Earthquake has hit Japan

[antron]

I seriously doubt fission will ever produce as little radioactive waste as the ITER fussion plant plans to. It won't even be close, tritium has a half life of just 12.32 years. If that thing works it's over for everything else. The only question that will remain is how long it will take to convert society.

[Blackbird]

I don't think there is anyone arguing that fusion power won't replace fission power - when it becomes available.

The invention of a functional, safe fusion reactor will reinvent the energy industry. However, it's a long ways off, and until then, we have to make due with the best alternative that we can muster.

There is also no guarantee that the initial fusion reactors will work perfectly. The first nuclear plants were extremely hazardous and prone to accidents. However, now that the technology has matured, modern plants are quite safe in the grand scheme of things. I fully expect that fusion technology will experience the same "growing pains" as fission technology has. This is just how technological advancement works.

[brentsg]

Radiation dose reference chart:

http://xkcd.com/radiation/

[moozooh]

Wait, how do geothermal plants generate waste? I was under the impression that they just circulated steam through turbines, cooled it by condensation, and heated the water back into steam through geothermal heat. I don't see what step would generate any sort of output - it seems self-contained.

Oh, you'd be surprised then. The process needs to be "enriched" artificially to be more efficient, and the degree of overall control is lower in case of an unforeseen event as we're talking natural forces. Similarly, hydroelectric stations incur flooding of large areas upstream, and downstream in case of a dam breakdown, among other things. Windmills fuck birds up. Solar batteries contain toxic chemicals which need to be harvested, processed, and stored. Etc.

Do you think this is b/c of the practice in general, or is it just the one we're most comfortable with as we've used it the longest?

Dunno, probably same as with alcohol vs. marijuana.

[JAPJAC]

Gor blimey! That's what I'm talking about, real food n' drink, right there, serious:



Cheers.

[austere]

[BPzeBanshee]

What the hell is that food tray supposed to consist of?

[Skykid]

What the hell is that food tray supposed to consist of?

Looks like a sunday roast to me. Funny how all the guys who come back from Japan order the exact same thing straight away, ha ha.

(That's in reference to those returning to the UK of course.)

[Teufel_in_Blau]

Please excuse my stupid question, but

Eating one banana (0.1 µSv)

Does this only occur by eating a banana or does it count for food in general?

I'm asking because the media is usually using the banana as example. Just wondering.

[antron]

Eating one banana (0.1 µSv)

Does this only occur by eating a banana or does it count for food in general?

anything with that much potassium.

[CHI]

sad case indeed... natural disaster... what can do

am suppose to catch a flight to Tokyo next week, now the flight has to be postponed

[GaijinPunch]

am suppose to catch a flight to Tokyo next week, now the flight has to be postponed

I'm catching one next week. Flying on my mother's pass (standby) even as they are "wide open".
First class here I come.... losers!

<knocks on wood>

[austere]

http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_imag ... 58392P.pdf

Latest release from the reactor operators, it's very detailed this time.

It's looking pretty good for Unit 1, 5 and 6. The rest are a bit up in the air, unit 3 had been evacuated due to gray smoke, which is interesting but I'll leave it there for now.

[GaijinPunch]

Anyone watch Michio Kaku on David Letterman tonight? I was a bit disappointed. I know the guy is a futurist so will not have much nice to say about nuclear energy as it is, safety debates set aside, not that efficient, But he seems to put the worst case scenario (3 reactors melting down) in the "mass devastation" area affecting all of Northern Japan, as well as leaking radiation into the ocean. When Dave asked him if Russia did a better job at Chernobyl, he said he believed so as Gorby buried the reactors w/ Boric acid & concrete.


Thoughts?

[JAPJAC]

I hope everything in Japan is improving day by day for you chaps.

England has the best choccy bars in the World. The end:



And 'Monster Munch' tastes like it used to again-is it normal!?

etnies 'til I die. Digit 2 in Brown/Sand GETS!:



Cheers.

[moozooh]

I find it pretty much impossible to do a parody on JAPJAC just because JAPJAC himself does a much better job. :D

Also, a follow-up on my earlier recommendation not to eat any fish and sea products from the eastern shore of Japan: Wikipedia claims TEPCO has issued a statement that a 0.5 litre sample of sea water 'in the vicinity of the outlet [of the plant]' has revealed an iodine-131 increase of 126.7 times 'above standard levels', among increases of other isotopes, citing Asahi.

