Huge blast at Japan nuclear power plant

[Drdeee]

Television pictures showed a massive blast at one of the buildings of the Fukushima-Daiichi plant, about 250km (160 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

A huge cloud of smoke billowed out and large bits of debris were flung far from the building.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), the plant's operator, said four workers had been injured.

The Japanese government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said the concrete building housing the plant's number one reactor had collapsed but the metal reactor container inside was not damaged.

He said radiation levels around the plant had fallen after the explosion.

Officials ordered the evacuation zone around the plant expanded from a 10km radius to 20km. BBC correspondent Nick Ravenscroft said police stopped him 60km from the Fukushima-Daiichi plant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219

Explosion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eofr1Js6nLg

I assume it's steam in the explosion, steam and concrete. Perhaps shaking caused rods to come closer to core, that cause temps to rise, cooling system could not keep up, and boom. Chernobyl happened during a test performed wrong, where rods were left in the core while cooling system was shut down. This could be similar to Chernobyl. Because of Earth's rotation, winds swirl in the Pacific and move towards west coast of United States and Canada. Potentially if nuclear disaster is big in Japan, North America could be affected. This could have effects on world food supply, since United States and Canada combined produce 14% of world's wheat.

 

[BigJimbo]

Chernobyl? Hardly. I have been around that site. Comparing the crumbling Soviet infrastructure to modern Japan shows me that you need to get a passport and travel. Ukraine's infrastructure would surprise many of you. The vast majority of people feel lucky when they get warm water! Japan, on the other hand, has a higher standard of living than America. It works. Things work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOVjXOBJBT8
There you go. Girls protesting the lack of hot water! Another reason why it is nice to be a foreigner with nice warm water! That is my form of pickup.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Chernobyl happened during a test performed wrong, where rods were left in the core while cooling system was shut down. This could be similar to Chernobyl.

It can't be similar to Chernobyl because the reactor designs are completely different. If this disaster shows anything it's that modern reactors are much safer. Chernobyl was a disaster waiting to happen from the very beginning thanks to the crappy design and then the test of said crappy design in a worst case scenario (most of the safety systems were disabled on purpose). Well, they saw the worst case scenario so the test was a success.

This could have effects on world food supply, since United States and Canada combined produce 14% of world's wheat.

This could also throw the earth off it's orbit and into the sun ending civilization, but that's not likely to happen. We should discuss realistic scenarios instead.

 

[Drdeee]

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has confirmed the meltdown.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110312D12JFF03.htm

"It is now certain Japan is experiencing a Chernobyl event. “At this point, events in Japan bear many similarities to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Reports indicate that up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) of the reactor fuel was exposed. The reactor fuel appears to have at least partially melted, and the subsequent explosion has shattered the walls and roof of the containment vessel – and likely the remaining useful parts of the control and coolant systems,”"
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110312-red-alert-nuclear-meltdown-quake-damaged-japanese-plant

“Given the large quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel in the pool, the radioactivity release could be worse than the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe of 25 years ago,” said Kevin Camps, a nuclear waste specialist.
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/2396

 

[Alle_Gory]

“Given the large quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel in the pool, the radioactivity release could be worse than the Chernobyl nuclear reactor catastrophe of 25 years ago,” said Kevin Camps, a nuclear waste specialist.
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/2396

Might want to remove this one. It's huntington news reporting on CNN reporting on the NISA reporting the actual news.

From the first link:

At a news conference Saturday night, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano discounted the possibility of a significant leak of radioactive material from the accident. "The walls of the building containing the reactor were destroyed, meaning that the metal container encasing the reactor did not explode," Edano said.

The amount of radiation detected inside the plant after 4:00 p.m. slightly exceeded the dose people can safely receive in a year, according to information obtained by the Fukushima prefectural government.

The No. 1 reactor shut down automatically soon after a massive earthquake hit the area Friday, but its emergency core cooling system failed to cool the reactor's core sufficiently.

It would seem there is plenty of conflicting statements to know for sure if there is any real problem. We'll know more once new information comes in.


Here's some old information from yesterday in Japan (March 12). The "explosion" caught on tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg4uogOEUrU

 

[horaholic]

Over hype from the media. Modern nuclear plants are made to be incredibly safe. Experts say that at MOST, it could be similar to three mile island, which wasnt as near as bad as people made it seem.

 

[horaholic]

Not that this isnt an incredibly scary situation, especially after watching the explosion video, but its safer than most people think.

 

[Marvin Gaye]

Sosuave, this is graphic of which is unknown whether to be valid or not, regarding potential nuclear fallout.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7007/nuclear.jpg

This source claims he following:

Japan Investigates Possible Nuclear Meltdown

Ryohei Shiomi said that officials were checking whether a meltdown had taken place at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant's Unit 1, which had lost cooling ability in the aftermath of Friday's powerful earthquake.

Shiomi said that even if there was a meltdown, it wouldn't affect humans beyond a 10-kilometre radius.

Regardless, we don't know if there is a meltdown or not yet:
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

Regarding rads and the effects:

The Effects of Nuclear Weapons U.S. Government Printing Office, May 1957

Expected Effects of Acute Whole-Body Radiation Doses Acute Dose (rads) Probable Effect

550 - 750 Vomiting and nausea in all personnel within 4 hours from exposure, followed by other symptoms of radiation sickness. Up to 100 percent deaths; few survivors convalescent for about 6 months.

Blogs and the like are calling this map a hoax, but there is no official word of it being a hoax as of this point. Also, these same blogs point out that while it may be a hoax, the map corresponding with the behavior of the Jet Stream (source).

 

[Drdeee]

^Doubt the map is real. First of weather first goes up and then towards west this time of year. Secondly it looks fakes.


As far as nuke reactor goes, a meltdown is a meltdown, be it Chernobyl be it 3 mile or whatever. It means 1) cleanup, 2) exclusion zones, 3) economic effects.

It was in the other post that I said yen was the most stable currency prior to quake. Now it's back to USD.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Sosuave, this is graphic of which is unknown whether to be valid or not, regarding potential nuclear fallout.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7007/nuclear.jpg

It's not valid. 1. Radioactive particles don't just magically float up to the upper atmosphere to get to the jetstream. Do you have any idea how high up in the atmosphere the jetstream is? At least 7 kilometers up.

2. Why does the map have logos all over it? If this was "leaked" from a presentation, do you think they stamp their logos over every single item of said presentation?

They're trying too hard to make it look legit with logos and no real information on top of it other than a crappy legend that doesn't explain anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

The strongest jet streams are the polar jets, at around 7–12 km (23,000–39,000 ft) above sea level, and the higher and somewhat weaker subtropical jets at around 10–16 km (33,000–52,000 ft). The northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere each have both a polar jet and a subtropical jet. The northern hemisphere polar jet flows over the middle to northern latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia and their intervening oceans, while the southern hemisphere polar jet mostly circles Antarctica all year round.