Japan hit by powerful earthquake

[Cantih]

For something like a 9, probably not any time soon.

[Vajra]

Another 7.1 just hit, according to CNN... When do they stop being aftershocks and start being counted seperately?

This wasn't an aftershock, the epicenter was on land west of Iwaki...it was downgraded to 6.6 magnitude btw, and it was 10km deep epicenter (shallow)..It also had it's own aftershock was 4.9 magnitude recently...

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...quakes_all.php

Edit: 7 aftershocks now after the new quake which was downgraded to 6.6 like stated above...

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...quakes_all.php

[Cail]

Another 7.1 just hit, according to CNN... When do they stop being aftershocks and start being counted seperately?

i was about to post the same thing, then saw that you beat me;;

[Haiko]

6.4 now...I wonder when it's going to hit Cali next..

[Jak]

6.4 now...I wonder when it's going to hit Cali next..

May 21st, 2011 I suppose.

[Cantih]

Bring it.

[SephYuyX]

More importantly, when will CA seperate.

[Cantih]

Never
http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/california.html

So don't go buying any "beachfront" property in Nevada.

[Vendog]

From Yahoo main page

Japan ups nuke crisis severity to match Chernobyl

TOKYO – Japan's nuclear regulators raised the severity level of the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant Tuesday to rank it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing the amount of radiation released in the accident.

The regulators said the rating was being raised from 5 to 7 — the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, there was no sign of any significant change at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

The new ranking signifies a "major accident" with "wider consequences" than the previous level, according to the Vienna-based IAEA.

"We have upgraded the severity level to 7 as the impact of radiation leaks has been widespread from the air, vegetables, tap water and the ocean," said Minoru Oogoda of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

NISA officials said one of the factors behind the decision was that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident.

The revision was based on cross-checking and assessments of data on leaks of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137, said NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama.

"We have refrained from making announcements until we have reliable data," Nishiyama said.

"The announcement is being made now because it became possible to look at and check the accumulated data assessed in two different ways," he said, referring to measurements from NISA and the Nuclear Security Council.

Nishiyama noted that unlike in Chernobyl there have been no explosions of reactor cores at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, although there were hydrogen explosions.

"In that sense, this situation is totally different from Chernobyl," he said.

He said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was around 10 percent of the Chernobyl accident.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant, is still estimating the total amount of radioactive material that might be released by the accident, said company spokesman Junichi Matsumoto.

He acknowledged the amount of radioactivity released might even exceed the amount emitted by Chernobyl.

The company, under fire for its handling of the accident and its disaster preparedness before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, issued yet another apology Tuesday.

"We humbly accept this. We deeply apologize for causing tremendous trouble to those who live near the nuclear complex and people in the prefecture," TEPCO spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said.

In Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone about 19 miles (30 kilometers) around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.

Meanwhile, setbacks continued at Japan's tsunami-stricken nuclear power complex, with workers discovering a small fire near a reactor building Tuesday. The fire was extinguished quickly, TEPCO said.

It said the fire in a box containing batteries in a building near the No. 4 reactor was discovered at about 6:38 a.m. Tuesday and was put out seven minutes later.

It wasn't clear whether the fire was related to a magnitude-6.3 earthquake that shook the Tokyo area Tuesday morning. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

"The fire was extinguished immediately. It has no impact on Unit 4's cooling operations for the spent fuel rods," said TEPCO spokesman Naoki Tsunoda.

The plant was damaged in a massive tsunami March 11 that knocked out cooling systems and backup diesel generators, leading to explosions at three reactors and a fire at a fourth that was undergoing regular maintenance and was empty of fuel.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake that caused the tsunami immediately stopped the three reactors, but overheated cores and a lack of cooling functions led to further damage.

Engineers have been able to pump water into the damaged reactors to cool them down, but leaks have resulted in the pooling of tons of contaminated, radioactive water that has prevented workers from conducting further repairs.

Aftershocks on Monday briefly cut power to backup pumps, halting the injection of cooling water for about 50 minutes before power was restored.

A month after the disaster, more than 145,000 people are still living in shelters, and the government on Monday added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure.

A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius has already been cleared around the plant.

The disaster is believed to have killed more than 25,000 people, but many of those bodies were swept out to sea and more than half of those feared dead are still listed as missing.

Aftershocks have taken more lives.

In Iwaki, a city close to the epicenter of a magnitude-7.0 temblor Monday, a landslide brought down three houses, trapping up to seven people. Four were rescued alive, but one of those — a 16-year-old girl — died at the hospital, a police official said. He would not give his name, citing policy.

