Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (March 11, 2011)

[Byakou]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

Why is this still a topic? Isn't everything cleaned up by now?

Lol wouldn't that be nice. The fukushima radiation is going to be around for decades, affecting the ecosystem and the health of humans everywhere. It was a worse nuclear incident than chernobyl.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Byakou

Lol wouldn't that be nice. The fukushima radiation is going to be around for decades, affecting the ecosystem and the health of humans everywhere. It was a worse nuclear incident than chernobyl.

No, it wasn't worse than Chernobyl. Not using graphite as moderator is why Fukushima could never be as bad as Chernobyl. That doesn't mean the area around Fukushima is all fine though.

As with most environmental pollutions - civilizing radiation can be regarded as such - the dangers are not imminent. The risks accumulate over time.
There is certainly a higher than average risk to develop cancer if you were living in the region and eat local agricultural products for all your live (more so when you were born and raised there).
Thats not so much because of the slightly increased background radiation there though. The real problem are long living isotopes. Tritium for example is rather short lived (12 years half life) isotope and can be very fast catabolized. Iodine (131) for example is a little bit more dangerous, since it needs longer to be catabolized but it has an extremely short half life (8 days). Now, stuff like cesium (137) is very nasty, since it has a longer half life than tritium (30 years) and the human body does not really catabolize it. Thus the body is more likely to accumulate these isotopes over time. To a point were there is a statistically significant risk of developing cancer early.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Byakou

Lol wouldn't that be nice. The fukushima radiation is going to be around for decades, affecting the ecosystem and the health of humans everywhere. It was a worse nuclear incident than chernobyl.

Last I checked Fukushima didn't create a radioactive dust cloud that crossed into China, the way Chernobyl did with Western Europe.

Going for hyperbole doesn't help your case. Yes, it was a preventable accident. Yes, it is bad. But trying to exaggerate things for your own benefit does not help anyone.

[Strygwyr]

Originally Posted by Byakou

Lol wouldn't that be nice. The fukushima radiation is going to be around for decades, affecting the ecosystem and the health of humans everywhere. It was a worse nuclear incident than chernobyl.

aside the sillyness of my location , but yea graphite core in Chernobyl was combustable meaning more radiation, and contamination of the area was more widespread than in Japan.

[Byakou]

Fukushima was downplayed the shit out off. If you look at numbers instead of listening to governments trying to stop panic, fukushima has already released 70% of the radiation of chernobyl, and keeps releasing more everyday due to the large quantities of nuclear fuel left (~1000 vs ~100 of chernobyl).

And unlike chernobyl fukushima is right next to the ocean, contaminating the water to a scale that has never happened before. It's only a question a time before it is acknowledged as the #1 worst nuclear event on earth, because it is.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Byakou

Lol. Fukushima was downplayed the shit out off. If you look at numbers instead of listening to governments trying to stop panic, fukushima has already released 70% of the radiation of chernobyl, and keeps releasing more everyday due to the large quantities of nuclear fuel left (~1000 vs ~100 of chernobyl).

And unlike chernobyl fukushima is right next to the ocean, contaminating the water to a scale that has never happened before. It's only a question a time before it is acknowledged as the #1 worst nuclear event on earth, because it is.

Actually, people are looking at the actual scientific data, instead of your conspiratorial fear mongering.

radiation and radioactive particles are not all the same, nor are the fuel system in Fukushima and Chernobyl even remotely the same, and the fact that you can't even seem to grasp that basic fact is quite telling.

[velderia]

Originally Posted by Mystique

2 days ago:
Fukushima fish still contaminated from nuclear accident

Levels of radioactive contamination in fish caught off the east coast of Japan remain raised, official data shows
It is a sign that the Dai-ichi power plant continues to be a source of pollution more than a year after the nuclear accident.
About 40% of fish caught close to Fukushima itself are regarded as unfit for humans under Japanese regulations

Click to read more

Not to mention the odd thousands of people from near Fukushima area who are still living in evacuation camps, a year and a half later cause they can't return to their homes given the poison.
Some have given up and have returned regardless of whether they're being poisoned or not just to get a chance to resume 'normal' life for their kids and family, in some sad sense, I can't blame them.

Towns wiped out by the tsunami have been slowly rebuilding and so on, I guess in a sense, those affected by the radiation are suffering more than those directly affected by the tsunami...

Sad days but there's mass levels of misfortune everywhere in the world, in this case, no, it's far from over. A level 9.0 doesn't come around so often in human history you know...

