HOLY CRAP EARTHQUAKE THREAD

[Atma]

As long as 4's spent fuel pool doesn't catch fire again, it should be easier to cool down Daiichi and keep it down. If that does ignite, and they have a hard time putting it out...then you can worry.

The US Military is there now and they helped put out 4, so that brings strong reinforcements to the table. So long as all 4 that need the seawater right now get it, it should stabilize. Radiation levels up to even Tokyo spiked during the fire but are now almost back down to normal bg radiation.

Here's praying.

[Feynman]

That's rather concerning. Hopefully they manage to bring everything under control.

[Atma]

Daiichi's 1+3 reactors are far far more stable now and have a perfect supply of water. 2 is headed in that direction. 4 is extinguished and being investigated. 5 and 6 are being monitored just in case.

I pray this is the last of it.

[Atma]

Reactor update for the day. This is the latest official update from about an hour and a half ago.

Daiichi 1 is still the most stable.

Daiichi 2 has containment vessel damage. Potential meltdown worries.

Daiichi 3 probably also has containment vessel damage. It's shooting out smoke plumes and high levels of radiation.

Daiichi 4 caught fire again, but wasn't the fuel pool. They're considering pouring boric acid and maybe flouride salt into it but radiation levels may be too high for copters to implement this.

Daiichi 5 and 6 are some distance away from 1 2 3 and 4. They were offline when the quake hit like 4 was but are now seeing slight temp rise. Should not be affected but 1 2 3 and 4's events though.

Copter tactics were tried but danger levels were too high.

Everything at Daini remains in cold shutdown.

This is really really....not good. If it were me at this point, I'd get the cement sealers going and leave it to melt and die with dignity rather than dying by exploding more crap into the atmosphere. It'd be an expensive cleanup, but that would be far worse in every way.

Everyone's fought very valiantly so far. They've really redefined the word and are the bravest people on Earth right now. As much as I'd like to see them get Daiichi into cold shutdown, it's becoming more and more clear to me that it's going to approach a sealing.

I can only hope they come to this conclusion soon as well.

[Shellshock]

In the famous words of Insane Clown Pose: "Fucking reactors... how do they work?!?!?"

[Lee]

Japan is a scary place to be right now. I really hope things start getting better some how.

[Atma]

Your intrepid reporter is back for her daily report before passing out.

There may be a diesel generator going at 6 now, which means 5 and 6 can cool on their own.

They will route a wire from it to 1 and 2 by the afternoon my time hopefully to finalize their stabilization.

3 and 4 are proving still a bit too radioactive to get really close to and wind is making it difficult to dump water on. If they can get 1 2 5 and 6 all going on their own, they may be able to breakthrough with these two bastards.

If the power lines don't work...I honestly don't know what left besides a suicide mission and/or beginning entombment enough to let it melt and die. Depressing, really.

However, for health concerns overseas (since I know people are still in full panic mode about atoms here) I'd be more concerned about the oil refinery in Chiba-ken burning 220,000 barrels a day. That's going to be far more gross health wise now and in the long term than anything Daiichi does, even at worst case scenario.

In other news, Chiba-ken also has bird flu outbreak in their livestock. The US military people who have family with them living on bases all around Japan is initiating a voluntary leaving program that will take them to Seoul or the US I hear until this blows over.

Let's let today be the one that settles this down, at least a bit, by the gods, please?

[Bobinator]

So, I originally got this from Atma, so thanks to her for sharing the link. But, in slightly more light-hearted news, here's a children's program that explains the current situation.



It's nice to see that even after all the horrible things they've had to endure, Japan has never lost its... particularly unique way of anthropomorphizing things. I wish you and everyone over there my best wishes, kobushi.

[kobushi]

Thanks Bobinator

Big thanks to Atma too for keeping everyone informed
Here's a good article in English about the Fukushima reactors:
arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/understanding-japans-nuclear-crisis.ars

It's been almost a week, and the country is starting to dust itself off and recover. Luckily there hasn't been another big earthquake (scientists were predicting a 70% chance of a M7+ quake within a week).

The snow isn't helping much. But like the honey badger, Japan don't care, Japan don't give a shit.

There's a lot going on right now, so I won't be able to post much in the next few weeks. Stay safe everyone.

[Atma]

Reactor-Kun cartoon is one of my favorite things right now. It is genuinely cute, educational, and keeping the spirits of the kids up (and us immature adults). I highly approve.

Also, no need to thank me. I just want the misinformation and panic to die down and be cleaned up more than anything else. I've got a trillion feeds and stuff going at all times and I know this is a relevant situation to everyone here (as well as everyone on Earth) so I'm just glad it's helping.

Besides, I'm learning kanji off of this. It's made me want to redouble my efforts to get certified in Japanese someday so I can do more than this if another situation like this occurs, though I pray it doesn't.

[Atma]

Unfortunately, no real Daiichi progress made today. It's been upgraded by the IAEA to a level 5 out of 7 event. This was after re-examining it. It was at a 4 before but they said it's been a 5 the whole time. So it's not like it got magically bumped.

This puts it on par with Three Mile Island now. While I would say this is like TMI x4 (since we're dealing mostly with 4 pissed reactors and 2 minor maybes) and therefore worse, TMI didn't kill anyone and this has yet to, either, though the long term effects of this of course remain to be seen. Just some perspective.

In other news, I found two sites measuring radiation levels of prefectures around Fukushima and Fukushima itself. It's not very useful unless you understand the measurements (Sieverts) but studying it doesn't take long.

fleep.com/earthquake/ and radiationwatch.blogspot.com

I made a map to go along with this. I approximated the locations of the plants and Iwaki because all the maps I could find locating them sucked so if these are wrong please correct me and I will fix it! This was originally for my girlfriend as she's good with this nuclear stuff, but I figure anyone with interest or in Japan itself might find it useful. If you think someone could use it, please share it.

Unfortunately, at this rate, if 3 and 4 don't cool their rads soon, they'll have to begin the entombing/sarcophagus process. The realist in me says they will by weekend's end but we'll see. Still not the worst end. And radiation still won't make it to America unless you import a fuel rod so don't do that.

Beyond this, hoarding continues but cleanup is beginning and life is starting to go on. The resilience of the people in the face of this is an inspiration.

[kitten]

"A Nuclear Reactor Explained by Poop and Farts: Nuclear Reactor Boy's Tummy Ache"

Relating disasters like this to such silly things so children can understand it has always bothered me really deeply, for some reason.

Edit: Open the link in a new window so you can see the translation.

[Atma]

Daiichi update - Temps are cooling and they're working on restoring power this weekend. Yay. Let's hope it works.

They're finding radioactive milk and spinach near the reactors. Not surprised. Extremely trace iodine is in tap water now as far as Tokyo. Still safe to drink.

And now I get to eat some of my words: the rads have reached California, as far inland as Sacramento. Some of the Xenon-133 from the plant has gotten there. But don't be alarmed because it's only 1/1,000,000th what you usually absorb naturally from background radiation over the course of a year. It's a non-story. Living in a polluted city, hanging out by your smoke alarm, or in front of a CRT screen will give you more.

[beach1]

Glad to hear the temperatures are cooling. That Reactor-kun video is adorable.

[kal]

In a ridiculous Australian update - people are buying Iodine tablets en masse or what not in preparation of some sort of nuclear apocalypse I can only assume. I'm not sure if they realise how screwed the rest of the planet would be in radiation levels here reached a point where those tablets would serve any sort of purpose.