3/10/11 Hawaii Tsunami Warning

[George16]

The bad thing about this situation is for TEPCO and the Japanese government wasn't very open and forthcoming with what's really going on. They tried downplaying the whole situation from the beginning. We went from a posture of not getting underway to get underway within 96 hours after the experts and technicians brought in by the US government found out that there was a higher level of contamination than what the Japan is putting out to the public. Trust me, it's very daunting to get an aircraft carrier transition from repairs to be able to safely get underway on its own power within 96 hours. Work was 24 hours around the clock. We were not allowed to go home and take care of our families until late in the evening.

I tell you what though, it's all about politics. The 4 star admiral of the Pacific command wants us back in Yokosuka but other powers to be had other plans for us which they are not sharing at all. I think they jsut want to give the perception that we left the Japanese to tend for themselves because right now, there is no naval asset in port in Yokosuka. Besides, sailing aimlessly or making circles/donuts in a square box in the pacific ocean is not a morale booster at all. I was just glad my family was able to leave 3 days ago and not worry about the radioactive fallout. We have members of the Navy Nuclear team onboard our ship to help us ensure we have cleaned and decontaminated the ship.

[pinkpanda3310]

Originally Posted by George16

The bad thing about this situation is for TEPCO and the Japanese government wasn't very open and forthcoming with what's really going on. They tried downplaying the whole situation from the beginning.
I tell you what though, it's all about politics.

Ain't that the truth. Kind of expected it though, very typical of how some gov'ts like to play things out.

Good to hear you and your family are in a safer place Lito.

[JERRY2KONE]

I am not surprized about our Gov pulling you guys out of there after seeing just how bad off the nuclear plant status really is. The spread of radiation is already creating an environment very unhealthy for human life, and it will surely get worse the longer things are not brought under control. With persiverance I am confident that they will eventually find a way to get things calmed down, but what I do fear is the amount of contamination that will be experienced up to that moment is going to be a catastrophy of its own. And why would our Naval forces want to be left in the midst of such a inevitable situation when they well know that things are going to get worse? Remove all forces that are not, and can not directly effect the outcome of the nuclear contamination. Otherwise would be placing our forces in harms way when it could be avoided. I also have to wonder what is being done for the US ground forces left behind during this chrisis? The more people they move away from this potentially very large disaster the better. Not just Americans but anyone that they can get out of harms way would be a blessing. The only people who need to be there are the ones who are contributing directly to the containment of the problem.

[George16]

The other bad thing about this mess is the Department of State's decision to call the evacuation "Voluntary" but everything was funded by the government. They stopped short in ordering a mandatory evacuation so as not to rattle the Japanese sentiment. We will definitely not look good if we pulll out all of our forces and dependents from the island of Honshu. Right now, the base is like a ghost town according to people who chose to stay. Rolling blackouts are common and so is hoarding of bottled water.

I hope this situation will stabilize as soon as possible so everyone can focus on the clean-up and rebuilding of the inundated places.

[JERRY2KONE]

Yea your right about that. Making it voluntary allows it to look as if our Gov is not trying to scare or panic anyone by making it manditory. Still in any situation such as this one if it looks even remotely serious and has the potential to become in any way life threatening I would not wait for any Gov to tell me that things are worse and that now I have to leave. If even a hint of trouble shows, and they offer to pay your way out, then you are a fool if you do not leave.

We all know that local Gov lie just to keep from panicing its people and also covering its own a$$. There is always hope for a resolution, but I would have to go on the side of caution when lives are at stake. I am sure that most of the people around the world are hoping that Japan gets things under control and that it will not end up contaminating other countries by accident. Still I have to think that there is an awful lot of ground to cover on their part before this looks even remotely under control and we can all feel safe from danger. With the predictions of this looking like it may takes months or even years to contain and clean up I would have had something more perminant cooling wise set in place by now. They could easily build some water cannon stands around the complex with huge portable pumps in place that are capable of spraying a very large amount of water on these reactors to keep them under the temp limits that make them so dangerous. Once that is in place then begin formulating a plan to go in and recover regular cooling systems at least to the point of relieving some level or pressure from this whole situation.

The other problem with spraying so much water on this mess is that the water becomes contaminated itself, and where do you think it is going? Yea that's right, probably right into the Ocean contaminating all of the sea life in the area. And there is no way to control that. Once its in the sea it will travel everywhere over time. Before this is over with the entire planets Oceans will have a higher radiation level. This may very well become a global seafood catastrophy.

