Earthquake in Japan
- Thread starter Brandon
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NHK reported that Tepco found 2 workers dead in the basement of a turbine building on March 30, which had apparently died from a hemorrhage.
Some media reported that workers didn't have enough protective shoes to cover their boots, so they're trying to do so with plastic bags. Tepco apparently pays $3,500 per shift to the reactor cleanup workers.
A leak found near one of the reactors has been identified as a potential cause for seawater contamination. Trying to cover the leak with concrete failed b/c of the large amounts of water, but they'll try a polymer now to attempt get the concrete to dry. More leaks are suspected on the power plant area.
Meanwhile, the danger is still apparently being played down to the people, let's hope they're not miscalculating something.
Irradiated fish had been caught 40 km out on the sea with two times the contamination limit.
Workers try to contain the radiation as best as they can, but a several-months-long fight is expected.
What's worrying is that the entire Japanese coast is full of nuclear power plants, and one especially dangerous one is a fast breeder, that can cause a nuclear explosion. I worry about domino effects that could happen if ambient radiation levels get so high that other reactors get out of control. In the Daini plant, there was a heat-up last week that has apparently been coped with, but I'm concerned about what could happen in the forthcoming weeks or months.
Some media reported that workers didn't have enough protective shoes to cover their boots, so they're trying to do so with plastic bags. Tepco apparently pays $3,500 per shift to the reactor cleanup workers.
A leak found near one of the reactors has been identified as a potential cause for seawater contamination. Trying to cover the leak with concrete failed b/c of the large amounts of water, but they'll try a polymer now to attempt get the concrete to dry. More leaks are suspected on the power plant area.
Meanwhile, the danger is still apparently being played down to the people, let's hope they're not miscalculating something.
Irradiated fish had been caught 40 km out on the sea with two times the contamination limit.
Workers try to contain the radiation as best as they can, but a several-months-long fight is expected.
What's worrying is that the entire Japanese coast is full of nuclear power plants, and one especially dangerous one is a fast breeder, that can cause a nuclear explosion. I worry about domino effects that could happen if ambient radiation levels get so high that other reactors get out of control. In the Daini plant, there was a heat-up last week that has apparently been coped with, but I'm concerned about what could happen in the forthcoming weeks or months.
If you look at reactor building 3 (photo taken by drone on March 24), and compare it to the building schematic, it makes you wonder where the reactor vessel and drywell are supposed to be.
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(Sources: this and this )
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A DW-World article (English)
Heute.de reports that Tepco is going to release at least 10,000 tons of radioactive water into the ocean (German), to make room for even higher radioactive water in the reactors.
A video shows that in the exclusion zone, radiation values are 4000x higher than normal (German)
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 PM ----------
tagesschau.de makes the extent of that clearer (German)
Assumed that 1 liter of water weighs approx. 1 kg, 1 ton of water (1000 kg) equals 1000 liters. Hence, 11500 tons equal 11.5 million liters of water (that'd be roughly 3 million gallons of water).
---------- Post added at 06:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------
Interview video with fire brigade that returned from Fukushima (German)
Apparently, thanks to caution, nobody was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.
A video shows that in the exclusion zone, radiation values are 4000x higher than normal (German)
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 PM ----------
tagesschau.de makes the extent of that clearer (German)
Assumed that 1 liter of water weighs approx. 1 kg, 1 ton of water (1000 kg) equals 1000 liters. Hence, 11500 tons equal 11.5 million liters of water (that'd be roughly 3 million gallons of water).
---------- Post added at 06:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------
Interview video with fire brigade that returned from Fukushima (German)
Apparently, thanks to caution, nobody was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.
7.4 hit today. I hope the missing count goes down soon, because families need closure.
Thank god it was only a 7.1 (they down-rated it a few hours later).
Disaster cleanup progress and such is still slow, b/c home debris cannot be moved before the owners have been contacted. But there is progress.
There's also some good news for the nuclear exclusion zone evacuees: They may be allowed to return home for a few hours to get at least some of their belongings. That's a wish many evacuees apparently had.
Disaster cleanup progress and such is still slow, b/c home debris cannot be moved before the owners have been contacted. But there is progress.
There's also some good news for the nuclear exclusion zone evacuees: They may be allowed to return home for a few hours to get at least some of their belongings. That's a wish many evacuees apparently had.
