Japan hit by powerful earthquake

[Kryssan]

I cannot find any news of problems at Unit 2. Can someone provide a link? The releases direct from NISA show nothing. Speaking of the releases from NISA, they lay everything out in a timeline with a great deal of information. I recommend reading them here.

We know now the cause of the automatic stop to the fill systems was lack of water resource in their seawater reservoirs. After refilling them fill operations recommenced. According to NISA's timeline the seawater injection ceased for a little over two hours.

The automatic pressure release valve that was showing signs of potential failure has been buffered by use of air compressor units (it's an air operated valve) and appears to be working normally.

New radiation numbers: Highest ever (Sunday) 1557.5 uSv/hr. Radiation levels dropped off back down to double digit uSv but rose again on Monday at 0220 and 0240, to 751 uSv/hr at one checkpoint and 650 uSv/hr at another checkpoint. Kyodo is listing 1000 uSv as the typical exposure of people in a year (that'd be 100 mrem) which is a bit low of a number to me. I'm used to hearing figures in the 300 mrem range, more for areas with natural Radon buildup. Radiation levels as of 1144 Monday were as low as 20 uSv/hr in some areas. Levels on the 14th according to NISAs 22nd release report are higher across the board than the 13th's but none are yet to approach the highest ever levels.

No new contamination information.

Pressure in the #1 Unit is around 353 kPa which regulators are considering to be a safe condition. #3 Unit pressures after the explosion were 380 kPa @ 1113 and 360 kPa @ 1155 (explosion was at ~1101). The explosion at Unit #3 was said to be after increases in both radiation and pressure, but I can't find data on what the pressures were just prior to the explosion.

#3 Unit pressures are now said to be at 250 kPa however with the water level gauge issues they cannot say for certain what the status is at the #3 Unit. Other indications they have show that the reading is erroneous, however that reading would be indicative of fuel being uncovered and is therefore being considered still since it would be a serious situation if it were true.

@Tagus - The release of Iodine and Cesium was confirmed, but still no numbers on concentrations release. Without that information no one is going to be able to say for certain the extent of the danger. KI tablets were issued to the public however, so the threat of radioiodine has been relatively mitigated.

[Edelweiss]

Rolling blackouts have begun.

[Burningthought]

Just saw this on reddit a few minutes ago.

Gotta love Bill Nye.

[The Stig]

Not realistically. Anything strong enough to do that would turn Arizona into beachfront property.

Ah ok, I knew they were big (tall too) so I suppose a 10m tsunami would only be treated like a minor wave, as to a small boat on a wave. Same reaction I guess, different scale.

Googling for Arizona Beachfront lol, not sure what you mean

[Edelweiss]

I cannot find any news of problems at Unit 2. Can someone provide a link? The releases direct from NISA show nothing. Speaking of the releases from NISA, they lay everything out in a timeline with a great deal of information. I recommend reading them here.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20110314dy01.htm

In a related development, TEPCO informed the Fukushima prefectural government that the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 plant had lost its ability to cool its core, according to TEPCO officials.

It's somewhat frustrating that the English-releases are rather delayed, but it's how it is I guess. News has been scant thus far, and the issues began around 1:40 PM JST or so.

[Edelweiss]

Ah ok, I knew they were big (tall too) so I suppose a 10m tsunami would only be treated like a minor wave, as to a small boat on a wave. Same reaction I guess, different scale.

Googling for Arizona Beachfront lol, not sure what you mean

He means that the state would become beachfront property; example: a beach house, etc. As in it's literally on the beach.

[Plow]

Ah ok, I knew they were big (tall too) so I suppose a 10m tsunami would only be treated like a minor wave, as to a small boat on a wave. Same reaction I guess, different scale.

Googling for Arizona Beachfront lol, not sure what you mean

california is between arizona and the ocean

[Eaglestrike]

Just saw this on reddit a few minutes ago.

Gotta love Bill Nye.

AND THE SCIENCE!

[Kryssan]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20110314dy01.htm



It's somewhat frustrating that the English-releases are rather delayed, but it's how it is I guess. News has been scant thus far, and the issues began around 1:40 PM JST or so.

Report from TEPCO of Daiishi Nuclear reactors as of 2100 13 March:

All 6 units of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have been shut down.

Unit 1(Shut down)
- Reactor has been shut down. However, the unit is under inspection due
to the explosive sound and white smoke that was confirmed after the big
quake occurred at 3:36PM.
- We have been injecting sea water and boric acid which absorbs neutron
into the reactor pressure vessel.

Unit 2(Shut down)
- Reactor has been shut down and Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System
has been injecting water to the reactor. Current reactor water level is
lower than normal level, but the water level is steady. After fully
securing safety, measures to lowering the pressure of reactor
containment vessel has been taken, under the instruction of
the national government.

Unit 3(Shut down)
- Reactor has been shut down. However, as High Pressure Core Injection
System has been automatically shut down and water injection to
the reactor was interrupted, following the instruction by
the government and with fully securing safety, steps to lowering
the pressure of reactor containment vessel has been taken. Spraying
in order to lower pressure level within the reactor containment vessel
has been cancelled.
- After that, safety relief valve has been opened manually, lowering
the pressure level of the reactor, which was immediately followed
by injection of boric acid water which absorbs neutron, into
the reactor pressure vessel.

Unit 4 (shut down due to regular inspection)
- Reactor has been shut down and sufficient level of reactor coolant
to ensure safety is maintained.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the reactor containment vessel.

Unit 5 (outage due to regular inspection)
- Reactor has been shut down and sufficient level of reactor coolant
to ensure safety is maintained.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the reactor containment vessel.

Unit 6 (outage due to regular inspection)
- Reactor has been shut down and sufficient level of reactor coolant
to ensure safety is maintained.
- Currently, we do not believe there is any reactor coolant leakage
inside the reactor containment vessel.

