Japan Earthquake

[Andrew]

Probably should have been made earlier.

Decided to make it now that reactor #4 is on fire and radiation is leaking.

Wasn't sandchigger or someone in Japan?

[ErasOmnius]

Sandchigger is there. I looked, he is on his Twitter, so he's still alive.

They should probably close the Nikkei -- before something major happens. Like the bankrupting of Tokyo Power, or Toyota.

[athanasios]

As things progress, radiation doesn't seem to be a major threat, just local effects (radius of 20-30 km). Tokyo shouldn't panic. Usually after some days an after quake of considerable strength occurs. That can be a threat to the already damaged reactors only if it happens within a week.

But economy and infrastructure of Japan is heavily damaged.

[MrFlibble]

Probably should have been made earlier.

Decided to make it now that reactor #4 is on fire and radiation is leaking.

The scale of the damage caused by the disaster seems tremendous. Reports on the development of the situation with the reactors are still coming in, and there are high figures for casualties and people gone missing, along with the destruction of settlements, roads, other communications, and everything. That's horrible.

Wasn't sandchigger or someone in Japan?

'Chig reported on Jacurutu that he's fine, but Internet had been down there for some time.

[athanasios]

Under the name of progress and capitalist profit, human lives are expendable:

Japan earthquake: Japan warned over nuclear plants, WikiLeaks cables show

The Associated Press Posted: 03/16/2011 07:23:01 AM PDT Updated: 03/16/2011 07:23:01 AM PDT

TOKYO - Japan has raised the maximum radiation dose allowed for nuclear workers, citing the urgent need to prevent a crisis at a tsunami-stricken power plant from worsening. Despite the increase, surging radiation levels forced emergency workers to temporarily withdraw from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant on Wednesday, losing time in their struggle to cool overheating fuel in reactors crippled by last week's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare raised the maximum allowable exposure for nuclear workers to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts. It described the move as "unavoidable due to the circumstances."

[Andrew]

Cleaned up thread a bit. Let's stay on topic. Not so much politics athanasios. There's lots of other threads for that.

Lawrence Person's Futuramen Blog that has some updates with videos on Japan. Scroll down and you get some info. Mostly just disaster videos of tsunami, and a couple of the volcano erupting.

[MrFlibble]

I didn't know that there was a volcano eruption too.

[Andrew]

I didn't know that there was a volcano eruption too.

The daytime volcano video was nice. A couple times you could see lightening in the dust cloud. Japan has got hit by a lot.

[athanasios]

Politics? If it isn't a crime that the Capitalists failed to secure their nuclear infrastructure from earthquakes despite the warnings they received because they wanted to maximize profit, thus sacrificing human lives, then what is it? Anyway better not add much here. Links can followed and anyone can draw his conclusions:

Welter of Misinformation Cloud IAEA, Media Reports on Fukushima Power Restoration

[athanasios]

Japan reactor pumps knocked out (?)

[athanasios]

Things get hard for Tokyo. Water contaminated, vegetables contaminated, and radiation continues to escape...

I wonder how the following chart will look like a few months later:

[MrFlibble]

Blaming everything on "them evil capitalists" would be an exaggeration to say the least. Even if you ignore the circumstances that cannot be directly controlled (earthquake, tsunami), the human factor plays a very important role here.

For example, a psychological study in the late 70-s in the Soviet Union examined the behaviour of operators at chemical factories whose responsibility was to monitor the systems in order to avoid critical situations. It turned out that the operators tended to allow certain parameters that they monitored to raise quite above the critical mark before they took any preventive action. After the study, the critical marks on the relevant meters were uniformly lowered to avoid accidents. And that's not because "them weird Commies" used to have some different behavioural patterns than the rest of the world, that's how humans tend to act in certain types of situations.

Also take a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_reliability#Human_error

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisational_models_of_accidents

[athanasios]

It is not about human error, but of failing to heed warnings and take recommended measures for maximizing profit.

BTW: Even certain NASA accidents might have been avoided if similar warnings were taken more seriously.

[ErasOmnius]

I think the biggest point of your chart is: Who is going to buy the NEW debt in the bond auction next week?

[Andrew]

new youtube video of tsunami

At first cameraman appears safe, but after 6 minutes water getting pretty close to where he/she is as every other building (except for 5 story) gets wiped out. So in 6 minutes town probably within 2 km wiped out.

[athanasios]

Shocking. He seems to be on the roof of a 3 story building, so he was safe. If the tsounami was a couple meters higher not only would he be history and we would never see that video but probably millions would die all over the world.

[Andrew]

If the tsounami was a couple meters higher not only would he be history and we would never see that video but probably millions would die all over the world.

Huh?

That would not happen.

[ErasOmnius]

I am sick and tired of there not being an adequate tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. A quarter of a million people died in 2004, how many the next time?

[athanasios]

Humans are expendable material.

Andrew: ? It has happened several times in the past. Japan's recent tsunami was just a 'toy'.

Historic tsunamis:

The tallest tsunami ever recorded so far is the 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami, which had a record height of 524 m (1742 ft).

Note the frequency of Japan and Greece among the listed tsunamis there.

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Alas, Japan is doomed:

Nuclear accident seems to be even worse than that of Chernobyl. The reactors are still very active:

Woes deepen over radioactive waters at nuke plant, sea contamination

According to the latest data released Sunday, radioactive iodine-134, a substance which sees its radiation release reduced to about half in some 53 minutes, existed in water at the No. 2 reactor's turbine building at an extremely high concentration of 2.9 billion becquerels per 1 cubic centimeter.

[SandChigger]

Japan's doing quite well, thank you very much. Don't believe everything you hear or read.

What was the stuff about a volcano?

[Andrew]

I thought a Volcano erupted in Japan and there were videos.

Volcano Erupts in Southern Japan, Smoke Seen 5,000 Feet Above the Crater - warning, little news video player starts on its own next to story.

[athanasios]

I worry that radiation has already affected you. We are missing your caustic posts!

Better leave the doomed country, unless your employer has forbidden it to you. Work slaves! Work and die:

CNBC: Goldman Sachs Employees Told Not to Leave Japan

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KZ1BvInymw&feature=player_embedded

[athanasios]

Japan disaster Japan says battle to save nuclear reactors has failed

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Bomb targets Swiss nuclear lobby group

[ErasOmnius]

Too bad about those reactors. They are very expensive, and generate a lot of electricity.

[athanasios]

Cement?