Field Theory: Japan moves
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BenWilson, in reply to
Wanna know where the hydrogen explosion comes from.
Yup, the hydrogen comes from the water used as coolant, reacting with zirconium. But Karl Grossman has not suggested a better alternative, and there's a good reason they use water, it doesn't get activated by the radiation, so it can be vented.
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Just to let you know... The 9pm news on my local SF Bay Area ABC affiliate is reporting that they called a pharmacy in Santa Cruz (just down the peninsula but on the coast) and were told there's been a run on iodine tablets. That was then followed by a totally un-reassuring weather reporter explaining what the jet stream is and what it does. And how long it might or might not take for radioactive particles to get here.
Now, to be sure, Santa Cruz actually suffered some damage from Friday's tsunami--about 20 small boats were smacked about or sunk by "the toilet bowl effect" of 2-foot waves entering the small bay.
But I'm predicting the nuclear panic will spread, however unlikely it is that we will actually get much radioactivity here in California. Does anyone know if much was carried here after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings?
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Running out of iodine tablets in Japan. Rumors are rife with radiation being recorded even in the areas such as Nara. Stock market in chaos. The following letter is from Eric Johnston:
Dear All,
The situation in Tokyo appears grim today. Rumours are flying fast, and seperating fact from fiction is ever-more difficult. But the Fukushima nuclear plant is in deep trouble, and it is growing increasingly likely that there will be the beginnings of a mass exodus from the Kanto region. We are hearing that the France embassy has already advised people to leave the region. Regardless, the rumours alone are going to cause people who can to flee the region.The prefectures of Kansai said yesterday they would be willing to take in refugess from the quake and tsunami, but we, all of us, need to think about what we might do to help our region cope with the possibility of a mass influx of people to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, even for a short period of time. I have no suggestions at present, but just wanted to share my thoughts with you all. Keep watching the news and Japanese government websites, and let's hope for the best.
Eric
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Jody Fanning, in reply to
Pharmacies in Finland have run out of iodine tablets as well. Seems that hysteria is contagious. YLE News
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Already there's been mention of the China Syndrome. Not in the actual syndrome itself, but more the official cover-ups.
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Two articles that seem useful. Sorry if already upthread somewhere.
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake/
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Confirming French citizens have been advised by their Embassy to evacuate the region ... Ironic when you think France has the second largest number of nuclear plants in the world after the US (19 vs 17 in Japan).
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Notes in other post as well
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SteveH, in reply to
Ironic when you think France has the second largest number of nuclear plants in the world after the US (19 vs 17 in Japan).
Not only that, but they weren't too bothered about fallout from the atmospheric tests they continued to do for 11 years after the US and USSR had stopped.
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Kyle Matthews, in reply to
Not only that, but they weren’t too bothered about fallout from the atmospheric tests they continued to do for 11 years after the US and USSR had stopped.
Those French people had darker skin I believe.
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It kinda makes sense to evacuate. Even if you don't think it'll go to a full meltdown, move people now just in case.
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Article this morning show radiation up to 400,000 microservets around one reactor measured yesterday. This report also has small, but somewhat scary, chart of levels at which serious risk to human health and life could be expected.
Radiation hazard detected / Massive leak feared after fire at spent nuclear fuel pool.
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9:07pm... Apple said it is delaying its launch of the iPad 2 in Japan. "We are delaying the launch of the iPad 2 in Japan while the country and our teams focus on recovering from the recent disaster," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris.
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BenWilson, in reply to
It kinda makes sense to evacuate. Even if you don't think it'll go to a full meltdown, move people now just in case.
Also, it's one thing to evacuate a small bunch of ex-pats, quite another to evacuate the population of a region as densely populated as Japan.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were airbursts, with the device exploding 580m above the ground.. Most of the radiation was produced by the actual explosion event - there was a very limited amount of persistent fallout (mainly from the fission products of the reaction).
That's the reason the cities could be rebuilt and repopulated so quickly.
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Also, it’s one thing to evacuate a small bunch of ex-pats, quite another to evacuate the population of a region as densely populated as Japan.
At least 125,000 people have been evacuated from Fukushima, but you're right in that it's difficult to move people from Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, or even Chiba. However, what is bothering people is that they don't have the information to make an informed decision for themselves of for those they are responsible for.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
As Kevin Rose and others have pointed out, Apple did a good thing by turning its Japanese retail stores into community hubs for people who needed information and electricity for their devices. Even after they closed on the first day, people were apparently gathering outside to use the free wi-fi.
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Nice simple explanation of the meltdown process from Al Jazeera.
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Apparently people have been getting txts on their phones (I don't know who from) warning that if it rains in NZ, people should be staying inside, cos you don't want to know about that ACID RAIN. Please.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Apparently people have been getting txts on their phones (I don't know who from)
Ken Ringtone?.
Fnah Fnah -
Has this been posted here yet? Turns out 'MIT Scientist' is in the same category as 'leading expert' and 'unqualified opinion'. At least I wasn't the first to link to it.
Perhaps Thawte could do an electronic certificate system to show when someone claiming expertise actually has any.
(Disclaimer: Link from Twitter ;-)
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ETA: Following through the links (learning), the actual MIT Nuclear department has reviewed and revised the post.
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Fooman, in reply to
Has this been posted here yet? Turns out 'MIT Scientist' is in the same category as 'leading expert' and 'unqualified opinion'. At least I wasn't the first to link to it.
See this link discussing that in detail.
Precis:
What was an article about nuclear safety by a MIT risk analysis expert is now a joint article by a MIT risk analysis expert and MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering experts.
Cheers,
FM -
recordari, in reply to
We seem to now be on the same page. Hopefully. Getting a bit overwhelmed with informations.
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Talking of texts, I'm going to cross-post this here for maximum viewage, as I think it's important: I didn't get a tsunami warning text on Fri/Sat despite supposedly being signed up to the council's text alert system. A friend who is signed up to the civil defence text alert system did get one (so they did get circulated).
It's possibly an unintended side-effect of the amalgamation of all the separate councils into the supercity - I was previously signed up under North Shore Council's system, to the best of my memory. This doesn't seem to have automatically transferred to a pan-Auckland system.
I went looking on both the Auckland region Civil Defence website, and the Council website, with no joy. There's no explanation. Neither is there a sign-up instruction page.
I finally managed to find a sign-up for the Auckland region by googling, and going through Northland Civil Defence. The website is here.
Frankly, unless I've missed something obvious (and I'm happy to be corrected by any of our resident CD experts), then that counts as a big fat fail on several counts. I've sent Auckland CD an e-mail asking for an explanation, but no reply as yet.
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