Japan's Situation

[Avidon]

So I've been watching CNN almost constantly since the disaster in Japan. Obviously things aren't getting better. In fact, nothing is getting better. Things are just getting worse by the day. But I have 1 question. If these reactors go, which they so are, what will happen to Japan? Will the entire nation be uninhabitable?

-I am fully confident that the XI community can answer my nuclear concerns lol.-

[Dale]

So I've been watching CNN almost constantly since the disaster in Japan. Obviously things aren't getting better. In fact, nothing is getting better. Things are just getting worse by the day. But I have 1 question. If these reactors go, which they so are, what will happen to Japan? Will the entire nation be uninhabitable?

-I am fully confident that the XI community can answer my nuclear concerns lol.-

Hrm, well I've been watching the news off an on too and last I heard (which was few hours ago) they had decided not to widen the evacuation area. That sounds like good news to me, so why do you think things are getting worst?

If you see japan start evacuating Tokyo, then you should start worrying about things getting much worst. But as of now, i think you jumping the gun a bit.

[Lithian]

A thread was made just before yours with similar worries, though a bit more information:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/2386-Meltdown-getting-more-worse-japan-government-not-being-truthful-to-citizens

[Nitrous24]

He thinks that because the news in America blows stuff out of proportion. The nuclear plants are in a containment area. The building is designed to withstand a core meltdown last i heard. And minimize impact it would have on the surrounding community. I know they're in bad shape. But, they had to design these things with safety in mind. The explosions that have happened have been in contained area and had nothing to do with the plants themselves. It was hydrogen explosions from the operation of the plant. I am sure in the long run everything will end up fine. The plants are also already shut down. They are just having trouble cooling them. In a nuclear plant they send big shafts of graphite or something into the core to separate the fuel rods and minimize the atomic reactions that happen (i don't think they still use graphite but it was used in the past). Just don't listen to the news when it comes to things like this because they seem to like to incite panic (all while saying don't panic) in my opinion, to get more people watching more often and increase their ratings. Just my opinion though

[Mojo]

There are a great number of possibilities that could result from the following days, all of them with different consequences. Reactors "going" isn't descriptive enough to warrant a good answer. For example, if your definition of a partial meltdown was "going", then the three mile island reactor "went" but there were virtually no consequences to the environment. Chernobyl, on the other hand, suffered a full on reactor core melt down coupled with a reactor vessel explosion and graphite fire. The consequences of that were dire and far reaching.

Having followed the situation since it began and having poured over the opinions of actual engineers and experts, it seems unlikely that they'll incur measurable consequences to their health or environment.

[Kjara]

I'm quite confused on the matter too.
The news site I keep my eyes on (one of my nation's sites) keeps alternating between "radioactivity going down and Tokyo is safe" news and "radioactivity going up to to dangerous levels" news.
The last news were saying that the detected radioactivity in Tokyo is way lower than the radioactivity we have everyday here in Rome lol...

[RAIST]

GE is already got 10 truck mounted turbine generators slated for Japan, 3 were in Florida waiting for air transport last night. Each one is capable of providing up to around 60 MW of power. Hopefully they will get them up and running soon to help with the blackouts.

Last I saw they were about to remedy a situation with the downed cooling systems (had to run new power to them to get them operational again). If they can get the internal water cooling going again, then the build up of the hydrogen vapors will eliminate a large portion of the health risk there, then they can get more aggressive with the recovery effort.

Here's some sites with info on the situation over there:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/2234-Sites-with-updated-information-on-the-Japan-Situation

The one I've been pulling up most is the NHK world TV stream:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/nhk-world-tv

Raist

[Avidon]

Oh, so it was. Thanks.
---
I have the news on now, and there's more talk of Radiation spewing out more than ever now, and that one reactor is bone dry of water. Every time I come home from work and turn on the news they say things are more dire than it was yesterday. Just now, they say 2 reactors could be ruptured. That wasn't the case yesterday. So yes, things are getting worse. Slowly, but they are. The only good news I did catch is that they are going to try to connect a live power line straight to the plant to establish power to the cooling units and completely bypass the generators.

[Avidon]

Oh crap, so many people posted while i was reposting, so my 2nd post may be voided lol.

