8.9 Magnitude quake hits offshore Japan

[CETokyo]

It was not easy to get around Tokyo today as the trains were unpredictable with some lines not operating or running at 25% of normal. The local grocery stores were very busy with lots of empty shelves and some stores were closed.
There is no sense of panic and the idea that there would ever be any looting/crime is not at all likely or plausible. People are just dealing with it.
We saw reports of people in 100m line ups waiting to get into the train station and similar lineups for taxi's.
Very tough to watch as the tsunami affected areas don't have enough medicine, water, food and warm shelter.

[Pinner]

nm Fotze beat me to it, that graphic of the fall out cloud is ridiculous and I wonder what motivates these people.

[Resolute 14]

Well, you know, if you really want to push an agenda around building up fear amongst the ignorant masses, creating images like that are an effective way to do it.

When it is all said and done, I half expect the world will learn that "nuclear meltdown" is not a synonym for Chernobyl. Ironically, I think my view on the safety of nuclear plants has improved out of this, and I wasn't exactly in the "OMFG It'll poison the entire country!" camp to begin with.

[transplant99]

So sad.

A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered Monday across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture. The official declined to be named, citing department policy.

The discovery raised the official death toll to about 2,800, but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_bi_...pan_earthquake

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by fotze

I sometimes wonder if people secretely revel in disaster and death counts being higher. The deathcloud graphics. Was the media always this way, seems worse than I remember, but I also cannot remember that well.

It's just a matter of access and technology. Why did we see so many horrific images of Vietnam but not WWII? More than anything else, access and technology.

And to you base question.....yes, we all secretly revel in disaster/mayhem. Watching the Gladiators of ancient Rome isn't much different than watching a "Smart" missile fly into the side of a building.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by TheCommodoreAfro

Things are nowhere near as bad as being let on by the media (especially the western media) who are angling for an every worse plight.

What do you even mean 'nowhere as bad as being let on by the media'? I'm no fan of the Western media, but you don't really need to sensationalize this:

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by transplant99

So sad.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_bi_...pan_earthquake

yeah, Sendai alone has over 1 million. Fortunately Sendai is a bit further inland and with it being classified as a major Japan city, was given money and projects to structurally prepare for an earthquake (maybe not one of this magnitude but prepared nonetheless). It's the coastal towns right on the ocean that are totally destroyed. People had no chance, the tsunami came within minutes

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

What do you even mean 'nowhere as bad as being let on by the media'? I'm no fan of the Western media, but you don't really need to sensationalize this:

Not talking about that. We're dealing with a ####ing catastrophe without the constant nuclear bull#### going around. That's what I'm on about. Given me a break that I don't know it's serious. I've got family and friends here and was here for the worst part of it. Taking a single part of a sentence out of context to post this - thanks bud - that's what I was angling for.
My point, if you read beyond a single sentence was the mushroom cloud #### the media seems to have dying to have happen. The rest of the stuff outside of that is a catastrophe. Don't need a cynical take and some photo hosting skills for that.

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I said I had no idea about it being accurate or not.

Thanks for the reassurance.

If you're going to be a messenger in times of crisis, make sure the message is right. Sensational #### that is patently untrue is not helpful, nor is it necessary. It's the equivalent of a Canucks fan registering just to crap all over a Flames loss in a PGT, in CP terms.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by transplant99

So sad.

A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered Monday across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture. The official declined to be named, citing department policy.

The discovery raised the official death toll to about 2,800, but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_bi_...pan_earthquake

At this point, I think a large portion of the missing 88000 people may never be found. It was like that with the Indonesian quake and tsunami too... Sad

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by TheCommodoreAfro

If you're going to be a messenger in times of crisis, make sure the message is right. Sensational #### that is patently untrue is not helpful, nor is it necessary. It's the equivalent of a Canucks fan registering just to crap all over a Flames loss in a PGT, in CP terms.

I certainly feel for your situation and sense your level of frustration. I think I can speak for all of CP when I say that we are all sincerely hoping your family and friends are all well and safe. That goes for anyone posting here and in fact all of the Japanese people.

That being said, you have to understand that people are only able to discern what is happening with the information they are being given. Also the media is doing a very poor job of informing exactly what "meltdown" impies in reality versus what the perception is. That's not anyones fault beyond those responsible for reporting it the way they are.

