CNN right now...

[Mike]

How very true.

[Tony]

CNN? It's a conspiracy!

[Scott]

hopefully gas prices don't go up now ... my wallet can only take so much of this shit

It will.. hahaha

If Obama's White House maid steals $5 from him, expect gas prices to go up ffs. Anything is an excuse.

[Shoalzie]

How very true.

Yeah...most of the areas that have the means and are prone to earthquakes avoid greater damage than Chile or Haiti. I'm sure there's a limit to how much a building could withstand but they build those things to not crumble like a house of cards at the slightest wiggle. It's pretty amazing what kind of innovations in design have come from past disasters.

[Mike]

hopefully gas prices don't go up now ... my wallet can only take so much of this shit

It will.. hahaha

If Obama's White House maid steals $5 from him, expect gas prices to go up ffs. Anything is an excuse.

Don't bame OPEC, the cartel which artificially maintains high crude prices or anything.

[Nick]

Japanese respect for engineering has always been impressive. No doubt that their typically high quality building codes, strong work ethic and impressive city planning contributed to a -> as low as could possibly be expected death total.

[MSP4LYFE]

Spoke with Honger about this apparently he didnt even feel the earthquake.

Than it's already too late...


























Sorry, just always wanted to say that..

[kyuss]

hopefully the nuclear sites involved won't add disaster to disaster. Unfortunately i find what i hear about the one in Fukushima to be very worrisome.

there you go..
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiap ... tml?hpt=T1
everything sounds like Chernobyl #2, and that might be optimistic, as here it's not only one reactor involved.

[inferno31]

Being way overblown, this is nothing like Chernobyl. It likely will be less of an issue than three mile island (which itself was overblown in the amount of radiation actually leaked). This reactor has quite a different design than Chernobyl the increasing heat automatically stopped further nuclear reaction (which is the opposite of what happened in Chernobyl). There is also 3-4 levels of containment, so far one has been breached. The issue is the building up heat, there is very low possibility of a meltdown, rather the release of some of steam may release some radioactive material in the surrounding areas but no further than a few kilometers and not near chernobyl levels.

[kyuss]

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters the nuclear reaction facility was surrounded by a steel storage machine, which was itself surrounded by a concrete building.

"This concrete building collapsed. We learnt that the storage machine inside did not explode," he said.

yeah this news was a great relief..

as for the meltdown though, there are still unconfirmed reports suggesting it would be already underway.
Hopefully these will turn out to be wrong rumours, whereas the above about the reactor not being damaged will be confirmed.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiap ... ar/?hpt=T1

Crews at a nuclear plant struck by an earthquake, then a tsunami and then an explosion in the span of 36 hours resorted Saturday to flooding a feverish nuclear reactor with sea water in hopes of preventing a meltdown of its core.

"if damage from the explosions or aftershocks have compromised the structural integrity of the reactor complex, it could make efforts to cool the reactors more difficult, Cirincione said.
"The big unanswered question here is whether there's structural damage to this facility now," he said.

"This is a situation that has the potential for a nuclear catastrophe. It's basically a race against time, because what has happened is that plant operators have not been able to cool down the core of at least two reactors," said Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.

"If this accident stops right now it will already be one of the three worst accidents we have ever had at a nuclear power plant in the history of nuclear power," said Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear materials and president of the U.S.-based Ploughshares Fund

still a scary situation right now, and the meltdown doesn't sound like a remote possibility at all, if it has yet to happen to begin with.

The problem with this kind of stuff is that officials try to decrease alarmism as much as possible, and may hide as long as possible the seriousness of what is happening. When this stuff started they said everything was under control you know.. and then that beyond 10kms there were no risk whatsoever for population (like there was some kind of safety curtain separating the 11th km..).. next thing you know, they ordered evacuation till 20kms.. and preparing iodine..

bottom line, i guess we will just have to see what levels of radiations will be detected in the next hrs/days, particularly in Japan neighborhoods (Japanese may lie like they did in the past already).

[inferno31]

Nuclear power has and always will get a horrible reputation by the mainstream media, because if they can't understand it it must be evil. Two main nuclear disasters have occurred, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Chernobyl was cheap production, horrible maintenance and an overall flawed design (the core was more unstable at lower temperatures). It was staffed in the night by employees who couldn't explain nuclear fission but were gathered from old coal plants. Three Mile Island on the other hand had several safety measures fail, yet total radiation exposure was minimal at best. Long term consequences to peoples health and the environment was also small at best. Nuclear gets a bad reputation because people can't explain or understand it and the associated dangers. Its like how flying via a plane is safer than driving a car. Car crashes will kill you more often, but when a plane crashes it'll make the news. Coal + Oil plants environmentally and safety wise (including mines and rigs) kill people at a much higher rate, we just accept those deaths though.

Currently the Japanese reactors hazard is rated under three mile island. I fully expect the media to make a huge deal out of this, the real damage though we'll see years later how bad it is.

For those interested, read up on the topic of Thorium reactors, interesting stuff. I think Bill Gates had a speech on it at TED not too long ago.

[inferno31]

Coal Ash more radioactive than Nuclear
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... lear-waste

Good article.

[kyuss]

Nuclear power has and always will get a horrible reputation by the mainstream media, because if they can't understand it it must be evil.

in Italy the situation is basically the opposite, being the media under government control, and being nuclear program embraced because of economical interests of lobbies related with government.
We could also talk about how nuclear power is by some considered the evil simply because of what it really still is as of now, but i'm too caught into what's happening right now to find any will/time to discuss that.

You said meltdowns were very unlikely, there was nothing major happening here, the whole thing was overblown, the incident has been rated a 4 ( lower than 1979's one )..

actually, as usual in serious situation like this, official reports tend to diminish the seriousness of the situation to avoid panic, which is obv particularly important while trying to evacuate an area under such extreme circumstances.

Reality is that after official reports said everything was under control we realized that was not the case at all, even witnessing an explosion.
People beyond 10kms were said to be absolutely not at risk, next thing you know they decided to evacuate till 20kms, preparing iodine.
We were told no meltdown were possible, now it's considered a very possible occurrence in 2 of 3 reactors..
the crisis has been rated a 4, but everything suggests it is already more serious than '79 crisis, and the rating will end up being 5 or potentially more..
and it goes on.. 100% believing everything local officials are saying (and ensuing reports) at this point is wishful thinking, we just have to hope that's the case indeed when it comes to the core reactor protecting structure being intact.

But when they, even they, mention the risk of further explosion that is unlikely would damage the reactors itself, it means that might happen indeed. It is not ruled out at all.

16hrs ago i learnt the other reactor that is facing possible meltdown contains plutonium.
Plutonium is even a MUCH more serious threat than uranium already is, as far as i know; i can only pray they'll be able to avoid meltdown and, even more so, eventual radioactive explosion at reactor #3.

[Nick]

Government understates risk... media exaggerates it... nothing new there.


However regarding moving people back, preparing iodine, and other precautionary measures -> why the fak would you not do that? Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

[inferno31]

http://bit.ly/fGGXto
Good Read if you want to understand whats happening.