Massive Quake Hits NE Japan

[Docfeelgood]

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Saturday that radioactive cesium has been detected at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
At a press conference, agency officials said that the detection indicates a reactor meltdown is occurring.
He said once a core meltdown began there would be little anyone could do to prevent radioactive material escaping.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier on Saturday that releasing radioactive steam to reduce the pressure would not cause any immediate threat to people's health and called for people to stay calm.

I guess the shiot has hit the fan!

[Docfeelgood]

glad I don't live on the west coast

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

So, would this mean the containment building is leaking?

Containment building is the third line of defense in depth.
It already blew.

Reactor vessel is second line of defense.

Zircaloy cladding on fuel is first line of defense. Presence of cesium is indicative of cladding failure.

[Docfeelgood]

I sure hope for the best.
Thanks Ogie.


Even though 210,000 people were evacuated from the region, Japanese authorities and the corporate media insist the situation is not serious. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said that only a small amount of radiation has been released from one of the reactors.
in order to prevent mass hysteria the Jap Gov is downplaying the truth. typical!

[Wezil]

I'm with you Doc.

Mass hysteria.

[germanos]

A Dutch newssite report 300 houses were destroyed in Pisco, Peru! 400 people spend the night in tents, according to the Major.

[germanos]

Ogie: I've heard the reactor vessel is supposed to be more sound than the containment vessel. But is this so? And why? I would think the last defence line would be the strongest as it's supposed to contain an already compromised core and reactor, making the risk of a major explosion greater then when the core would be still intact, no?

[BlackCat]

Probably the most reliable info site :

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/...iupdate01.html

[The Mad Monk]

The town that drowned: Fresh pictures from the port where 9,500 people are missing after it was swept away by the megaquakeBy Wil Longbottom
Last updated at 7:08 PM on 12th March 2011
Comments (50) Add to My Stories
9,500 people missing in Minamisanriku 24 hours after double disaster struck
Official death toll hits 574, but hundreds believed to be buried under rubble or washed away by waves
Explosion at nuclear power plant, but experts say reactor is not at risk
Region hit by repeated aftershocks, some up 6.8-magnitude
Rescue operation begins but some areas still cut off by road damage and flood waters
Force of quake shifts Japan 8ft to the East

Half of the population of a Japanese coastal town are still unaccounted for as the death toll from the massive earthquake and tsunami looks set to rise.

Government officials revealed the fate of 9,500 people in the north eastern port of Minamisanriku was still unknown more than 24 hours after the double disaster hit.

The official death toll stands at 574, but more than 1,700 people are believed to have been buried in the rubble or washed away by the waves.

Catastrophe: The true scale of the devastation that the tsunami unleashed is clear in this picture of the port city of Minamisanriku town where 10,000 people are unaccounted for


Wreckage: Residents walk past debris, including an overturned fishing boat, in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi, as the full scale of the devastation caused by the tsunami becomes apparent
Rescue teams have been unable to reach some areas after the 9-magnitude quake destroyed and cut off airports on the country's east coast.
Japan launched a massive military rescue operation today after the quake killed hundreds of people and left part of the northeastern coast a swampy wasteland.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops would join rescue and recovery efforts after a 30ft tsunami smashed through towns, airports and submerged highways.

The official death toll currently stands at 586, but 784 people were still missing and more than 1,000 injured.

Police said between 200 and 300 bodies have been found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake's epicentre.

Flooded: Soldiers brought in to help with the rescue operation walk across debris and mud in Minamisanriku


Surveying the damage: Soldiers walk along a road past an iron girder that has been uprooted from the ground and a fire that is still smoking in Minamisanriku

Scale of destruction: A tanker has been washed ashore by the massive wave in Kamaishi City
Untold numbers of bodies are believed to be buried in the rubble and debris.
Rail operators lost contact with four trains running on coastal lines on Friday and still had not found them by this morning.

East Japan Railway Co. said it did not know how many people were aboard the trains.

More than 215,000 people are living in temporary shelters in five states and a million homes have been left without water.

The region has continued to be hit with aftershocks 24 hours after the initial quake, which struck at 5:46am GMT 80 miles off the east Japan coast.

More than 125 aftershocks have occurred, many of them above 6 on the Richter scale.

Japan is well prepared for quakes and its buildings can withstand strong jolts, but there was little that could be down about the killer tsunami.