The reactor situation isn't good, but it's not Chernobyl either, and I think there needs to be much more discussion like that on TV...unfortunately it is more focussed on the scary side of things and again you cannot blame people for hearing what is being told to them. There is radiation escaping and that cannot be denied as US Navy personnel that have been running chopper rescue missions around the plant have come back with low level radiation readings on them. Nothing serious as it was washed away easily with soap and water according to the Pentagon. not unexpected and the fuel rods have been fully exposed.

At any rate, just trying to give you a perspective from this side of the world much as you are informing us from ground zero.

Stay safe though and know there is worldwide concern for the people there as much as anything to do with the nuclear situation.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

At this point, I think a large portion of the missing 88000 people may never be found. It was like that with the Indonesian quake and tsunami too... Sad

That original report of 1,000 has now been upped to 2,000. The recuers/searchers still have areas they cant even get to yet, and those will be the hardest hit areas, though maybe not the most populated.

The whole thing is so mmassive and complete...its just hard to wrap ones head around.

[LChoy]

Not to add to the sensationalism, but the BBC live blog has been really great to follow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

I hope BBC is being more open and realistic than CNN has been.
Reporting that the water level at Reactor 2 has fallen sharply, and that the fuel rods have been exposed.

[CaptainCrunch]

This is the first nuclear disaster of its kind in a long time, and far more excessible to the media then Chenobyl. Plus this being the cellphone youtube generation, we're actually seeing things for the most part as they happen.

We've seen two pretty spectacular explosions at nuclear powerplants, we know that there have been casualties and some radiation and a lot of fear within and outside of Japan's borders.

I think that we have to accept that news has become a bit more hollywood then it used to be mainly because of media availability and sources other then reporters.

[fanman]

I'm not sure about what they are saying or showing in the western media. I know BBC has been giving pretty balanced coverage for the most part, but personally not sure about the others. I had a skype conversation with my mother in Canada today and it seemed as though not a lot of details were being given, and some that were given were a bit misleading. For those out of country who are interested, NHK world has an English site and they are now doing live streaming of the disaster.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

The video window on the top right side is the live coverage. For some reason the 128K feed wasn't playing with sound, but the 256K and 512K were fine. There are also a lot of interviews with survivors here that may not have been shown abroad, and you may be able to get a better feeling of what the people are going through over here. It has been translated into English. Some of the survivor interviews really get to me, the stories are too sad.

[Tinordi]

Good god I hope they're able to contain these reactors.

[Tinordi]

Sounds like some good-ish news:

Fuel rods in the reactor vessel of Unit 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant were temporarily uncovered from cooling water today, but seawater injection has raised the water level to the halfway point, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said. Seawater is now being used to cool all three Daiichi reactors that were shut down after the March 11 earthquake. Unit 2 had lost its emergency cooling capacity. Workers were preparing to remove hydrogen from the reactor building, and TEPCO has opened the steam relief valve of the reactor.

The primary containment vessels and reactor cores of reactors 1 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi facility are intact, following earlier hydrogen explosions in the secondary containment buildings of both reactors.

At Unit 1, seawater injection continues to cool reactor. Safety regulators consider the reactor’s pressure an indication of a stable condition. The hydrogen explosion on March 11, which occurred between the primary containment vessel and the containment building, did not damage the primary containment vessel or the reactor core. To control the pressure of the reactor core, TEPCO has been injecting seawater and boric acid into the primary containment vessel of Unit 1 since March 12.

A hydrogen explosion Monday at Unit 3, similar to the unit 1 explosion, did not damage the primary containment, Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said. The control room remains operational, and a government official said that pressure in the reactor vessel is stable. After the explosion, the few hundred people remaining in the 12.5-mile evacuation zone were asked to stay indoors.

At the Fukushima Daini site, cooling capability has been reestablished for Unit 4 at the reactor. Units 2 and 4 are in cold shutdown.

http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/inf...n-that-region/

[CaptainCrunch]

I have questions, wouldn't sea water ruin the reactors and prevent them from ever restarting?

If you have a runaway reaction where the temperature is heading to what 5000 degrees, and you sprayed it with sea water wouldn't you just be cooling the outside of the reactor pile, but the inside would continue to super heat?

[Knut]

^ Yes... That is why it is a last resort.

These reactors will never run again.

[LChoy]

^
What Hesla said

Also, the rods are going to be hot for the next 3 million years, but At least by emerging them in coolant (and now sea water), it allows the heat to be dissapated safely.
Theoretically, the only way to safely stop a the fuel rods from over heating is if you can break them up into smaller pieces (like the green rod size from the opening of the simpsons) so that the individual pieces produce managable levels of heat. However, you can't do that with today's technology without exposing people to lethal amounts of radiation