http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-quake-nuclear-us-analysis-idUSTRE72B04C20110312 Now this is interesting to me as it is a first in a nuclear power plant operation, typically incidents arise out of internal, catastrophic system failures, like Chernobyl, or 3 Mile Island, this is the first time an external force has caused internal failures. I also have a great deal of respect for Japanese Engineering, and am sure they have the Rule of 3's, designed safety redundancies built into their plants, but suspect the final option would be manual valve operation along with a fail safe system. Good speed to them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake Interestingly enough, the blast actually released pressure on the reactor chamber, the problem now is the reactor is going to do whatever it is going to do as there is no way such an explosion was preplanned, the metal chamber perhaps survived the blast, but this was clearly not a designed situation. Only now, there will be a plume of radioactive materials floating in the atmosphere around the plant, radioactive dust and debris, this is what sort of happened at Chernobyl and there are areas that have yet to be re inhabitated as caeseranium and other toxins have literally sunk into the soil. The Russians did attempt to use Hemp plants to remove the toxins and materials but they are simply to dense for the root systems to pick up.
Chernobyl didn't have a metal housing around its reactor. Thank god these do. Nuclear disasters happen quickly. These events are taking alot of time to develop, which tells me there were some very good fail-safes, and they are doing everything that can be done it a situation like this. And I agree with you about Japanese engineering. They are a proud, crafty and driven people. I've got faith.
And chernobyl had a fire that sent a huge plume of materials up into the atmosphere directly from the Core as well as the Soviet Army members who tried to deal with the fire having -0- protective gear. I do think the Chernobyl solution, pumping concrete into the reactor chamber is what the Japanese will have to do sooner or later, but with the infrastructure destroyed around the plant and the roads either washed out, or chocked with debris it could take awhile to get the equipment into the area to begin pumping the concrete they are more or less trying to tread water until the way is cleared. I'm surprised a bit that there are not more robotics involved in the effort.
my uninformed question would be that if we are worried about radiation affecting the US, what happened when we bombed them in 1945? surely there was far more radiation from the blasts then
Well, I doubt the US has much to worry about maynard as the nuclear particles will fall into the Pacific or simply burn themselves out long before reaching our shores. Though interestingly enough, the Japanese military had a incendiary balloon program that did reach the US but they were launched from Manchuria iirc. They are in a really bad way right now, they had to pull all workers from the #2 reactor due to radiation levels.
well im reading stuff about iodine pill shortages and stuff like that. not that i am worried, but others are i feel for japan like no other nation in terms of my sympathy. their stock market tanked today. they are a remarkable people when you look at their history and you would be hard pressed to find an example of two countries that once fought one of the bloodiest and gruesome wars to becoming true global partners and friends. they are resilient and will bounce back, but this is serious. and it wasnt because of shoddy engineering or poor planning. this earthquake was the 4th largest magnitude ever recorded and the aftershocks continue. it makes me a bit sad. if 9/11 was the end of hyperpower, this earthquake will be later recorded as a symbol of a civilization entering a decline it could not bring itself out of. their demographic profile is beyond awful. the hit that our country is beginning to deal with as baby boomers decline is nothing compared to japan. its a shame i dont want to say that other earthquake victims and past tsunami victims were not worthy of donations, but japan, imo, is most worthy
What has my attention is there is no stabilization of the situation, the northern island was hard hit and the nuclear problems means infrastructure is just not there to deliver food and water and what have you, the nuke plant has everyone's attention but the human cost is growing by the hour among those barely affected by the nuclear problems.
yeah, in a situation where certain areas become off limits for aid, that becomes very troublesome. its a major problem compounded by another major problem. plus i would imagine that the sheer geography and terrain of the area makes this difficult
A good example of the problems are the USS Reagan is in the area and can produce 400k gallons of fresh water everyday, but they have to move when the winds shift to avoid the fallout, so they have problems delivering excess water to the populace. Then the roads are clogged and choked with debris and the store shelves are mostly barren and the reactor issues are just a portion of the difficulties...but 5 days with no fresh water and the water that is there is contaminated.
