8.9 Magnitude quake hits offshore Japan

[HPLovecraft]

A low level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo in 10 hours, Reuters is quoting the French embassy in the Japanese capital as saying.

Air China, the country's flag carrier, has cancelled flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon and in the evening.

Not sure how much damage the "radioactive" breeze could do -- I doubt it'd be all that serious, but you never know, I suppose.

[THE SCUD]

I wonder if God thinks this shoulder shaking was a bit much now? Guy obviously didn't think this one through...

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

By way of comparison: The newly reported measurements are 400 millisieverts. At Chernobyl, 1000 millisieverts was the reported level after the news blackout was lifted, but the peak was estimated to be 3000 millisieverts.

Source

If anyone needs perspective to everyday life exposure(s):

Calgary background radiation is ~4 millisieverts/year
Vancouver background radiation is ~1 millisievert/year
One chest xray is 0.1 millisieverts
One cross Canada flight is 0.3 millisieverts.

[HPLovecraft]

Thailand is to start doing random tests of imported Japanese food products for possible radiation contamination, the country's food and drug agency is quoted as saying by Reuters.

That sounds like a pretty ridiculous development.

[Gozer]

"Cautious bordering on silly" is exactly how I expect my food-safety agents to act.

[TylerSVT]

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

That sounds like a pretty ridiculous development.

+1

Thailand should focus on getting rid of prostitution in their own country... idiots.

[Codes]

You can never be too cautious protecting food and water supplies. It might be more outrageous if they straight out banned imports from Japan.

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by TylerSVT

Thailand should focus on getting rid of prostitution in their own country... idiots.

No


No they shouldn't......

[HPLovecraft]

Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck

No


No they shouldn't......

You enjoy your 12-year old lady boys, eh?

[Tinordi]

It isn't gay if it's in Thailand.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

By way of comparison: The newly reported measurements are 400 millisieverts. At Chernobyl, 1000 millisieverts was the reported level after the news blackout was lifted, but the peak was estimated to be 3000 millisieverts.

Source

The above numbers that I stated should have been stated as millisieverts/hour.

Originally Posted by NuclearFart

If anyone needs perspective to everyday life exposure(s):

Calgary background radiation is ~4 millisieverts/year
Vancouver background radiation is ~1 millisievert/year
One chest xray is 0.1 millisieverts
One cross Canada flight is 0.3 millisieverts.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by THE SCUD

I wonder if God thinks this shoulder shaking was a bit much now? Guy obviously didn't think this one through...

Your not off to a very good start here. I find that link to be a bit disrepective as well. The conversation in this thread is focused of the reality of this event, and the golbal implications. Lets not try and post stuff to turn this into a religious debate. All posting that link does, is direct more people to her ignorant hatred, and give her voice a larger audience. If there was a god, I am sure he would heave a giant lightning bolt right through her earhole.

[Incogneto]

This was posted on another message lard I frequent...a football message board.

As a former Navy Nuc, I've purposefully avoided the FFA and this discussion. EVen now, I've not read but three or four posts in here...by design.

This much I will say...A HUGE proportion of what's discussed in the media is being discussed by folks who either A: Have a political and/or economic stake in Nuclear power...one way or another. OR B: Have very limited first-hand knowledge and understanding of what Nuclear power is and how it works.

Folks in category B rely on info from folks in category A, and ROUTINELY deduce incorrect answers. It's very frustrating to listen to them. I haven't come here because it would be even more frustrating to debate the topic with folks who have half-formed opinions based on incorrect and often mis-leading data.

I've read the offical, confidential reports on both 3MI and Chernobyl. 3MI was almost a joke. Although serious, it's impact on both the environment and on the surrounding population was virtually non-existant. Chernobyl was a Sodium cooled reactor in a country that placed ZERO preium on safety...an almost completely differant kind of beast.

The problems in Japan are serious, but they do not pose nearly the threat that has been proposed. If a serious threat to the population were to be realized, it would have happened in the first 24 hours. Unlike Chernobyl, these reactors are, and have been, shut down since the quake. MOst "radiation" (I hate the term in this context because it's not strictly accurate) has already decayed away except for the SOLID fuel plates themselves. Plates which do not lend themselves easily into being "atomized" in such a way as to easily be propelled airborne.

Long term cleanup costs and localized environmental problems would be the most serious problems associated with "meltdowns" at this point...not serious exposure to the public. Evacuations are necessary precautions, but don't read too much into them. ANy radioactivity that has reached the public, or would have reached them, was primarily short lived stuff that will not pose a long term risk.

Nuclear power remains a far FAR safer fuel source then any carbon based sources (fuel oil, coal, etc.), and even with accidents like these, puts far fewer pollutants into the atmosphere then the carbon sources.