[JERRY2KONE]

Here is the latest. It is already Monday morning here in Prague as we see the third week of nuclear issues in Japan. We all know that things have been coming out of Japan long after they find things out as the Gov continues to cover up just how bad things really are.

TOKYO – Highly radioactive iodine seeping from Japan's damaged nuclear complex may be making its way into seawater farther north of the plant than previously thought, officials said Monday, adding to radiation concerns as the crisis stretches into a third week.

Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and no place to store dangerously contaminated water, have stymied emergency workers struggling to cool down the overheating plant and avert a disaster with global implications.

Like I stated previously this is going to become a world wide issue that could change the eco system and damage the way we live around the globe. From where I am sitting it looks to me as if Japan is losing their grip on this issue all together. This nuclear disaster is going to get a whole lot worse before and if we ever see a positive change to the situation. If they do not make some sort of progress soon things are going to get so hot that no one will be able to get close enough to do anything. Everyone who is in the know and can do something to help them better get onboard soon or it is going to be too late for all of us.

[Jahay]

thanks for the update... It is amazing that here in teh UK, the news from Japan has been completely cancelled out by Libya. Which, yes is fair enough, but it is as if the problems in Japan never occurred!

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by Jahay

thanks for the update... It is amazing that here in teh UK, the news from Japan has been completely cancelled out by Libya. Which, yes is fair enough, but it is as if the problems in Japan never occurred!

Yea whats that about? I mean Libya is hardly a world issue of concern that can effect the global majority, but Japan is quickly becoming like the new plague of our planet, and it seems like everyone is turning a blind eye to the news there as if its just going to quietly go away. The only place I have seen anything is on the web. I just keep digging up what I can find and sharing it in here.

Even the Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami recovery efforts seem to have faded into the background like nothing ever happened over there. The whole Katrina incident was plastered all over the news for months. We have not seen one word about aftershocks or anything since the Libya chrisis started. The people of Japan are in some deep doodoo and the world as a whole are going to feel the effects of this disaster on a big scale for many years to come. And yet everyone is quietly acting as if it is not happening. Our major food source of seafood may soon disapear to the point that it will no longer be safe to consume, and yet no one is talking about this. Radiation has already began traveling up the east coast of Japan and will soon travel across the Oceans contaminating every body of saltwater around the globe. This should be the biggest headliner of all time, and yet no one is reporting this major story. Is it because everyone is dumfounded as to how very bad this may become? Better eat what seafood you can while it is still safe to eat. If things do not change soon it may be 100 years or more before anyone gets to eat it again.

[Jahay]

the governments are just doing a good job of keeping things out of the news...

Also i doubt any journalists want to go and try and get a sneek peak of what is really going out there due to the radiation!

This is a catastrophe, and you know it is serious when things go silent, just before things errupt once again! News of this type of situation does not go this silent that quickly!!

[JERRY2KONE]

Yea thats what concerns me. Usually in matters this big there are hourly reports to share how the recovery is going and what the next step is going to be, so as not to panic anyone. This one is so utterly quiet that you have to wonder just how bad are things, and how much worse are they going to get. I try to keep up with the latest progress reports, but there is hardly anything out there to watch or read. I mean this really has the potential to become a world wide disaster that can devestate the entire planet and no one is talking about it. I would think that the world leaders of today should be shadowing this every second of the way and preparing for worst case scenarios. Where the hell are our leaders, and what are they doing to help in this situation? That is what I would be writing about if I were a journalist. This is the biggest story of the human race to date. The recovery efforts at this Nuclear plant should have become a world wide effort to get things under control, not just a Japan problem. Surely the Nuclear experts have weighed in enough with information to let our world leaders know that this needs a huge effort on everyones part. Japan is quickly losing control and then these four reactors will become one very big problem that will harm us all.

[JERRY2KONE]

Here is the latest news update that I just pulled off of the internet just a few minutes ago.

TOKYO – Workers discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking from Japan's crippled nuclear complex, officials said Monday, as emergency crews struggled to pump out hundreds of tons of contaminated water and bring the plant back under control.

Officials believe the contaminated water has sent radioactivity levels soaring at the coastal complex and caused more radiation to seep into soil and seawater. Crews also found traces of plutonium in the soil outside of the complex on Monday, but officials insisted there was no threat to public health.

Plutonium — a key ingredient in nuclear weapons — is present in the fuel at the complex, which has been leaking radiation for over two weeks, so experts had expected some to be found once crews began searching for evidence of it this week.