Regarding the power line business, it's good that they've managed to connect Units 5 and 6, but it confuses me as to why they couldn't check the integrity of the electrical equipment in Units 2 and 3 during construction of the emergency power line, rather than upon, thereby not wasting as much time. Lack of people?

[rancor]

I find it pretty much impossible to do a parody on JAPJAC just because JAPJAC himself does a much better job.

Don't be so hard on him - I honestly think he's either borderline autistic or has aspergers. I've met a few people with those qualities in my life and they have difficulty staying on topic or talking about anything other than themselves... (says rancor as he meanders from the topic of "Earthquake has hit Japan")

For example, a person with AS may engage in a one-sided, long-winded speech about a favorite topic, while misunderstanding or not recognizing the listener's feelings or reactions, such as a need for privacy or haste to leave. This social awkwardness has been called "active but odd". People with Asperger syndrome often display behavior, interests, and activities that are restricted and repetitive and are sometimes abnormally intense or focused.

'The leading English-speaking expert on the Capcom Power System CHANGER'

[Skykid]

sad case indeed... natural disaster... what can do

am suppose to catch a flight to Tokyo next week, now the flight has to be postponed

I was wondering about you mate, talk about shitty timing. Did you find your accommodation in the end, because I literally can't find the Ryokan I was looking for on the interweb at all.

Don't be so hard on him - I honestly think he's either borderline autistic or has aspergers. I've met a few people with those qualities in my life and they have difficulty staying on topic or talking about anything other than themselves... (says rancor as he meanders from the topic of "Earthquake has hit Japan")

Probably right. I do recognise he uses phrases that were popular amongst the London youth/gamer scene about twelve years ago, but are so out of date now it's a bit embarrassing. JapJac, you've been gone too long. Old CEX is dead, the gaming community is fractured and lots of people disappeared. If you want to talk the lingo, you can still find some old heads waxing lyrical reminiscence at the Neo Empire events.

[DragonInstall]

So apparently workers at the plant are not surprised by this accident. The plant has the highest rate of problems then any other plant. It emits the most radiation to it's workers and regular inspections and the results from the inspections were constantly ignored.

That's some luck that a tsunami happened to hit that plant.

[greg]

JAPJAC,
So does Orange Fanta in England also contain "brominated soybean oil"? I just can't drink that stuff after I saw that on a label of Orage Crush. Orange Fanta has it too. YUCK. I love orange soda, but now I'll only buy the expensive stuff with real sugar and without swigging toxic oil.

[austere]

Anyone watch Michio Kaku on David Letterman tonight? I was a bit disappointed. I know the guy is a futurist so will not have much nice to say about nuclear energy as it is, safety debates set aside, not that efficient, But he seems to put the worst case scenario (3 reactors melting down) in the "mass devastation" area affecting all of Northern Japan, as well as leaking radiation into the ocean.
...
Thoughts?

Before I comment, I have to say that he's actually no where near as smart as he is credited to be. Such is the case with mathematicians disguised as physicists with no useful output. His enthusiasm might be helpful, however I find that it leads to brain damage when not grounded. His predictions of the future are utter rubbish, his examples on integrated circuits are derived from a misunderstanding of price inflation and scaling (which will "end" in 2015). So I wouldn't normally comment on this guy unless someone mentioned him...

But anyway, I think the worst case at the moment is two reactors melting down, Unit 2 and 3. Unit 4 was supposedly partly loaded (still no confirmation though), but I think (i.e. I'm speculating) the fuel was fairly new so partial meltdown can occur, at worst. Another danger in unit 2, 3 and 4 is the state of the spent fuel rods. There's still a lack of information about these. There are indications that some assemblies of spent fuel rods in either unit 3 or 4 have fallen apart during the explosion (which in unit 3's case wasn't a hydrogen explosion only, zero information about unit 4 which wasn't simply a fire as indicated on the report). This is very bad news for both the release of radiation and any subsequent clean up effort.

It's also quite likely, that reactor 3 has already melted down and is currently ablating the reactor vessel. Not to worry though, our knowledge on how to handle such a situation has expanded massively since Chernobyl. There are many countermeasures they can take once they're able to cool the reactor down. Leakage of radioactive material into the ocean is already occurring but that's not really a big deal anyway. What is important is that it doesn't reach the water table in a high enough concentration. I previously mentioned that someone said the plants have been built on bedrock, I doubt this now, given its location next to the coast, it is probably on top of a lot of sediment.