Look at it this way: We all know traveling by plane is safer than by car. The plane crash, like the nuclear accident...is far more dramatic, and has the potential for more immediate deaths...but the long term statistics don't lie...they're still safer....MUCH MUCH safer. Don't get sucked into the hype.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

By way of comparison: The newly reported measurements are 400 millisieverts. At Chernobyl, 1000 millisieverts was the reported level after the news blackout was lifted, but the peak was estimated to be 3000 millisieverts.

Source

I think some sources are mixing up millisieverts (mSv) and microsieverts (μSv). The highest reading I've heard is 8271 μSv which is 8.271 mSv. Those exposures listed above as well as the Chernobyl readings are mSv, each of which is 1000 μSv. That 400 reading reported was probably in μSv, as I'm not aware of any reports of anything higher than 8 mSv.

[Bertuzzied]

Holy crap. the Nikkei is down 1015 points right now.

[CETokyo]

So today in Tokyo the trains were running fine but not normally (less frequent & intermittent). The grocery stores are very busy and there are empty shelves.
The nuclear plant problems in Fukushima are causing a huge amount of distress and the rumours are wild.
As a result of the unclear news of the nuclear risks and much disinformation, many expat wives and children have left or are leaving. (Some are just leaving a few days before international school spring break starts and would be normally travelling anyway.)
We have been encouraged to leave and stay with friends in Singapore, London, Calgary, Hawaii, etc..
We have had some vigorous debates about the reality of what's going on with the nuclear power plants and have deferred so far to calm. An overseas trip would be good though.
The highlight of my day was going to the local liquor shop looking for bottled water which is sold out everywhere in our area. I asked the shop master if he had any bottled water and he said no but as the only other customer in the shop left he quietly said Chris-san you are a good/special customer so here is a box of water I had in the back room.
It made me proud to know that my local liquor shop master thinks of me as a good customer - hahaha.

[fanman]

Here's a link to a BBC article that explains the nuclear situation in a calm and rational manner. There is an updated link at the bottom of the article also.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12732015

So looking at the last reports and press conferences on Japanese tv, they have detected a very small increase in (measured in millisieverts) of radioactive particles in some prefectures around the power plants. For example: Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, Ibaraki, and some parts of Kanagawa. However the levels are NOT high enough to have any impact on the human body. The only place where levels are high enough to post any danger are in the evacuated zone around the plants. This zone has been extended to 30km, and people in the 20-30km radius zone are being asked to stay indoors and make their homes as airtight as possible. They are still trying to work out the details of the leak and remain unsure as to what exactly happened in the #2 reactor and what started the fire in the #4 reactor. The radiation levels spiked at the time of the explosion at the #2 reactor but have since dropped significantly.

Sorry I didn't post any numbers for millisievert levels in specific prefectures, as I was just following this on the TV and the info comes pretty fast for someone with mediocre Japanese language skills. But basically, again, there is currently no risk for people outside of the evacuated zone. Hopefully it stays that way and they can work out a way to get this under complete control.

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by InCoGnEtO

This was posted on another message lard I frequent...a football message board.

LINK ! PLEASE...I have parents that are flee'n that need read'n

[fanman]

Originally Posted by CETokyo

The highlight of my day was going to the local liquor shop looking for bottled water which is sold out everywhere in our area. I asked the shop master if he had any bottled water and he said no but as the only other customer in the shop left he quietly said Chris-san you are a good/special customer so here is a box of water I had in the back room.
It made me proud to know that my local liquor shop master thinks of me as a good customer - hahaha.

^Haha awesome. You must be able to handle your sake.

My wife was able to fill up the car with gas today, but had to leave an hour before the station opened this morning and waited in line just over an hour. Most of the stations in town are empty. We only have a little K-car that can pretty much run on fumes if need be so we should be ok. We'll be breaking out the bikes a lot more than usual for a while.

The local grocery store had stocked shelves, and we also went there and waited in line about 30 mins before opening time. They were stocked but some items like rice, bread, and bottled water sell out really fast. They also had a per family limit on many items. The local 7-11 though is looking barren. No instant ramen, very few bread items, and the lunchbox shelves are empty.

The JR Tokaido line is the only train line running through Hiratsuka. It was apparently not opened again today last I heard, but may have been running for very brief periods. I can only imagine the havok it's causing for people's work schedules. So many people in Tokyo and the surrounding areas rely on the trains for transit to and from work. A lot of people have been trying to bus it, but there are only so many buses and they fill up very quickly.

[Itse]

Another good read.
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/...an-earthquake/

I run a small software business in central Japan. Over the years, I’ve worked both in the local Japanese government (as a translator) and in Japanese industry (as a systems engineer), and have some minor knowledge of how things are done here. English-language reporting on the matter has been so bad that my mother is worried for my safety, so in the interests of clearing the air I thought I would write up a bit of what I know.

It's pretty interesting as it explains quite a bit about how truly prepared the Japanese society was, and how mostly everything worked as it was supposed to.

I also liked this quote:

When you hear news reports of people exposed to radiation, keep in mind, at the moment we’re talking a level of severity somewhere between “ate a banana” and “carries a Delta Skymiles platinum membership card”