Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis - CNN.com Huge earthquake hits - CNN says "7.1", while a radio station this AM said "8.9". Big trouble..... Japan relies very heavily on Mass Transit, which is OUT now. Cars, semi-rigs, even houses and boats carried a mile or more inland! This is a true SHTF situation for many there. We'll learn more "lessons of survival" from this event, I am sure. And then the tsunami is threatening other places too.
Here are some interesting links to say the least: YouTube - Uzumaki whirlpool Japan tsunami ALERT! Volcano UPDATE after JAPAN 8.8 - ALL including Yellowstone showing unrest! march 11, 2011 , page 1 FEMA: FEMA Urges Public To Be Prepared On Anniversary Of New Madrid Quake The cause? Strange Caller, Earthquakes, & and a Near Earth Object : Zeta Talk, Planet X, & The Pole Shift Rocky Horror Show (Feb. 8, 2011) Comet Elinin Will Cause Pole Shift March 15th -Is THIS What The A.J Show Caller Was Talking About?, page 1 JPL Small-Body Database Browser Axis shift imagery Food for thought, decide for your self, but be glad you are prepared.
The aftershocks are bigger than most earthquakes. Very sad. I wonder what will happen to their rice production and global prices? Will that nuke plant melt down or will they save it? (Are our NEST folks on the way to help or do the Japanese have their own such teams?) Were there any big industries/factories that were badly damaged? Will global natural gas prices spike now? This really sucks for a country that's almost 30 years into their lost decade. I wonder what this will do to their GDP... (On a Darwinian side note, did you hear about the fool on our West Coast who was swept away while taking pictures of the waves?)
It did as much damage than the atom bombs did. As far as rice, it just got covered by salt water, that's not good for growing it.
Last I saw was five dead here on our west coast. Some dock facilities smashed in Oregon. That's a far-reaching Tsunami! Have not read of damage in Hawaii yet - anybody know?
Well not exactly, the Reactor Building, had a Hydrogen Explosion, when they were adding Cooling Water, to try and keep the core cool. This is a very foreseeable consequence of that operation. It basically blew out the walls of the building that the Reactor Containment is housed in and these are designed to do this, in this senerio. The containment was NOT breached. They are now contemplating using Seawater laced with Boric Acid, to finally bring the end of the incident. If they do this, the core will be basically Toast, but it also would not be active, and they would end up with a Core similar to Three Mile Island, only without the Core Melt. So they would just fill up the old building with lead laced concrete and call it good. All in all, not as Bad of end as it could have been....
Boy, I sure am glad you're around. Now, let's see if the little people can make this work out in their favor.
Notes: Boron ( from boric acid) is a neutron absorber, will lessen any nuclear reactions by taking neutrons out so they can't cause a fission reaction. It is (or can be) also used as a core life extender with certain control schemes. For Fukushima, it's an added item in case the control rods are damaged. Adds a margin of safety against criticality, but nothing for cooling. Seawater is laden with chlorides which, under heat and stress (in the metallurgical sense) will damage the stainless steel components such that they cannot be reused by a new or refurbished plant. (Search up chloride stress corrosion.) However, it's as good a coolant as any water can ever be. The key exercise is to keep the decay heat under control. N.B. that was the straw that broke the camel's back at TMI, they didn't know until it was too late that the core had been partially uncovered and the decay heat (not nuclear power heat) melted things to the point where they couldn't get water in where it was needed to cool things down. TMI was a PWR plant, Fukushima is a BWR plant. In spite of the really radical design differences, the goals are the same, make heat and carry it off to generate power. When the reaction is shut down, the core still makes heat from decay products from the fission reactions that have been going on for as long as they were generating power. It is critically important to have a means of core cooling for quite a while after shutting down power generation, it ain't like turning off the lights. The name of their game is to get it cooled down BEFORE there is core damage so the fuel pins can be taken out and put in storage until cooled off long enough that heat buildup cannot do damage to the pins, and the fuel can be recycled. That is what the spent fuel storage pools are for that show up on the aerial views on line. (ALL US plants have a spent fuel pool on site.) If they can get the core cooled and put in the storage pools, they will not need to encase the plant, more normal salvage techniques can be employed. Encasing the plant in concrete, if that is the way they go, cannot happen until heat generation is reduced, either by in situ cooling or removal of the core itself. The Russians did the concrete thing at Chernobyl. As it happens, too soon, and they are having to do more; the concrete is failing from decay heat and poor quality concrete.
I have to tell you the biggest thing I have noticed which is so different than we have come to expect here, is from watching it time and time again during a disaster's is no one is looting..... Here in the States we would have people looting stores, even as the 30 foot wall of water rushed in to kill them. They were very calm and not panicking. Even the supermarket workers tried to do their best to save goods from falling off the shelves as the quake was occurring. Never see that here, the looting and killing would have started by now. Great job to the People of Japan! Your in my prayers.
Take a look at this! cracks opening and closing YouTube - Japan ground cracking open and moving (CNN video) - March 11th 2011
wow on the video of the cracks opening and closing. That would be the point where I would out of there!
Fears mount as Japan battles nuclear emergency <cite>AFP – <abbr title="2011-03-13T05:32:33-0700" class="recenttimedate">1 hr 42 mins ago</abbr> </cite> <cite>AFP</cite> FUKUSHIMA, Japan (AFP) - Japan battled a feared meltdown of two reactors at a quake-hit nuclear plant on Sunday, as the full horror of the disaster emerged on the ravaged northeast coast where more than 10,000 were feared dead.
Has anyone else looked up the correlation of large Quakes in Japan vs. the Pacific NW? Our last "big" one was Jan 26th, 1700. Japan had an 8 and and an 8.6 in 1703 AND 1706, the next 8+ was in 1854., Japan also had an 8+ was in 1586, and prior to the 1700, our closest 8+ was in 1500. Prior to that Japan had a big one in 745, and we had one in 710. The interesting thing is that most of the big ones 8+ to hit Japan were preceded by a Cascadia quake. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index...northwest.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...uakes_in_Japan