Japan hit by powerful earthquake

[Olo401]

There's a faint bluish glow right in the middle of the building.. so there's got to be some water left in there. It might be the pool over the reactor core though.

[Minions]

The vlogbrothers are awesome.

[Kaylia]

Dropping of the water and Japans Cabinet Secretary addressing the public.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video/st...videoChannel=1

Is it even working? The wind is spreading most of the water around.

[wipers]

I'm tired of the Japan situation need a new disaster to talk about.

[Thoronas]

I'm tired of the Japan situation need a new disaster to talk about.

We could always go back to the Libya civil war. Since Japan made everyone forget about Gadaffi he's run the rebels out of almost all of the towns they took over. Last I checked the rebels were in last stand territory. World is fucked.

[Yugl]

The vlogbrothers are awesome.

That was a terrible video. He apparently knows what he's talking about, but the cut between statements, the constant hand movement, and the brevity of content on Japan's situation (Which should have been the bulk of it) made it a bad production.

Furthermore, there is something less explicated in his video that a previous post (Linked to an article) described. Namely, the article claimed that they attempted to vent the pressure within the second containment, but during that process, Oxygen+Hydrogen molecules separated due to heat, which then led to the explosion. The fact that it happened between the space of the building and the third containment explained why that explosion was not as severe as one would expect. This video hints at the problem coming from within the core. Which is it?

Edit: And what the hell happened to the Colbert report? I don't see anything new on the website.

[Cail]

Edit: And what the hell happened to the Colbert report? I don't see anything new on the website.

i know daily show is on vacation, and usually when they are, colbert is too. would be my guess, but i havent really watched either in a while

[Yugl]

Was that in response to this situation or before?

[Mazmaz]

They always pick the worst fucking weeks to vacation. And it's like every other god damn week now.

If you watch the last part of Thursday's Colbert report, he says he's gonna take a week off. Earthquake was on Friday.

[Yugl]

They'll have content when they return at least. The whales part 2.

[Eaglestrike]

If there's ever a time for those two to be at it, it's when the media is royally fucking things up like now.

[vagus]

I think the video is quite informative. No fear mongering & basic details. Unlike many media outlets, especially North American ones it's all fear fear fear.

[Priran]

If there's ever a time for those two to be at it, it's when the media is royally fucking things up like now.

Jon Stewart still lives in his bubble where he's 100% comedian 0% journalist, so he's not going to cancel a vacation for the sake of journalistic integrity.

[Osede]

I think the video is quite informative. No fear mongering & basic details. Unlike many media outlets, especially North American ones it's all fear fear fear.

at least it is far better than asian media. Last few days those media just create some more hoax in Philippines, the rumor where acid rain is coming was widespread thru Philipino all over the FB.

[Plow]

Jon Stewart still lives in his bubble where he's 100% comedian 0% journalist, so he's not going to cancel a vacation for the sake of journalistic integrity.

nah, he doesn't, and hasn't really for quite a while

he might fall back on it as an argument now and then, but I think Colbert at the correspondents' dinner made him realize the potential he really has

[Eaglestrike]

nah, he doesn't, and hasn't really for quite a while

he might fall back on it as an argument now and then, but I think Colbert at the correspondents' dinner made him realize the potential he really has

My understanding of it is that his entire point is that while he has this potential, he shouldn't be the one wielding it, the actual media should be.

[Kryssan]

The vlogbrothers are awesome.

It's not horrible, he gets the gist of it right. He's wrong about U-235 and the not needing special neutrons bit, as well as the amount of U-235 in a core. But it's not necessary to know/understand that for a general person.

Additionally, we don't know where the hydrogen came from. Whether it was from the radioactive steam that was bled off the reactor units to lower pressure as the coolant water that remained in the vessel cooked off or if it was from the spent fuel assemblies as their suppression pools began to heat up or if it was from both. Radiolysis of water is not difficult to achieve with nuclear material. However, the reaction does require neutrons to break apart the water and gammas to put them back together again.

That video explains it being due to Henry's Law, where gases come out of solution at different levels related to partial pressures for a constant temperature (so by changing temperature you change the amount of gas held within the solution). At this point there isn't enough data to say that would be incorrect, but I think you'd get more hydrogen (enough to achieve a combustible/explosive concentration (4~8%)) from radiolysis.

As for the issue of lives and radiation. They boosted the radiation allowed from 100 mSv to 250 mSv. This is not a lethal dose. I'll repeat that. This is not, by any means, a lethal dose. Most people won't even experience radiation sickness from such a dose unless they receive it within the span of a really short period of time. It doesn't even necessarily mean that you're guaranteed to get cancer - it will increase the stochastic probability - but the figure remains that out of every 10000 people an additional 4 that work in nuclear power will die of cancer from exposure received at work.

For comparison, 250 mSv is 25 REM. You need four times that with an acute dose to get radiation sickness. You need forty times that in an acute dose to die. That is not to say those employees are not risking their lives - they are. Fires, flooding, explosions, and the localized levels of radiation in certain areas (such as between Units 3 and 4) are quite hazardous to one's health. But to just be writing them off? That's asinine. Our legal limits are set low to ensure people don't do stupid things. Generally speaking, a good many nuclear operators get less radiation per year than a normal human being, because they spend a lot of time around the reactor shielding which protects them from the natural radiation of earth.


NISA has released another report for 1730 March 17th (click) that includes a great deal more information than we have previously seen, but there are still a lot of unknowns.

#Edit#

Also, I read somewhere that Onagawa was releasing a cloud? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. That's just completely wrong. Onagawa shutdown but is not in any sort of danger. JAIF's reports now include the reactors from Onagawa as well, if you want to see. Estimates for 2200 March 17 by JAIF.

[Kerberoz]

So nuclear power is the devil all of a sudden yet everyone overlooks that US Aircraft Carriers are pretty much all nuclear powered. >_>

And submarines, and next-gen destroyers.

I blame Michael Bay.

[aduidarnenye]

They probably won't live any longer after this accident too. There is one engineer who is going to retire this year just have volunteered to go there to help the process. And he knew the situation there and he did message his family about his decision, because he believe he might not able to coming back home anymore.

http://media.yucasee.jp/posts/index/6987?la=0003

I only able to get from jp source, not sure about whether any english news does report this or not.

I read they're asking the older men to do the work because they're more likely to die of old age before they will die of cancer. At least, that's the hope.

It's a pretty morbid hope.

[Kryssan]

And submarines, and next-gen destroyers.

I blame Michael Bay.

There are no other US craft besides submarines and carriers that are nuclear powered. Nuclear powered cruisers and destroyers have not been around for about a decade, if not longer.