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MikeyT

Japan Earthquake/Tsunami

By MikeyT, in General Chat

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Thracian

Thracian

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It's truely awful, families have been torn apart, many people killed, life won't ever be the same for these people and then i see jokes already appearing about it, it just shows the total classyness of people in this day and age

People often react to disaster and tragedy with black humour - it is a form of escape valve. Doctors, rescue workers, people at the front line so often need that sort of humour to keep them sane or from becoming depressed. It's a way of depersonalising what's happening around you.

MikeyT

MikeyT

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219

(UPDATED NEWS AT 10:24 THIS MORNING)

A massive explosion has struck a Japanese nuclear power plant after Friday's devastating earthquake.

A huge pall of smoke was seen coming from the plant at Fukushima and several workers were injured.

Japanese officials fear a meltdown at one of the plant's reactors after radioactive material was detected outside it.

A huge relief operation is under way after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 600.

Hundreds more people are missing and it is feared about 1,300 may have died.

The offshore earthquake triggered a tsunami which wreaked havoc on Japan's north-east coast, sweeping far inland and devastating a number of towns and villages.

The term "meltdown" raises associations with two nuclear accidents in living memory: Three Mile Island in the US in 1979, and Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.

In both, excess heat in the reactor caused the metallic core to melt. The question is whether the same thing has happened in Fukushima.

It appears that the reactor was shut down well before any melting occurred, which should reduce considerably the risk of radioactive materials entering the environment.

However, the detection of caesium isotopes outside the power station buildings could imply that the core has been exposed to the air.

Although Japan has a long and largely successful nuclear power programme, officials have been less than honest about some incidents in the past, meaning that official re-assurances are unlikely to convince everyone this time round.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared a state of emergency at the Fukushima 1 and 2 power plants as engineers try to confirm whether a reactor at one of the stations has gone into meltdown.

It is an automatic procedure after nuclear reactors shut down in the event of an earthquake, allowing officials to take rapid action.

Cooling system failure

Television pictures showed a massive blast at one of the buildings of the Fukushima 1 plant, about 250km (160 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

A huge cloud of smoke billows out and large bits of debris are flung far from the building.

Japan's NHK TV showed before and after pictures of the plant. They appeared to show that the outer structure of one of four buildings at the plant had collapsed after the explosion.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co, the plant's operator, said four workers had been injured.

It is not yet clear in exactly what part of the plant the explosion occurred or what caused it.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said experts were trying to determine the level of radiation at the site.

Japan's nuclear agency said on Saturday that radioactive caesium and iodine had been detected near the number one reactor of the Fukushima 1 plant.

The agency said this may indicate that containers of uranium fuel inside the reactor may have begun melting.

Video grab from NHK TV with before and after images of Fukushima 1 power plant showing damaged building on lower left - 12 March 2011 Japanese broadcaster NHK screened a before and after image showing the damaged Fukushima plant

Air and steam, with some level of radioactivity, has been released from several of the reactors at both plants in an effort to relieve the huge amount of pressure building up inside.

Mr Kan said the amount of radiation released was "tiny".

Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate the area within a 10-km radius of the plant. BBC correspondent Nick Ravenscroft said police stopped him 60km from the Fukushima 1 plant.

Nuclear reactors at four power plants in the earthquake-struck zone automatically shut down on Friday.

In some of the reactors at the two Fukushima plants the cooling systems, which should keep operating on emergency power supplies, failed.

Without cooling, the temperature in the reactor core builds, with the risk that it could melt through its container into the building housing the system.

Pressure also builds in the containers housing the reactor.

Analysts say a meltdown would not necessarily lead to a major disaster because light-water reactors would not explode even if they overheated.

But Walt Patterson, of the London research institute Chatham House, said "this is starting to look a lot like Chernobyl".

He said it was too early to tell if the explosion's aftermath would result in the same extreme level of radioactive contamination that occurred at Chernobyl.

The explosion was most likely caused by melting fuel coming into contact with water, he told the BBC.

The 8.9-magnitude tremor struck in the afternoon local time on Friday off the coast of Honshu island at a depth of about 24km, 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

It was nearly 8,000 times stronger than last month's quake in New Zealand that devastated the city of Christchurch, scientists said.

Some of the same search and rescue teams from around the world that helped in that disaster are now on their way to Japan.

sdb

sdb

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People often react to disaster and tragedy with black humour - it is a form of escape valve. Doctors, rescue workers, people at the front line so often need that sort of humour to keep them sane or from becoming depressed. It's a way of depersonalising what's happening around you.

I don't think it's the people involved making distasteful jokes though.

MikeyT

MikeyT

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I don't think it's the people involved making distasteful jokes though.

Think there's one in the Joke Thread already. <_<

Finnegan

Finnegan

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Er, just about every credible news source is saying that radiation is very minimal as is risk to the reactor itself.

:dunno:

It's obviously a sensationalist reactionary's wet dream but we're twenty five years on from Chernobyl and that was outdated technology at the time anyway. I'm sure it's all perfectly under control.

Zingari

Zingari

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Er, just about every credible news source is saying that radiation is very minimal as is risk to the reactor itself.

:dunno:

It's obviously a sensationalist reactionary's wet dream but we're twenty five years on from Chernobyl and that was outdated technology at the time anyway. I'm sure it's all perfectly under control.

you may have been reassured that it's all under control , but as for being "sure" , well not really ....

Walt Patterson, of the London research institute Chatham House, said "this is starting to look a lot like Chernobyl".

