The Earthquake Check In thread

Amen to that (God bless the dead) our thoughts are with you.

Japan, will raise again!

Hopefully next week or so we'll find out if our fellow community members are alive and well especially in the Sendai area.

 

It surpising how all the achevements of man can be made so inconsequential by the power of nature in such a small amount of time.

Long live Japan, my thoughts are with you.

 

Amazing before and after satellite images (roll over the images to see the changes)

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

Absolutely horrific.

 

What is this I hear about a VOLCANO erupting in the south???

And also, what's the state of the reactors in Fukujima?

 

n1 it has half melted but the enclosure is ok.
n2 is missing water, still not melting
n3 probably same as number 1 except that the ceiling hasn't exploded.

 

Volcano in the south? News to me. Better switch on the TV.

 

I always started my argument w/ a disclaimer, but I've been saying for a while now that an Earthquake is probably the only thing that can help Japan in the long term, as it will open them up to western influence. However, my statement was more if it hit Tokyo, not the countryside. I don't think this is going to do much. It will cost a lot, and boost some economies, but crucify others.

 

A bit off topic, but which western influences precisely?

6.2 Earthquake just now, Ibaraki-ken.

 

another tremor...
should we fear radiation
maybe it is safer outside of Tokyo for a bit..

 

Really, I've been searching for that on the news, and I was unsuccessful in finding any trust worthy info.

But you guys better stay on your toes.

I'm off to bed now, but it's close to dawn in Japan. I hope the news are better in this new day than they were during the weekend.

I wish there was something we could do to help...:shrug:

 

The ones most likely required for rebuilding. I'm talking if Kantou was flattened a la WWII, resulting in a rather devastated country. This one will pretty much be handled domestically (other than funds). The last time a large influx of influence was post-war, and they've been quite stiff to change since then.

Again, my theory, and pretty much a hail marry. A Frenchie I know had a good one. "The only thing that brings a country together is war... and war ain't coming here. Game over."

 

Hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima reactor

 

At 11:08 AM there's been a second hydrogen explosion at Fukushima Daiichi-3. The situation for that particular reactor sounds similar to the Daiichi-1 reactor explosion Saturday.

For significantly less inaccurate news on the matter I've been following:
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org

 

When Chernobyl went, we had a green cloud come over here. We're about 1250 miles (2000 km) away from Chernobyl. And I'm in the South. The North of England, Scotland and even Wales were affected even worse. By 2000, they announced that the effect on our sheep was higher than they thought (yes, 14 years later)... and two years ago, a report stated that our sheep were STILL affected.

The nearest nuclear power plant is less than 20 miles by road. If I go up on the hills above my house, I can look across the sea and see the plant. In a straight line, it's probably not even 10 miles.

If anything happened there, I would be GETTING THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE as quickly as possible!! I don't blame the people who left.

There's been activity atShinmoedake all this year... until two weeks ago. It can't be proved whether the earthquake had anything to do with it erupting yesterday.... although I think this was the worst case for a long time. Wasn't there another volcano that erupted on the day of the earthquake in another country nearby?

Why would they rebuild that land exactly as it was? Surely that's just asking for trouble? Can't they say, "We've seen what can happen... now let's make sure we can withstand another"? What was the architecture like in the worst hit areas? Anything traditional Japanese, or was it all more modern?

I'm glad to hear that an_turtar is OK. Thanks for looking him up. I wasn't expecting him to check in here - as said before, he has other priorities and I'm sure an Internet connection would be hard to find. However, it seems that, whilst he logged in the day before the earthquake, he hadn't posted in well over a year. Furthermore, he'd deleted all of his posts just over a year ago. Does anyone know why? I hope that, once he's back on his feet and settled, he feels he can come back and join in again

Are there any more missing members left unaccounted for?

 

The nuclear plant is far from Tokyo and there's no cause for concern at the moment.

 

The 3gouki explosion was much more intense than that from last saturday. Looked almost like an A-bomb mushroom and shot up straight into the air in almost notime.

 

What exactly is a half melt down? There is either a melt down or there is no melt down.

 

No. Three Mile Island was a partial meltdown.

A valve got stuck, coolant boiled in the core, steam was generated, pressure was lost, this caused false readings and the belief that the system was being overloaded with coolant. The cooling pumps were shut down, steam was blocking the coolant, the coolant became steam very quickly, which formed in the reactor core, burning off the fuel rod cladding and damaging the fuel pellets. This in turn produced a more radioactive coolant... way more radioactive than it should have been, and the plant was dangerously contaminated.

Eh, I'm tired, but I think that made sense, lol.

 

Basically, this nuclear plant is destroyed. I don't think radiation levels from this event are going to haunt us for years to come, but it's a disaster non-the-less.

 

Got updates from two friends in Sendai. Both are OK. Two more who live in Natori are the ones I am really concerned about. I called the Natori fire department to ask them if they could tell me if the area in question was hit by the tsunami. They said just the outer edges of it were, but barely. That gives me some hope. But still, I am worried.