Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant • Hacker News Board

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#11

Post by patrickgzill » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:18 AM UTC

hartror wrote: post #2

False attention grabbing title. They have not abandoned it, they said in the press conference just passed that they had suspended operations due to a radiation peak but they expected to resume again without much delay. Edit: The workers have returned http://roound.com/redalert

Kyodo News reported that staff had vacated the control room due to high levels of radioactivity. If that is not "abandoning" then it is pretty close to it.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/japan-quake-live-blog-f... (scroll down or search for "control" in the postings)

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#12

Post by hartror » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:18 AM UTC

msbarnett wrote: post #8

jedsmith wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire article didn't mention any kind of expectation for resuming operations, and you are doubting the Associated Press here, not Gizmodo. Can you cite the rest? So far, I can only find this AP story.

It was just announced in a press conference that I caught live on NHK that they were planning on resuming operations shortly. The AP article seems to have been written prior to this conference.

Which is exactly what I refered to in my post. sigh

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#13

Post by w1ntermute » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:19 AM UTC

(Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question or I didn't pick up on a major point) Can anyone explain how they're going to stop whatever is going wrong without any workers there?

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#14

Post by pessimist » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:19 AM UTC

Headline is false (possibly mistranslation).

According to http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/latest-updates-o...:

11:13 P.M. (EST) Core Group of Workers Remain at Plant The Times’s Hiroko Tabuchi reports that a small group of workers remains at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, contrary to what an English translation of the chief cabinet secretary’s remarks had implied.

Edit: http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_earthquake2 is also reporting that workers are (back) in. Also NHK is clearly reporting that the chief secretary misspoke radiation levels and used milli instead of micro.

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#15

Post by capedape » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:20 AM UTC

hartror wrote: post #10

afterburner wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The on-site workers have left, those who were basically right next to the reactor. There is no indication in any article I have read that they will soon return, only plans of helicopter based fire-fighting or other options.

They ruled out using helicopters as anything but a last resort in the press conference. They said it was too risky to dump lots of water on the already fragile reactors.

via @W7VOA

"S. Korea to ship boric acid to help Japan stabilize nuclear reactors."

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#16

Post by pero » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:21 AM UTC

They earlier raised the legal radiation limit that workers can be exposed to from 100mSv to 250mSv.

Readings at the gates were 800uSv 30 or so minutes ago when the suspension was announced.

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#17

Post by mrshoe » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:21 AM UTC

I'm having a hard time reconciling patio11's article with more recent reports of people walking 60km to get home, all food being gone from all stores, people living in Apple stores, and the government ordering a 30km evacuation zone around nuclear power plants.

Maybe his point was "it could have been a lot worse", but I read it more like "everything went as planned and life went on without missing more than a few beats". The latter certainly doesn't seem to be the case.

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#18

Post by hartror » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:27 AM UTC

capedape wrote: post #15

hartror wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They ruled out using helicopters as anything but a last resort in the press conference. They said it was too risky to dump lots of water on the already fragile reactors.

via @W7VOA "S. Korea to ship boric acid to help Japan stabilize nuclear reactors."

You don't need a helicopter to deliver boric acid into the reactors.

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#19

Post by ubernostrum » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:30 AM UTC

patrickgzill wrote: post #11

hartror wrote: post #2

False attention grabbing title. They have not abandoned it, they said in the press conference just passed that they had suspended operations due to a radiation peak but they expected to resume again without much delay. Edit: The workers have returned http://roound.com/redalert

Kyodo News reported that staff had vacated the control room due to high levels of radioactivity. If that is not "abandoning" then it is pretty close to it. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/japan-quake-live-blog-f... (scroll down or search for "control" in the postings)

The problem people seem to have is that "abandon" implies "everyone has left and no-one will ever come back", and that the plant will be left, unattended, to its fate. While various articles seem to actually be saying "people left temporarily, but will be coming back" and that efforts will continue to deal with the problem.

Re: Japan suspends work at stricken nuclear plant

#20

Post by hop » Wed, Mar 16, 2011, 3:31 AM UTC

jedsmith wrote: post #3

Nikkei and CNN both reported that 50 employees stayed behind out of 800, with CNN quoting someone as saying that they should be considered heroes for doing so (couldn't agree more). If you click CNN's "breaking" on this topic, the article actually still says that. This is certainly a much more serious development. Edit: Anderson Cooper called this "hard to believe" on-air, and he's being careful about how to word it.…

That was yesterdays news. Those ~50 remaining all evacuated apparently.

Also, the Wikipedia "Timeline of Fukushima nuclear accidents" has been reliable for the latest updates - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Fukushima_nucle...