PS: velderia, you can post what you like within Asuki limits, just stick the video in a spoiler and add a sensitivity warning to give us the choice to look or not. I'm kinda curious myself...

Well, if you really want to see it, it's here, but it's really, really depressing and disturbing. It's not even bloody or anything but it shows the sobering reality how much really needs to be done:

Spoiler for Fukushima + Vice...:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi3OA1tNFfo

And some post-brain bleach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWsElfOqVLU

(I'm not sure how to embed youtube videos and the share button is not working properly for me but ok)

[Haikea]

It is really a shame that nuclear power gets again bad reputation because of carelessness. Japan sits on area where some tectonic plate boundaries are located. This means high chance for earthquakes because collisions of those plates make earthquakes. Also Japan has quite small land area and it is surrounded by ocean. This means that tsunamies can reach populated areas easier and seawater is more optimal method for nuclear power plant cooling. It is then very likely that water masses could reach nuclear power plant area. These should be obvious facts for people who design and maintain nuclear power plants.

I don't know, if there is any known methods to protect nuclear power plants againts earthquakes and tsunamies, but it would be quite reckless to take such risks, if there is not. Pretty much anything can backfire badly, if poorly executed. As far as I know, both nuclear power accidents happened because of clear mistakes, not because of chaotic nature of nuclear power itself.

People die early and suffer additional health damage because of pollution. I wonder, how much fossil-fuel power plants are responsible of it? Nuclear power probably gives more rapid pollution results, if accidents happen, but fossil-fuel creates slower and unavoidable pollution all the time.

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by velderia

Well, if you really want to see it, it's here, but it's really, really depressing and disturbing. It's not even bloody or anything but it shows the sobering reality how much really needs to be done:

Spoiler for Fukushima + Vice...:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi3OA1tNFfo

Appreciate it.
To be honest out of that 13mins video, 10mins was on the photographer blabbing about this life story and his philosophy. The body was half submerged and the abandoned towns (that was interesting) depicted a real life 'ghost town', but it wasn't anything overly traumatic

(Probably cause I've seen worse reports, slide-shows, pictures and heard stories of those who went in person), methinks some part of me has desensitised to it or since it was partly my reality for quite some time last year, that sobriety has already sunk into me.

If nothing else, I feel for those who lived in the evacuation zone who are still living lives as refugees 18months later, actually have homes to go to but can't cause of the poisoning and live a life of uncertainty and tedium.

In a sense it's emotionally and mentally destroying that having to rebuild your house again but at least you can move forward.

PS: Haikea, they said the plants were built to withstand a M8 quake.

No human being in their right mind could have ever predicted a M9 to occur at the very epicentre that it did, just goes to show
Mother Nature > human beings.

I believe Sandy is a recent example of that, but at least they had warning days in advance to prepare as much as possible for the storm, (or get the hell out) compared to a 10-15m high tsunami wiping out thousands with only about 10mins to escape.
Natural disasters are tragic but sadly commonplace all over.

[sa547]

Came across this news article tonight, and it's about the Coming of Age Day.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311dis...AJ201301140075

What nearly made me choke up while reading is that... some of their best friends were never able to see this day.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by sa547

Came across this news article tonight, and it's about the Coming of Age Day.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311dis...AJ201301140075

What nearly made me choke up while reading is that... some of their best friends were never able to see this day.

In many cultures there is a celebration for children as they grow to certain ages. This historically is because life was harsh and to reach these age milestones is cause for celebration.

We are fortunate in the modern times, that we don't have to think being alive long enough to become adults is a big deal. But occasionally, in times like these, we remember why these events exist. We can't take our lives for granted.

The Coming of Age ceremony is done in this case, for exactly its intended purpose; to celebrate the survivors, and to remember those we lose on the way.

[andyjay729]

Some people have been turning to exorcists in the devastated area. Make me wonder if we'll have to do the same when the finally open the "Freedom Tower" in New York.

Also interesting that apparently at least one of those boats is still sitting on the shore two years later.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Nation marks second year since calamity
Grief continues as rebuilding lags in regions forever changed

Sendai (March 11, Mon): Japan today marked the second anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Tohoku's coastline and left some 19,000 people dead or missing amid the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Interrupting the slow progress on reconstruction, memorial services were held in the three north-eastern prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima) hit hardest by the tsunami, as well as in Tokyo and elsewhere, with a moment of silence observed across the country at 2.46pm (6.46am GMT), the time the magnitude 9 quake hit, exactly two years ago.