Around 210,000 people have no running water and, following Monday's aftershocks, more than 240,000 people are without electricity.

In all, nearly 190,000 people have fled their homes, the vast majority of whom are living in shelters, according to the national disaster agency. About 85,000 are from the cleared zone around the nuclear plant; their homes may be intact, but it's not known when they'll be able to return to them.

[Tagus]

Being the dickhead who says "I told you so" has a pretty limited feel-good quotient when it comes to nuclear disasters, but now can we start comparing it to Chernobyl?

[Draggy]

6.4 now...I wonder when it's going to hit Cali next..

Tomorrow ;o

lol my friend and I are known for our lives always being weirdly in sync, always get the same illnesses/jobs/ travel/ moved abroad at the same time except she moved to Japan, I moved from UK to US. Her mother arrived in Japan to visit her for the first time and the earthquake hit that day. My mother is visiting me here in the US tomorrow for the first time so everyone expects one now xD

[gairaiden]

vendog beat me to what i was gonna post. my mom hasn't seen the article yet, but i know damn freaking well she's gonna be like told ya so in the morning. she used to work at san onofre back in the 80's when i was a kid. whole time shes been saying fuck what the news says this shit is a 7. shes been swearing up and down the japanese government has been downplaying how bad this shit is the whole time. so yeah i get to hear told ya so tomorrow lol.

[archibaldcrane]

Being the dickhead who says "I told you so" has a pretty limited feel-good quotient when it comes to nuclear disasters, but now can we start comparing it to Chernobyl?

No.

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[Amastacia]

Seems like life is going on pretty much as normal down south. Other than some power-saving measures (neon signs not being lit at night, train lighting left off during the day, etc.) people pretty much just seem to be going on with life.

The funny part is how much the US news outlets are hyping up this new earthquake. I was in Akihabara taking pictures when it hit, and the stores I was in at the time (to stay out of the rain) shook a bit, a few loose items fell off shelves, and otherwise life went on. No one panicked, no one ran around like a headless chicken, and as soon as the shaking stopped, people just went about their evening.

[Olo401]

Being the dickhead who says "I told you so" has a pretty limited feel-good quotient when it comes to nuclear disasters, but now can we start comparing it to Chernobyl?

It seems to me that it's been compared to Chernobyl from the very beginning. This incident probably will never be the same massive scale that occurred in 1986 - meaning that we won't have a point where a reactor core blows wide open and spreads several tons of plutonium all over the damn place. We will have to deal with the cesium for several decades though, and we've known that for some time as the scale of the release has been discovered.

And aside from the radiation release, there's also the question of where do all these people relocate? Japan is a very small and overcrowded country before factoring in all the facets of this disaster. The fact that a large part of northern Honshu is going to be uninhabitable for decades after the quake/tsunami damage is cleaned up is a MAJOR problem.

[archibaldcrane]

Wow, Chernobyl killed way fewer people than I thought. 1 day of Japanese tsunami killed more than 25 years of Chernobyl explosion and resulting increased cancers.

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[Yeyoking]

Wow, Chernobyl killed way fewer people than I thought. 1 day of Japanese tsunami killed more than 25 years of Chernobyl explosion and resulting increased cancers.

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If the Russian kept record of the 800,000 people that came to help contain the reactor after the explosion, the death toll would have been much much higher.

[Tellahh]

The funny part is how much the US news outlets are hyping up this new earthquake. I was in Akihabara taking pictures when it hit, and the stores I was in at the time (to stay out of the rain) shook a bit, a few loose items fell off shelves, and otherwise life went on. No one panicked, no one ran around like a headless chicken, and as soon as the shaking stopped, people just went about their evening.

You're talking about the same news outlets that had an hourly watch on California when this first happened, the same news outlets that are warning people on the west coast that our milk is contaminated with radiation and we'll be dead from rad poisoning soon... lol

Pretty cool they're taking this all in stride at least, just can't seem to catch a break the poor bastards .

[Maaglin]

If the Russian kept record of the 800,000 people that came to help contain the reactor after the explosion, the death toll would have been much much higher.

lol

[Salodin]

Being the dickhead who says "I told you so" has a pretty limited feel-good quotient when it comes to nuclear disasters, but now can we start comparing it to Chernobyl?

Unfortunately, while the "I told you so" feels warranted, the reality is that there wasn't exactly a mountain of evidence in the beginning to justify calling it chernobyl-like. While quite a few of us honestly felt things were worse then they were admitting (it's still good, it's still good!), I personally didn't think it'd reach a bad enough state to legitimately be compared to Chernobyl.