Earthquake Japan

[Jim Goose]

Cheap speak for yourself.... as your the one who has turned this into a nuclear power is safe for everyone soap box.
Your the one who has turned tried to turn this into a left wing/ right wing discussion...

Media outlets all over the world are reporting that a 3rd reactor is now having cooling issues.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...00733720110314

Nuclear fuel rods fully exposed at Japan reactor - Jiji

Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
9501.T
¥1,621
-500.00-23.57%
03/14/2011

TOKYO, March 14 | Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:00am EDT

TOKYO, March 14 (Reuters) - Nuclear fuel rods at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear reactor are now fully exposed, Jiji news agency said, quoting the plant's operator, Tokyo Eletcric Power Co .

The report referred to the Fukushima Daiichi complex's No.2 reactor, where levels of water coolant around the reactor core had been reported as falling earlier in the day.

The Jiji report said a meltdown of the fuel rods could not be ruled out. A meltdown raises the risk of damage to the reactor vessel and a possible radioactive leak, experts say. (Editing by Mark Bendeich)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226021487299

Oh my, even fox news, is reporting the same thing!!
It MUST BE left wing media hype then who has infiltrated FOX!

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03...an-nuke-plant/

SOMA, Japan -- The fuel rods in all three of the most troubled Japanese nuclear reactors -- each of which lost its cooling system in Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami -- appear to be melting, the nation's chief government spokesman said Monday.

"Although we cannot directly check it, it's highly likely happening," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

Water levels dropped precipitously Monday inside a stricken Japanese nuclear reactor, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a meltdown, hours after a hydrogen explosion tore through the building housing a different reactor.

Water levels were restored after the first decrease but the rods remained exposed late Monday night after the second episode, increasing the risk of the spread of radiation and the potential for an eventual meltdown.

The cascading troubles in the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant compounded the immense challenges faced by the Tokyo government, already struggling to send relief to hundreds of thousands of people along the country's quake- and tsunami-ravaged coast where at least 10,000 people are believed to have died.

March 12: This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan underway in the Pacific Ocean en route to Japan to render humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

March 12: This image provided by the U.S. Navy shows the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan underway in the Pacific Ocean en route to Japan to render humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Of all these troubles, the drop in water levels at Unit 2 had officials the most worried.

"Units 1 and 3 are at least somewhat stabilized for the time being," said Nuclear and Industrial Agency official Ryohei Shiomi "Unit 2 now requires all our effort and attention."

Workers managed to raise water levels after the second drop Monday night, but they began falling for a third time, according to nuclear agency official Naoki Kumagai. They are now considering spraying water directly on container to cool it. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Japanese goverment has asked the agency to send experts to help.

In some ways, the explosion at Unit 3 was not as dire as it might seem.

The blast actually lessened pressure building inside the troubled reactor, and officials said the all-important containment shell -- thick concrete armor around the reactor -- had not been damaged. In addition, officials said radiation levels remained within legal limits, though anyone left within 12 miles of the scene was ordered to remain indoors.

"We have no evidence of harmful radiation exposure," deputy Cabinet secretary Noriyuki Shikata told reporters.

On Saturday, a similar hydrogen blast destroyed the housing around the complex's Unit 1 reactor, leaving the shell intact but resulting in the mass evacuation of more than 185,000 people from the area.

So the worst case scenario still hung over the complex, and officials were clearly struggling to keep ahead of the crisis.

Some experts would consider the apparent melting of the fuel rods to be a partial meltdown. Others, though, reserve that term for times when nuclear fuel melts through a reactor's innermost chamber but not through the outer containment shell.

Officials held out the possibility that, too, may be happening.

"It's impossible to say whether there has or has not been damage" to the vessels, nuclear agency official Naoki Kumagai said.

If a complete reactor meltdown -- where the uranium core melts through the outer containment shell -- were to occur, a wave of radiation would be released, resulting in major, widespread health problems.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-of-tokyo.html

Tokyo Electric Power Co. engineers tried to stabilize three nuclear reactors damaged by the biggest earthquake in Japan’s history after the plant was struck by a second explosion and as water levels dropped at one reactor, exposing fuel rods and increasing the threat of a meltdown.

