Post To The Left

BBC is finally rolling back its alarmist reports and offering some interesting insights: Another thing that is conveniently ignored by the screaming alarmists is that throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s America did how many NUCLEAR BOMB TESTS. Not nuclear accidents, not run away reactions but deliberate tests, nuclear explosion tests that sent huge radiation plumes throughout western North America. What they did then makes the Japanese nuclear reactor non-crisis pall in comparison. The American government even, in the ironically titled "Green Run" study, released radiation over the town of Hanford, Washington just a few hundred kilometers from Vancouver. In the first few days as I saw Tokyo virtually untouched by the affects of the earthquake, and knowing Japan's extensive tsunami preparations and training I hoped that the causality numbers would be low. Unfortunately the numbers coming in just keep getting higher and higher. Yet there seems to be a deliberate attempt by people on this board to turn the focus away from people of Northern Japan who are cold, scared, and still waiting relief. The nuclear non-crisis as shown at the very worst it will be would be something like three mile island. During that incident "estimates of radiological exposure for the 2 million people in the area amounted to about one-sixth of what they might have received from a chest X-ray." This false hysteria is harmful as in a few days when, as predicted by the nuclear experts NOT Michael Crichton, the progress at the nuclear reactors will make it impossible for alarmists to continue their fictional Chernobyl comparisons. Then people are going to be like "OK Crisis Averted," go back to their lives ignoring that Northern Japan are still in shelters without homes during a bitterly cold March.

As a bunch of people were saying earlier the size of the tsunami depended on the how shallow/deep the shore was and the size of the harbour. If there is a tight harbour with a narrow entrance the wave will be higher. For example the small village of Taro was wiped out (for the third time in 100 years) even though they had a 10m (30ft) high seawall. Where as other areas the wave was "only" a few feet tall as shown in that video talked about earlier (The guy survived by staying in his car). Image of a huge ship on top of an apartment building.

Seems like they have much more leeway to go on the offensive than I thought: Libya: Col Gaddafi told to leave now or face the bombers Col Muammar Gaddafi was on Friday night warned that he must surrender large swathes of Libya or face military action from Britain, France and other Western countries this weekend.

Another update on NHK with 19μSv radiation reading at the Fukushima nuclear plant. This compares to when Chernobyl blew its top in a giant highly radiated explosion according to the site there was a 10,189,730 μSv radiation reading. How! How is it approaching Chernobyl? It is my back yard! I sit in Japan while you sit comfortably in your house far, far away and try and convince people that Chernobyl is happening RIGHT NOW! EVERYONE PANIC!

Yeah but isn't that assuming UN planes will be able to go on the offensive. The UN action sounds like they're trying to create a no/fly zone like the one protecting the Kurds from Saddam.

Obviously the planes can fly over there but I wonder how they'll get the support crews, ammunition, etc over to Malta in time??

Is it too late though? Even if Libya's jets can't provide air support how is going it to help the rebels, a bunch a guys with AK-47s, fighting a trained armed force? That said a student of history might look back at Rommel's advance across the exact same land, as Gaddafi's forces have travelled, and you'll see the same things that spelled the end of the Desert Rats' advance: -Over extended supply lines with the opposing force having a very little distance to supply troops -If the no-fly zone goes up then it might be like how Rommel was pummelled as he lost air support the closer he got to British airbases and the further he got from German/Italian ones. But again the British were a trained professional army not a bunch of newly armed rebels.

Chernobyl had HUGE radiation levels as well as a giant fire to spread the radiated material throught Europe. Japanese reactors never had a large fire, and the radiation was minimal. It peaked at what 900 mSv for a few hours. Staff that were present you'd assume were wearing protective clothing minimizing any radiation exposure. The New York Times today reported that US military planes confirmed what little radiation did escape has not spread from the localized area around the plant, although even with this good news they're being typically pessimistic about the plant. My understanding is there isn't much around the plant and those close enough to be affected were evacuated even before the hydrogen explosions. Wind has consistently been blowing out to sea. Unless there is some sort of secret rave you know about next to the nuclear plant I don't see all these people that are going to get radiation sickness. Once they start hooking up the plants primary cooling systems today the "crisis" will fade. Update: At noon today NHK is reporting last night night the radiation was 292μSv this morning it is 271μSv. To convert the radiation you can do that at this site. By comparison when Chernobyl blew its top in a giant explosion according to the site above there was a 10,189,730 μSv radiation reading.