He said it was too early to tell if the explosion's aftermath would result in the same extreme level of radioactive contamination that occurred at Chernobyl.

i think we still have to wait and hope

MikeyT

MikeyT

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Rescuers are searching for survivors of a 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami which have devastated the north-east coast of Japan, killing at least 1,000 people.

TV footage showed people stranded on the rooftops of buildings surrounded by debris-filled water.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops were joining the rescue effort.

However, relief operations are being hampered by aftershocks, enduring tsunami warnings and damaged roads.

An explosion at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima has also prompted fears of a meltdown and people have been ordered to evacuate the area within a 20km radius of the plant.

Giant shipping containers have been swept inland and smashed against buildings, all around me are trees and rubble. The streets covered in mud that was swept inland. There are dozens and dozens of cars that were carried along, twisted and turned, and crushed by the wave.

The gas and water have been cut off, fires are burning, and locals say hundreds of people died in this area.

Hundreds of people are missing, and is it feared that the death toll will rise significantly, as entire communities along the coastline were washed away.

Japanese media reports put the death toll at more than 1,000.

The 10m (33ft) tsunami swept up to 10km (6 miles) inland, destroying towns and villages.

In Iwate prefecture, Rikuzentakata, a coastal city of some 23,000 people, was almost completely destroyed as the tsunami reached as high as the third floor of the city hall.

About a third of the city of Kesennuma, in Miyagi prefecture, with a population of 74,000, was submerged, and the city was also hit by widespread fires.

The coastal area of Miyako City and almost all of the town of Yamada, both in Iwate, were also submerged.

A municipal official of the town of Futaba in Fukushima prefecture said, ''More than 90% of the houses in three coastal communities have been washed away by tsunami. Looking from the fourth floor of the town hall, I see no houses standing.''

In one of the worst-hit areas of Fukushima prefecture, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out for help, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Four trains running in a coastal area of Miyagi and Iwate prefectures are still unaccounted for.

In Ibaraki prefecture, north-east of Tokyo, many homes are still without power and there are long queues at the few petrol stations that are open, says the BBC's Chris Hogg.

In other developments:

* There have been reports of more than 125 aftershocks, including a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.

* The number of partially or completely destroyed buildings has reached some 3,400.

* Some 5.57 million households had lost power as of Saturday morning, while more than one million households have had their water supply cut off, the Kyodo news agency reported.

* Fires have continued, with Sendai airport said to still be on fire and Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture experiencing three large-scale fires, Kyodo reported.

* The welfare ministry said 181 welfare facilities, including nursing homes, were damaged.

* More than 200,000 people are in emergency shelters. More than 50 countries and territories have offered assistance.

The 8.9-magnitude tremor struck in the afternoon local time on Friday off the coast of Honshu island at a depth of about 24km, 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

It was nearly 8,000 times stronger than last month's quake in New Zealand that devastated the city of Christchurch, scientists said.

BoneDog

BoneDog

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Another 6.5 quake there not long ago and they've already had loads more aftershocks before that.

It aint half bleak watching the news nowadays.

Jackirius

Jackirius

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El Empty has emerged from his nuclear bunker.

In other news, Japan are playing down reports of a meltdown yet they have evacuated 170,000 people from the area surrounding the plant. :blink:

CKB

CKB

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People often react to disaster and tragedy with black humour - it is a form of escape valve. Doctors, rescue workers, people at the front line so often need that sort of humour to keep them sane or from becoming depressed. It's a way of depersonalising what's happening around you.

Yes i accept that in ways but these jokes are simply coming from people who think they are funny

OzFox

OzFox

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Tragic if you happen to live there but hardly surprising. Japan has had dozens of tsunamis in the past, some of them huge, killing many thousands of people. It's rather like living in LA and San Francisco, or on the side of an active volcano and hoping for the best when the inevitable happens. The locals would be well aware of the risk, or at least should be.

You'd also have to question the wisdom of building nuclear power stations in a volatile earthquake zone. As some experts and Japanese protestors have already pointed out, the plants aren't designed to withstand that amount of shaking.

MikeyT

MikeyT

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Looking at some of the footage and pictures it almost looks like some post apocalyptic movie or something. Horrible.

savedave

savedave

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Tragic if you happen to live there but hardly surprising. Japan has had dozens of tsunamis in the past, some of them huge, killing many thousands of people. It's rather like living in LA and San Francisco, or on the side of an active volcano and hoping for the best when the inevitable happens. The locals would be well aware of the risk, or at least should be.

You'd also have to question the wisdom of building nuclear power stations in a volatile earthquake zone. As some experts and Japanese protestors have already pointed out, the plants aren't designed to withstand that amount of shaking.

Exactly what I was thinking. Apparently Italy (which lies on a fault line and is prone to the odd major earthquake) is looking to build it's first nuclear power plant. :S

Now, that's just too close to home for comfort.

Another scary prospect (albeit unlikely) is the potential for a terrorist attack (plane hijack?) on a powerplant!

MC Prussian

MC Prussian

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The Japanese population has allegedly been lied to for at least 10 years about the safety and maintenance of many of their nuclear power plants.

There have been several incidents in which the power plants were not constructed safely enough and/or operated properly and evidence intentionally brushed underneath the rug.

Usually, the Japanese have an immense trust in their engineering capabilities and grow up learning to live with natural catastrophes, but this trust has now taken an immense blow.

The question remains why the Japanese, with all their intellligence and knowledge, would build most of their nuclear power plants close to shorelines.

Is it because of the ability to use seawater to cool the reactors if necessary?

Imagine if the UK were to be the epicenter of tsunami waves and what it would mean to the areas near Dungeness, Hartlepool or Heysham.

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