3/10/11 Hawaii Tsunami Warning

[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.

[Jahay]

thanks for this update..

THIS IS TERRIBLE!

Im speechless!

[thzero]

While its no doubt a disaster, and one that peopple need to learn from and not follow in the stupidity of TEPCO and Japanese govt, this is a bit of extreme; it is just fear mongering. It is one thing to be concerned, rightly so, and understand what is going on and be truthful and forthright (an issue with the gov/TEPCO, and usually most governments anyways), but another to listen and pass on the yammerings of the over sensationalized media or reports from yokels no matter what country they are from.

This has turned out worse than Three Mile Island, but it is still not anywhere near Chernobyl.

But nonetheless, as always there are those individuals that one must be impressed with; the workers who are braving serious health risks to resolve this very serious problem. These men and women are on the same scale as the 9/11 responders and those of any major (or even minor) disaster.

Originally Posted by 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 soo that the entire island of Japan will become unlivable.

[JERRY2KONE]

This has turned out worse than Three Mile Island, but it is still not anywhere near Chernobyl.

But nonetheless, as always there are those individuals that one must be impressed with; the workers who are braving serious health risks to resolve this very serious problem. These men and women are on the same scale as the 9/11 responders and those of any major (or even minor) disaster.[/QUOTE]


WOW REALLY? Are you trying to compare what these poor souls are going through (certain death) to save an entire population to those of the 9/11 NYC recovery crews? Are you kidding me. Look no one is for any reason douting that what the crews went through in NYC was a terrible situation. Certainly the death toll of those who perished in the subsiquent collaps of the twin towers was awful. All of this being casued not by Mother Nature, but by morons who are surely set on hurting the American way of life. Recovery yes was difficult, but nothing on the level of what these workers are faced with. Even if they do get in and out without having any of the structure fall on them they will more than likely either get extremely sick from radiation poisoning, or they will die a painful death from an invisible killer that causes cancer and the like.

This tiny Island nation was hit by one of the largest natural disasters to date being a 9.0 Earthquake, followed by part of their island sinking two feet leaving them wide open for a Tsunami that wiped out what will more than likely turn out to be over 20K to 25K people, and also crippling this nuclear power site to the point of nuclear disaster that is unrivaled in size and possible level of contamination involving not one, not two, not even three, but four damaged reactors, along with all of their spent fuel rod pools which involves a very large number of dangerous nuclear fuel.

No this has not reached the level of disaster of Chernobyl yet, but it can surely get much worse if things keep encountering setbacks that are making things impossible to overcome the damage already created after three weeks of attempting to get things under control. 9/11 was ten years ago, and we have long since recovered from that. Not sure what your point is here, but this is far from over and there has been nothing so far that points to the resolution of the growing problems that these reactors present to the nation of Japan or that of the world who are all extremely worried about the very real posibilities that this has the potential of causing. Lets just say for the sake of arguement that Japan keeps working at this for another month and finally just says we do not know what we can do. By then we would be in what like the 7th week of radiation leakage. From all of the conflicting reports up to now I really do not believe that anyone knows just how much contamination is actually leaking out of this plant. This is relitively new ground for most of the world and exactly how much damage can be done by these reactors probably won't even make it to the surface until long after the damage is done. Life in Chernobyl is still desolate and many many people have died and have been adversely affected by that disaster. How high will those levels reach in this one. No one yet knows and that is why we are here discussing this situation. If you do not like reading about it on here, or seeing it on TV, then don't.