Japan's Nuclear Disaster

[oex]

:lol a comedian said last night.... "Be aware that the news reporters trying to explain advanced nuclear physics to us this week are the same news reporters who were arguing over the color of Kate Middleton's dress last week"....

The most sensible thing I heard on the subject was a Ugandan guy who said.... "The West is very good at creating these advanced technologies but not very good at seeing the bigger picture"....

[Rockphorr]

ocean water, where they cooled reactors, will bring a lot more radioactive dust than air

[baltoro]

What amazes me is that, it is now well over a week into the disaster, and, hardly any useful information is being released to the Japanese people about the real hazards.
Last night on 60 Minutes was a segment: Japan's Catastrophe and the Disaster That Awaits, that contained probably the most accurate technical information concerning what the emergency technicians at the  Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant are facing.
A CBS News webpage: Disaster in Japan, is a collection of current reports on the situation.

[hutch--]

Much of northern Japan is experiencing what a post nuclear Japan would be like, bitter cold, no power, food shortages (read starvation) and the massive task of rebuilding the coastal cities if in fact they do that. For all of the known problems of nuclear reactors, the vast majority of deaths are from the tsunami and it will compound with the freezing cold and food shortages.

Unforunately the tragedy in Japan has brought every idiot and their dog out of the woodwork predicting the end of the world yet even with a PHUKUP on the scale of Chernobyl the area is habitable to animals again and the radiation readings are only dangerous in old buildings and other similar enclosed areas.

[baltoro]

...Unforunately the tragedy in Japan has brought every idiot and their dog out of the woodwork predicting the end of the world,...

:bg HEY, I'm sensitive to that kind of characterization.  :bg

We seem to have a tsunami of idiots in California. They don't have anything to do. So they blog. And, they drive around on our grid-locked freeways, shaking their fists at the enemy. They worry about radiation plumes from the other side of the planet making celebrities even more dangerously psychotic than they already are.
Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to intern all our celebrities in some Low Orbit facility.
But, NO,...they just get more air time. They YouTube. They tour like Rock Stars. They become GODZILLA-like,...which spawns alot of crappy movie sequels, and, huge investments by sovereign Oil-Rich OPEC nations in luxury Rehab facilities. And, then, by some incomprehensible twist of neo-con, voice-of-God-in-my-head logic, the American public demands that we launch another two or three military campaigns against tyrants on the other side of the planet (of which, conveniently, there is an unlimited supply).
:eek It's actually a tremendous boost to our economy. :eek

[MichaelW]

I just hope that Japan's government doesn't do a "BP" on this.

[baltoro]

I just hope that Japan's government doesn't do a "BP" on this.

:eek ...You're prescient. It is beginning to look like this is, in fact, the case. :eek

[zemtex]

The tsunami in japan was a great tragedy, unfortunately the japs have to live with this for a long time as the entire country rest upon the cracks of continents. It is very unfortunate for the japanese, I pity them and I also admire the will of the people.

They seem to be struck with one disaster after another with no end in sight.


To all religious people: "God put the continental cracks there to test the japanese, the nuclear fallout from the tested people is another test god put for the koreans and when the koreans experience poverty and deside to go to war against the north koreans, thats another test for the north koreans, when the north koreans responds and the united nation security counsil deside to involve the rest of the world into the conflict that is the final test god put there" (Pat Robertson special)

I am in a religious mood, let me do another joke. In the bible, god drowned the entire world except for noah. So basically god killed 99.999999999% of humanity for the sake of saving little old noah. The next thing he does is the COMPLETE opposite, he deside to kill only his own son to save the world (you know the world that he once drowned), Thats 100% kill who is left to care for.  :bdg

[clive]

Well the're going to loose containment on all 4 reactors at Fukushima (and perhaps the other two just north of the ones usually pictured), and the spent fuel pond. Doesn't one of theses units have plutonium in it? Problem is all governments lie about the scale of these things. Watch where the politicians and their families go.

Well it looks like the unit that didn't blow the roof off is the one who's plutonium burned through the bottom of the reactor.

[Bill Cravener]

Bits of it been detected here in PA.

Interesting map of Japan: http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870

[Magnum]

I never knew that radiation even affects electronics. (other than EMP pulses)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110330/ap_on_bi_ge/us_us_japan_nuclear

[Bill Cravener]

I hope the Japanese are finally coming to their senses.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-30/record-high-levels-of-radiation-found-in-sea-near-crippled-nuclear-reactor.html

[FORTRANS]

I never knew that radiation even affects electronics. (other than EMP pulses)

Hi,

   Right.  For a while satellites were using older microprocessors
as the larger design elements were more resistant to radiation
damage.  At the time I read an article how 486'es were being
used even though they were about two or three generations
out from the then current processors.  They even (I think)
used slower versions as the faster 486 processors gained some
of their speed by shrinking the die to make the traces shorter.
The descriptions of the types of hard and soft errors was
a rather long list.

Regards,

Steve N.

[dedndave]

a big factor there may also be heat and power - newer cores may use more juice
and - in space, if a 486 does the job, use a 486   :P
but - they have "radiation hardened" IC's, as well

[Bill Cravener]

I think we've created the perfect population control device with all the reactors we've all built about the world. :( Even built them directly on known faults (brilliant!). Its just a matter of time before a distruction of unimaginable occurs from one of theses radio active machines.

Chernobyl Radiation Killed Nearly One Million People