Tsunami hits north-eastern Japan after massive quake

Well the current plus I can see maybe, is that if there was a release of radioactive materials, the winds may blow it into the sea area.
But I noticed that reactor buildings are built on the basis of a probability of an earthquake within a particular country, rather than the strength of the earthquake. Surely it would be best to construct it based on the strength of an earthquake so things like this wouldn't happen?
 
well when u get an earthquake of this magnitude I doubt their is that much u can do to prevent damage even to a reactor.
 
The reactor-housing buildings are still intact I think, the problem is that the quake has damaged the cooling system in the reactor itself.

Also, a quake of this size is a very rare occurence; its the biggest recorded in Japan I think. The buildings will have been built to withstand a reasonably strong quake, but something this size is unlikely to be prepared for.

Nuclear reactors in Japan are subject to even stricter safety rules than those elsewhere, but again an event of this size has no precedent.

EDIT: Also see post above. Ninja'd me somewhat.
 
One of the reactors is apparentley in meltdown and an explosion has been heard according to the BBC. People are being evacuated from the area.
 
Great, not only did the japs get an earthquake and a tsunami, now they're getting ************* Chernobyl. Poor people.
 
what a **** is going with nature... tsunamis, earthquakes, floods...
 
Luke Cro said:
what a **** is going with nature... tsunamis, earthquakes, floods...
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It has been going on for centuries. We hear about it more nowadays because the media output is massive with the web.

Back in the eighties no-one knew about the famine in ethiopia until the BBC reported it same as the romanian orphans. Nowadays it would be reported far quicker due to the web.
 
SotK said:
The reactor-housing buildings are still intact I think, the problem is that the quake has damaged the cooling system in the reactor itself.

Also, a quake of this size is a very rare occurence; its the biggest recorded in Japan I think. The buildings will have been built to withstand a reasonably strong quake, but something this size is unlikely to be prepared for.

Nuclear reactors in Japan are subject to even stricter safety rules than those elsewhere, but again an event of this size has no precedent.

EDIT: Also see post above. Ninja'd me somewhat.
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in addition to that, they took a double hit, the initial earthquake was bad because it took out the power, but then the tsunami took out their redundancy diesel back up power too
 
pistolped7 said:
What are the odds of a meltdown right now? Unlikely?
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Mate, it's only a matter of time before that reactor blows. The coolant water has far exceeded 100C and the reactor is losing more and more water by the second. New Chernobyl unavoidable IMO.
 
pistolped7 said:
What are the odds of a meltdown right now? Unlikely?
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Partial-meltdown seems to be probable at that particular reactor. They've basically gone through the full works of emergency procedures and still have had what looks like a hydrogen explosion.

Something to keep in mind is that 7 miles down the road, there's another nuclear plant with a reactor which is unsafe enough for them to have put an exclusion zone around that too. In addition there are another 3 reactors which may or may not be in a very similar situation.

However, it is exceptionally unlikely that there will be a Chernobyl type incident as there seems to be no indication of any fire within the reactors atm.
 
I Hate Fish said:
Mate, it's only a matter of time before that reactor blows. The coolant water has far exceeded 100C and the reactor is losing more and more water by the second. New Chernobyl unavoidable IMO.
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They were warning people within 6 miles of a nuclear plant to leave yesterday. Hopefully that was enough time to get everyone out safely.

We had the news on all night at work last night, saw footage of the wave approaching and they zoomed in on some bloke trying to get away in his car. Madness.
 
Joel` said:
Nuclear Power isn't even as risky as some campaigners make it out to be. Chernobyl happened because it was poorly managed with poor safety measures. The safety measures that go into western plants are phenomenal, for instance you would be exposed to less radiation working at a nuclear power station than you would in just a normal environment.
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Aye when they first came to 'power' (hoho) they were very risky, think i saw on coast something about beaches covered in radiation from one back in the 50's. Still illogical though imo to build something that can potentially be very hazardous in a country thats prone to natural disasters, no matter how prepared or structurally safe

ajt09 said:
Well the current plus I can see maybe, is that if there was a release of radioactive materials, the winds may blow it into the sea area.
But I noticed that reactor buildings are built on the basis of a probability of an earthquake within a particular country, rather than the strength of the earthquake. Surely it would be best to construct it based on the strength of an earthquake so things like this wouldn't happen?
Click to expand...

That would be the worse thing wouldnt it? radioactive matter washing up on shores around the world.
 
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Real shame , and the tv pictures on news dont do justice to the terrible impact. #Only good news is that japan is used to earthquakes so people/buildings are relativly prepared for this (although not on this magnetude), what what make this worse is if Godzilla came out of the sea
 
Well thats good news. It blew, but the containment has held up. Good news for a change
 
Kinda puts everything into perspective tbh.

We were watching the videos in school yesterday and we all were all like, "We moan about this country loads, with the **** weather etc, but we are ****** lucky not to be on top of a tectonic plate boundary.

This shows how much of a force nature can be!
This has really made me realize how lucky we are to be living here, my best wishes go out to everyone in Japan :wub:
 
From Sky News

Ian ****-Lacy, of the World Nuclear Association, says he believed a blast at the power plant was due to hydrogen igniting, adding it may not necessarily have caused radiation leakage

Looks not looking as bad as feared, when things are already bad enough. Heard theres been more Tsunamis 3 meters high?
 
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