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Major Japan Earthquake!

I saw it on the news this morning, and thank goodness for technology, I was able to text my son who is stationed in Iwakuni and got an immediate reply from him that he was fine. The base is far from the center of the earthquake. He said they were just waiting for word on what their part of the relief effort was going to be.

My thoughts and payers go out for the people of Japan!
 
I lived in Nagoya, Japan in the early 90s and was there when the Kobe earthquake hit. Nagoya is some distance from the Kobe area but I felt it very well. Our apartment had the living area on one end and my bedroom was on the other end. It was early in the morning and I was starting to wake up, I heard the dishes rattling in kitchen, then things rattling in the hall and my case of models rattling, then my bed, and away it went...it was very eerie, like a wave. Later that year our school visited the Kobe area as part of a relief team, the devistation was too hard to describe. I can only imagine what this will look like when the dust starts to settle.


TJ
 
I'm looking for family members in japan of Nobuaki Takahashi ( Takahashi Nobuaki ) and tricia Okamura. Both are professors at Eastern Carolina university and friends of a very dear friend.. Please if someone can give me a clue over the next day or so, i would greatly appreciate it.. woulf give more data but thats all i have to go on besides the fact that they cant be found or contacted at this time, which to me means they're in northeastern Japan somewhere..
Thanks..
Pam
 
Dreadful...I have no words since watching the helicopter footage of the tsunami destroying the coastline and zooming in on individual pedestrians and drivers without knowing if they survived.
 
Roger said:
Dreadful...I have no words since watching the helicopter footage of the tsunami destroying the coastline and zooming in on individual pedestrians and drivers without knowing if they survived.
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Same here. It felt so wrong watching it. I had goosebumps and felt sick to my stomach. I fear the worst for the death toll. That was a bad quake.
 
deathfromafar said:
There are multiple reports that Cesium has been detected outside of the plant. If this is true, that is not a good sign.
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As usual, the 'Sensationalist Media' have screwed up again.

First and foremost, evacuation of citizens in proximity to Nuclear Power Facilities is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE.
Japan has the most advanced and comprehensive Earthquake disaster and warning system in place of ANY nation on the planet due to their past experiences, which includes the possible damage to Nuclear Facilities.
Of the four reactors in the effected plant all have shut down automatically, as is standard procedure in Japan.
One (as in '1') reactor has a problem with raised temperatures as the diesel backup generator for its water cooling has shut down due to site flooding.
As of 17:50 AEDST this has been contained.
'Meltdown' will not take place.

The 'Media Person' radiation leakage reporting raised the subject with a specialist from the Nuclear Energy Environment and Safety Group (we do have an independent one here in Oz) only to be told that if one were to stand at the gates of this facility for fifty (as in '50') days the radiation exposure would be below the level of a chest X-ray.

Japan has a first class disaster response team in the Nuclear Energy field, their primary function is to ensure suppression of ANY plant damage, which has been assisted (so I believe) by a swiftly deployed support team from the US.
These plants will take months to come back on line, primarily due to water damaged infrastructure, but the prospects of the much touted 'Nuclear Disaster' by the 'Media' have been all but eliminated.

At this point in time, after shocks are expected to cause greater problems, as they will continue, diminishing in scale of course, but that scale is proportionate, so the next is expected to be in the high 7 range, followed by lower numbers in the 7's and so on down through the entire Richter scale.
It appears set to be an ongoing and perhaps even worse situation, given the vast number of homeless and missing.

A footnote:
In a sad twist of fate, a Japanese S&R team working in Christchurch (NZ) for the past two weeks have been recalled to their homeland to face the same task on a much larger scale.

:medals:
 
A local group of 50 American Nuclear Engineer Specialists from the GE/Hitachi Facility at Castle Hayne, North Carolina were on site at Fukushima Daiichi at the time of the Earthquake & subsequent tsunami impact. The lead engineers reported by phone to local media that the tsunami flooding has completely submerged the diesel generators at the plant and that those units are unrecoverable and that only the emergency backup pumps(battery powered) were available. Also, most of the pump intakes are fouled by mud and debris from the floods.

