Earthquake (8.9magnitude) & Tsunami hits Tokyo

mystic_trev

Not in this case. See the before and after by moving your cursor over the pictures.


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

GDB2222

Here's the streetview picture of the area near Sendai Airport that's been wiped out. Those aren't tiny buildings that have been wiped out.



http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=sendai+airport&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sendai+Airport+(SDJ),+Sendai,+Japan&ll=38.136211,140.93266&spn=0.014717,0.014741&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=38.134922,140.935813&panoid=FdNupslfbEZkAjnJ3V33pA&cbp=12,43.06,,0,5

globalds

For any body who is happy to read a fairly lengthy blog post.

Here is a link to a really well written analysis of why the Japanese Nuclear plants are not something to worry about.

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

This really is worth a read.

I was made aware of it by one of my friends who is in Tokyo.

ChiefGrasscutter

GDB2222 wrote: »

No, you are not the only one. Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring!

The main trouble with pumping water into a light water reactor is that the water acts as a moderator, which tends to restart the nuclear reaction. Apparently, they are adding boron to the water to counteract this. I wonder where they keep the boron handy for such occasions?

Just returned to this thread after an day in the garden.....time to catch up with the day's events.

There is a small component of "Heavy Water" in "water"
It is the heavy water that acts as a moderator - correct
Boron balls have in the past being used as a standby last ditch fail safe for reactors (Can't remember whether they were commercial or experimental/military) dump a few containers in via chute direct to the core. Maybe they were available locally.....

Previous poster in respect of the reaction with the fuel elements casings is indeed correct. At very high temperatures (ie well above normal) the zirconium coating/casing will react with the steam to decompose the steam into hydrogen.

In respect of the pumping...bit concerned about the problems with it - they said they had to stop. Bad move - once started do not stop otherwise the water will flash into steam and blow back rather than cool the core. you need lots of water on hand and some seriously big pumping capacity.....I suppose all the sea water is being dumped out to sea afterwards.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

globalds wrote: »

For any body who is happy to read a fairly lengthy blog post.
Here is a link to a really well written analysis of why the Japanese Nuclear plants are not something to worry about.
http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/
This really is worth a read.
I was made aware of it by one of my friends who is in Tokyo.

That covers the scenarios where cooling can be restored at some point.

Well correct me if I am wrong but isn't that all the external pipework that has disappeared & been washed away & blown up?

Tell me, how long does it take to rebuild all the pipework & what soothing words does the article say we must whisper to the core in order to reduce any temperature rise?

ChiefGrasscutter

I think it's written by a pro nuke PR consultant type with lots of soothing words some unverifable facts stated as certainities which may or may not be true.
"the cesium and iodine isotopes were carried out to sea" being one such example.

Slightly OT but if your interested look up the Oklo natural reactor in Gabon.
This is thought to have been a quirk of nature where there was enough concentration of uranium in the strata underground to start a natural fission reactor in situ. It was discovered by the curious depletion (radioactivity) of the uranium found by analysis when they were digging for 'normal' uranium.
It operated some 2 BILLION years ago and started due to the rising concentration of oxygen in the air. Natural groundwater was the moderator and it probably operated for many hundreds of thousands of years.

Mr_Mumble

Radiation is back above legal limits at Fukashimo #1 but other than that no new news recently.

There's just been another 6.2 aftershock off Ibaraki which may be a concern since one of the affected nuclear plants is in the prefecture.

And, the stock exchange opened a few minutes ago...

Japanese Stocks Fall After Strongest Earthquake; Tepco Untraded

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks tumbled the most in two years after the nation’s strongest earthquake on record snarled production lines and shut down factories, raising concern economic growth will stall. Orders to sell overwhelmed the Tokyo Stock Exchange, leaving many shares untraded at the open.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., Asia’s biggest power company battling to avoid a meltdown at its Fukushima nuclear plant, was untraded and set to tumble 23 percent. Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., the nation’s largest property and casualty insurer by market value was set to fall 20 percent. Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. retreated at least 5 percent after Japan’s three-largest carmakers said thousands of new vehicles were damaged. Canon Inc., the No. 1 camera maker, plunged 9.1 percent.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 4.7 percent to 9,771.07 as of 9:49 a.m. in Tokyo, set for the biggest drop since January 2009. The broader Topix index declined 6.6 percent to 855.32, the most since October 2008

Mr_Mumble

Explosion at the no.3 reactor at Fukushima#1 plant. First reports are its a hydrogen blast and similar to the first explosion (at the no.1 reactor). Water cooling is ongoing and the container vessel is likely to be safe. The 600 residents that have not left the 20km exclusion zone have been told to stay indoors. A hydrogen buildup was reported by the IAEA in its most recent report. So, while worrying its not surprising or catastrophic.

wearside_2

I thought that according to Harold Camping the End Of The World was supposed to begin on 21 May 2011:eek:

AD9898_2

Out in sunny Australia at the min, there is quite a bit of coverage out here. Just shows how insignificant we are as a race when we see this kind of carnage. I can't understand for the life of me why nuclear facilities are built so close to huge fault lines. San Francisco is sure to bite the dust within a decade or two.

And unlike some of my other predictions, which maybe up for some debate, this will happen without any doubt, that's what plates do, they move.