Earthquake 3/11/11

[JeiKun4114]

I just left Japan 2 weeks ago. My wife is still over there said it was bad where she lives and that's because shes over 200 miles away from the center. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who lives in Japan.

[auhckw]

This is such a sad news...

Earthquake in Japan
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011 ... an/100022/

Japan earthquake and tsunami: did closeness of Moon to Earth spark disaster?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/most-popul ... z1GLVuQV3e

[SlientSipper]

I will be sure to say a Shinto prayer
when I get there...

[Tead Off]

Having been in many earthquakes myself, the largest being 7.1, I cannot imagine what an 8.9 must have felt like. And, on top of that, a tsunami. Hard to imagine the sheer force of it. Our hearts go out to these people who have lost a lot.

[JBaymore]

Still hearing back from many friends there. So far all are physically OK but many have damage to homes, studios, kilns, and a lot of pots broken. Among others, in Mashiko, Hamada Tomoo-san said the museum there took a lot of damage.

Friends south of Tokyo said they felt it... but it was not bad. The real issues are from Tokyo northward.

best,

............john

[Xell]

Another quite bad problem appeared, damage to nuclear plant. Something exploded there, no news about what exactly happened, now radius for evacuation is 20km around nuclear plants. This doesn't sound good, as this nuclear plant is about 2.5 times stronger than was Chernobyl...

And i thought they were prepared for big earthquakes, they knew that sooner or latter big one will happen, but still they build such a thing in dangerous zone

[togei]

If anyone would like to watch live TV from Mainichi TV see http://www.mbs.jp/
You will hear frequent electronic beeps. They occur every time there is an aftershock. If you look at the screen there will be a magnitude from the Japanese scale.
I should point out the link above is Japanese only.
Dave

[auhckw]

This is scary...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjVu6CHhLE

[Xell]

Finally some official news about nuclear power plant. In short, nothing serious happened and won't happen, at least if no bigger earthquake hits again. Explosion didn't damage core, but there is small leak of radioactive steam.

[rabbit]

Finally some official news about nuclear power plant. In short, nothing serious happened and won't happen, at least if no bigger earthquake hits again. Explosion didn't damage core, but there is small leak of radioactive steam.

I too was worried it would turn into another Chernobyl situation, let's hope that doesn't happen... Japan is such a small island, they can't really afford to loose any space. Not to mention it'll most likely leave many people without power!

[Chip]

The images from this earthquake/tsunami are horrific. I can hardly bear to watch.

This is history unfolding as most of us watch from the safe distance while our hearts open in sadness and concern and fear for the people of Japan.

Someone mentioned Kevin of O-Cha is near the Fukushima nuclear plant 1 or 2? News coming out is extremely ominous and possibly catastrophic.

Take care Kevin, hope your family there are all OK.

[entropyembrace]

Finally some official news about nuclear power plant. In short, nothing serious happened and won't happen, at least if no bigger earthquake hits again. Explosion didn't damage core, but there is small leak of radioactive steam.

What I understood from Aljazeera...which was interviewing a couple of American nuclear engineers and a Japanese nuclear official yesterday what happened was that when the earthquake was detected the graphite rods were automatically dropped into the reaction chamber to stop the chain reaction but there is still a lot of heat there. The problem is that the reactor lost all power and the coolant pumps are no longer functioning. Without being able to pump water in and out of the core to cool it there is a lot of heat and steam pressure building up so they decided to release a small ammount of radioactive gasses from the core intentionally to relieve some of the pressure. They did this because if the pressure reached a point where the containment dome, which may have been damaged in the earthquake, burst from the pressure it would have released much more radioactive material...so the decision was taken to release a small quanitity in a controlled manner to relieve some of the pressure and prevent that from happening.

[Chip]

Heard back from Kevin from O-Cha again.

Lost all internet today, but came to office and now it's back on.

The nuke plant is about 25 miles away. As long as it doesn't melt down, it shouldn't affect me. Uh, it might melt down though. No one here is talking about it, mostly they're concerned that there is no running water. I'm keeping my eye on it. If I think it's going to melt down, then will pack up and head south.

This is a messed up situation, hoping things calm down soon.

I heard they are going to vent gas or have from the containment building and pressure is way up, temp hotter than hell, and radiation is 1000X what it is supposed to be.

How much of this is media hype and more scary how much is government hiding the worst?

And of course how much is simply not known by anyone at this point?

Be prepared to go! Take care of yourselves.

It's a mix of government not revealing everything, and media hype. In other words, it's hard to tell.

[Marco]

Shocking scenes.
My thoughts are with all people in Japan.
And I am really concerned about the nuclear plants.
The interviews of the officials could not really calm me - they hide to much information.
Opening the vents is a temporary measurement to prevent further heat increase but it does not solve the cooling problem.
Hope that they can get to safe state soon.

Best wishes to everyone.

[entropyembrace]

Shocking scenes.
My thoughts are with all people in Japan.
And I am really concerned about the nuclear plants.
The interviews of the officials could not really calm me - they hide to much information.
Opening the vents is a temporary measurement to prevent further heat increase but it does not solve the cooling problem.
Hope that they can get to safe state soon.

Best wishes to everyone.

yes, the venting only bought more time to get the water pumps operational...until they can pump coolant in and out of the reactor core the heat and pressure will keep increasing.