3/10/11 Hawaii Tsunami Warning

[Shonen]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...r-tsunami.html

[pinkpanda3310]

A triple shot of mass disaster. Earthquake, tsunami, nuclear.

I have a very real fear for my in-laws well being. To have 3 explosions I don't think there will be a realistic chance of not having a melt-down. They are running on sea water at the moment but their systems are designed to run purified water. There will be so much maintenance to run salt-water not just because it is corrosive but I bet there is a high amount of silt and impurities to help the degradation.

They have finally admitted the situation is dangerous, that from the Japanese Govt. indicates they are in deep $Hit. There are reports some of the US navy have a thin layer of radioactive dust on the ship. (Lito I hope that's not you). Even if the navy can help for a time I think resources are going to be limited. Patching up 3 reactors at once and preventing further disaster will be a miracle and honestly I don't think possible. With radiation already detected in Tokyo it won't take long to affect the whole country - it's not that big and a plume of radiated steam has already been let of.

I spoke with Misato (wife) and told her I want her family to come here with us in Aus. She said it's not that easy to just up and leave when things might not seem that bad in the province where they are. I am very solomn today.

[JERRY2KONE]

Well I have already posted this in the other Tsunami thread but they also stated today that there is more trouble looming in the midst. As if things were not already bad enough dealing with losses from the very large quake, followed by a tsunami that wiped out three entire cities, now the local Gov just stated that they have a storage facility in which they place what they call "Spent" fuel rods once they have reached their maximum usage/potential for power generation. Well this pool is also normally supplied with cooling water 24/7/365 just like the rest of the system. Well there has been no cooling water supplied since the quake. The last time it was checked was on Friday at 186f, and now they cannot get close enough to doublecheck it. The fear is that from what they are able to see from a distance is that the water is already boiling off and the rods will also soon be exposed as well. So this will add another meltdown porblem for them to deal with in an already somewhat hopeless situation.

I do believe that there is really not much of anything that they can do at this point to stop any of these reactors from completely melting down and contaminating the entire area. The only question left to ask will be how large of an area will be affected and for how long? For those of you who are familiar with the "Three Mile Island" scinario this is the exact same situation times four in one very tight location. This may very well reduce the already tiny islands capabliity for supporting its population for a very very long time (150 years or more?). What a mess. Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this man made, nature sparked tragity. May God watch over this and help people find peace.