[Dale]

Radiation will drift to aprox. 200 miles in radius. They had already stated that the containment vessels were breeched, meaning the radiation that will be released without any protection to stop that release. Tokyo is only 170 miles away from the reactors. Japanese government is not issuing evacuations of Tokyo yet but they should be. The only thing stoping full meltdown at this point is the sea water that they pumped in to cool down the reactor. Today they showed that the sea water is not fully filling up the cores, thats why they were using helecoptors on test runs to see if they could dump water from the top to cool it down. The radiation levels rose really high today, which is proof that the cores are still melting down reguardless off the sea water being pumped in, they should be evacuating people within a 200 mile radius right now in case ther radiation gets to a point where full meltdown is imminent. If that full meltdown happens, you will not have any time to evacuate Tokyo. But my guess is the governmentt fears a panic in Tokyo which could cause massive humanitarian crisis, and are putting all thier gambling chips on being able to stop the full meltdown, but have shown they have not been able to keep it from even partialy melting down at this point, which is really dangerous.

Well it's been my understanding bahamut that radiation levels have only rose to unsafe levels around the reactors themselves, and the radiation levels in say Tokyo are still safe and pose no health risks, though they are higher than normal I think they said.

Anyway - you should treat news like you do politics. React to what they are doing, not what they are saying. If you start seeing panic in Toykyo and people getting sick outside the containment area, things are getting worst. But until then, probably not good to assume the worst. A 19 mile evacuation zone i think it was, or possibly 30 - neither of those sound too severe. I've seen train wrecks and possible gas leaks create larger evacuation zones than that.

[Avidon]

The US government(??) announced that all US citizens with in a 50 mile radius should evacuate from the reactors. Whether that's to let the Japanese do their thing or not I do not know.

All very good points people are bringing out.

[Dauntless]

The US government(??) announced that all US citizens with in a 50 mile radius should evacuate from the reactors. Whether that's to let the Japanese do their thing or not I do not know.

All very good points people are bringing out.

Many other countries (France, Australia, etc.) have also done the same. That is a bit worrying but I'm not jumping to conclusions though. I'm hoping for the best.

[HFX7686]

I think a lot of it is fear being ramped up irresponsibly by western news media. Japan has three disasters on its hands. I don't think it can evacuate everyone within 50 miles right now. I'm sure they're doing the best they can and aren't sitting in some darkened room rubbing their hands while laughing maniacally.

The Japanese are the most calm about this situation it seems.

[NrvnqsrKhaos]

People are freaking out way too much about this.

The radiation level is higher than normal in Japan right now. But the highest spike outside Fukushima was still lower than, say, the radiation you get from getting on a plane from LA to Tokyo, just from being close to space. It was somewhere around .000809mSv. The plane example produces .06 mSv. And in an average scenario, a person absorbs right around 6 mSv of radiation a year, just from being alive. So there's not much to worry about, outside of the plant.

The plant itself, and it's IMMEDIATE surroundings, is more dangerous. Radiation levels spike up to levels that could cause cancer or serious illness, which is why TEPCO is frantically moving workers in and out when its safest. But even in a worse case scenario (complete meltdown of one or more of the plants) the effected area would be around 50km, not 200km.

People saying that a 200km area around the plant needs to be evacuated are misinformed. These types of statements are mainly from sensationalist headlines, like the fiasco yesterday when the world apparently got the idea that TEPCO pulled all of it's workers out of the plant: No one mentioned that it was a temporary measure for less than an hour, and workers were back in before most of the stories actually got published.

Radiation levels are down this morning, but I expect them to spike up and fall down pretty much constantly until it gets under control. And it will get under control. I have full faith in the brave workers who are facing the real danger by working so close to the plants. We don't need to make it more difficult for them by panicking about things not worth panicing about.

[HFX7686]

Radiation levels are down this morning, but I expect them to spike up and fall down pretty much constantly until it gets under control. And it will get under control. I have full faith in the brave workers who are facing the real danger by working so close to the plants. We don't need to make it more difficult for them by panicking about things not worth panicing about.

I can't imagine what is going on in the minds of these works who stayed behind. They're calling them the Fukushima Fifty now. Absolutely amazing people.

[NrvnqsrKhaos]

They are heroes. No other word for it.