Talking to my friend in Japan right now, she's translating the live news for me
Another Tsunami warning, be prepare to evacuate at anytime and the nuclear rector is showing signs of melting, cesium is detected.
"Japanese nuclear authorities said Saturday afternoon the Fukushima Daiichi No. 1 nuclear reactor 240 kilometers north of Tokyo may be experiencing a meltdown after Friday's massive earthquake damaged the cooling system."
"TOKYO (Kyodo)--Radiation rose to an unusually high level in and near Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant Saturday following the powerful earthquake that hit northern Japan the previous day, the nuclear safety agency said, making it the first case of an external leak of radioactive material since the disaster.
Residents evacuated from the vicinity of the Fukushima No. 1 plant.While the agency denied the radiation amount will pose an immediate threat to the health of nearby residents, the impact of the quake appeared to widen as the agency added the area close to the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant as a zone that requires evacuation.
Given the adjacent No. 2 plant also has quake-triggered malfunctions, the operator of the two plants in Fukushima Prefecture released pressure in containers housing their reactors under an unprecedented government order, so as to prevent the plants from sustaining damage and losing their critical containment function.
But the action would involve the release of steam that would likely include radioactive materials.
The amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level in the control room of the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
The agency also said radiation has been measured at more than eight times the normal level near the main gate of the plant.
The authorities expanded the evacuation area for residents in the vicinity of the No. 1 plant from a 3-kilometer radius to 10 km on the orders of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who visited the facility.
The government also declared that the Fukushima No. 2 plant is under a state of atomic-power emergency, in addition to the No. 1 plant, and expanded the evacuation area to include the vicinity of the No. 2 plant.
The instruction covers residents living in a radius of 3 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 2 plant. Those living in a radius of 3-10 kilometers of the plant have been advised to stay inside.
"
Uh-oh, meltdown and huge explosion at nuclear plant :( Is it wise to build such reactors in earthquake-prone areas?
jester
quote:
Originally posted by The Potter
Uh-oh, meltdown and huge explosion at nuclear plant :( Is it wise to build such reactors in earthquake-prone areas?
:nervous: :nervous: :nervous:
Now I am waiting for Mt. Fuji to wake up.
VDub
quote:
Originally posted by ChemEnhanced
clean up in aisle six, seven, eight, nine....
Fixed
VDub
I was reading that a melt down in Japan would not be anywhere close to a Cherbobyl...
They said that Chernobyl had weapons grade nuclear material and they had minimal containment as opposed to Japan's reactor...
I hope this is all true...
E2EK1EL
TOKYO (Kyodo)--Japanese authorities have confirmed there was an explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant Saturday afternoon but it did not occur at its troubled No. 1 reactor, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said.
The chief Cabinet secretary also told an urgent press conference that the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has confirmed there is no damage to the steel container housing the reactor.
Edano said the 3:36 p.m. explosion resulted in the roof and the walls of the building housing the reactor's container being blown away.
The authorities expanded an evacuation area for all local residents from a 10-kilometer radius of the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 plants to a 20-km radius.
Officials of Japan's nuclear safety agency also said after examination that they believe there has been no serious damage to the container of the No. 1 reactor, judging from the latest radiation data monitored around the facility.
The incident came after the plant lost its cooling functions after it was jolted by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake Friday and radioactive substances of cesium and iodine were detected near the facility Saturday.
The detection of the materials, which are created following atomic fission, led Japan's nuclear safety agency to admit the reactor has been partially melting -- the first such case in Japan.
A partial core meltdown also occurred in a major nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979. About 45 percent of nuclear fuel was melted in the incident, causing radioactive materials to be released.
According to the Fukushima prefectural government, the hourly radiation from the Fukushima plant reached 1,015 micro sievert in its premises before the explosion, an amount equivalent to that allowable for ordinary people in one year.
Four workers -- two from the company and two others from another firm -- were injured in the explosion, according to Tokyo Electric Power. The four were working to deal with problems caused by a powerful earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on Friday, it said.
The company said the injuries the four have suffered are not life-threatening and that they are conscious.
The operator of the quake-hit nuclear plants in Fukushima Prefecture, successfully released pressure in the container of housing one of its reactors to prevent a nuclear meltdown, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
Even before Tokyo Electric Power succeeded in reducing the pressure, which would involve the release of steam that would likely include radioactive materials, radiation had risen to an unusually high level in and near the No. 1 nuclear plant.
Work to depressurize the containers, aimed at preventing the plants from sustaining damage and losing their critical containment function, has been conducted under an unprecedented government order.
The agency said the core at the No. 1 reactor of the No. 1 plant may be partially melting, and the work to depressurize the container was necessary to prevent the container from sustaining damage and losing its critical containment function.
The agency said that as a result of reducing the container's pressure radioactive levels at the plant went up. The depressurizing work involves the release of steam including radioactive materials.
But the agency denied that the radiation amount will pose an immediate threat to the health of nearby residents, as wind is currently blowing toward the sea in the northeastern Japan prefecture on the Pacific coast.
At the No. 1 plant, the amount of radiation reached around 1,000 times the normal level in the control room of the No. 1 reactor, and 70 times the normal level near the main gate of the plant.
It was the first time an external radioactive leak had been confirmed since the disaster
3 people have affected by radiation from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (9501) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japanese media reported Saturday.
However, Kyodo News cited Fukushima Prefecture as saying that because the radiation was detected on their clothes, there was no immediate need to decontaminate the three people who were evacuated from within a three mile radius around the plant.
