Major Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan

  • Thread starter a6m5
  • 1,128 comments
  • 108,532 views
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...lear-disaster-caused-mutated-butterflies?lite
120814-butterflies-3a.photoblog500.jpg
 
Freaky. I can't believe they'll survive for too many generations out in the wild though, if they're being affected by smaller wings or damaged eyes. Will be interesting to discover what other effects it's had on the local ecosystem.
 
Just another proof of how horrible accidents like that are.

This is not evidence of anything of the sort. I'm not worried about a few butterflies. They're still expecting bodies to be uncovered as water that was trapped inland (creating new lakes) dries up. They'll be finding their dead for years to come. I don't care about mutated butterflies or even a small "no-go" zone for radiation.

That being said, it is certainly interesting.
 
This is not evidence of anything of the sort. I'm not worried about a few butterflies. They're still expecting bodies to be uncovered as water that was trapped inland (creating new lakes) dries up. They'll be finding their dead for years to come. I don't care about mutated butterflies or even a small "no-go" zone for radiation.
You are aware that the fallout spread far and wide, right? Look at Colorado alone, where radiation has been detected in drinking water. Alright, they do say you'd need to drink some 2000 gallons for any health impacts. But think of that effect on fish, specifically in their spawning. I'm sure a couple years from now we'll start seeing reports of 3-eyed trout, salmon with no fins, or even unusally low numbers of said species. What about the mother bear who feeds on those fish, then delivers cubs? Or the eagle that swoops down with talons open to feed her nestlings? Then there are seasonal snow melts which run into streams and saturate soil - radiated snow, mind you - and it becomes an almost endless cycle.

Thirty years is a long time, and quite frankly I think butterflies are just the start...
 
Radiation exists regardless. Bananas, for example, are loaded with it. It's not as scary as people make it out to be. I'm more concerned with the huge number of fatalities and the potential for a repeat in another city/country.
 
Fair enough, but your banana equivalent dose is highly contested. Strictly speaking, potasium-40 is naturally abundant pretty much anywhere you look... be it tasty fruit or the human body. But caesium-137 on the other hand is a by-product of nuclear fission, and carries with it much greater consequences. Nuclear fission being around for about 75yrs, bananas a few years longer than that. Look at Chernobyl and TMI, sites which are still causing damaging effects all these years later. Whereas those deadly plantations causing untold nourishment for life.
 
HippieGiraffe
Look at Chernobyl and TMI, sites which are still causing damaging effects all these years later.
In Colorado? That's his point. Yes, radiation near the plant is dangerous. But to start talking about the dangers on the other side of the world, like mutant fish, is comparable to saying low level natural forms of radiation could do it. I mean, that 2,000 gallons of water you say would be required to cause damage is actually, according to the EPA, 7,000 liters of water drunk by an infant to equal one day's worth of natural background radiation. I don't see mutant fish occurring any time soon.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17828984?stopRedirect=true&refresh=no
 
Fukushima, the gift that keeps on giving...

Record radiation level detected inside damaged Fukushima reactor

NATIONAL FEB. 03, 2017 - 02:40PM JST


TOKYO —

A record radiation level has been detected inside the No. 2 reactor at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, with the estimated reading of up to 530 sieverts per hour, the plant operator said Thursday.

The reading means a person could die from even brief exposure, highlighting the difficulties ahead as the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. grope their way toward dismantling all three reactors that melted down in the March 2011 nuclear disaster.

The plant operator also announced that based on an image analysis, a 1-square-meter hole has been found on a metal grating beneath the reactor pressure vessel, likely caused by melted nuclear fuel that fell through the vessel.

The new radiation level, described by some experts as “unimaginable,” far exceeds 73 sieverts per hour, the previously highest radiation reading monitored in the interior of the reactor.

https://www.japantoday.com/category...vel-detected-inside-damaged-fukushima-reactor
 
A bit of good news, however - after just six years, they have managed to locate some of the nuclear fuel that has fallen out of one of the damaged reactors. As it says in the article, "Locating the fuel is the first step towards removing it.". I'm certainly no expert in the decommissioning of nuclear reactors after a triple meltdown, but even I knew that.

Apparently they were having a bit of trouble finding it because the radiation levels in there are quite high - too high even for the robots they planned to use to find it. The atmospheric radiation levels in one reactor was measured this week at 530 Sv/h - to put that in perspective, a dose of 1 Sv is enough to cause radiation sickness, and 5 Sv is enough to kill 50% of people within a month. The robots used by Tepco can withstand a total dose of 1,000 Sv - meaning that they would last less than 2 hours each in that reactor; so that's going to mean a lot of robots over the course of decommissioning of the plant, which is expected to take 40 years. Soon they are going to have to build robots just to clear away the robots.

Workers at Fukushima are supposed to be limited to just 20 mSv radiation per year, or a total dose of 100 mSv (though that was temporarily raised to 250 mSv). However, in the reactor described above, the radiation levels are currently running at 147 mSv per second - that's high enough to cause certain death after just 69 seconds exposure.
 
A bit of good news, however - after just six years, they have managed to locate some of the nuclear fuel that has fallen out of one of the damaged reactors. As it says in the article, "Locating the fuel is the first step towards removing it.". I'm certainly no expert in the decommissioning of nuclear reactors after a triple meltdown, but even I knew that.

Apparently they were having a bit of trouble finding it because the radiation levels in there are quite high - too high even for the robots they planned to use to find it. The atmospheric radiation levels in one reactor was measured this week at 530 Sv/h - to put that in perspective, a dose of 1 Sv is enough to cause radiation sickness, and 5 Sv is enough to kill 50% of people within a month. The robots used by Tepco can withstand a total dose of 1,000 Sv - meaning that they would last less than 2 hours each in that reactor; so that's going to mean a lot of robots over the course of decommissioning of the plant, which is expected to take 40 years. Soon they are going to have to build robots just to clear away the robots.

Workers at Fukushima are supposed to be limited to just 20 mSv radiation per year, or a total dose of 100 mSv (though that was temporarily raised to 250 mSv). However, in the reactor described above, the radiation levels are currently running at 147 mSv per second - that's high enough to cause certain death after just 69 seconds exposure.

I've also read that the core itself could theoretically burn a hole through the earth's crust and sink deep enough to hit the core of the planet in around 12-15 years, leading to god-knows what...
 
"Unless something is done quickly, the trapped robots will be dead within 300 years. Sir, what rescue operations are planned?"
"The plan is basically to pave over the area and get on with our lives."

After 9/11 the remains of some of the victims were recycled for road surfacing, it's all plausible!
 
Hard to believe that the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami happened exactly 10 years ago today...

Here is some 'then and now' pictures:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/10/japans-2011-tsunami-then-and-now-in-pictures

Japan's recovery has been amazing, though even today some parts of the eastern coastline have only partly been rebuilt.

There are some fascinating resources online and various documentaries on the quake and tsunami, and also the continuing impact from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, which resulted from the tsunami.

I always found this footage to be particularly unique and shocking... a group of guys climbed a hill overlooking the docks in Soma, and the mood is quite jovial and light-hearted as the water starts to come in, but the tone changes as the sheer scale of the incoming waves becomes apparent.

There is also a video on YT somewhere from a man who was in the building that gets swamped in the video above; someone can even be seen on the balcony just before the massive second wave strikes; it is incredible to know that the people in that building survived, even though many more were not so lucky. I will try to find that video, as it is a fascinating account of a terrifying moment.
 
Back