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8.9 earthquake hits Japan

earthquake.usgs.gov

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Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#181

Post by dtelepathy »

melvinram wrote: post #123

Red Cross and others will likely be jumping to the aide of those who have been affected by this disaster. If you have a website, please consider adding a message and link to the Red Cross donation website or the link to the donation page of any other website. To get it up ASAP, I've used the HelloBar ( http://www.hellobar.com ) on my site. You can see a working version of it at http://www.webdesigncompany.net but rea…

Thanks Melvin. Great idea.

We've set up the invite code "helpjapan" if you would like to use Hello Bar to encourage aid.

Melvin's working version is a great example to duplicate. Just sign up at http://www.hellobar.com and enter the invite code on the next page.

Pasting Melvin's code is a great alternative as well if you don't want to sign up for an account.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#182

Post by Alex3917 »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #175
koski wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fire out at Onagawa nuclear power plant. Oh dear ...

that fire was put out. hope everything will be okay at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Another blow to the public's perception of nuclear energy. :(

If the power going out is enough to potentially cause a nuclear meltdown, I'm pretty sure that's indicative of flawed technology rather than some problem with public perception.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#184

Post by thingie »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #175
koski wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fire out at Onagawa nuclear power plant. Oh dear ...

that fire was put out. hope everything will be okay at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Another blow to the public's perception of nuclear energy. :(

In my perception, it shows that nuclear plants are able to sustain damage during such a massive earthquake without causing significant harm to their surrounding, all while the oil refineries are burning…

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#186

Post by Confusion »

atgm wrote: post #146
po wrote: post #25

I'm still feeling shakes every few minutes. It's like living in a house on a block of jello. Long rolling waves. I'm in central Tokyo and our china cabinet was shaken pretty badly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostre... I know some people up in sendai that I'm a bit worried about.

I'm feeling shakes every 20 minutes or so; one of the earthquake alerts on my phone actually preceded the shaking by about 10 seconds. My body's so used to the shaking that it always thinks it's shaking -- I set up a bottle of water to look at just so I don't go insane. 11:30 pm JST and I'm still feeling quakes.

To verify your sanity: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/qu...

Some of the later quakes were als closer to Tokyo compared to the big one.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#187

Post by koski »

koski wrote: post #133

Japan has declared a state of emergency because of the failure of the cooling system at one nuclear plant, according to the Associated Press. Officials say there has been no leak of radiation. Let's hope this does not get any worse than it is right now.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US Air Force in Japan has transported coolant to the plant. Officials say the facility should be back to normal soon.

That's good news.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#188

Post by magicofpi »

magicofpi wrote: post #141
jarin wrote: post #6

I just talked to my parents in Hawaii, there's a tsunami warning for 3 am HST. I reminded my dad to sandbag the doors of his restaurant in Waikiki (Vit's Hawaiian Steakhouse) before he closes for the night. It's just outside of the "tsunami zone" in Waikiki, so I know my dad will probably be working until the police make him evacuate. He did that on the last tsunami warning, and Vit's was pretty much the only restaur…

Update: Tsunami waves have begun to hit the islands, but it's relatively small for now. Update 2: About an hour later, still very moderate waves, although the water has been receding so far that you can see the reefs. No damage reported. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center doesn't expect this to be a major event, although there's still a few hours left in the danger zone. I'm in Hawaii right now (out of the evacuation zon…

Update 3: About three hours later, there's still no all clear. Oahu and Kauai are a lot better off than Maui and the Big Island, where there have been reports of flooding and damage. They're still gathering information, though, because it's still dark here, but there may have been waves of up to 9 feet.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#189

Post by koski »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #175
koski wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fire out at Onagawa nuclear power plant. Oh dear ...

that fire was put out. hope everything will be okay at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Another blow to the public's perception of nuclear energy. :(

The World Nuclear Association has said it understands the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is "under control", and that water is now being pumped into its cooling system. The Japanese government earlier declared an emergency as a precaution and evacuated people living nearby, after there was a malfunction and the water level began to fall. A WNA analyst said the back-up battery power system was now online.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#190

Post by epochwolf »

Alex3917 wrote: post #182
nazgulnarsil wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that fire was put out. hope everything will be okay at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Another blow to the public's perception of nuclear energy. :(

If the power going out is enough to potentially cause a nuclear meltdown, I'm pretty sure that's indicative of flawed technology rather than some problem with public perception.

Most nuclear reactors will automatically scram if they lose power. The control rods are held up with electromagnets so they will drop if power is lost. Losing power isn't too dangerous. Loss of coolant is quite dangerous but there are backup systems that can flood the reactor with an alternative coolant source. For example a submarines can flood their reactors with seawater. You just don't want to do that except in an extreme emergency because it will destroy the reactor equipment.

Edit: It looks like the reactor had a coolant pump failure. The loops are intact. There is time to do something about this. The water has to boil off before anything really bad starts happening. At this point they would be concerned with saving the reactor from damage. Declaring a nuclear emergency is still a good idea. This is dangerous but not anywhere near three mile island. They know what's happening inside the reactor and can handle things accordingly.

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