Massive Quake Hits NE Japan

[Supr49er]

The more video I see, the more shocked I am. It is really frightening, and the nuclear threat just adds to it.

[Dinner]

All in all as long as the reactors maintain integrity its not going to be a BIG thing from a public safety perspective. Venting losses is what is being seen right now and the wind is carrying it out to sea away from the public (hence the movement of the carrier fleet).

OTOH whoever made the claim that this is less in scope than TMI needs to have their head examined.

Honestly, they're very lucky the wind is blowing out to sea. Normally the wind blows off the sea on to the land.

[Docfeelgood]

Which bandwagon is that? The H1N1 will kill us all bandwagon? Or the "evil meltingdown OMFG nuke plants in Japan will kill us all" bandwagon?

How old are you?

[Docfeelgood]

if anything this incident proves that even having 3rd strongest measured earthquake ever in relative proximity of the nuclear plant + 10m tsunami did not create an all-out catastrophe in a 40yo nuclear power plant. New ones can only be better designed and we should be finally switching to nuclear power in the developed world.

The cost of relying on oil from some third world dictatorships is a lot higher than having to take care of nuclear plants and waste domestically

It is not over yet. You want to go on the record?

[Docfeelgood]

@OFiTG:

but OMFG but Nukleeer power is teh evil.

:ChernoblThreeMileIslandOMFGWTFDocFeelPanicky:

Child! you really have issues!
I bet you are a Star Trek fan

[Docfeelgood]

Honestly, they're very lucky the wind is blowing out to sea. Normally the wind blows off the sea on to the land.

During WWII the Japs used balloons carried through the jet stream to drop bombs on the US. I don't see how this would stop radioactivity.

[self biased]

@OFiTG:

but OMFG but Nukleeer power is teh evil.

:ChernoblThreeMileIslandOMFGWTFDocFeelPanicky:

it's pronounced "Nuke-Ulahr."

[Hauldren Collider]

Honestly, they're very lucky the wind is blowing out to sea. Normally the wind blows off the sea on to the land.

Uhh, actually that depends on which coast you're on. If you are on the east coast of the US, prevailing winds are out to sea.

[SlowwHand]

You should buy some Potassium Iodide.

[germanos]

That pic is just surreal.

I suspect we'll see a lot more.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Ah, crap:

A third explosion in four days rocked the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in northeast Japan early Tuesday, the country's nuclear safety agency said.

The blast at Dai-ichi Unit 2 followed two hydrogen explosions at the plant — the latest on Monday — as authorities struggled to prevent the catastrophic release of radiation in the area devastated by a tsunami.

The troubles at the Dai-ichi complex began when Friday's massive quake and tsunami in Japan's northeast knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.

The latest explosion was heard at 6:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Nuclear Safety Agency said at a news conference. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect.

Chief government spokesman Yukio Edano told news agencies that the suppression pool appeared to be damaged after the blast. He said, however, that measuring devices in the area did not indicate an increase in radiation as a result of the damage.

[germanos]

From Kyodo news:

Blast heard at Fukushima's No.2 reactor, radiation shoots up

TOKYO, March 15, Kyodo

Radiation is feared to have leaked after the container vessel suffered damage at the No. 2 reactor of the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Tuesday morning, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The utility also admitted that a critical situation called ''meltdown'' in which fuel rods melt and are destroyed is possible at the plant where three reactor cores are believed to have partially melted following Friday's magnitude 9.0 earthquake that hit northeastern and eastern Japan.

An explosion was heard early Tuesday morning at the reactor and the radiation level temporarily shot up later, the firm said as it continued efforts to prevent overheating of exposed fuel rods.

Shortly after the apparent blast at 6:10 a.m., which appears to have damaged the reactor's pressure-suppression system, the radiation level exceeded the legal limit to reach 965.5 micro sievert per hour before jumping to 8,217 micro sievert at 8:31 p.m., it said.

The maximum level is more than eight times the 1,000 micro sievert level to which people can be exposed in one year.

More

[Docfeelgood]

Whoa! a third explosion? When it rains, it pours!!!!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Again same phenomena as unit 1 and 3. As long as RPV and primary containment integrity is maintained the situation is contained.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I was mistaken the old BWRs did not necessarily have hydrogen recombiners like the more modern BWRs that used more modern containment designs.