50 people left to control reactor are Heros, Let us never forget.

[NefarioCall]

I'm genuinely frightened.

[Evangela]

I'm very sure that they will be heroes and their name will be list in the history of Japan and the world's

accomplish or fail, survive or death, it's not matter... just do what they did now already is the best thing for being human (or above the human standard)

[Synthesis]

Yes, its pretty bad. Lets just believe these people will stop another catastrophe. I do. But anything can happen. Things went pretty much out of their control lately.

[DavidLocksley]

I am proud of the Japanese people. They seem to be doing a good job of handling this situation, considering all that has happened. People get mad at the Japanese people for having nuclear power but so does every other country. Obviously they keep these reactors safe because they took an enormous beating from both an earthquake and a tsunami and still the damage doesn't come close to Chernobyl. They are keeping their people safe and it seems to me that with as quick as they are reacting to this, they obviously had prepared for this a lot better than for example BP had prepared for an oil spill prior to anything actually happening.

[Munba]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20043554.shtml

The official said that his friend, one of the Fukushima 50, told him that he was not afraid to die, that that was his job.

[Seif]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12755739

At least they have a steady flow of seawater now being pumped to cool down the reactors.

I'm sorry but I find the OP just a bit funny surely you don't really mean we memorize the list of 50 names?

Besides aren't the radiation levels still relatively low? They we're called back today because of the sudden spike in radiation. They're really brave to work there either way as the whole site is unstable and 2 reactors are still expected to release steam in an explosive way if they melt down.

[Rockne]

Chernobyl Chernobyl Chernobyl.

Chernobyl only happened because the Russians at the time were too damned cheap with their friggen equipment, and when booms happened, the containment to the core went crack, and it blew ****ing skyhigh.

Right now, the Japanese disasters are to blame on the Chemical Engineers. Every single structure of the plants, including the pumps and the tops of the damn thing, were completely intact when the ground shook.

Except the pipes, which is one of the only things the Chemical Engineers are friggen responsible for.

The pipes went KRTZ. The core then started to overheat. What did the geniuses at the friggen nuclear plant decide to do? (Note to those at home. The pipes are responsible to cool the core and keep it at 300*C. When the core melts, that's what we call an extreme problem.)

Let's vent the Oxygen, Hydrogen, and water vapor out into the air! That'll cool down the core!

Perfect! In theory! If there's enough water vapor, if you have a damned degree in Chemistry, you'll know that shit won't blow up.

But it did.

Okay, so no more venting. Okay. It caused a big explosion and now the damned plant is leaking AND the core is melting. Oh no. Well, let's not do it again right?

They vented the damned thing 2 more times. Three friggen explosions. Unforgivable.

Oh God Oh God how are we going to cool the core it's friggen melting. I know, let's pour Sea Water into it, it'll cool it.

Too late. It's now a level 5-6 problem. It's too far gone. We were too busy making unneeded explosions. Oh well, pouring sea water is still going to mitigate the damage for a long while so we can friggen get help. Think of it like this, you're holding a bolder from a ledge and if it falls off the ledge, it'll crush a bunch of people. It's a bandaid, it needs to get fixxed sooner than later.

So now the radiation that was leaked into the waters are heading to the western coast of the United States, where, by the time it reaches the coast, the radiation levels will rise by a tiny little bit.

However, if the wind changes AT ALL and goes back to Japan, Japan is completely screwed.

Those people right now are trying to stop this from becoming Chernobyl+1, because if things keep going this direction, it'll become a level 7, maybe a level 8.

For the folks at home, level 3 means the Plant shuts down, level 4 means radiation is leaking, Level 7 is Chernobyl. It only goes up to Level 9.

I salute the gentlemen staying. They really are heroic, just like those other guys who sacrificed themselves by pouring cement onto the core to prevent a catastrophic explosion in another event.

Still, the plant was completely fortified, the Earthquake didn't even phase the plant.

Except the pipes.

Stupid Chemical Engineers.

