dagblog - Comments for "Japan on high nuclear alert "

BBC Live blog.1844: Mikan in

cmaukonen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:50:00 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

BBC Live blog.

1844: Mikan in Tokyo writes: "There is a growing sense that the Japanese government is not telling us the true story. On one end, there is the Japanese media that plays down the nuclear drama and focuses on human drama, and at the other, the foreign media is up-playing the nuclear disaster. In my company I heard at least half the essential staff is being sent to Hong Kong, Singapore or even Sydney. I am preparing to leave Tokyo and/or Japan. So are many of my friends. There is a sense of deserting Tokyo as soon as possible."

More from the BBC live blog

cmaukonen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:11:58 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

More from the BBC live blog site.

1431: More from Japanese nuclear engineer Masashi Goto: He say that as the reactor uses mox (mixed oxide) fuel, the melting point is lower than that of conventional fuel. Should a meltdown and an explosion occur, he says, plutonium could be spread over an area up to twice as far as estimated for a conventional nuclear fuel explosion. The next 24 hours are critical, he says.
1426: Mr Goto says his greatest fear is that blasts at number 3 and number 1 reactors may have damaged the steel casing of the containment vessel designed to stop radioactive material escaping into the atmosphere. More to follow.
1422: Japanese engineer Masashi Goto, who helped design the containment vessel for Fukushima's reactor core, says the design was not enough to withstand earthquakes or tsunamis and the plant's builders, Toshiba, knew this. More on Mr Goto's remarks to follow.

Times are in GMT.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworl

cmaukonen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 02:26:00 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

From BBC.0221: Urgent:

cmaukonen — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 02:25:09 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

From BBC.

0221: Urgent: Explosion at Reactor 3 - AFP.

0220: Sea level has dropped five metres off Fukushima, confirming imminent arrival of tsunami - Japanese TV.

0218: Column of smoke escaping from Reactor 3 at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant - Japanese TV.

(No subject)

Donal — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:55:08 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

Before and After Earthquake

cmaukonen — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:53:04 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

Before and After Earthquake Satellite photos courtesy of NYT.

Stoneleigh at the Automatic

Donal — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:23:02 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

Stoneleigh at the Automatic Earth also has a good discussion:

How Black is the Japanese Nuclear Swan?

The subject of Stoneleigh's master thesis at the law faculty of Warwick University in Coventry, England, where she studied International Law in Development, was nuclear safety research.

After graduating in 1997, she became a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where her research field was power systems, with a specific focus on nuclear safety in Eastern Europe. ...

In my view, nuclear power represents an unjustified faith in the power of human societies to control extremely complex technologies over the very long term. Any activity requiring a great deal of complex and cooperative control will do badly in difficult economic times.

Also, no human society has ever lasted for as long as nuclear waste must be looked after. It needs to be held in pools on site for perhaps a hundred years in order to cool down enough for permanent disposal, assuming a form of permanent disposal could be conceived of, approved and developed. During this period, the knowledge as to how this must be done will need to be maintained, and this may be more difficult than is currently supposed.

We need to evaluate the potential for a nuclear future in light of the disaster in Japan. This was not unpredictable, and should have been accounted for in any realistic assessment of nuclear potential. It cannot realistically be described as a black swan event.

Bill Egnor has updates and

we are stardust — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:43:30 +0000

In reply to Japan on high nuclear alert

Bill Egnor has updates and good explanations about what's happening, and how things work, or not work in nuclear power plants.

http://my.firedoglake.com/somethingthedogsaid/2011/03/13/japanese-nuclear-watch-update-one-meltdown-another-probable-large-evacuations-ordered/