Earthquake & tsunami hits Japan

[kinboshi]

i was going off this

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/VIDEO-All-Workers-Evacuated-From-Fukushima-In-Japan-Nuclear-Plant-After-Surge-In-Radiation/Article/201103315953135?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15953135_VIDEO%3A_All_Workers_Evacuated_From_Fukushima_In_Japan_Nuclear_Plant_After_Surge_In_Radiation_

Fair enough, but it's not the only inaccuracy on that page.  I really do despair at some of the reporting of this incident.  The BBC has been no better either.

[kinboshi]

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20110316/k10014717201000.html

The earthquake and tsunami have claimed 3,700 confirmed dead and with the missing they're worried it will rise to 11,000.

[kinboshi]

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/asia/disaster-japan-march-16-live-blog

"This morning at 8:30AM March 16 JST Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano held a press conference to talk about the smoke billowing from Reactor 3 at Fukushima.

At this press conference, he explained that the radiation levels spiked and that TEPCO staff would be temporarily moved to "a safe region". He probably should have said "location" as Hiroko Tabuchi pointed out to me.

The foreign press misunderstood this and started reporting that the TEPCO staff had evacuated the reactor causing a broad panic. Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times  contacted the Nuclear Industry Safety Agency and TEPCO directly to clarify and confirmed that they had not in fact been evacuated, but just moved temporarily to a safer area during the spike.

Jun Seita then reported that as of 11:30AM, NHK was reporting that the staff were back to work.

The frustrating thing was that once this corrosive and sensational misinformation was in the main stream media via the wires, it was very hard to get them to fix it.

Al Jazeera was the first that I saw to edit their news story to reflect that indeed they had not been evacuated.

At the same press conference Edano accidentally said 1000 millisievert instead of 1000 microsieverts causing further confusion in the media."

[kinboshi]

[kinboshi]

"TBS announcers were just talking about the international decision to upgrade the Fukushima incident to a level 6 on the IEIA scale of nuclear incidents. They note that even moving it up the scale does not necessarily mean that there is an increased risk to people’s health at the current time. Also, in their opinion, Chernobyl was far an away a very high level 7, something which Fukushima will not approach."

The situation isn't looking great, and I think the local area around the plant might be a no-go zone for years to come if the situation continues to escalate.  There hasn't been a mention (from what I've seen) of the intention to use a sarcophagus on the plant, once the emergency situation is dealt with.  If the radiation levels in the immediate vicinity of the plant continue to rise, I think this might well be the case.

[kinboshi]

Read this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/g4fhe/the_follow_up_to_a_promise_operation_restock/

[Robert HM]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/03/post-earthquake_nuclear_crisis

Another good read.

As for the relative dangers to human health/life coal is streets ahead of any other fuel source.

However,  the catastrophic disaster that could potentially occur with nuclear power is a far greater fear to the public.  Probably down to the lack of media focus on the dangers of the coal supply chain,  and the "science fiction" feel to nuclear power accidents.

Bearing in mind that most fusion came with the Big Bang, do you think that our Scientists are playing God, and such things should be left to him?

[kinboshi]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/03/post-earthquake_nuclear_crisis

Another good read.

As for the relative dangers to human health/life coal is streets ahead of any other fuel source.

However,  the catastrophic disaster that could potentially occur with nuclear power is a far greater fear to the public.  Probably down to the lack of media focus on the dangers of the coal supply chain,  and the "science fiction" feel to nuclear power accidents.

Bearing in mind that most fusion came with the Big Bang, do you think that our Scientists are playing God, and such things should be left to him?

Fusion occurs in the billions of billions of stars in the universe - it's what creates the elements.

Scientists playing god?  Which god would that be?

[Robert HM]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/03/post-earthquake_nuclear_crisis

Another good read.

As for the relative dangers to human health/life coal is streets ahead of any other fuel source.

However,  the catastrophic disaster that could potentially occur with nuclear power is a far greater fear to the public.  Probably down to the lack of media focus on the dangers of the coal supply chain,  and the "science fiction" feel to nuclear power accidents.

Bearing in mind that most fusion came with the Big Bang, do you think that our Scientists are playing God, and such things should be left to him?

Fusion occurs in the billions of billions of stars in the universe - it's what creates the elements.

Scientists playing god?  Which god would that be?

You took long enough!

[kinboshi]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/03/post-earthquake_nuclear_crisis

Another good read.

As for the relative dangers to human health/life coal is streets ahead of any other fuel source.

However,  the catastrophic disaster that could potentially occur with nuclear power is a far greater fear to the public.  Probably down to the lack of media focus on the dangers of the coal supply chain,  and the "science fiction" feel to nuclear power accidents.

Bearing in mind that most fusion came with the Big Bang, do you think that our Scientists are playing God, and such things should be left to him?

Fusion occurs in the billions of billions of stars in the universe - it's what creates the elements.

Scientists playing god?  Which god would that be?

You took long enough!

Still reading all the comments on that reddit thread. 

[Bongo]

You can make some ridiculous arguments like that: Given that God created all life do you think sex, which creates life, should be left to him?

Mind you I think that would make more sense than this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12745899

[Robert HM]

You can make some ridiculous arguments like that: Given that God created all life do you think sex, which creates life, should be left to him?

Mind you I think that would make more sense than this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12745899

Bongo, it was reaction time test for Kin.

[Bongo]

Oh I know, I just wanted to point out how ridiculous I thought the German decision was.

Either they needed checking before this happened in which case it's a disgrace that they weren't or they didn't and this is an ill thought out reaction.

[kinboshi]

The Germans and the French have both come out with some very strong statements to the events in Fukushima.  I can't see what's fuelling their reactions (both puns intended).

[rex008]

Areva (French company) build nuclear power stations. The Japanese one is/was GE, I believe. Could just be trash-talking the opposition.

France seems to be pushing hard to have the incident rating of the Japan situation increased. I don't understand the mentality of this at all. By any objective viewpoint, it's a 4 that's possibly moved to a 5, depending on what's in the steam that's pouring out of no 3. I've seen several French-sourced comments that says it should be a 6, which is bizarre, as there has been only 1 radiation poisoning case so far, that we know of.