Earfquake!

[newbrof]

Block 4 of Fukushima was shutdown during the earthquake and the core rods were stored in the cooling ponds with old fuel rods. In total 1331 fuel rods were stored in the cooling pond. The cooling pond of Block 4 is destroyed and there is no containment like the reactor core. The water is gone.

The french company Areva (tepco partners) made an internal study, stating:

core melt on fresh air
nearly no retention of fission products
and a large release of radiation.

This status of Block 4 was something I read in the papers one or two days after the earthquake (that fuel rods were stored outside of the reactor). Then it got lost over other news… good to know that Areva and Tepco are dealing with it. Everything is fine and contained.

source:

MONITOR - Das Politikmagazin

[Houngan]

Fair enough and maybe I’m projecting, because I find the nuclear situation more relevant. Certainly titillation is a large part of coverage, but it helps that (nearly?) every industrialized nation has nuclear plants in their own backyards. And if you want to point out that the coverage is inaccurate, or fear-mongering, that’s fair game as well.

So it’s relevant to making you feel like an empathetic person? Is that kind of like Mother Teresa hanging out with dying poor people so she could feel closer to Christ?

Edit: Concern that amounts to voyeurism is irrelevant. And at this point, most news coverage of the relief and rebuilding efforts in Japan outside of Japan is just that: voyeurism.

No, it’s important because I have perspective. You’re shitting your breeches over a problem THAT WILL NEVER, EVER OCCUR WHERE YOU LIVE. California has wildfires, Kentucky has trees! RUN FOR THE HILLS! OUR TREES MIGHT FIGURE OUT THE SECRET OF BURNING.

It doesn’t affect you. It won’t affect you. It can’t affect you. Get over yourself. If the media is supposed to focus on what’s most likely to kill you then it would be 24/7 coverage of traffic safety and cancer research, plus a little Golden Girls.

H.

[Mordrak]

I think you have me confused with someone else Houngan. I’m not the one in here complaining about the media coverage not catering to what I want to watch (with righteous indignation no less!), nor am I shitting myself over local nuclear power plants.

Newbrof posted right above you there though.

[Odovacar]

…
Could it be because you’re a fucking jackass? Why yes, yes, I do believe that’s the reason.
…
I’ve had training in radiation handling & treatment, and watching your ignorant blatherings in this & other threads has caused me physical pain. (Your ignorance has no smell, is invisible, and has long term effects too.
…
Just shut the fuck up about nuclear anything. You’re a fucking chimp, and you make education harder, not easier.
…
If you don’t have an explanation or link, admit your ignorance & shut the fuck up.
…
Learn how to construct rudimentary arguments before you open your stupid fucking mouth.

Sweet memories of

comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg

and

Derek Smart

Ah, those were the days…

[yamo_yamo]

If the Japanese admit to a lvl 7 you can be pretty sure it is lvl 8. The media is soft on this. Keeping the markets happy. Best play is to short Tokyo real estate. Flipper babies soon.

[JM1]

There’s no level 8. Chernobyl is a level 7.

[Robert_Sharp]

It doesn’t affect you. It won’t affect you. It can’t affect you. Get over yourself.
H.

I’ve got something in my pants that will affect you, bitch!

Isn’t this the part of the natural disaster where we start sniping at each other for no good reason?

[Dan_Theman]

There’s no level 8. Chernobyl is a level 7.

Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

[JM1]

The volume control on the BBC’s iPlayer goes up to 11. Very cool.

[Quaro]

US military forces get the Sendai airport up and running again:

Within minutes of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11, some 1,400 passengers and workers in the terminal suddenly found themselves surrounded by black, churning waves that crumpled parked aircraft like paper toys.

The people were rescued, but the airport seemed a near-total loss — until Col. Robert P. Toth, commander of the 353rd Special Operations Group, based in Okinawa, heard of the airport’s destruction. His unit specializes in turning ruined landing strips and patches of empty desert into forward supply bases for American aircraft, but usually in war-torn countries, like Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan.

“It was clear that opening Sendai airport was the No. 1 priority, but everyone had written it off,” Colonel Toth said. He approached his superiors with a plan to turn it into a hub for American relief.

Quietly, U.S. Troops Help Japan Reopen Sendai Airport

[playingwithknives]

There’s no level 8. Chernobyl is a level 7.

You could have a theoretical 8 though, a Chernobyl situation, but this time they can’t put the fire out and the pile hits the water table, and instead of being in the middle of Ukraine, it’s in a densely populated area.

[Hans_Lauring]

… and wild unicorns prevents rescue workers from entering.

[John_Many_Jars]

No virgins in Fukushima!

[Kalle]

… and wild unicorns prevents rescue workers from entering.

I hear the German unicorn population has tripled in size in the last month.

[Sarkus]

You could have a theoretical 8 though, a Chernobyl situation, but this time they can’t put the fire out and the pile hits the water table, and instead of being in the middle of Ukraine, it’s in a densely populated area.

The international event scale has nothing to do with how many people are affected. It’s all about how much radioactive material is released into the environment and what the long-term response to that will have to be, like exclusion zones. To qualify for a level 7 simply requires the release of materials to be above a certain level, a level that isn’t anywhere near what happened at Chernobyl.

[JM1]

You could have a theoretical 8 though, a Chernobyl situation, but this time they can’t put the fire out and the pile hits the water table, and instead of being in the middle of Ukraine, it’s in a densely populated area.

It’d still be a 7. It’s the top of the scale. In the same way that Fukushima is a lot less damaging than Chernobyl, but there’s still room for them both at level 7.

[Lynch]

If the media is supposed to focus on what’s most likely to kill you then it would be 24/7 coverage of traffic safety and cancer research, plus a little Golden Girls.

Radioactive contamination might cause cancer.

[Lynch]

It’d still be a 7. It’s the top of the scale. In the same way that Fukushima is a lot less damaging than Chernobyl, but there’s still room for them both at level 7.

Well, no. Chernobyl was like Boom! and Fukushima is like drip…drip…drip…and not yet over. Those drops might continue for months and years.

[Sarkus]

Well, no. Chernobyl was like Boom! and Fukushima is like drip…drip…drip…and not yet over. Those drops might continue for months and years.

Sure, and they might have a reactor blow up tomorrow. The issue isn’t whether Fukushima might end up being something worse when all is said and done, the issue is whether right now its comparable to Chernobyl. All reasonable evidence at the moment says that while its bad enough to count as a level 7 incident, there is still a big gap between it and Chernobyl.

[Lynch]

I’ve said it earlier, Fukushima as the 2nd worst civil nuclear incident is of course comparable to Chernobyl from a general civil nuclear incident scale of view. I’m sure that the total emitted radioactive matter will be comparable when the accident has no longer potential for a meltdown.