8.8 Magnitude Earthquake hit Japan

[Sgt Beavis]

CNN is reporting they have suspended operations at the nuclear plant.
The last 50 employees left.

They are having a press conference on NHK. The radiation levels have declined and teams are returning..

However there is smoke coming from one of the reactor buildings. They are currently saying that they don't know what is in the smoke or where it is coming from. They think it is coming from reactor 3. However they believe the radiation is coming from reactor 2.

[stevo]

Wow, I'm trying to watch the coverage on CNN because Oreilly is currently on Fox and isn't saying anything current, but I swear Anderson Cooper must be drunk, he cannot even complete a sentence. He is starting to sound like that chick that (supposedly) had a stroke on live TV. The only other choice is to watch MSNBC, which isn't going to happen.

Stevo

[Strychnine]

Wow, I'm trying to watch the coverage on CNN because Oreilly is currently on Fox and isn't saying anything current, but I swear Anderson Cooper must be drunk, he cannot even complete a sentence. He is starting to sound like that chick that (supposedly) had a stroke on live TV. The only other choice is to watch MSNBC, which isn't going to happen.

Stevo

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

[Strychnine]

I think another quake just happened.





edit: possible delay in KHK feed?

[stevo]

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

Thanks.

Stevo

[78X]

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

watch NHK livestream

[Strychnine]

watch NHK livestream

that link should be live

[78X]

that link should be live

yea i meant to quote Stevo

[stevo]

Does this mean they are having issues determining the actual levels of radiation around the area?

Radioactivity forecast system down

A computer system that forecasts the spread of radioactivity has not been working due to malfunctioning monitoring posts around a troubled nuclear power plant in quake-hit Fukushima Prefecture.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says it does not know when the system will be back in operation.

The system, called SPEEDI, predicts how radioactive substances will spread in case of radiation leakage from nuclear power plants, based on measurements taken at various locations, prevailing winds and other weather conditions.

SPEEDI data are intended to be used to draw up evacuation plans for residents around power plants in case of accidents.

The system is monitored at government offices, including the industry ministry and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in Tokyo.

Friday's earthquake caused power outages around the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The agency says it cannot expect the SPEEDI system to function fully, since many monitoring posts are not operating due to power outages.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 10:25 +0900 (JST)

Stevo

[Sgt Beavis]

I think another quake just happened.





edit: possible delay in KHK feed?

There was a 6.0 just a stones throw off the coast of Chiba...

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.795%C2%B0N,+140.804%C2%B0E&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=35.803335,140.780182&spn=0.053601,0.108404&z=14

The scary thing is that there are THREE hospitals within a few kilometers of the epicenter.

[Strychnine]

Does this mean they are having issues determining the actual levels of radiation around the area?



Stevo

They have meters on site for rad levels. They are without a forecasting tool though, that helps determine where the prevailing winds would take any release.

Example: weatherman on tv loses his NOAA feed to predict weather for the week, but he can still get a call from someone outside to find out if it's raining or not.

[mstng86]

A nice story in the whole mess.

Miracles in Japan: Four-Month Old Baby, 70-Year Old Woman Found Alive

ShareretweetEmailPrintBy WILLIAM LEE ADAMS William Lee Adams – Tue Mar 15, 7:20 pm ET
Amid the silent corpses a baby cried out - and Japan met its tiniest miracle.

On March 14 soldiers from the Japanese Defense Force were going door-to-door, pulling bodies from homes flattened by the earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki City, a coastal town northeast of Senda. More accustomed to the crunching of rubble and the sloshing of mud than to the sound of life, they dismissed the baby's cry as a mistake. Until they heard it again. (See 7 ways to help earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.)

They made their way to the pile of debris, and carefully removed fragments of wood and slate, shattered glass and rock. And then they saw her: a four-month old baby girl in a pink woolen bear suit.

The tidal wave literally swept the unnamed girl away from her parents' arms when it hit their home on March 11. Since then her parents - both of whom survived the disaster - have taken refuge in their wrecked house, and worried that their little girl was dead. Soldiers managed to reunite the baby with her overjoyed father shortly after the rescue.

"Her discovery has put a new energy into the search," a civil defense official told a local news crew. "We will listen, look and dig with even more diligence after this." Ahead of the baby's rescue, officials reported finding at least 2,000 bodies washed up on the shoreline of Miyagi prefecture. How the child survived drowning - or being crushed by fallen trees and houses - remains a mystery. (See pictures of the calamity of Japan's quake.)

In a nation short on good news, other rescues have buoyed morale, too. In Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, the devastating tidal wave swept away an elderly woman along with her entire house - but it couldn't extinguish her will to live.

Rescuers found the 70-year-old alive inside her home on March 15, four days after the black tidal wave wiped out much of the region. Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani told the Associated Press the woman is now receiving treatment in a local hospital. She is conscious but suffering from hypothermia. (See how to tend to Japan's psychological scars.)

Elsewhere, 60-year old Hiromitsu Shinkawa survived two days at sea by clinging on to his floating rooftop. He was discovered 10 miles off the Japanese coastline. "Several helicopters and ships passed but none of them noticed me," he said after his March 13 rescue. "I thought that was going to be the last day of my life." (via Daily Mail)

[Skidmark]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter2.htm

[mstng86]

Concerning the whole nuclear plant crisis. There are about 180 workers that went back in today to cool down the reactors.

OK, lets say they get them cooled down, has anyone heard of the long term plan? Are they working on getting the generators going along with cooling down the reactors. I have not heard anything about repairing the water system or anything like that.

Are the Japanese that are getting out of the country right now going to be accepted back. I mean, yes there status will still be the same, but socially how are people going to look at these people that ran away from this whole situation when they return?

[stevo]

Concerning the whole nuclear plant crisis. There are about 180 workers that went back in today to cool down the reactors.

OK, lets say they get them cooled down, has anyone heard of the long term plan? Are they working on getting the generators going along with cooling down the reactors. I have not heard anything about repairing the water system or anything like that.

Pumping salt water in them destroyed any chance of them ever working again, if that is what you are asking.

Also, more bad news is coming in with the announcement that the pool of water covering the spent fuel rods has evaporated and radiation is spreading. This shit is only going to get worse.

Stevo