 Sieverts: Above symptoms plus central nervous system impairment; death expected.
Above 10 Sieverts: Incapacitation and death." - http://andyheather.posterous.com/radiation-levels-japan

 

I don't recall being so glued to 1 story since 9/11 for sure. However, who would have predicted cooling issues with the nuke rods?

I really see it as a global disaster and I think that it is far from over; IMO.

We should expect the worst and hope for the best. No one expected this a week ago and who knows what might happen by this time next week.

 

BTW - Skip, thanks for all of the timely updates. Top notch, bro.

 

holy shit. I said in another thread that there are 4 nuclear sites in a 200 mile radius of me, but I was wrong. according to this, there are 5, all within 120 miles of me. One is only 34 miles away. I'm pretty sure all 5 sit on a fault line. We never really get earthquakes but I've been hearing my whole life that my area is way overdue for a huge earthquake. I hope they take precautions to update these plants and make sure they can withstand a major quake.

 

Yeah for sure..what are they thinking?

 

This makes my heart sick...

 

that and the salt water that washed over the farms! Wow! How horrible for such a little and highly populated country to lose its farm area!!

 

Doctors are going to love this, think how rich they will become. And of course scientists who get to come up with more cures.....

 

Is Japan still trying to say this is 'PAR' with Three Mile Island?

Seems like a hard sell...

Japan:
2 X Level 5 reactor meltdowns
4 X Level 3 reactor incidents
2 X secondary explosions ?
1 X Spent fuel fires ?
Full environmental impact still mostly unkown...

VS TMI:
1 X Level 5 partial meltdown contained.

The score on the total serious levels is at least 22 to 5.

 

Mine too

I think its getting too late to 'save the planet'. Right now I'm glad it wasn't UK where this happened, but there are more and more enormous catastrophes every year, I think sooner or later most of us will have to face something like this.

Back in the 1980s I used to try and persuade ppl to care about the environment. Most of them thought I was some mad guy in a jumper spouting scary stories that weren't true. Ppl started taking notice a few years later but it was already too late. In fact, it was probably too late in the 1980s.

I'm trying to lift my heart as I think the only thing that will save us is the love of people, inherent in the human race. That can bring genuine coping strategies. All the government coping strategies are set up to ensure that the rich of the world can continue the relentless quest to 'get for self', and they're not about coping with environmental meltdown, they're about avoiding embarassment.

 

I feel so sorry for the Japanese people that have to deal with this.

As for the plant owners that forged documents concerning safety devices so their plant would pass inspection.... let's see how precious all that money they made is now. Greedy worthless bastards.

 

First of all we have to worry about having enough energy for the circumstances of the civilized debate. We're just part of the mob at this point. RRR....

 

Yesss!! Here we have the essential problem. Whatever implications this has, its usually only the implications for shareholders that are upheld. They can get loads of money from wrecking the world, and the law says they have to be allowed to do it. What these ppl don't get is that their money won't buy them anything when there's nothing left to buy, and more directly, they won't make much money out of owning a dead nuke plant.

 

What are last count of died people ?... really bad thing, what we can help, than be with all that Japanese people!...

If this disaster was to some to other financial lowest country, will be disaster that can back with years..

 

Latest from NY Times.

 

I read in the NY Times Sunday edition that they could have screwed people further by not following safety procedures in the plant via flooding it with seawater. They were afraid they'd lose all that money and effort to get the plant there in the first place. What else is new, salvaging a corporate monstrosity over human lives?