NHK is reporting that at power has been restored to the nuclear plant and that at least one of the reactor's primary cooling system will go online tonight. There are also going to try and do the same with the number two reactor. Also the water cannon's have arrived and been used. NHK is reporting that when water was sprayed into the problem reactor steam emerged indicating that the water is reaching the needed areas in the reactor.

Libya unrest: UK forces 'could be in action by Friday' It looks like China and Russia the traditional blockers of western ambitions are going to abstain rather than veto a no-fly zone. But will it be too late? Even if Libya's jets can't provide air support how is going it to help the rebels, a bunch a guys with AK-47s, fighting a trained armed force? That said a student of history might look back at Rommel's advance across the exact same land, as Gaddafi's forces have travelled, and you'll see the same things that spelled the end of the Desert Rats' advance. Over extended supply lines with the opposing force having a very little distance to supply troops. If the no-fly zone goes up then again Rommel was pummelled as he lost air support the closer he got to British airbases and the further he got from German ones.

Looks like another Chernobyl in America now!!!!! Radiation everywhere!

On a lighter note, dog refuses to leave his hurt companion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3TM9GL2iLI Translation: We are in Arahama area. Looks like there is a dog. There is a dog. He looks tired and dirty. He must have been caught in the tsunami. He looks very dirty. He has a collar. He must be someone's pet. He has a silver collar. He is shaking. He seems very afraid. Oh, there is another dog. I wonder if he is dead. Where? Right there. There is another dog right next to the one sitting down. He is not moving. I wonder. I wonder if he is alright. The dog is protecting him. Yes. He is protecting the dog. That is why he did not want us to approach them. He was trying to keep us at bay. I can't watch this. This is a very difficult to watch. Oh. Look. He is moving. He is alive. I am so happy to see that he is alive. Yes! Yes! He is alive. He looks to be weakened. We need to them to be rescued soon. We really want them rescued soon. Oh good. He's getting up. It is amazing how they survived the tremendous earthquake and tsunami. It's just amazing that they survived through this all.

NHK is reporting that TEPCO have almost repaired the electricity connections linking Fukushima to the national grid. They hope to get the primary cooling systems up and running and at least provide power to non-damaged facilities.

The YEN is apparently soaring right now as speculators think Japanese companies will sell over seas assets to help with reconstruction. The high yen will hamper Japan's export industries but will help buy reconstruction material at a time when oil is high. The last time the YEN was this high was after the Kobe quake.

Nothing to worry about

You've been trying to exaggerate since day 1 and have been trying to link the Japanese reactors to Chernobyl: "one nuclear expert said today that in a worst case scenario it could end up Chernobyl times 3, only minus the chimney effect of fires to spread the contamination long distances..." "Chernobyl ... had a steam explosion the following meltdown created fires which spread the contamination...fire in the area of spent fuel rods in Japan threatens the same situation...the cause of the meltdown maybe different but the results will be the same..." "well now it may be potentially six times worse than chernobyl, only one reator melted down in Chernobyl there are six in various stages of meltdown or impending meltdown in Japan..." "different causes the results end up the same...[chernobyl like the Japan reactors] meltdown, fire, contamination..." Fission is very relevant to this situation as you attempt to keep comparing chernobyl to the Japan reactors. Chernobyl was an out of control nuclear reaction that caused intense radiation. When the explosion happened the highly radiated contents of the Chernobyl reactors were spread by HUGE fires that burned for weeks. Here is the definition of a Dirty Bomb: "a bomb made from nuclear waste combined with conventional explosives that is capable of spreading radioactive material over a very wide area" It's called a dirty BOMB of course it needs an explosion. When you say dirty bomb it implies that you mean explosion. Water's boiling point is 100 °C the water isn't even boiling. Yesterday small flames were seen for about 30 min before they were put out. Yesterday the smoke stopped and the live shots today don't show any smoke at all. There is some white steam (Remember its cold at the plants so steam will show white) which shows that water is still present in the reactors.

