8.9 quake. Wow!!

I hope our Japanese readers are all OK?

Some astonishing video of the tsunami on CNN. Water passing over farm land at an astounding rate carrying ships, cars, and burning debri.

The reminants of the Tsunami hit Maui early this morning.

Lots of scary footage here in the UK. Possibly thousands dead. The Japanese Prime Minister is now announcing an emergency at their coastal nuclear power stations. :(

Fingers crossed.

Edited by MikefaeDundee on 03/11/2011 11:46:43 MST.

Japanese authorities have just announced that they are releasing 'radioactive vapour' from one of their plants as a 'safety measure'.
Sound like BS to me. :(

Hey, Miguel, You OK?

(that's the one person whose name I remember off the top of my head)

Hope all BPL'ers are OK.

HJ

Miguel posted this up earlier:

So far all the UL walkers I know are okay. Facebook and Twitter have been a godsend. It's 9 hours and STILL shaking.

UK news reporting that the cooling system on a nuclear reactor has failed. Thousands evacuated.
Praying that this doesn't get even worse.

Thoughts and prayers for all there!

Miguel responded to the Christchurch thread - he is OK.

2149 GMT: The Kyodo news agency is now citing a safety panel as saying that the radiation level inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant is 1,000 times higher than normal.

They are actually venting radioactive steam.

Maybe building reactors on coasts isn't such a great idea round the pacific basin

Evac zone is now 10km

The Tsunami crossing the farmland carrying all that debris was one of the more shocking things I think I've even seen.

One would assume that they scrammed the reactor early in the emergency.

Reactors are often built around large bodies of water for cooling purposes. Unfortunately, if you have no power to pump the cooling water, it doesn't do much good.

--B.G.--

Yes they are. The old plant in Oregon was built right on the Columbia River for that reason - easy access to cold water.

"Maybe building reactors on coasts isn't such a great idea round the pacific basin"

Maybe building reactors isn't such a great idea

"Maybe building reactors isn't such a great idea"

That could be the topic for a whole new thread. However, in hindsight it does seem reactors of the future should be built so that backup power for pumping water is not affected by submersion and cooling will carry on no matter what. It's a tough ask. Rivers can be diverted by landslides and earthquakes. Backup generators need oxygen for combustion, so can't be housed in waterproof containers. maybe they should have a huge snorkel that will suck in air no matter how big the tsunami. Anyway, it's water under the bridge now. All we can do is hold our breath and hope they get the reactors under control, and find fewer loved ones have been lost than predicted. It's an unimaginably terrible tragedy.

"All we can do is hold our breath and hope they get the reactors under control"

We could not build any more

Another problem with reactors is the shortage of Uranium. It comes from a few countries, like Nigeria, so we'll be in the same problem we're already in with oil.

All I can say is wow of the helicopter images coming from Japanese television coverage. Now we know why the tsunami is Japanese word it like a dam bursted unbelievable. I lived in Okinawa, Japan while I was in the air force. Most of the island is mountainous juts out on the west side that would have been affected. But if the tidal surge did wrap around at the bottom part of the island they may have gotten flooding. Okinawa has low lying areas on the sea of japan side or east side they have 15 to 20 foot sea walls that are 3/4 pipes with giant cement "Jack's" in front of the sea wall to send out tidal surges back out to sea during typhoons.

I was in 1971 Sylmar earthquake it was big and thrashed our house. I really feel sorry for the japanese people getting hit with a 8.9 earth quake clean up and rebuilding will take a long,long time.

Hopefully the rest of the world will chip in with aid like the last earth quake and tsunami.

Edited by socal-nomad on 03/11/2011 18:55:09 MST.

Maybe not building reactos isn't such a great idea. Life is a risk / reward game. Consider any method for making electricity and you will find something undersireable. Find a risk free, zero impact, cheap and reliable source of electricity gereration and you will make yourself a very rich fellow. I guess the easiest way to check all of those boxes would be to turn off the lights.

Uranium supply should be of pretty low concern relative to other forms of "fuel". Heck, the steel needed for a plant is probably scarcer than U235.