Japan hit by powerful earthquake

[Kurokikaze]

http://pics.kuvaton.com/kuvei/japan_streetview.jpg

NO ONE is that stupid... I don't believe it.

[Not Kuno]

Looks like he ate lead chips so maybe

[Omniyoji]

This is interesting.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ed...ting-in-japan/



I was at my japanese haidresser yesterday, and she said the supermarkets around her hometown are empty, but NO LOOTING. Although there's panic buying, people are still civilised.
If it's in any other part of the word.... lol

Yeah, here's a picture of them waiting in line to make phone calls:

Spoiler: show

[Priran]

lol at the random ginger in the middle of the crowd

[Yuri-G]

best candidate ever for that annoying "photoshop one dude's face onto everyone's body" meme

[Max™]

Better candidate for finding waldo.

[Dimmauk]

This is interesting.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ed...ting-in-japan/



I was at my japanese haidresser yesterday, and she said the supermarkets around her hometown are empty, but NO LOOTING. Although there's panic buying, people are still civilised.
If it's in any other part of the word.... lol

No Black people, that is why. LOL

This picture is just insane
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...236_de27-1.jpg

[Osede]

No Black people, that is why. LOL

This picture is just insane

You should have seen the picture where it shows buses and boats are on the roof top >.>

[Dimmauk]

I just cant get over the fact that are dealing with 3 major disasters at the same time. Strong people, and my heart goes out to them.

[Kaylia]

No Black people, that is why. LOL

This picture is just insane
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...236_de27-1.jpg

Even their car are ninja.

[Max™]

No Black people, that is why. LOL

This picture is just insane
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...236_de27-1.jpg

Woman driver + Asian driver= ????

[Kryssan]

Hmm, even WNN seems to now be jumping on the bandwagon with that 'Breaking News' report. NISA has a new report released for 1930 March 14 (lots more information about reference levels and the like, but timeline only goes into the afternoon not out to 1930), and Kyodo has an article covering it here in a lot greater depth than I can find in other places. Equipment damage and fatigue failures are playing a good part in this.

Don't know what radiation levels currently are but the new highest is 3130 uSv/hr according to Kyodo, which is 313 mrem/hr. Probably won't know the status of Unit 2 and the effects the loss of cooling in terms of FEF/MD damage and such until at least tomorrow I wouldn't think.

[Tagus]

KI tablets were issued to the public however, so the threat of radioiodine has been relatively mitigated.

KI tablets are not the proper step for mitigating I-131 exposure. You actually are supposed to ingest Iodine, as all Iodine has an affinity for the thyroid, and by ingesting non-radioactive iodine you would provide "competition" so to speak in the thyroid with the I-131 for uptake. I'm sure somebody knows this... I'm sure somebody knows this... I'm sure somebody knows this... at least that's what I'm telling myself right now.

Edit: Wiki actually states that Potassium Iodide is used to mitigate thyroid uptake, so maybe it does work... my radiation safety officer always told us to go for the straight Iodine if shit hits the fan, and that the potassium tablets aren't as good for I-131 exposure, but who knows.

[Omniyoji]

No Black people, that is why. LOL

This picture is just insane
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...236_de27-1.jpg

I know about the bus one Osede was talking about but couldn't find it.

[popsiclestix]

Damnit, stupid aftershocks scurred me out of bed...

I was at my japanese haidresser yesterday, and she said the supermarkets around her hometown are empty, but NO LOOTING. Although there's panic buying, people are still civilised.
If it's in any other part of the word.... lol

If you want to talk about civility, Japanese are probably the most tolerant. It would take a lot to make Japanese go aggressive and loot. Its just not in the culture at all. During the Hanshin earthquake in 1995 (Kobe), many Japanese died just because they didn't want to inconvenience others to take a shit. http://www.greenstone.org/greenstone...erBrowse&p.sa=

This is a big difference than when Katrina hit and people were claiming everyone was getting raped. That was reported by Oprah http://www.blacknews.com/pr/rape101.html

[Boyiee]

I love shitting, I'd live.