And it kept dropping to normal levels, which is why the nuclear crew went back to work. You're quoting a dated webpage that doesn't say when they got the data, I'm telling you what the live Japanese TV says. Sure you can claim that the Japanese TV is trying to cover it all up but you're starting to sound like those loons, a couple pages back, who claimed that the American military did this to sabotage Japanese production. So they were washed away? What?

NHK (Japan's CBC) is listing the latest radiation numbers: Tokyo: 0.16 microsieverts Fukushima: 21.4 microsieverts So if 1mSv=1000μSv then the radiation level was .0214 mSv. A full body CT scan is 10mSv so a full body CT scan is 500 times more powerful than the latest radiation levels at Fukushima ... if I got my Math right.

Maybe because of the time difference but in Japan it was reported as the radiation spiked the nuclear plant workers were pulled back then the radiation went back down and the nuclear workers went back to work cooling down the reactors. Just for perspective here is what the British embassy is telling their citizens in Japan: ... Sir. John Beddington, Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, and he was joined by a number of qualified nuclear experts based in the UK. Their assessment of the current situation in Japan is as follows: * In case of a ‘reasonable worst case scenario’ (defined as total meltdown of one reactor with subsequent radioactive explosion) an exclusion zone of 30 miles (50km) would be the maximum required to avoid affecting peoples’ health. Even in a worse situation (loss of two or more reactors) it is unlikely that the damage would be significantly more than that caused by the loss of a single reactor. * The current 20km exclusion zone is appropriate for the levels of radiation/risk currently experienced, and if the pouring of sea water can be maintained to cool the reactors, the likelihood of a major incident should be avoided. *If the pouring of water can be maintained the situation should be much improved after ten days, as the reactors’ cores cool down. * This is a very different situation from Chernobyl, where the reactor went into meltdown and the encasement, which exploded, was left to burn for weeks without any control. The Canadian embassy is saying essentially the same thing and a pointed: fuck off we're not paying for any evacuation because there isn't any risk.

You claim Chernobyl's high radiation caused by an out of control reaction is the same, or worse, in Japan - WRONG You claim Japan's reactor core is exposed like Chernobyl's - WRONG You claim there are big fires at the nuclear plants capable of spreading nuclear material - WRONG

OK one more time. Chernobyl was caused by an out of control nuclear reaction creating HUGE amounts of radiation. Without a containment shield the explosion allowed an exposure of the nuclear material which allowed said radiated material (Which had high amounts of radiation because of the out of control fission reaction) to spread over Europe due to a big fire. This can't happen in Japan because the nuclear reaction was shut down and the nuclear material has been enclosed in the containment shield. At the very worst this could be a Three Mile Island and that accident had "estimates of radiological exposure for the 2 million people in the area amounted to about one-sixth of what they might have received from a chest X-ray."

I'm a little disturbed that you're happy about so many people dying. I'm personally sad that my estimate was wrong but with events like one below lets hope that it doesn't crack 4000! 9700 missing and presumed dead people have been located at their designated meeting place.

I accept your admission that you were wrong and am glad I can clear up your misunderstanding about the nuclear event.

You are mistaken I just explained what happened in Chernobyl which happened because of an out of control nuclear reaction. Soviet reactors didn't contain their cores in steel containment units. At Chernobyl the nuclear rods because of the explosion were exposed in Chernobyl allowing fire and a chimney affect to carry nuclear material fallout throughout Europe. In Japan a Chernobyl like event can't happen because the core is contained in a steel containment unit. The hydro explosions that hit the reactors didn't crack the steel containment unit. True something is burning right now but the radiation readings once the nuclear power plant workers were allowed back to contain the fire have dropped back down indicating that indicate that the core isn't burning.