The plume had to first settle. They should be taking samples of ground, plants, and water to see where there are radioactive areas, and then reduce the contaminated area. Once that is determined people will be able to return home or at least go to what is left of their homes. This really is a worst case scenario and this is what we try to practice.
tagesschau.de reports about slight damages to the Onagawa nuclear power plant (German), that is about 100 km North of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. A small amount of radioactive water was spilled from storage pools and other parts of the plant. Parts of the pressure control systems have been damaged, and there's currently only one energy source left to cool the plant. The plant has been in shut down mode since the March 11 quake, but cooling is still necessary to prevent fuel rods from overheating.
Let's hope they're repairing the plant before another aftershock strikes that might knock out the remaining power source or damage the plant any further.
In Fukushima Daiichi, there's apparently been no additional damage from the 7.4 quake (7.4 is apparently now the official evaluation of the strength of that quake).
Let's hope they're repairing the plant before another aftershock strikes that might knock out the remaining power source or damage the plant any further.
In Fukushima Daiichi, there's apparently been no additional damage from the 7.4 quake (7.4 is apparently now the official evaluation of the strength of that quake).
Here's the report by French company AREVA about the Fukushima Daiichi plant. AREVA manufactured the fuel elements for the plant, among other things.
Holy crap. tagesschau.de reports (German) that the severity level in the Fukushima Daiichi plant has been raised to 7 (the highest).
It also reports that the radiation emission has exceeded 10,000 TBq for several hours.
10,000 TBq is 10 PBq (peta-becquerel = 10 x 10^15 Bq). One Becquerel (Bq) is one radioactive decay per second. This means 10,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 quadrillion decays per second (on the short scale) for several hours.
---------- Post added at 10:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 AM ----------
No, it actually it says it has been estimated that this limit has been exceeded.
---------- Post added at 10:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------
The text has been edited out of the article ... it read:
"Before, Japanese media reported that the Atomic Energy Agency suspects that the amount of released radioactive material has exceeded the limit of 10,000 Terabecquerel for several hours."
It also reports that the radiation emission has exceeded 10,000 TBq for several hours.
10,000 TBq is 10 PBq (peta-becquerel = 10 x 10^15 Bq). One Becquerel (Bq) is one radioactive decay per second. This means 10,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 quadrillion decays per second (on the short scale) for several hours.
---------- Post added at 10:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 AM ----------
No, it actually it says it has been estimated that this limit has been exceeded.
---------- Post added at 10:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------
The text has been edited out of the article ... it read:
"Before, Japanese media reported that the Atomic Energy Agency suspects that the amount of released radioactive material has exceeded the limit of 10,000 Terabecquerel for several hours."
Attachments
NHK just reported 630,000 TBq (630 PBq) = 630,000,000,000,000,000 Bq (decays per second)
---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 AM ----------
Here's a link to an NHK article
(quoted in full to preserve text)
---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 AM ----------
With dosage conversion factors, the dosage levels of radiation for iodine-131 and cesium-137 would equal 8.19 GSv ( 8,190,000,000 Sv ).
If that would be real, half of Japan would already be dead ... these numbers are just insane!!
No idea how they were computed. Perhaps the statement "have been released from the plant" indicates that some values have simply been added up. However, the Becquerel is a unit of decay per second, so it includes a time component. Perhaps what they intended to do was to compute the number of total decays as opposed to decays per second. In that case, the Becquerel would be the wrong unit to represent these values.
If these numbers would represent current radiation levels, Japan would become uninhabitable within seconds ... this is just weird.
---------- Post added at 11:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 AM ----------
Here's a link to an NHK article
(quoted in full to preserve text)
---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 AM ----------
With dosage conversion factors, the dosage levels of radiation for iodine-131 and cesium-137 would equal 8.19 GSv ( 8,190,000,000 Sv ).
If that would be real, half of Japan would already be dead ... these numbers are just insane!!
No idea how they were computed. Perhaps the statement "have been released from the plant" indicates that some values have simply been added up. However, the Becquerel is a unit of decay per second, so it includes a time component. Perhaps what they intended to do was to compute the number of total decays as opposed to decays per second. In that case, the Becquerel would be the wrong unit to represent these values.
If these numbers would represent current radiation levels, Japan would become uninhabitable within seconds ... this is just weird.
around that area . i just hope that wouldnt effect the world
Skype interviews with people affected by the quake/tsunami (German/English)
it wasn't even the earthquake that did all the damage, it was a devastating tsunami that basically ended it all...