Japan hit by 8.9 earthquake w/tsunami

[NOTE-Your posts are very good. The discussion here is being respectful devil's advocates of the two sides of one nebulous situation. Continuing.....]

Or the reports under report the extent of the problem. No question that there is a media exaggeration trend. However, this a situation where the media can exaggerate from limited info....... and still not fully reveal the scope of the problem. With beta radiation the exposure is intensely range sensitive, hence the monitoring of one body location provides only minimal info on other body parts. That's why when one goes into reactor areas that are still hot, they should instrument the extremities. I have experienced this first hand. When my ankle is by a highly concentrated source of Co60 and the reading is by my belt, the range difference from my ankle being 2 inches from the source and the dosimeter being 30 inches makes a huge difference in exposure.

With the severity level continuing to increase, the evacuation area expanding....and the full accounting of the situation still progressing, it looks like an even bigger problem than anyone initially predicted.

 

Or it was a bigger problem at the outset than they were willing to admit to publically.

 

Tomorrow, CNBC will air a documentary "Nuclear Meltdown". See News Headlines for more info.

 

Devastation inside Fukushima nuclear plant has some new footage in/around the Fukushima nuclear plant.

 

New photos of tsunami as it strikes Japan nuke plant

 

TEPCO president finally resigned.

 

some Fukushima related videos

Thanks to the Pulse newsreader app, I stumbled across these (with videos) today. Some here might find them somewhat insightful/interesting.

Fukushima workers face “nightmarish world of high radiation, difficult terrainâ€
Japan: Rare public apology by Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant manager

edit: I also took a look at http://boingboing.net/2011/08/19/fukushima.html.

 

Japan lawmaker drinks water from Fukushima plant - Yahoo! News (it was decontaminated water)

NHK WORLD English has a video.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/w...fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-plant-in-japan.html
US Report Hails Japan's Fukushima Heroes - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance
An American Look at Fukushima, Minute by Minute - NYTimes.com

 

Thanks Andrew. Many of the delays were caused by the strict enforcement of procedures laid out in the TEPCO Emergency Manual which did not mention what to do in case of a prolonged all out power failure. They were led to believe that power would only be out temporarily and be restored, so the emergency generators would be enough to keep it going. With no instructions they had to ask for directions from headquarters. The turmoil caused breakdown in communication as well as the helpless situation where the vents had to be opened manually..

The amount of research and studies and data collected in the aftermath is staggering. For instance no one knew that the wall of tsunami pushed air in front strong enough to blow cars off the road, Or the straight roads designed to help evacuation for residents became the pathway of the tsunami, etc. The towns that got destroyed will have new parameters for rebuilding.

The other problem is that any nuclear reactor produces waste from spent fuel rods but no one anticipated where to put all of that in huge quantities like in this disaster.

Hopefully responsible countries will take all this into account and design or improve their facility in safety's sake. I believe 70% of the reactors in Japan have already been shut off to make sure everything is okay.

 

I haven't watched this yet but my TiVo's set to record it: Nuclear Aftershocks | FRONTLINE | PBS.

Quote from Tivcommunity about this:

One reply said it was a good show.

 

Again???

 

I watched it. It was decent and informative.

I think I liked the first parts focusing on Fukushima more. Ditto about some footage I'd never seen before.

 

Interesting video... shows the scale and impact of the events quite eloquently.

 

WOW! Seems to hit around the 1:52 mark......

That video just gave me a completely new perspective/appreciation of the term "eloquently".

ELOQUENT
1-marked by forceful and fluent expression <an eloquent preacher>

2-vividly or movingly expressive or revealing <an eloquent monument>

 

Some areas in Japan will be permanently uninhabitable...

Homes near Japan nuke plant may be banned for ever - Yahoo! News

 

Rock Center with Brian Williams - One year after disaster at Fukushima nuclear plant, town remains frozen in time

 

wow that video shows that after the big one it lasted a really long time before things start to setlle again like months..

 

Thanks to someone on TiVocommunity for this. I can't believe I missed this. I'm starting to watch it now.