The cooling system failed at the Dai-Ichi No. 2 reactor today, said Tokyo Electric, which runs the Fukushima nuclear plant 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of the nation’s capital. Fuel rods at the reactor may have melted after becoming fully exposed, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

A hydrogen explosion occurred at the No. 3 reactor today, following a similar blast on March 12 at the No. 1 reactor that destroyed the walls of its building. The utility has been flooding the three reactors with water and boric acid to reduce the potential for a large release of radiation into the atmosphere following the March 11 earthquake-generated tsunami that smashed into the plant, disabling electricity supply and backup generators.

“They are managing the situation, they have very qualified personnel there,” Gennady Pshakin, a nuclear expert based in Obninsk, Russia, said by telephone. “We will have a week or 10 days of this uncertainty, but the situation should normalize. What we need is for the water supply to be constant.”
Radiation Concerns

U.S Navy ships and planes involved in earthquake rescue efforts were moved after radiation was detected on three helicopters.

“Low level radioactivity” was detected on 17 air crew members when they returned to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier operating about 100 miles northeast from the plant, Navy spokesman Jeff Davis said in an e-mail.

Japanese officials yesterday evacuated more than 200,000 people and handed out iodine, used to protect the thyroid from radioactivity, as they extended an exclusion zone around the plant to 20 kilometers.

Winds in the area of the Fukushima plant are blowing at less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) per hour generally in a northeasterly and northerly direction, according to a 9 a.m. update from the Japan Meteorological Agency today.
Core Intact

The vessel containing the No. 3 reactor’s radioactive core is intact after today’s blast, Edano said. The likelihood of a large radiation leak is very small, even as radiation levels at the No. 3 reactor are rising, said Edano, the government’s spokesman.

Tepco, as Asia’s biggest utility is known, said at least four employees and two contractors were injured in the blast. The company’s shares slumped 24 percent.

There are six boiling-water reactors at the Fukushima Dai- Ichi plant, three of which were shut for maintenance before the earthquake.

Unit No. 1 is a General Electric Co. (GE) model that can generate 439 megawatts of power and began commercial operation in 1971, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The No. 2 reactor was built by GE Toshiba and the No. 3 by Toshiba Corp.

Tokyo Electric said the sea water used to cool the two reactors is being retained at the plant. “We will look into what we will do about the water,” spokesman Shogo Fukuda said by telephone today.

Flooding the reactors with sea water renders them useless for future power production.

The disaster at Fukushima isn’t the first quake-related accident for Tokyo Electric.

A 6.8-magnitude temblor on July 16, 2007, caused a fire and radiation leaks that shut down the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s biggest. It took almost two years to restart.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at yokada6@bloomberg.net; Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net

Must world wide conspiracy....

[Jim Goose]

http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/87973.php

Fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant were fully exposed Monday, following Friday's deadly earthquake, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. The plant operator said water levels fell as fuel for pumps that are used for seawater injection operations ran out. Tokyo Electric earlier said the cooling functions of the reactor had been lost and began injecting seawater into the reactor to cool it down.

Straight from TEPCOS own web site:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp...1031403-e.html
Press Release (Mar 14,2011)

Occurrence of a Specific Incident (Failure of reactor cooling function) Stipulated in Article 15, Clause 1 of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness


At 2:46PM on March 11th 2011, the turbines and reactors of Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 (Boiling Water Reactor, rated output
460 Megawatts) and Units 2 and 3 (Boiling Water Reactor, Rated Output 784
Megawatts) that had been operating at rated power automatically shutdown
due to the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyou-Oki Earthquake.
(previously announced)

In response, water injection into Unit 2's reactor were being carried out
by the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System. However, as the Reactor Core
Isolation Cooling System failed today, it was determined that a specific
incident (failure of reactor cooling function) stipulated in article 15,
clause 1 has occurred at 1:25 pm today.

The Failure of the cooling system NO2 happened 3 days ago, its only being reported now..... This means that 3 reactor cooling systems have failed... WHERE IS THE HYPE?????

[zdcol71]

Maybe now that everyone has learned how to cut and copy links of websites, and turned into well informed media analysts, this thread may have run its course??

[cheap]

Jim,

When compared to the media releases from NISA (you provided the NISA link), there is a huge gap between NISA reporting and the sensationalist media reporting. The most recent NISA report has a detailed timeline of events, this is more accurate than media reports, you have read the NISA reports, haven't you?