Casualty
- 2 workers of cooperative firm were injured at the occurrence of
the earthquake, and were transported to the hospital.
- 1 TEPCO employee who was not able to stand by his own with his hand
holding left chest was transported to the hospital by an ambulance.
- 1 subcontract worker at important earthquake-proof building was
unconscious and transported to the hospital by an ambulance.
- The radiation exposure of 1 TEPCO employee, who was working inside
the reactor building, exceeded 100mSv and was transported to
the hospital.
- 2 TEPCO employees felt bad during their operation in the central
control rooms of Unit 1 and 2 while wearing full masks, and were
transferred to Fukushima Daini Power Station for consultation with
a medical advisor.
- 4 workers were injured and transported to the hospital after explosive
sound and white smoke were confirmed around the Unit 1.
- Presence of 2 TEPCO employees at the site are not confirmed

Others
- We are currently coordinating with the relevant authorities and
departments as to how to secure the cooling water to cool down
the water in the spent nuclear fuel pool.
- We measured radioactive materials inside of the nuclear power station
area (outdoor) by monitoring car and confirmed that radioactive
materials level is higher than ordinary level. Also, the level
at monitoring post is higher than ordinary level. We will continue
to monitor in detail the possibility of radioactive material being
discharged from exhaust stack or discharge canal. The national
government has instructed evacuation for those local residents within
20km radius of the periphery because it's possible that radioactive
materials are discharged.

- We will continue to take all measures to restore the security of the
site and to monitor the environment of the site periphery.

I already posted the NISA information link (which has a release dated/timed 0730 14 March in PDF format).

TEPCO and NISA as well as IAEA and WNN releases are going to be a bit slow due to the regulatory agencies not wanting to put out 'maybes'. Given the rate at which they've been releasing updates we should have more information in a couple of hours tops. Until then I would take anything I hear with large measures of salt, especially when it's things like 'someone said this could be happening' with no actual data provided. The report that the Unit 2 reactor 'lost its ability to cool the core' could be the exact same report we already received on Units 1 and 3 when their fill injection reservoirs were low leveled in the early morning hours causing a time gap between fills. Not enough information to even speculate currently.

[Eaglestrike]

Am I reading this right and that there have been 0 deaths caused by radiation so far? And the media is making a huge shitstorm about this?

[Max™]

How can you think any media organization would be able to resist headlines including the words "TSUNAMI EARTHQUAKE NUCLEAR EXPLOSION"?

[popsiclestix]

lol so no power outages due to everyone conserving power.

Driving down the roads, many large signs (ie Toyota, McDonalds, etc) are turned off or businesses were closed. Roads are a bit empty. HUUUGGE lines for gasoline. Nearly all gas stations are out of gas.

[Velgadess]

shameless? depends on your viewpoint. still though....

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/a...end-of-march/#

We imagine that many of you, like us, have been making frantic calls to friends and family in Japan over the last few days without regard to the costs. Now, in the face of otherwise devastating news, we have some good news to share courtesy of AT&T. Ma Bell is offering wired and wireless billing relief for calls made on AT&T between March 11th and March 31st. Under the plan, AT&T wireless postpaid customers will not be charged for international long distance or text messages to Japan from the US and Puerto Rico. Likewise, residential wireline customers can seek credits for up to 60 minutes of direct dialing to Japan. Sure it's a shameless publicity grab but this one seems genuinely helpful.

[Not not Mattaru]

Daiichi No2 Unit, fuel rods may have been/be exposed. Won't give out more til I can see a reliable translation other than what I can get from the news.

EDIT: There seems to have been a pump malfunction so water was not making it into the reactor - but water is going in now.

Another EDIT: Anyone wondering about radiation leaks - live personal geiger counters in Tokyo are showing like 10-20 CPM, 100 CPM=1 microsievert, 1000 micro = 1 millisievert, according to the news today in the morning, to see a decrease in white blood cells you have to be exposed to like...400 millisi. In other words, not a risk as far as I can tell in the closest metropolis~

[Kaylia]

The wave in Otsuchi's city must have been crazy...they supposedly hit 30 meters. No wonder no video made it out of that one.

[Psion]

The wave in Otsuchi's city must have been crazy...they supposedly hit 30 meters. No wonder no video made it out of that one.

whoa whoa whoa, is it 30 feet or 30 meters? Because that's a huge difference in height.

[Edelweiss]

Daiichi No2 Unit, fuel rods may have been/be exposed. Won't give out more til I can see a reliable translation other than what I can get from the news.

EDIT: There seems to have been a pump malfunction so water was not making it into the reactor - but water is going in now.

The press conference that was held, the gentleman speaking (according to the translator) stated that they opened the safety release valves to lower the pressure to allow sea water to resume flowing in. From what I caught anyway. They're also operating under the assumption the rods are partly exposed (or were).

Also, regarding blackouts: they will proceed as scheduled on Tuesday, unless demand is lower than supply, which will see a repeat of Monday.

[wop]

whoa whoa whoa, is it 30 feet or 30 meters? Because that's a huge difference in height.

30 feet.
10 meters.

[Chicomagiko]

http://www.examiner.com/extreme-weat...sunami-footage

As soon as the ground stopped shacking we got in our rental car and were followed by another car with SSCS volunteers and headed to the top of a hill overlooking the town just before the 25 meter high Tsunami hit where we were just standing only minutes before.

JFC

[Edelweiss]

That has to be an overlooked mistake, 25-35 feet is realistic, given that there's buses and boats placed ontop of 3-4 floor structures.

Edit: Actually 40 feet is even realistic since the water was funnelled in so, as it came ashore. 25 Meters is definitely an exageration though.