[Related: 32 years: Three Mile Island anniversary]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. official Jun Tsuruoka said only two of the plutonium samples taken Monday were from the leaking reactors. The other three were from earlier nuclear tests. Years of weapons testing in the atmosphere left trace amounts of plutonium in many places around the world.

[hemiblas]

What annoys me is that everytime something bad happens the government provides a reason as to why we shouldnt worry. I read something about a radiation reading that was 10,000 times greater than normal and then everyone came back and said that it must have been a mistake. Then they talk about the contaminated soil, but they they claim that it wont harm anyone. Then the radioactive water, that really wont harm anyone as long as you dont step on it. There is a lot of covering up going on right now.
I agree with you guys that ,lately you cant even find any updates on the web about what is going on. A lot of the articles are older and they are not providing any type of meaningful updates so we can see whats going on. I read another article that the isotopes have made their way to Nevada now so we are detecting some radiation here. If those plants go into a full meltdown, I would hate to think about whats going to be unleashed into the atmosphere and how far it will go.

[pinkpanda3310]

Last night my wife showed me a website that shows a map of Japan, the tectonic plates and size and severity of earth quakes since the big one. For lack of a better word it was like fireworks. More than 800 quakes in the last few weeks happened just off the east coast.

[JERRY2KONE]

Just picked this up in one of the news reports. They seem to be burying these very important notes deep in old statements as if they are trying to hide them.
Because one of the things that I noticed was how they are starting off in new reports using one or two paragraphs of new news, and then just adding old news over them to make it look like a huge story. Pretty shoty journalism if you ask me.

The discovery of plutonium, released from fuel rods only when temperatures are extremely high, confirms the severity of the damage, Nishiyama said.

When plutonium decays, it emits what is known as an alpha particle, a relatively big particle that carries a lot of energy. When an alpha particle hits body tissue, it can damage the DNA of a cell and lead to a cancer-causing mutation.

Plutonium also breaks down very slowly, so it remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.

"If you inhale it, it's there and it stays there forever," said Alan Lockwood, a professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the University at Buffalo and a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group.

[JERRY2KONE]

Now this will show you just how desperate this situation truly is. Even they are realizing that if this is not brought under some level of control soon that the entire island of Japan will become unlivable.


The mother of one of the atomic "samurai" working to bring Japan's stricken nuclear plant under control has said her son and his colleagues expect to die as a result of their efforts. Meanwhile, there are reports that additional workers are being offered big money to dash into the radiation-drenched heart of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, perform a job, then withdraw.

In a phone interview with Fox News, the tearful mother of a 32-year-old worker said: "My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation."

"He told me they have accepted they will all probably die from radiation sickness in the short term or cancer in the long term," the woman added.

"They know it is impossible for them not to have been exposed to lethal doses of radiation."

The woman did not give her name, because she said the workers had been asked by management not to speak publicly about their ordeal, in order to minimize panic.

There are also indications that the workers aren't being provided with some crucial safety equipment. Japan's interior minister said that not all of the workers were given lead sheeting to protect themselves from the floor--which may be contaminated by radiation--while sleeping.

"My son has been sleeping on a desk because he is afraid to lie on the floor. But they say high radioactivity is everywhere and I think this will not save him," said the mother.

In another bleak sign, there are reports of additional workers being offered up to $5,000 a day to act as "jumpers"--so called because they "jump" into highly radioactive areas to quickly perform a task before fleeing with minimal exposure. But even at those rates, many candidates are turning the work down, Reuters reports.

"My company offered me 200,000 yen ($2,500) per day," one subcontractor in his 30s told a reporter."Ordinarily I'd consider that a dream job, but my wife was in tears and stopped me, so I declined."

And Ryuta Fujita, 27, told the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper he was offered $5,000 to go into Reactor 2, but likewise declined.

"I hear that guys older than 50 are being hired at high pay," Fujita said. "But I'm still young, and radiation scares me. I don't want to work in a nuclear plant again."

Last week two workers in Reactor 3 were taken to hospital after their feet were exposed to 170-180 millisieverts of radiation. The average dose for a worker at a nuclear plant is 50 millisieverts over 5 years.

Because so few workers want to venture into the plant, it's proving hard for TEPCO, that company that runs it, to assess whether efforts to cool the fuel rods are working, or even to fully diagnose the problems.

Robots are usually used for this type of work, but Fukushima's interior is so filled with debris that it's difficult for robots to operate there.