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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 11, 2011 6:43:59 GMT -5
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Post by siamesesin on Mar 11, 2011 9:12:14 GMT -5
Please stay safe and dry, everyone.
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Post by angilasman on Mar 11, 2011 9:16:22 GMT -5
The footage is absolutely terrifying.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Mar 11, 2011 16:04:19 GMT -5
Latest numbers from Fuji News are 184 confirmed dead, 708 missing, 947 injured. 1039 buildings are totally destroyed, 94 partially so. Note that board member ilmatto lives in the hardest hit region. Numbers aren't up to date, but here's the general pattern:
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Post by Skyroniter on Mar 11, 2011 17:58:10 GMT -5
My thoughts are with the people of Japan and our board member, ilmatto.
My problems are small.
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Post by spackle on Mar 11, 2011 19:50:38 GMT -5
The videos are alarming, whole towns just swept away. Ijon, I'm so glad Yuuto is safe. I emailed ilmatto. Hopefully we'll hear soon that he's okay too.
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Post by notundercovercop32 on Mar 11, 2011 20:08:36 GMT -5
Another Thing The Phelps clan plans to blaim on America's sexuallity. Tragic.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Mar 11, 2011 20:41:09 GMT -5
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Post by caucasoididiot on Mar 11, 2011 22:41:18 GMT -5
The videos are alarming, whole towns just swept away. Ijon, I'm so glad Yuuto is safe. I emailed ilmatto. Hopefully we'll hear soon that he's okay too. Thanks. Oh, and on checking it seems that ilmatto may actually live down in Chubu, not Tohoku as I thought. If so, he's well out of the danger area.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Mar 11, 2011 23:37:33 GMT -5
Ditto Ijon. I'm glad Yuuto's alright and here's hoping that we'll hear from Ilmatto soon.
All our thoughts go out to everyone there.
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Post by MonsterX on Mar 12, 2011 0:37:51 GMT -5
When I lived in Japan I found the people there to be incredibly giving, intelligent and humble. This is one of those once and a life time disasters and Japan really needs our help. Please consider donating money to the charity of your choice to help with the disaster relief effort. I recommend the Red Cross. www.redcross.org/You can donate as little as 10 bucks if it's all you can afford. I see a lot of people offering their up prayers, but unfortunately prayers don't provide the clean drinking water, shelter and medical attention that Japan so desperately needs right now. Even a small donation makes a difference. Please, find your hearts and give.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Mar 12, 2011 7:45:00 GMT -5
I just woke up to the explosion at the nuke plant: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquakeThere was concern about boiling in the vessel last night, very bad juju in a system not designed for it. Sounds like the containment vessel itself is intact but the building is down. This article suggests that they expect the vessel to remain intact even under core failure, which would keep this from being as disastrous as it might be. But then, 24 hours ago they were saying everything was basically under control. A fully blown Chernobyl is indeed unlikely, since the large amounts of graphite used in that core were a major factor. Still, a Three Mile Island is something Fukushima could do without. Edit: Looks like FNN's latest figures are 596 confirmed killed, 754 missing.
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Post by ilmatto on Mar 12, 2011 8:36:14 GMT -5
My thoughts are with the people of Japan and our board member, ilmatto. Thank you very much Gary. I emailed ilmatto. Hopefully we'll hear soon that he's okay too. Thank you Spackle for the email, and thanks to Ijon and AFC; thank you everyone for your concern.
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Post by siamesesin on Mar 12, 2011 9:04:25 GMT -5
Ditto Ijon. I'm glad Yuuto's alright and here's hoping that we'll hear from Ilmatto soon. All our thoughts go out to everyone there. Thank goodness. I was worried about you too, chicken.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Mar 12, 2011 9:23:20 GMT -5
Don't mention it. MSTies gotta watch out for each other.
I've been trying to find something really substantive on the reactor situation. Even very reputable sources get tangled up on technical reporting like this, for instance I've since learned that the Fukushima reactors are boiling water types.
From what I can gather, five reactors are of concern. The nuclear reactions are almost certainly stopped within them (one key to the Chernobyl disaster was that its graphite-moderated design caused the reaction to run away rather than damp out), but that's only step one in a safe shut down. The heat a reactor generates mostly comes from the short-lived fission fragments. Their decay continues to significantly heat the fuel elements for a considerable time after the reaction ceases.
The problem is that the quake seems to have damaged the coolant systems which are critical for managing this. They're flying in emergency pumps, generators and the like trying to manage that. The largest release of radiation so far seems to have actually been a deliberate venting to manage system pressure. Radiation release so far is way beyond what you ever allow normally, but doesn't yet seem to be overly dangerous.
Reactor #1 is now especially problematic because the explosion (perhaps caused by dissociating coolant water causing a hydrogen buildup, but that's speculation) severely damaged the containment building. Thus, only the containment vessel itself (which is old and could have been weakened by the quake) is containing the fission products.
I was hoping to find something online from the IAEA, but all I could get is that they're "desperately seeking information." There's talk that something inside the vessel has failed, though whether just the cladding or the fuel elements themselves is not clear.
Those vessels are designed to be tough, but it's the last line of defense now at #1. Should there be enough decay heat to cause the vessel to fail (poetically called "core on the floor") then pretty severe releases are certain. Again, for several reasons probably not to a Chernobyl level, but very, very bad.
Keep your fingers crossed.
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