FunkyCrew
they will deny all the way through
this is exactly what the authorities did back in 1986 - if it wasn't for grandpa and his KGB connections, we wouldn't have known anything
:(
E2EK1EL
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) said Saturday afternoon the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could only have been caused by a meltdown of the reactor core.
The same day, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), which runs the plant, began to flood the damaged reactor with seawater to cool it down, resorting to measures that could rust the reactor and force the utility to scrap it.
Cesium and iodine, by-products of nuclear fission, were detected around the plant, which would make the explosion the worst accident in the roughly 50-year history of Japanese nuclear power generation.
An explosion was heard near the plant's No. 1 reactor about 3:30 p.m. and plumes of white smoke went up 10 minutes later. The ceiling of the building housing the reactor collapsed, according to information obtained by Fukushima prefectural authorities.
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.
NISA is affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
E2EK1EL
quote:
Originally posted by VDub
I was reading that a melt down in Japan would not be anywhere close to a Cherbobyl...
They said that Chernobyl had weapons grade nuclear material and they had minimal containment as opposed to Japan's reactor...
I hope this is all true...
I was watching this last night.
E2EK1EL
Sorry for the autoplay guys
"Thanks to Russia for helping out Japan, it's good to see the two countries put a side their differences, politics and childish bull, when the call for help is needed."
srussell0018
I've never been more ashamed to be American. :( :mad:
jester
quote:
Originally posted by E2EK1EL
"Thanks to Russia for helping out Japan, it's good to see the two countries put a side their differences, politics and childish bull, when the call for help is needed."
China sets aside disputes, offers help
quote:
The earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan may help temporarily ease Japan's strained relations with China, allowing the two Asian rivals for the moment to look past lingering territorial, economic, military and historic disputes.
When news of the disaster first spread Friday, Chinese leaders were quick to offer condolences and support. China is also earthquake-prone -- a deadly 5.8-magnitude tremor just hit southwestern Yunnan province Thursday -- and officials here immediately put a trained rescue team in place to dispatch to Japan if needed.
The Chinese defense minister, Liang Guanglie, called his Japanese counterpart, Toshimi Kitazawa, to offer military assets. The Chinese Red Cross Society pledged 1 million yuan, or about $152,087, to help Japan. Premier Wen Jiabao also had a telephone conversation Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and offered China's condolences and help.
China's rapid show of sympathy and solidarity toward an Asian neighbor in distress stands in sharp contrast to the heated rhetoric of the last half-year, which saw noisy anti-Japanese demonstrations in some cities and the canceling of some ministry-level exchanges and tour groups.
After the earthquake, officially sanctioned editorials -- which are regularly used to whip up anti-Japanese sentiment -- were instead talking about shared pain, and what China can learn from Japan's rapid and orderly response to the disaster.
An unsigned commentary Saturday from Xinhua, the official state-run news agency, recalled how Japan assisted China after a deadly earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008, with many ordinary Japanese lining up to make donations and a Japanese rescue team helping recover victims.
"The willingness and readiness to help each other is just a natural reflection of the time-honored friendly bond between the two neighboring Oriental civilizations," the commentary said. "The virtue of returning the favor after receiving one runs in the bloods of both nations."
Relations between the two Asian powers have long been strained, but reached a new low last September when a Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels around a small chain of disputed, Japanese-administered islands known as the Senkaku to the Japanese and the Diaoyu to the Chinese.
Japan briefly detained the Chinese trawler's captain and threatened to put him on trial, and China responded by blocking its exports to Japan of crucial rare earth metals used in the high-tech industry. The block on rare earth metals was widely interpreted as a de facto trade embargo imposed by Beijing, prompting Japan, the United States and other countries to scramble for alternatives to China's rare earth metals.
At the height of the fishing trawler incident last year, the Global Times newspaper - owned by the Communist Party's main mouthpiece, People's Daily, and typically giving voice to the party line - wrote a series of increasing vitriolic editorials calling for Japan to be punished.
"Now is the time to seriously examine Japan," one typical September editorial said. "It should be apparent by now that China will be forced to endure long-term conflicts with Japan, and emphasizing only friendly relations is not prudent. In addition, China needs to be certain of Japan's soft spots for clearly targeted reactions." It added, "The pain has to be piercing."
Japan has also been deeply concerned about China's growing military spending, with Beijing's Communist rulers earlier this month announcing a 12.7 percent rise in the defense budget for 2011. And China's growing economic clout has led to fears that Beijing is becoming increasingly assertive in pressing its territorial claims in the region. China officially surpassed Japan this year as the world's second largest economy, behind the U.S.
China, for its part, feels that Japan has never shown sufficient contrition for atrocities committed by the Imperial Army during World War II, including a massacre at Nanjing where the two sides continue to dispute the number of victims.
Since 1980, when Deng Xiaoping began China's market reforms and opening to the world, Japan has provided financial aid to China to help alleviate poverty. Many in China saw the aid money as de facto compensation for past Japanese war crimes. But when official figures this year showed China's economy is now larger than Japan's in GDP terms, some in Japan have said the aid is no longer needed -- creating another potential sore point between the two countries.
With the earthquake, Chinese leaders are also looking to how Japan deals with damage to its nuclear reactors, as China is set to embark on its own nuclear power plant expansion in the coming years.
Zhang Lijun, China's vice-minister of environmental protection, said China is "keeping a close eye" on the leakage at two of Japan's nuclear facilities. He spoke before an explosion Saturday destroyed part of a nuclear facility at Fukushima.
"Some lessons we learn from Japan will be considered in the making of China's nuclear power plans," he said. "But China will not change its determination and plan for developing nuclear power."
China now has 13 nuclear facilities, with plans for 34 others; 26 of those are already under construction, according to several published Chinese media reports.