[Kryssan]

KI tablets are not the proper step for mitigating I-131 exposure. You actually are supposed to ingest Iodine, as all Iodine has an affinity for the thyroid, and by ingesting non-radioactive iodine you would provide "competition" so to speak in the thyroid with the I-131 for uptake. I'm sure somebody knows this... I'm sure somebody knows this... I'm sure somebody knows this... at least that's what I'm telling myself right now.

Edit: Wiki actually states that Potassium Iodide is used to mitigate thyroid uptake, so maybe it does work... my radiation safety officer always told us to go for the straight Iodine if shit hits the fan, and that the potassium tablets aren't as good for I-131 exposure, but who knows.

Don't know why your RSO would tell you that. KI tablets are SOP for nuclear power plants that can potentially affect the civilian world. Get yearly training on use, effectiveness, dose time limits for maximizing protection, et cetera. Also, why use Wiki? CDC Radiation Emergency Information.

[Insanecyclone]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...makan-responds

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said the following about the March 11 earthquake (Tōhoku Chihō Taiheiyō-oki Jishin) and tsunami to the press in the metropolis on Monday:

The identity of the Japanese people is selfishness. The Japanese people must take advantage of this tsunami as means of washing away their selfish greed. I really do think this is divine punishment.
Ishihara was contrasting the "selfishness and greed" that he perceived in Japan with the identity of the United States with "liberty" and the identity of France with "liberty, philanthropy, and equality [sic]."

Yutaka Yamamoto ("Yamakan"), the director of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, Kannagi, and Fractale, posted the following response to his Twitter account hours later:

To apply "divine punishment" indiscriminately to innocent people is absolutely ridiculous. Ishihara, you who can't speak Japanese properly, have no right to place that identity on others.
Ishihara has a history of saying controversial comments, including his complaint that "we've got homosexuals casually appearing even on television." Ishihara made that comment during the debate over the recently passed amendment to Tokyo's Youth Healthy Development Ordinance. The amendment is expanding the number of manga and anime that fall under "harmful publications," the legal category of works that must not be sold or rented to people under the age of 18.

Ishihara is a major advocate of the amended Healthy Development Ordinance and the head of the executive committee for the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF). As a result, many exhibitors are boycotting TAF and planning a new event called Anime Contents Expo (ACE). Ishihara is running for his fourth term as governor next month.

Shintaro seems to be derping on everything.

[Tyche]

Don't know if it was posted here, but it was on Moz's facebook. Thought it was an interesting read.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...680697248.html

Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl

The containment structures appear to be working, and the latest reactor designs aren't vulnerable to the coolant problem at issue here.

By WILLIAM TUCKER

Even while thousands of people are reported dead or missing, whole neighborhoods lie in ruins, and gas and oil fires rage out of control, press coverage of the Japanese earthquake has quickly settled on the troubles at two nuclear reactors as the center of the catastrophe.
Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), a longtime opponent of nuclear power, has warned of "another Chernobyl" and predicted "the same thing could happen here." In response, he has called for an immediate suspension of licensing procedures for the Westinghouse AP1000, a "Generation III" reactor that has been laboring through design review at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for seven years.
Before we respond with such panic, though, it would be useful to review exactly what is happening in Japan and what we have to fear from it.
http://m.wsj.net/video/20110314/0314...al_512x288.jpg
Editorial Board Member Mary Kissel explains the Japanese response to the quake.