NISA, the nuclear industry and the Japanese Government are accountable for this accident. If it was discovered that this group lied, then it would be all over for the nuclear industry. However the sensational media outlets are not accountable to anyone.

You state that I "turned this into a nuclear power is safe for everyone soap box". In light of the sensational media reporting, I felt it important to explain the various safeguards within a nuclear power station. Simply relaying media stories presents the forum with a one sided view and there was also the risk of uninformed and inaccurate information being allowed to manifest upon the forum readers.

Perhaps you haven't had a chance to read the link: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/1...e-explanation/ this explains in simple terms what has occurred, what is happening and why the risks of radiation leak are minor. I would urge you to have a read and then go back and gap analysis between the sensational media reports and NISA.

If however you have a problem with the inaccuracy of the information provided, please specify which part is wrong and we can have an informed discussion.

[zdcol71]

Obviously not.

[scoupedy]

Forget the nuclear problem Japan needs our help and support not Rudd demanding answers and everyone here worried about nuclear fallout...
The japanese have been forthwright with information and the containment vessels seam to be intact.
The danger these create is minimal compaired to desease, hunger and cold that threaten the displaced population.
Chernobel was a 7 these are a 4/7 you can visit chernobel today as a tourist (for only an hour) Kiev a major city is only an hour away.

My thoughts are with the incredible Japanese people struggling just to sleep through the night

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by cheap

Jim,

When compared to the media releases from NISA (you provided the NISA link), there is a huge gap between NISA reporting and the sensationalist media reporting. The most recent NISA report has a detailed timeline of events, this is more accurate than media reports, you have read the NISA reports, haven't you?

NISA, the nuclear industry and the Japanese Government are accountable for this accident. If it was discovered that this group lied, then it would be all over for the nuclear industry. However the sensational media outlets are not accountable to anyone.

You state that I "turned this into a nuclear power is safe for everyone soap box". In light of the sensational media reporting, I felt it important to explain the various safeguards within a nuclear power station. Simply relaying media stories presents the forum with a one sided view and there was also the risk of uninformed and inaccurate information being allowed to manifest upon the forum readers.

Perhaps you haven't had a chance to read the link: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/1...e-explanation/ this explains in simple terms what has occurred, what is happening and why the risks of radiation leak are minor. I would urge you to have a read and then go back and gap analysis between the sensational media reports and NISA.

If however you have a problem with the inaccuracy of the information provided, please specify which part is wrong and we can have an informed discussion.

Clearly you havent even bothered to respond to what i have said.
Why should i respond to you??

You said i was providing links from LEFT WING MEDIA.... I showed YOU that media from around the world is reporting the same thing.
I AM NOT the person who is reporting it.
A news report about a 3rd reactor with cooling issues was met with a single worded responce from another member "HYPE"
I have asked WHERE IS THE HYPE?

the 3rd reactor having cooling issues was factual.
the 3rd reactor has today (hydrogen) exploded.
this is what the media is reporting.
they are getting this from official Japanese media releases.

If they add "possibilities" of what may occur if there is a melt down then where is the issue?

just because the lunatic fringe make comments about nuclear saftey has nothing to do with what is happening.

I have NOT ONCE given my opinion on nuclear power plant safety etc... yet you seem to dish out idiotic personal jibes because all im doing is cutting and pasting actual news reports.

if you want the thread locked goody, your going about it the right way by turning into a slanging match.

[galaxy xr8]

I think cheap has given us some very good reading material, people should look outside the square and not be lead to believe what is fed to us by people who want us to read what they profit from.
Keep up the good work cheap.

[cheap]

Jim, the recent "explosion" which you refer to was reported in a clear concise manner without sensation on the NISA website. I would urge you to check the timeline of events from the NISA website.

Unfortunately it appears that the media organizations even with all their resources, they are for some reason several hours/days behind the reporting of events. It is because of this miss-reporting there is a perception of the media wanting to maintain a nuclear crisis situation (Hype).

There are already media reports of non-existent radiation fallout spreading across the Pacific and into the USA too. Just wait till the Australian media gets their hands on this lie.

Of course it is entirely your decision as to what you want to post up on the forum. It is entirely your choice as to what you want to use as a source of "truth".

Likewise, it is entirely the forum readers decision if they want to rely on media links as a source of "truth" or to use NISA as a source of "truth" or something else.