Gutted: Smoke billows from vessels off the harbour in Kesennuma


Cut off: The town of Yamamoto was swamped by the massive wave and, right, two bridges, one of which was being built, were badly damaged in Namegata by the 9-magnitude quake


Apocalyptic: A lone cyclist makes his way through a debris-choked street in Miyako
It swept inland around six miles in some areas, swallowing homes, boats, car, trees and even aircraft.
Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who was inside his lorry when the wave hit Sendai, said: 'The tsunami was unbelievably fast.

'Smaller cars were being swept around me. All I could do was sit in my truck.'

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said: 'Most of the houses along the coastline were washed away, and fire broke out there. I realised the extremely serious damage the tsunami caused.'

A total of 190 military aircraft and 25 ships have been sent to the affected areas.

International aid has also begun arriving, including a team from the UN disaster relief team.

Supplies at supermarkets and petrol stations have been running low as hundreds of people queued up along the eastern coastline.
Scale of the devastation: A satellite image from the National Space Organisation shows Sendai before the earthquake, left, and after


Damage: This satellite image shows towers that have collapsed at the Kirin plant in Sendai


Rescue: Workers look for missing people in Yamamoto, but many areas are still cut off by damage to roads or flood waters
Tsunami warnings were issued to the entire Pacific seaboard, but the worst fears were not realised. Widespread damage was caused to some coast areas, including California, but there were no reports of fatalities.
President Barack Obama has pledged U.S. assistance and said one aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way.

Japan's worst previous earthquake was an 8.3-magnitude temblor in Kanto which killed 143,000 people in 1923. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.

The country lies on the 'Ring of Fire' - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching across the Pacific where around 90 per cent of the world's quakes occur.


Counting the cost: People walk past a car that has been washed into a wall in Miyako




Shelter: A young girl watches the news in a community centre in Fukushima, where an explosion destroyed a building at a nuclear power plant earlier today

Carnage: Boats, cars and buildings lie in ruins in Miyako and, right, rescue workers survey the damage from the top of a shattered building in Rikuzentakada

An estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries were killed after a quake triggered a massive tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004, in the Indian Ocean.
A magnitude 8.8 quake which struck off the coast of Chile in February last year also generated a tsunami which killed 524 people. Authorities mistakenly told people in coastal regions there was no danger of a tsunami.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1GQK3tNz5

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365569/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-10-000-people-missing-Minamisanriku.html

[BlackCat]

A bit more detailed reliable info :

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS...s_1203111.html

[Hauldren Collider]

TMM, that's awful

[Dinner]

http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region

A lot of good information at that site.

Japanese authorities did not give radiation measurements in their INES report to the IAEA, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., reported that radiation levels next to the Unit 1 machine building had increased from 0.007 rem per hour to 0.67 rem per hour.

TEPCO confirmed it has successfully vented the containment of Unit 1 and was preparing to vent units 2 and 3. Venting reduces pressure in the containment. Boric acid and sea water are being used to cool the plant’s Unit 1 reactor.

A government official attributed an explosion earlier today to accumulated hydrogen combined with oxygen in the space between the containment and the outer structure. The primary containment was not damaged, he said.

Alright. So venting was used and that would explain were the radiation came from. During the power outages (or what not) cooling systems were not cooling the reactor fast enough so a steam cap was forming inside the reactor core as the water the rods were sitting in started to boil away. To prevent the pressure getting so high that the walls of the reactor vessel might break they vented the steam cap to the outside air and injected a combo of sea water and boron into the reactor core. That should help cool it for a while but it isn't a permanent fix.

So it has been confirmed that it was a hydrogen gas explosion. I only know what the talking heads on TV are saying but they say that hydrogen gas normally only gets created in reactors if the fuel rods are exposed to oxygen so that means the water in the reactor got so low (because it was boiling off and becoming steam) that the rods themselves were in contact with oxygen. Thus the build up of steam and hydrogen and the need to vent.

[BlackCat]

TMM, that's awful

True. Though, the journalist who wrote the comment to the pic with the large grounded ship should be taken out back and shot - it's a dry cargo ship, not a tanker

[Docfeelgood]

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.

.

[Docfeelgood]

Hey that’s interesting – first you have your HIRO-SHIMA, then you got your FUK-U-SHIMA.