The core of a nuclear reactor operates at about 550 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the temperature of a coal furnace and only slightly hotter than a kitchen oven. If anything unusual occurs, the control rods immediately drop, shutting off the nuclear reaction. You can't have a "runaway reactor," nor can a reactor explode like a nuclear bomb. A commercial reactor is to a bomb what Vaseline is to napalm. Although both are made from petroleum jelly, only one of them has potentially explosive material.
Once the reactor has shut down, there remains "decay heat" from traces of other radioactive isotopes. This can take more than a week to cool down, and the rods must be continually bathed in cooling waters to keep them from overheating.
On all Generation II reactors—the ones currently in operation—the cooling water is circulated by electric pumps. The new Generation III reactors such as the AP1000 have a simplified "passive" cooling system where the water circulates by natural convection with no pumping required.
If the pumps are knocked out in a Generation II reactor—as they were at Fukushima Daiichi by the tsunami—the water in the cooling system can overheat and evaporate. The resulting steam increases internal pressure that must be vented. There was a small release of radioactive steam at Three Mile Island in 1979, and there have also been a few releases at Fukushima Daiichi. These produce radiation at about the level of one dental X-ray in the immediate vicinity and quickly dissipate.
If the coolant continues to evaporate, the water level can fall below the level of the fuel rods, exposing them. This will cause a meltdown, meaning the fuel rods melt to the bottom of the steel pressure vessel.
Early speculation was that in a case like this the fuel might continue melting right through the steel and perhaps even through the concrete containment structure—the so-called China syndrome, where the fuel would melt all the way to China. But Three Mile Island proved this doesn't happen. The melted fuel rods simply aren't hot enough to melt steel or concrete.
The decay heat must still be absorbed, however, and as a last-ditch effort the emergency core cooling system can be activated to flood the entire containment structure with water. This will do considerable damage to the reactor but will prevent any further steam releases. The Japanese have now reportedly done this using seawater in at least two of the troubled reactors. These reactors will never be restarted.
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http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/i...0313170749.jpg
Getty Images
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http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/i...0313170749.jpg



None of this amounts to "another Chernobyl." The Chernobyl reactor had two crucial design flaws. First, it used graphite (carbon) instead of water to "moderate" the neutrons, which makes possible the nuclear reaction. The graphite caught fire in April 1986 and burned for four days. Water does not catch fire.
Second, Chernobyl had no containment structure. When the graphite caught fire, it spouted a plume of radioactive smoke that spread across the globe. A containment structure would have both smothered the fire and contained the radioactivity.
If a meltdown does occur in Japan, it will be a disaster for the Tokyo Electric Power Company but not for the general public. Whatever steam releases occur will have a negligible impact. Researchers have spent 30 years trying to find health effects from the steam releases at Three Mile Island and have come up with nothing. With all the death, devastation and disease now threatening tens of thousands in Japan, it is trivializing and almost obscene to spend so much time worrying about damage to a nuclear reactor.
What the Japanese earthquake has proved is that even the oldest containment structures can withstand the impact of one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history. The problem has been with the electrical pumps required to operate the cooling system. It would be tragic if the result of the Japanese accident were to prevent development of Generation III reactors, which eliminate this design flaw.

[Tagus]

Don't know why your RSO would tell you that. KI tablets are SOP for nuclear power plants that can potentially affect the civilian world. Get yearly training on use, effectiveness, dose time limits for maximizing protection, et cetera. Also, why use Wiki? CDC Radiation Emergency Information.

My RSO learned it in school... He tried to explain it to me, but the phone rang and I had to answer it, yadda yadda, never finished explaining it to me. So long answer long, I don't know why he told me that either. I mean, we compound radioactive iodine for a living, run weekly air monitoring and weekly thyroid bioassay tests, and he is our RSO, so forgive me for trusting him over the generic CDC website. They probably copy/pasted that shit out of the encyclopedia tbh. I'll trust CDC when they can tell me how to make a charcoal filter by hand with a syringe base and vent volatile I-131... CDC. Really? I might actually be mad. Next thing you'll be telling me to trust the board of pharmacy.

Edit: From your glorious wiki-alternate:



What can I do to protect myself and my family from iodine-129 and iodine-131?

"The thyroid cannot tell the difference between radioactive and non-radioactive iodine. It will take up radioactive iodine in whatever proportion it is available in the environment.

If large amounts of radioactive iodine are released during an nuclear accident, large doses of stable iodine may be distributed by government agencies to keep your thyroid gland from absorbing too much radioactive iodine: Raising the concentration of stable iodine in the blood, increases the likelihood that the thyroid will absorb it instead of radioactive iodine. (Note: Large doses of stable iodine can be a health hazard and should not be taken except in an emergency. However iodized table salt is an important means of acquiring essential non-radioactive iodine to maintain health."

I see no mention of KI. Not that anybody cares, and sorry for the derail.