Japanese Quake and tsunami

Some of those pumps can fill an olympic sized swimming pool in seconds.

Since discussions of radiation and contamination release have been escallating I wanted to put out some information on it for those interested:

Nuclear radiation as normally understood consists of alpha, beta and gamma, although technically alpha and beta are particles not radiation. There is also the neutron but those were dealt with by ealier posts.

An alpha particle is an ionised (electrically charged) helium nucleus. it has a very short range except in a vacuum. An alpha emitter is a substance that emits alpha particles. The danger from alpha particles start when the substance enters the body on a form that is biologically mobile.

Biologically the worst alpha emitter is tritium which is a hydrogen isotope; it goes wherever hydrogen goes and does whatever it does chemically, so it can enter the body in the form of water, carbohydrates, proteins, some salts like bicarbonates etc. Thus it is able to get close enough to cell nuclei to cause genetic damage. Tritium has a half-life around 12 years, the best part is, once released it quickly becomes dilute enough to ignore.

Beta particle is a fast moving electron. It also has a short path except in a vacuum.

Gamma is true electro-magnetic radiation, travels at the speed of light, can travel a long way and has high enough energy to cause damage to the body. Depending on its energy, which increases as its wavelength decreases, it is difficult to shield. Several feet of concrete or rock, or several inches of lead or depleted uranium - you've got the picture. Easiest and most effective protection is distance.

So that leaves nuclear contamination which is any substance emitting one or more of the above. As dust or water it can travel considerable distances on air or water currents.

The Fukushima situation seems to be getting worse by the hour. It is difficult to decide between the media accounts - probably exaggerated - the technical experts being paraded - not all of which have been correct to my own limited knowledge of the subject - and the official reports from the Japanese agency - which is know to lie at the drop of a dollar.

 

I was hoping, maybe beyond reasonable, that they'd get a handle on this, but it appears Japan is teetering on the edge, of a disaster that will possably pale the quake and flooding devastation already heaved on the country. Now, it's time to pray if it's in you, because they've pulled the remaining works from the site and a catastrophic series of "events" will likely occur in the next day or so.

 

OMG.

6 reactors in trouble at the same plant, and the last 50 guys evidently just packed up and went home.

I hope the tsunami and the earthquake don't get bumped from number 1 and number two worst things to happen in Japan this month.

 

The wind is blowing towards the south west at this time of year.

If a catastrophe can hold on a week or 2 it will change to the South east monsoon.

Good for me but bad for Japan meaning all north Japan would get any fall out.

As it is now it would blow away from Japan and head towards singapore -malaysia Indonesia and possibley Australia etc

 

Maybe I am a cynic, but I look to the Nikkei index to indicate where this is going, and at the moment it is rising, so maybe not that bad.

 

Rain would be the worst thing that could happen folks, regardless of wind direction. The current westerly is dieing out and northeasterly will arrive later this week, which isn't the best news.

Reactor 4 is the hottest of the spent fuel rod pools, 5 and 6 are likely a few days behind them in temperature build up. Unless they can get some water flowing again, this is a worst case situation coming to a boil, literally.

 

Agreed, the Reactor 4 pool is probably the biggest threat right now, but may also be one of the easier ones to handle. It's easier to pump water into a hole in the ground than into a steel pressure vessel.

I wish I could get a better grasp on what's actually going on and what the challenges they are having are, but the news reports are so damn sketchy and I don't really trust anything until it shows up on the IAEA site. Of course, it doesn't help that IAEA's server has crashed under the load.

 

Yeah me too --if I knew what was going on i could phone up and cure this little prob they are having.

 

you beat me to it..

 

I just had a thought, maybe the Japanese aren't hiding information - they justdon't know.

I heard talk of water bomber planes and choppers on the TV: how is one of those going to put water on a reactor that is in a containment building and inside a containment vessel?

From incidence reports measured and suspected pressures (instrumentation readings unavailable?) have exceeded reactor containment vessel design pressures several times by up to x2 although there is a slow reduction over several days.

Frosty: perhaps you should go there in person to get the picture first hand ...

 

Its fascinating to watch both the tsunami and nuclear events unfold. Japan is a rich, sophisticated, educated , well organized society and even they are struggling to cope with events.

These struggles will be well studied by policy makers and academics and will certainly give us all a better understanding of the consequences and response challenges of catastrophic events .

 

Who knew we had so many armchair nuclear physicits among us and what speculation! I agree, perhaps a visit should be made so you can clear up this mess.

Given that Japan is perhaps the best in the world for both preparing and reacting to such catastrophy, it leaves me wondering what the outcome would be on the US west coast in such an event. Are there any subduction zones in that area?

-Tom

 

Armchair?! Nothing but the real deal on an internet forum! By the way... We had orderly lines of people and neighbor-helping-neighbor during the wildfires of California, yet cops and other looters ransacking stores in Louisiana. I attribute the difference to the raw hand dealt the disenfranchised, marginalised, poor by the heartless, greedy, wealthy people and the f'ing "winner/loser" competitive nature of our Western society... (Re: posts 62 and 70)

 

I agree. That's the cancer which inevitably grows from a profit-only-based society. And it might (I think it will) ultimately cause it's end, if things don't change.

@Mark775: That's in line with the above thought, so I agree.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm
Before and after pictures of the damage