Along the Pacific coast, relatives of those killed offered prayers early this morning.

Anti-nuclear events were also held in parts of Japan to call on the country to abandon atomic power.

THE JAPAN TIMES

Ghost towns swim in sea of red tape

By Kwan Weng Kin
Japan Correspondent
for The Straits Times

Fukushima City (March 11, Mon): Bureaucratic red tape and lack of skilled manpower are holding up the reconstruction of disaster-hit areas of Japan's Tohoku region, two years after it was slammed by giant tremors and tsunami waves.

Former nuclear-plant worker Yasunori Hashimoto, 72, and his wife are still living in temporary housing after their house in Odaka district of Minami-Soma city, just 30m from the sea, was washed away by tsunami waves.

"We are waiting for the local government to take action, but nothing has been done so far. Because of this, we cannot make any plans, such as selling our land," he said.

Though major infrastructure and public services in Tohoku have mostly been restored, even now, some 320,000 evacuees are forced to live in temporary housing because of delays in building permanent homes for them.

Problems include the difficulty in finding suitable locations on high ground for housing projects and sorting out mortgage rights.

Staff and jobs lacking
Many municipalities also lack officials capable of drawing up relocation projects and overseeing their execution. Engineers, architects and city planners are also badly needed.

Fukushima prefecture has an additional problem: the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the decommissioning of which will take years. Declared unsafe because of high radiation, communities within a 30km radius of the plant turned into ghost towns.

The scarcity of jobs in Tohoku remains unsolved, prompting an exodus of young people in particular to other regions.

Government incentives aimed at encouraging firms to invest in Tohoku are not working as well as hoped. Many new factories are being built in safer inland areas rather than close to devastated areas.

Another major concern is the hold-up in removing huge mountains of quake debris, which are obstacles to reconstruction.

The government had planned to dispose of all such debris by next year. But as of January this year, Iwate prefecture has managed to get rid of only 24 per cent of its share. Miyagi has done a little better at 31 per cent. But Fukushima has removed only 12 per cent.

'If I were told to wait for two more years, I might explode'

Tokyo (March 11, Mon): Amid growing dissatisfaction with the slow pace of recovery, Japan marked the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and has displaced more than 300,000.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government intends to make "visible" reconstruction progress and accelerate resettlement of those left homeless by streamlining legal and administrative procedures many blame for the delays.

Japan has struggled to rebuild communities and to clean up radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, whose reactors melted down after its cooling systems were disabled by the tsunami. The government has yet to devise a new energy strategy.

Throughout the disaster zone, the tens of thousands of survivors living in temporary housing are impatient to get resettled, a process that could take up to a decade, officials say.

In Fukushima prefecture, some 160,000 evacuees are uncertain if they will ever be able to return to homes around the nuclear power plant, where the meltdowns in three reactors spewed radiation into the surrounding soil and water.

The lawsuit filed by a group of 800 people in Fukushima demands an apology payment of 50,000 yen (US$520) a month for each victim until all radiation from the accident is wiped out, a process that could take decades. Another 900 plan similar cases in Tokyo and elsewhere.

Anxious to go home
Evacuees are anxious to return home but worried about the potential, still uncertain risks from exposure to the radiation from the disaster, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

While there have been no clear cases of cancer linked to radiation from the plant, the upheaval in people's lives, uncertainty about the future and long-term health concerns, especially for children, have taken an immense psychological toll on thousands of residents.

Mr Yuko Endo, village chief of Kawauchi, Fukushima, said many residents might not go back if they are kept waiting too long. Restrictions on access are gradually being lifted as workers remove debris and wipe down roofs by hand.

"If I were told to wait for two more years, I might explode," said Mr Endo, who is determined to revive his town of mostly empty houses and overgrown fields.

A change of government late last year has raised hopes that the authorities might move more quickly with the cleanup and reconstruction.

Since taking office in late December, Mr Abe has made a point of frequently visiting the disaster zone, promising faster action and plans to raise the long-term reconstruction budget to 25 trillion yen (US$262 billion) from 19 trillion.

But Mr Abe has been criticised for allowing part of the money to be used for public-works projects nationwide under the name of disaster prevention.

The struggles to rebuild and to cope with the nuclear disaster are only the most immediate issues Japan is grappling with as it searches for new drivers for growth as its export manufacturing lags, its society ages and its huge national debt grows ever bigger.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tsunami aid pledges not fulfilled

YouTube

https://youtu.be/4dNYMmcmNUo

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Dr. Casey]

Ugh. I hate to hear that people are still suffering this much two years later.

