Talk. I’m surprised there isn’t a thread already.
There is currently a risk one of the country’s nuclear reactors might meltdown.
They are pumping sea water into the reactor to cool it. Supposedly, the meltdown isn’t too severe, but this likely means the end of the reactor’s useful life.
The uranium is emitting cesium, indicating that the cooling isn’t working as well as they’d like. It won’t go Chernobyl though.
A few hours old but it gives an idea as to what they’re facing. In short, shit just got real (as far as meltdown concerns are concerned).
Its not clear yet what part of the nuclear plant blew up , but any explosion in the current context is reminiscent of Chernobyl. It really makes me wonder what happened and whether or not the reactor can still be cooled. And on a grimmer note, there are reports of up to 10 000 people missing from a certain city / region hit by the Tsunami. Things are looking much worse than I originally thought it would be (nuclear reactor aside). I would’ve thought that a day time quake / tsunami would’ve permitted for an evacuation of the coast.
According to the Japanese government, the explosion was a result of leaking cooling water turning to hydrogen and igniting. The explosion happened on the exterior, not within the bulkhead.
That’s far better news than that video suggested. They’re definitely going to need to shut that plant down, but at least they still can.
Also, holy shit 10k missing? I really hope it’s just a case of a lack of communication.
Whether or not radiation leaks, that plant and some others which were shut down to prevent more disasters generated 18% of Japan’s power, according to some sources (http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/11/uk-japan-quake-reactor-idUKTRE72A4R320110311). That’s a huge blow to the country as a whole.
Also, a fucking huge whirlpool formed on the sea of Japan. That was friggin’ scary.
Kero’s in Japan currently. He’s not dead. Barely felt anything.
I would say, judging from that enormous black wave enveloping Japan, that those 10,000 people are most likely gone.
Also, I’m glad Kero is safe. I forgot he was there. We were supposed to meet up when I was in Japan, but it was hard to get ahold of him and get things figured out. The girl I stayed with was evacuated from her building and taken to a elementary school. But I think she went back home. But her husband is a firefighter so he’s probably going to be dead. He’s a tiny man, they need tiny men that can get into places other people can’t to like find people and what not.
Not even Godzilla can help this time. God bless them…
GSG, isn’t there a 9/11 thread you can go make fun of? Got any jokes about the holocaust?
Kero’s in Kyoto, which is pretty far from where the quake happened.
It looks like the news keeps saying “IMMINENT NUCLEAR MELTDOWN” but then they say something like “we’re getting reports that it is not as serious as we’re making out it out to be” all quiet because they dont want the latter part to register in our minds, they just want people to keep watching.
Yeah the 10,000 people unaccounted for is quite horrific… however they have been without power since the quake… so there is a possibility that communication is a reason for the missing, but seeing the footage (especially the fishing village that was literally swept away) I don’t think there’s much hope for many of them. This is the first tsunami I’ve seen where they’ve captured the whole process of on video! Right from the whirlpool at the epicenter, the waves moving towards the shore, the waves moving inland and destroying everything!
ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC!!! I can’t imagine what it would have been like for them…
Yeah, I gotta be careful when I go to sleep sometimes…shit like this happens.
Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Massive Grass Fires (where I’m at); much like a scenery for a doomsday.
Anyways, from what I’ve been hearing on these reactors, they were planning on trying to cool one of the cores with sea water. Seems if anything major does happen, like a meltdown, it shouldn’t be a major disaster (or at least not like the media’s playing it out to be). However, the major news outlets seem to have conflicting and/or confusing reports on what the situation actually is. So we’ll have to see what happens there.
Still, sucks what happened over there. Also saw that death spiral whirlpool. Crazy.
Yeah that’s what I heard too! They have been interviewing nuclear experts and they say that even if this event does unfold into meltdown, the effects won’t be life threatening. They said people should be more concerned with getting the necessary essentials like food, water and somewhere to stay.
Update: there are potentially up to 6 reactors undergoing or at risk of undergoing meltdowns in Japan.