7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

i mean if you take ANY level of radiation to be "potentially dangerous" then literally the entire illuminated universe is potentially dangerous.

This is what I'm saying. Not that there's anything to be done about it, or that's it's worth worrying about. It's just that declaring certain levels safe or dangerous is pretty arbitrary.

Not sure that whatever point I'm making is worth reinforcing any more, really. I'll shut up about this now.

obv I have no idea what kind of work they're doing in there but I guess some sort of robotic contraption is out the question

I wonder if the radiation close to the core would bugger this up--interfere with remote control or sensitive computer systems. though I guess the main problem is just trying to keep the reactors drowned in cold stuff, which is a bigger-scale thing than a robot would cope with

We obviously need highly-shielded robots or robot suits in the future, imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Ib2efNWDY

Should we believe our own western media who appear extremely eager to exaggerate everything, imho?

― StanM, Wednesday, March 16, 2011 5:17 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

have you read any recent posts in this thread

those quotes arent from 'anonymous sources' or some ish thats what a dude testified before a congressional subcommittee

going into a reactor is like welp maybe i'll get cancer. less of a 'suicide mission' and more of a deal with the devil
― FUN FUN FUN FUN (gbx), Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7:25 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark

also you can get radiation poisoning really quickly right? i mean its possible that it could be so bad theyd show up & be entirely unable to perform whatever job
― deej, Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7:27 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark

yes. Depending on the amount you're exposed to, you can die in a matter or days or weeks, painfully and not from cancer. Here's a story about some people who were given fatal radiation doses at a hospital: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/health/24radiation.html

This is not the thread for it, but I'd like to point out Stephen Colbert also testified before a congressional subcommittee.

I do believe the gentleman in question is very right in his outline of potential dangers, though. I'm getting a really creepy "everything is OK!" vibe off of Japan, especially with the emperor, who has never addressed the public, giving them a message in common Japanese. Tragic things have happened, but something is severely off.

kind of amazed to learn that the emperor has never addressed the public before, btw

also that there is some High Japanese that most ppl wouldn't understand

I had no idea Japan still had an Emperor

It's interesting that he didn't use that High Japanese. It's hard for me to tell whether it's because of the crisis, or because there's been a distinct de-formalizing of the emperor role over the last century (or longer).

I wonder if the radiation close to the core would bugger this up--interfere with remote control or sensitive computer systems. though I guess the main problem is just trying to keep the reactors drowned in cold stuff, which is a bigger-scale thing than a robot would cope with

I read this about Chernobyl few months ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since: when trying to contain areas of contamination (not clean it up - merely to slow it spreading further), a small mountain of super-contaminated debris needed to be moved off the roof. The area was so radioactive that robots couldn't operate there - the circuitry would succumb to the radiation and fail. So they had to use people. Thousands and thousands of people.

They sent wave after wave of their own men at it :(

(it's from here, the whole thing - you can read it)

well im less worried about the terminator now

I got really sad last night thinking about those Japanese workers going into the reactors...

and going back and watching the chernobyl footage, all of this meltdown stuff is like awakening all of my worst nightmares, I was so terrified of nuclear wars and nuclear meltdowns and radiation just from all the news stories and movies on tv when I was little.
Mr Veg watched 'the Day After Tomorrow' when it was on TV a while ago, and I had to leave the room, I didn't realise til then that was *still* scared.

kinda off topic, sorry for derail

unrelated but amazing timing
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1545239

T'heck is a nuclear plant's water outlet doing anywhere near a drinking water reservoir!?

that "reservoir" is one of the Great Lakes--14th largest in the world.

Well, it doesn't sound so great now tbh

Assuming the fuel pellets primary containment (their coating of zirconium) isn't compromised in a meltdown, there's precious little in the distilled (and often tritium/deuterium depleted) cooling water to absorb any radiation.

The concern at Fukushima is that fuel-pellets are melting, and hence some fission products originally in the uranium fuel-pellet cores (like Cs-137 and Sr-90) are dissolving in the cooling water. Some are wafting into the steam releases neccessitated to keep the secondary containment pressure vessel in one piece.

The NRC chairs concern was with an entirely different reactor, #4, which like 5 & 6 were all down for scheduled maintenance. Somewhere in the chaos of the past week the water level in their spent fuel rod storage leaked out. Without a bath of boric acid that spent fuel could become a nuclear reactor, without control rods or containment vessels.

uh that last sentence is terrifying

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/dog-in-japan-stays-by-the-side-of-its-ailing-friend-in-the-rubble

Without a bath of boric acid that spent fuel could become a nuclear reactor, without control rods or containment vessels.
o.

OK, heart just broke. xpost

Yeah I can't watch that dog video. Just the still from yahoo's front page was too much.

yeah i'm not watchin that

stet otm

yeah "o." is about all i can muster anymore, I am not processing any of this.

Title: Canadian nuclear plant leaks demineralized water
First sentence: Canada's nuclear regulator says a leak at a power plant in Ohio"

You guys need some copy editing, Ohio's in the US, but that lake is on the border so the Canadian regulators caught it.

fear factor keeps jumping by exponents with this shit

Aus $ is already losing strength off the back of reduced excitement for nuclear power.

guys both of the doggies were rescued and are being treated

ohio/iowa/idaho/ontario/whatever
xpost

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/

The Bank of Japan has pumped 5 trillion yen ($64 billion) into the financial system to soothe money markets.

The move has raised the central bank's total funds injection to 33 trillion yen. (AFP)

O_______O

I did a rate conversion on that and still can't get my head around it.

They really are one of the best-prepared countries for something like this, you have to admit.

somewhere in the neighborhood of $4-500 billion?

i'm guessing that they're pumping yen into currency markets in order to keep the yen low-ish so that ppl will still buy japanese consumer goods and keep the factories running and the economy afloat?

xp yeah that's how I read it. Here out govt is in the shit for investing $50b in a broadband network over several years whereas these guys have just dropped 10x that inside a week. Incomprehensible.

sorry gbx, yeah I assume that's the case, economic stimulus of the highest order.

cf the renminbi

Aus $ is already losing strength off the back of reduced excitement for nuclear power.

Thought it was losing strength off the back of Japanese investors converting Australian dollars back to Yen

The Aussie, as the currency is nicknamed, slid to a six- week low against its Japanese counterpart on speculation the disaster will prompt investors in the Asian nation to bring home overseas funds.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-13/aussie-drops-to-six-week-low-versus-yen-as-japan-quake-saps-risk-appetite.html

Ah okay. Also:

The Aussie, as the currency is nicknamed,

When did this happen?

I guess "the dollar" would confuse.?

Yeah but when did it get that nickname? 'I paid twenny-foive aussies and all I got was this T-shirt'

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20110317-01.html

Oh god the Age headline currently is "CHOPPER BOMBS REACTOR"

(with water, which is conveniently left off the headline &^%%^$)