[Hikozaemon]

The company that manages this nuclear plant is complete and utter douchebags; they have been in violation of unsafe working conditions, out-dated emergency plans, there CEOs and former president were ran out of office by the government for covering up safety reports and covering up spillage of radioactive sludge into there ocean. WHY the hell does'nt the government run these plants something as important as a nuclear power plant should be under government control to begin with. FFS they even store there used fueling rods in the reactors........?????WTF?! Japan is in a shitload of trouble, there government officials are not responding fast enough and are in thereselves not being honest enough with there own people. They need to ask for help outside of Japan and immeadiatly seize control of the Nuclear Power Plants. Tokyo is far to close and in such urgent danger of radiation poisoning of its entire population. I went to school for radiology and i understand the situation all to well >< I have friends in Nara and Enbetsu and they are starting to see people grow uneasy.

[Rockne]

The company that manages this nuclear plant is complete and utter douchebags; they have been in violation of unsafe working conditions, out-dated emergency plans, there CEOs and former president were ran out of office by the government for covering up safety reports and covering up spillage of radioactive sludge into there ocean. WHY the hell does'nt the government run these plants something as important as a nuclear power plant should be under government control to begin with. FFS they even store there used fueling rods in the reactors........?????WTF?! Japan is in a shitload of trouble, there government officials are not responding fast enough and are in thereselves not being honest enough with there own people. They need to ask for help outside of Japan and immeadiatly seize control of the Nuclear Power Plants. Tokyo is far to close and in such urgent danger of radiation poisoning of its entire population. I went to school for radiology and i understand the situation all to well >< I have friends in Nara and Enbetsu and they are starting to see people grow uneasy.

It's a business, you lie to the government to make them think the risk is really really low. Preparing for low risk is profitable.

Still, this isn't cause of safety regulations and all that. This is due to the one messup by Chemical Engineers. The pipes.

Pipes pipes pipes. We got the pumps, the electricity, and everything is intact. Except the pipes. This should of been remedied years ago, considering this plant was built 40 years ago.

Covered by cement. What happens to cement when a magnitude 9 Earthquake hits?

Bye bye cement, and bye bye weak pipes. Stronger pipes would of made these problems nonexistent.

It's all in cost effectiveness and profit.

[Mikita]

You know I am was pretty oblivious that Japan had so many Nuclear reactors to power their cities! It really surprises me that they chose this route for power! Especially with the inheritant risk associated with it.

I'm sure they thought the technology was mature enough to be used reliably and it met their demands for producing alot of power for their growing population.

But Nuclear power in earthquake riddled towns seems foolish.

Yes they are Heroes trying to make the best of a bad situation! I hope they seriously reconsider their power options after this.

Most structures here in Japan are design to withstand earthquakes to a degree, with critical buildings being built to greater strength. However, this M9.0 earthquake was the largest in Japan's history, and exceeded a lot of preparatory measures.

TEPCO will definitely have a lot to answer for, but this doesn't seem to be a case of human error as was the situation with Tokai-mura incident of 1999. Future scrutiny may prove otherwise, but this time it appears that there were just a series of really bad circumstances that have led up to the current situation.

I'm not an expert at all, but I've been reading a lot about this and watching the news constantly since I live in Tokyo and want to know the minute they decide if we should evacuate. ><

- Magnitude 9.0 earthquake hits off the northeastern shore of Japan. Largest quake in Japan's history.
- The nuclear power reactors shut down automatically within seconds of the earthquake.
- Residual heat continues after the main reaction stops (normal situation), and this heat needs to be carried away to prevent damage to the reactor.
- The earthquake itself destroyed the external generators which power the cooling system.
- The backup generators kicked in, but were then destroyed by the tsunami.
- Battery power takes over, but was exhausted 8 hours later.
- With loss of cooling, pressure was rising in the reactor building and they began controlled venting.
- Excessive amounts of hydrogen in the gas mixture causes explosion of external structure (which serves to keep weather out but has no purpose for reactor containment).
- Primary containment structure remains intact.
- Chance of full meltdown is nil since the reactor cores are all completely shut down.
- Chance of radioactive material escaping into the environment and subsequent health risks are still very real.

Japan has been steadily moving towards clean energy like solar and wind, and hybrid vehicles. But we are still a very electricity hungry society and nuclear has been the only way to meet those needs without burning fossil fuels.

In hind sight, I guess it was foolish to think that human-built structures could withstand anything that nature could throw at it.

I hope they are able to control the situation soon.

I think that anyone involved in the earthquake and tsunami recovery, and the Fukushima nuclear response is a hero.