When Dave asked him if Russia did a better job at Chernobyl, he said he believed so as Gorby buried the reactors w/ Boric acid & concrete.

Did he really say that? (BTW, they also used lead with good reason)

The immediate response to Chernobyl was supposedly complicated by failure to communicate the situation to Gorbachev. I think it was mainly due to lack of thorough planning and the subsequent attempts to understate the problem is a testament to my assumption. Russia was not the only one guilty of this, many European countries also downplayed the situation. The worst thing (other than the design, operation of the plant) was the location of the plant -- directly above an aquifer! The sarcophagus is also a bit of a band-aid solution, such a thing should never be built until a proper clean up effort is done.*

The reason why Russia was able to do what it did, was due mainly to the workers not fully understanding the risk they're taking and even after that, their willingness to put their lives on the line to save the world for human beings. Overall and contrary to what he said, the government's response was dreadful and it was really the sacrifice of many heroes that got it all under control. This is something I don't think the Japanese government can afford, in this day and age, heroes are hard to find. They're lucky enough to have the plant operators that are running shifts right now.

To this day, revisionists are trying to downplay the true effects of this accident. Indeed, given the tendency to downplay these incidents, you may want to take anything that comes out of "authority" with a grain of salt. Of course, that goes hand-in-hand with not jumping to conclusions in general, which I think Michio Kaku is doing from what you relayed...

* I know I said "it's time to start the cement mixers" earlier on (and before the sewerstream media caught on, lol) but I was kind of joking, a sarcophagus is really the last desperate solution AFTER a meltdown has been stopped. I hope it never even comes near that in Japan.

[GaijinPunch]

When Dave asked him if Russia did a better job at Chernobyl, he said he believed so as Gorby buried the reactors w/ Boric acid & concrete.

Did he really say that? (BTW, they also used lead with good reason)

I'm going off of memory, but I believe the exact quotes were:
Dave: Do you think Russia did a better job in Chernobyl
Dr. Kaku: I believe so, as Gorbechev invoked Red Army (or something like that) whereby he buried the entire reactr with sand, concrete, and boric acid.

That's very close, if not entirely correct. I'm looking for the a torrent of the show but not finding it, unfortunately.

heroes are hard to find. They're lucky enough to have the plant operators that are running shifts right now.

I'm actually not surprised at all that they have the operators they have now. Japanese are very dedicated, if we're looking at the common denominator. Shame is still the major motivator.

[Skykid]

I'm actually not surprised at all that they have the operators they have now. Japanese are very dedicated, if we're looking at the common denominator. Shame is still the major motivator.

Yes, a very interesting social dynamic that, but one that's invaluable in such critical situations.

BBC news says the workforce has successfully linked power cables to all six reactors, they're just running final checks before attempting to turn the cooling systems back on.

[CHI]

sad case indeed... natural disaster... what can do

am suppose to catch a flight to Tokyo next week, now the flight has to be postponed

I was wondering about you mate, talk about shitty timing...

you have EMAIL!

sorry, please continue...

[drauch]

This earthquake situation is a real downer. I'm so relieved JAPJAC can still get his brown Etnies skate shoes and combo of chocolate bars and Fanta and still manage to simultaneously pimp his website.

[Blackbird]

Those chocolate bars look delicious =D.

[Skykid]

Magic Knight is SAFE!

He's checked in at AO and has a pretty crazy story:

http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic. ... 0&start=75

Quite a relief.

And his entire 176 strong PCB collection survived in the upstairs of the house while the downstairs was Tsunami gutted!

[Vyxx]

This earthquake situation is a real downer. I'm so relieved JAPJAC can still get his brown Etnies skate shoes and combo of chocolate bars and Fanta and still manage to simultaneously pimp his website.

Leave him alone, he has Ass Burgers.

Also, Glad to see MagicKnight finally checking in

[Domino]

Yep, David just email me. I send him an email when the whole thing happen. Thank god he's alive.

[GaijinPunch]

My friend that lives here in Santa Cruz says there's a fund to help the boat owners in Santa Cruz whose boats were damaged by teh 3 inch tsunami that made it all the way to the west coast.

There are no emoticons....