Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster In Japan

[DeadGirlsDontDance]

I am disappointed that no giant robots have appeared and come to Japan's aid. If giant robots from space were going to help anybody, it would be the Japanese. Where are the giant robots? (Sorry, folks, I'm retreating into flippant nerdiness to keep from crying.)

[Lunican]

http://www.youtube.com/v/B01vktb2bj4?fs=1&hl=en_US

[Timkin]

I wonder how far inland a Tsunami like this would go ,if it came up at Jax Beach 

[BridgeTroll]

It would likely follow the St Johns... the port would be wiped out and downtown would flood...

[Timkin]

I cannot imagine the devastation. I am in Arlington just West of the Inter coastal .  Im sure it would easily get to my location.. of course in this City , a 9.0 Earthquake and subsequent aftershocks would probably level much of the City .

[NotNow]

Our coast is quite different.  The continental shelf extends well offshore here, where in Japan the deep water comes right up to the coast.  The sixty or so miles of shallow water would take quite a bit out of such a wave.  Just another advantage of Jacksonville's unique location.

[jandar]

But at the same time, we are more vulnerable due to the river system we have.

If a Cat 5 hurricane hit the mouth of the st johns, you would need to evacuate quite a bit of NE Florida due to the surge. Drs Lake would flood, so would areas in Palatka.

[Timkin]

yup...seems much of Florida is not that much higher than Sea Level.  Seems like a good bit of the area would flood in either event.  Lets hope we never have to find out .

[BridgeTroll]

The Tsunami from a fishing boat at sea... long before it reached land...

http://www.youtube.com/v/3fqyOpqnJyw

[peestandingup]

Just broke.

TOKYO â€" Reports: Japan decides to raise nuclear crisis alert level to 7, highest, equal to Chernobyl.

Washington Post (not much there at the moment): http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/reports-japan-decides-to-raise-nuclear-crisis-alert-level-to-7-highest-equal-to-chernobyl/2011/04/11/AF1220MD_story.html

Japan is to raise the nuclear alert level at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to a maximum seven, putting the emergency on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Nuclear safety officials had insisted they had no plans to raise the severity of the crisis from five â€" the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 â€" according to the international nuclear and radiological event scale.

But the government came under pressure to raise the level at the plant after Japan's nuclear safety commission estimated the amount of radioactive material released from its stricken reactors reached 10,000 terabecquerels per hour for several hours following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeast coast on 11 March. That level of radiation constitutes a major accident, according to the INES scale.

The scale, devised by the international atomic energy agency, ranks nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents by their severity from one to seven.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/12/japan-nuclear-alert-level-seven

All the "this'll NEVER be like Chernobyl blah blah" doubters posting here a month ago should probably report immediately to this thread for your horse-whipping. But if you still have a doubt, wait a few years when the birth defects start popping up over there, then it'll probably be a bit more clearer to you. These things take time to get the full effect.

[Lunican]

Well let's start from the beginning...

So you think Greenpeace is wrong about something?

Yes.  They intentionally overstate the dangers of nuclear power for their own radical political ends.

And ever heard of three Mile Island?

You mean the incident which resulted in no adverse health consequences for the public?  Here is a clip from the report of the President's Council on the accident:

Just how serious was the accident? Based on our investigation of the health effects of the accident, we conclude that in spite of serious damage to the plant, most of the radiation was contained and the actual release will have a negligible effect on the physical health of individuals. The major health effect of the accident was found to be mental stress.

The amount of radiation received by any one individual outside the plant was very low. However, even low levels of radiation may result in the later development of cancer, genetic defects, or birth defects among children who are exposed in the womb. Since there is no direct way of measuring the danger of low-level radiation to health, the degree of danger must be estimated indirectly. Different scientists make different assumptions about how this estimate should be made and, therefore, estimates vary. Fortunately, in this case the radiation doses were so low that we conclude that the overall health effects will be minimal. There will either be no case of cancer or the number of cases will be so small that it will never be possible to detect them. The same conclusion applies to the other possible health effects.

http://www.pddoc.com/tmi2/kemeny/severity_of_the_accident.htm

Is it important that Chernobyl happened in Russia?

Yes.  The accident happened in a communist run nuclear power plant which had outdated equipment and was run with customary Soviet inefficiency and incompetence.  So, such an accident was FAR more likely to have occurred there and at that time than anywhere else now.  BTW, do you find it significant that there have been no major nuclear incidents in France even though the country derives most of its power from nuclear generators?  We have also had no incidents since Three Mile Island almost 30 years ago and, as stated above, Three Mile Island was not a health hazard and was blown out of proportion by the leftist media types and the green crowd who hate nuclear power for irrational reasons.

[ChriswUfGator]

Well all you really had to see was "Riverside Gator" to know the inevitable result.

NotAgain is doing his best to pick up where RG left off...

[Timkin]

So ... this is nothing to be concerned about?

[ChriswUfGator]

No of course it is, it's horrible. Even more horrible because it was avoidable. But this is the result of profits over people.

[Timkin]

I have intently watched that situation, and it was looking like a Chernobyl situation several weeks ago.. Of course the Japanese officials probably did not want wide-spread panic and maybe did not realize the severity....the recent 7.1 aftershock did not help matters..  and I still think this is just the "tip" of the iceberg.

How the hell to contain that mess??  Is there any way at all ?  obviously not so far