Have a nice day.

[xy500]

Won't someone please think of the supermoon!

[blueoval]

CNN reports a fire has broken out in a forth reactor. I hope to hell this is 'hype' too.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/14...o-help/?hpt=T1

[xy500]

hey, i've an idea, lets all freak out about nuclear energy! yay!

[cheap]

Originally Posted by blueoval

CNN reports a fire has broken out in a forth reactor. I hope to hell this is 'hype' too.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/14...o-help/?hpt=T1

Considering there are 6 reactors at the Fukushima facility and explosions have already occured with reactors 1, 2 and 3. Whilst reactors 4, 5 and 6 are shutdown "periodic inspection outage". I'm wondering which reactor experienced this latest incident?

Perhaps a band of nasty pixie fairies have awoken reactor 4 from its sleep?

[pulpist]

The Nikkei just plummeted, rough times ahead.

[pulpist]

Originally Posted by blueoval

CNN reports a fire has broken out in a forth reactor. I hope to hell this is 'hype' too.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/14...o-help/?hpt=T1

Fire was oil from a damaged motor (pump?) and is under control. JSDF and US military fire-fighters are cooling the pool.

You'll have to translate...

http://www.nikkei.com/news/latest/ar...E3E2E2E2E2E2E2

[pulpist]

Geiger-counter-Tokyo

[blueoval]

Thanks guys, yes the fire is out now. Still seems like an uphill battle to contain cooling temps to these reactors.

[Geez Louise]

It is going to take Japan along time to recover from this. The most concerning things I have read (apart from the Nuclear issues) is that people have not been able to get food or clean water since this happened.

Yes it will take a long time to fix, but without food and clean water, there are more issues yet to come, that they have to face.

[TheSneakiness]

Originally Posted by pulpist

Fire was oil from a damaged motor (pump?) and is under control. JSDF and US military fire-fighters are cooling the pool.

You'll have to translate...

http://www.nikkei.com/news/latest/ar...E3E2E2E2E2E2E2

Anyone using Google Chrome, a popup will ask if you want to translate into English.

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by zdcol71

Obviously not.

Its called a chain reaction. Happens to all things nuclear.

[xy500]

nice to know amongst other professions we have nuclear physicists present at ford forums

[Jim Goose]

More media hype...

Even the Japanese Prime Minister is in on it too....
Going on about dangerous radiation levels after 2 explosions today....
Radiation which has now reached Tokyo some 200km away...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...15/3164595.htm

Nuke plant blasts raise radiation threat

Updated 1 hour 11 minutes ago

PreviousNextSlideshow: Photo 1 of 3
Tens of thousands have already been evacuated from around the plant.

Tens of thousands have already been evacuated from around the plant. (Reuters: Kim Kyung Hoon)



The Japanese government says radiation levels near a quake-stricken nuclear power plant are now harmful to human health, after a further two explosions and a fire at the facility.

"There is no doubt that unlike in the past, the figures are the level at which human health can be affected," said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano.

He says radiation levels at the nuclear plant have reached as high as 400 milisieverts an hour, thousands of times higher than readings taken before the latest blasts.

Mr Edano says radiation levels as at 10.22am (local time) were 30 millisieverts between the No. 2 and the No. 3 reactors, 400 millisieverts near No. 3 and 100 millisieverts near No. 4.

Earlier prime minister Naoto Kan warned the risk of more radioactive leakage was rising and urged people living within 30 kilometres of the plant to take safety precautions.

"Depending on what happens at the power plant we would like to ask you to remain indoors at your home or in your offices," he said.

"We would like to ask you to remain indoors and avoid going outside."

Kyodo says "minute levels" of radiation have been detected in Tokyo, quoting the metropolitan government, and radiation levels in Saitama, near Tokyo, were 40 times normal levels, quoting the local government.

"We don't consider it to be at a level where the human body is affected," said Sairi Koga, an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Radiation levels in Kanagawa prefecture, west of Tokyo, were also briefly up to nine times the normal level, Kyodo reported, quoting the prefecture government.

But the news agency says it is not immediately clear if the detections are related to the quake-damaged nuclear plant.

A single dose of 1,000 millisieverts - or one sievert - causes temporary radiation sickness such as nausea and vomiting, according to the World Nuclear Association.