[bhl88]

Originally Posted by Dr. Casey

Ugh. I hate to hear that people are still suffering this much two years later.

A fraction of the $$ is probably being diverted to the whale industry (nothing on years of scientific research).

[Solafighter]

Women of Fukushima

https://vimeo.com/51054104

Six Japanese women offer brutally honest views on the state of the clean-up, the cover-ups and untruths since the nuclear accident in Fukushima, and how it has affected their lives, homes and families.

Over a year since three reactors went into meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, a broad, disparate anti-nuclear movement is growing in Japan. Nowhere is that more apparent, perhaps, than in Fukushima prefecture, where a group of local women boldly protest the deafening silence of the Japanese government over the worst nuclear accident of this century. Largely ignored by their own media, these brave women brush aside their cultural shyness and share their brutally honest views on the state of the cleanup, the cover-ups, the untruths and the stagnant political climate in today’s Japan. Supported with rare footage from inside the exclusion zone, as well as from abandoned neighboring towns, the Women of Fukushima (“Fukushima no Onnatachi”) offers startlingly candid insights, in the women’s own voices, about what has become of their lives, homes, and families in the aftermath of 3/11.

[andyjay729]

Google Street View now offers tours of the nuclear zone.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Levels of toxic groundwater spike in Fukushima

Tokyo (July 8, Mon): Toxic radioactive substances have once again been detected in groundwater at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, its Japanese operator said yesterday, the latest in a series of incidents at the tsunami-battered complex.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said tests showed that tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used in glow-in-the-dark watches, was present at levels 10 times the permitted rate.

"From test samples on July 5...we detected a record high 600,000 becquerels per litre" of tritium, 10 times higher than the government guideline of 60,000 becquerels per litre, Tepco said in a statement.

Tepco said it is working to prevent further expansion of the contamination.

The new readings came after Tepco said last month that it had detected the highly toxic strontium-90, a by-product of nuclear fission that can cause bone cancer if ingested at levels 30 times the permitted rate.

At the time it had detected tritium at around eight times the allowed level, or 500,000 becquerels per litre.

The substances, which were released by the meltdowns of reactors at the plant in the aftermath of the huge tsunami of March 2011, were not absorbed by soil and have made their way into underground water.

Subsoil water usually flows out to sea, meaning these two substances could normally make their way into the ocean, possibly affecting marine life and ultimately impacting humans who eat sea creatures.

However, a TEPCO official said last month that seawater data showed no abnormal rise in the levels of either substance as the company believed the groundwater was largely contained by concrete foundations and steel sheets.

AFP

[TinyRedLeaf]

Abe to end 'ad hoc' response to Fukushima nuclear crisis

Tokyo (Sept 3, Tue): Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government will spend whatever funds are necessary to contain the Fukushima nuclear disaster and will end the "ad hoc" response to the escalating crisis.

The government is intervening after repeated leaks of radioactive water in the last month indicated that operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) is losing control of the site.

The company reported one leak from a storage tank of about 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water. The nuclear regulator said it can no longer trust data from the utility.

At a meeting of the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters in Tokyo, Mr Abe said: "Instead of the ad hoc approaches that have been taken in the past, we have put together a basic policy today that will offer a fundamental solution to the problem of contaminated water. The world is closely watching to see whether the decommissioning of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, including the contaminated water problem, can be achieved."

He said he'll set up ministerial level commission to develop a solution to the water-management problem.

The government plans to spend an estimated 47 billion yen (US$470 million) through the end of next year on two projects — an ice wall and upgraded water-treatment units that is supposed to remove all radioactive elements but tritium — according to energy agency official Tatsuya Shinkawa.

But the government is not paying for urgently needed water tanks and other equipment that Tepco is using to stop leaks.

The ice wall would freeze the ground to a depth of up to 30m (100 feet) through a system of thin pipes carrying a coolant as cold as minus 40deg C (minus 40deg Fahrenheit).

It would thus block contaminated water from escaping the facility's immediate surroundings, as well as keep underground water from entering the reactor and turbine buildings, where most of the contaminated radioactive water has collected.

The project, which Tepco and the government proposed in May, is set for completion by March 2015.

Similar methods have been used to block water from parts of tunnels and subways, but building a wall that surrounds four reactor buildings and their related facilities is unprecedented.

BLOOMBERG, AP

[andyjay729]

I don't know if this is ALL the tsunami's fault, but life doesn't sound too peachy if you're a creature of the Pacific Ocean.