They also stated as fact that both Cesium and Iodine were detected outside of the containment protected area and that control room #1 was seriously contaminated. They continued to say that it is believed that a portion of #1 reactor's fuel was fully exposed due to low water coolant levels and that those fuel segments and perhaps more are believed to have melted down. They indicated that the full extent of the damage is not fully known at this time and that the crisis may not be over as the Chief Japanese Nuclear Authorities are concerned that any portion of the fuel that may have melted and may now be out of range of the Boron Control Rod effectiveness and thus at risk of uncontrolled reaction & heat/pressure generation.

They stressed it is too early to claim both the extent of the damage or that all danger has subsided.
 
deathfromafar said:
A local group of 50 American Nuclear Engineer Specialists from the GE/Hitachi Facility at Castle Hayne, North Carolina were on site at Fukushima Daiichi at the time of the Earthquake & subsequent tsunami impact. The lead engineers reported by phone to local media that the tsunami flooding has completely submerged the diesel generators at the plant and that those units are unrecoverable and that only the emergency backup pumps(battery powered) were available. Also, most of the pump intakes are fouled by mud and debris from the floods.

They also stated as fact that both Cesium and Iodine were detected outside of the containment protected area and that control room #1 was seriously contaminated. They continued to say that it is believed that a portion of #1 reactor's fuel was fully exposed due to low water coolant levels and that those fuel segments and perhaps more are believed to have melted down. They indicated that the full extent of the damage is not fully known at this time and that the crisis may not be over as the Chief Japanese Nuclear Authorities are concerned that any portion of the fuel that may have melted and may now be out of range of the Boron Control Rod effectiveness and thus at risk of uncontrolled reaction & heat/pressure generation.

They stressed it is too early to claim both the extent of the damage or that all danger has subsided.
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And the source of this information is where??????
:kilroy:
 
UPDATE: Major Explosion has occurred at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.
Video: Watch frames at 0:47 in the video. Not sure what the hell blew but some reports say the explosion happened at 0800GMT


Edit, CNN is now reporting the explosion as well. Also take note at frames 0:49 to 0:52, it appears that a large black roof section was blown up into the air and back down.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.nuclear/
 
This doesn't look good. Since the video surfaced, many news reports are saying that reactor #1 building was destroyed and that the containment is breached. The Japanese Govt confirms the explosion but says it does not know further details at this time. The IAEA is now involved in the crisis. Some nuclear engineers have weighed in on TV discussions here and seemed to agree that the video showed the containment structure of reactor #1 being destroyed in the explosion and that the roof is clearly seen being blown off.

"The U.N. nuclear watchdog said it is aware of media reports of an explosion on Saturday at Japan’s Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and is urgently seeking information from the country’s authorities.
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An official at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based U.N. atom body, gave no further details.

Jiji news agency said there had been an explosion at the stricken 40-year-old Daiichi 1 reactor and TV footage showed vapor rising from the plant, which lies 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Japanese media said an explosion blew the roof off the reactor, raising fears of a disastrous meltdown at a nuclear plant damaged in the massive earthquake that hit Japan.

“We are aware of the media reports and we are urgently seeking further information,” the IAEA official told Reuters.

The blast came as plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) worked desperately to reduce pressures in the core of the reactor that, if not contained, could lead to a release of radiation into the atmosphere.

Nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said an explosion would be a “physical shock” to the plant that could increase the danger of a breach of the containment and of radioactivity getting out.

“We don’t have any information from inside the plant. That is the problem in this case,” he said.

“If it melts down the probability that there would be a breach or that radiation would get outside of the plant because of weakness of the structure of the plant ... is much greater,” Hibbs said.

Explosion confirmed

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano confirmed on Saturday there has been an explosion and radiation leakage at the plant. "
 
Reply...

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those in Japan or who have family there. Prayers also go to past earthquake victims of th last couple of years, including Chile and New Zealand.

Prayers also go out to those close to or who work in those nuclear reactor sites.
 
Right now, the gov spokesperson told that the nuclear reactor is not in critical situation (though, there is low level leak of radio-active material.)

The video of the building blown off was casused by an explosion of leaked hydrogen mixed with atmospheric oxygen, according to the spokesperson said.
The cause of hydrogen leak is not specified yet.

Residents within the 20km radius (13 miles?) from the nuclear plant is evacuating just to be safe.
Engineers and JDF's mechanics are now trying to settle down the situation.
The utomost-worst case is avoided for the mean time.

Regards

Daisuke
 
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