A dose of 5,000 millisieverts would kill about half those receiving it within a month.

Tens of thousands have already been evacuated within a 20 kilometre radius around the Fukushima No. 1 plant, 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.

Mr Edano says an explosion at the No. 4 reactor, which contains spent fuel rods, was caused by a build-up of hydrogen.

"Spent nuclear fuel in the reactor heated up, creating hydrogen and triggered a hydrogen explosion," he said.

Mr Edano says radioactive substances were leaked along with the hydrogen. Prior to the explosion the reactor was on fire.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that the fire at the reactor, reportedly now extinguished, was in the reactor's spent fuel pond.

The government also reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the No. 2 reactor, but it was unclear whether this resulted from the blast.

Mr Edano says "damage appears on the suppression pool" - the bottom part of the container that contains water used to cool the reactor and control air pressure inside.

Similar hydrogen blasts had hit the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors on Saturday and Monday.

Buildings housing four of the six reactors at the plant, which opened in 1971, have now been hit by explosions.

Mr Edano says sea water is currently being pumped into reactors 1, 2 and 3 - all of which have experienced overheating - and pressure levels at these reactors were stable.

Officials have not reported the kind of radiation leakage that would accompany a major meltdown.

The French embassy in the capital warned in an advisory that a low level of radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within 10 hours.

However, a Japanese Meteorological Agency official says winds over the nuclear plant are blowing slowly in a south-westerly direction that includes Tokyo, but will shift westerly later on Tuesday.

Japan has already asked the UN atomic watchdog to send a team of experts to help stave off a nuclear emergency following the massive quake and tsunami.

The nuclear crisis comes as Japan struggles to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, which are feared to have killed more than 10,000 people.

-AFP/Reuters

[shedcoupe]

The problem in #4 was/is that the old stored fuel rods seemed to have dried out and ignited, and have now apparently been extinguished.
The used rods (which are now 'hot' in both the thermal and radiation senses) from the last 40 years are stored beside the reactors in pools, which is sorta sensible and sorta dumb, depending on your views.
There are some garbage maps going around the web showing the jetstream carrying fallout to the US, but even an uncontained complete-core-melt plume is unlikely to get above 3 km in altitude.
Those guys who remain onsite are brave and probably doomed to die miserably.
Hopefully the wind stays in the west for a while.
I once met a secretary who lived east of Tokyo with her family on the 12th floor of a 22-story block. She stood up in the train for an hour and a half each way into Tokyo. She will be worried tonight, and with good reason.

[Jim Goose]

Reports now that another 2 reactors no 5 and 6 and also having cooling problems.....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...15/3164827.htm

More nuclear reactors show signs of trouble

Updated 28 minutes ago



Two more reactors at the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have lost cooling functions as the plant's operators struggle to contain what threatens to become a meltdown.

Radiation levels rose to harmful levels at the facility earlier today following two reactor blasts and a fire at a spent fuel storage pond.

But government spokesman Yukio Edano says radiation levels have since fallen at the plant, 250 kilometres north-east of the capital Tokyo.

"This high level of radiation is just temporarily reading so in the long run it is not particularly dangerous and the reading is now getting lower," he said.

"We don't need to worry about this reading at the moment."

Mr Edano says the earlier high reading could have been caused by rubble from Monday's explosion at one reactor rather than from any continuing leak.

But he says cooling of the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors now appears not to be working properly, with slight rises in temperature recorded.

Explosions at the four other reactors at the plant followed the losses of their cooling systems after Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.

A TEPCO official has told Kyodo that water in the pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods at the No. 4 reactor that caught fire this morning may be boiling, causing the water level to drop.

Mr Edano says today's explosion at the No. 4 reactor was caused by a build-up of hydrogen.

"Spent nuclear fuel in the reactor heated up, creating hydrogen and triggered a hydrogen explosion," he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says the fire at the reactor's spent-fuel pond has been extinguished.

The director of Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency, Toshiro Bannai, warns reactors No. 5 and No. 6 are at risk of the same problems with their spent-fuel pools.

He says the temperature in the No. 4 pool more than doubled from its regular temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius.

"The alloy of the spent fuel, made from Zirconium alloy, these metals react with water when its temperature rises up to [about] 100 degrees [Celsius] to produce hydrogen," he said.

"The pools temperature is maybe 30-40 degrees [normally], it's not a high temperature ... but we need some cooling systems because spent fuel has a power of heat."

The government reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the No. 2 reactor following a blast there earlier today. However, it was unclear whether the damage was caused by the blast.

Similar hydrogen blasts hit the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors on Saturday and Monday.

Radiation levels reached as high as 400 milisieverts an hour at the plant earlier today, thousands of times higher than readings taken before the latest blasts.

The level of radiation in Tokyo also rose above normal levels in the morning due to radiation emitted from the nuclear power plant but has now also fallen.

"We monitored a higher than normal amount of radiation in the morning in Tokyo but we don't consider it to be at a level where the human body is affected," said Sairi Koga, an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

He says the level fell from an average 0.809 micro-sieverts between 10:00am and 11:00am (local time) to 0.075 micro-sieverts four hours later.

Trouble at the nuclear plant has sparked a rout on the stock market and panic buying in supermarkets.

Japan is struggling to cope with the enormity of the damage from Friday's record quake and the tsunami that raced across vast tracts of its north-east, destroying all before it.

The official death rose to 2,414, according to police, but officials warn at least 10,000 people are likely to have perished.

-AFP/Reuters

[shedcoupe]

Radiation going down according to IAEA - "The Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that the following radiation dose rates have been observed on site at the main gate of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

.... on the 15 March a dose rate of 11.9 millisieverts (mSv) per hour was observed. Six hours later ... a dose rate of 0.6 millisieverts (mSv) per hour was observed.

These observations indicate that the level of radioactivity has been decreasing at the site.

As reported earlier, a 400 millisieverts (mSv) per hour radiation dose observed at Fukushima Daiichi occurred between units 3 and 4. This is a high dose-level value, but it is a local value at a single location and at a certain point in time. The IAEA continues to confirm the evolution and value of this dose rate. It should be noted that because of this detected value, non-indispensible staff was evacuated from the plant, in line with the Emergency Response Plan ....."

So looking better. Report of a 6.2 quake now though.

[shedcoupe]

And if you really wanna know what the dose rate is in Tokyo, here's a live Geiger counter - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/geiger-counter-tokyo

note - 322 cpm = 1 mSv / h

1 mSv = about 4 months natural radiation.
A chest x-ray can be from 0.1 mSv to 10 mSv.

[FG XR]

Japan rated 6 out of 7 at the moment for nuclear meltdown scale. To give you an idea..... Chernobyl was 7 out of 7.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Nitro XR6

Japan rated 6 out of 7 at the moment for nuclear meltdown scale. To give you an idea..... Chernobyl was 7 out of 7.

You sure?

When I read up on the 'scales' of this event a few days ago the scale was from 1-10, the current situation (at that time) was a level 4. Chernobyl was rated at 7 as well in that article.

Edit:

Ok, seems 7 is the highest rating.

Japan maintains they are at level 4, France has bumped them up to 6 it seems???

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...16/3164949.htm

Japan's nuclear safety agency is maintaining its level four rating of the accident at the country's Fukushima nuclear plant, despite France's watchdog upgrading the situation to a level six - placing it second to Chernobyl as the world's worst nuclear disaster.

[FG XR]

Yeah that's right

[Flaming Mo]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

You said i was providing links from LEFT WING MEDIA.... I showed YOU that media from around the world is reporting the same thing.
I AM NOT the person who is reporting it.
A news report about a 3rd reactor with cooling issues was met with a single worded responce from another member "HYPE"
I have asked WHERE IS THE HYPE!

I think some hype lies in the fact that despite perhaps tens of thousands dead, towns destroyed, survivors with no food and water and the developing humanitarian crisis, the front page of every major global newspaper (and the content of this thread) is fixated on a nuclear power plant that appears to have killed no-one and may never will.

Even if the plant goes up Chernobyl style (which it won’t), the resulting casualties would be a fraction when compared to what has happened and to what is still going on. I agree the nuclear reactor is a serious issue and part of the story, but the media and consequently the public have confused it for THE story. Unfortunately the media are diverting the world’s attention from the real emergency.

The content of the news articles regarding the nuclear plant may not be hype, but I think the airtime and countless pages devoted to it, at the sacrifice of the real trauma is.

Despite what you think of Andrew Bolt, the man makes a point.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion-...-1226022037307