8.9 magnitude earthquake in japan

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

Just checking in. Safe and well as Shizuoka is far from where it all went down. That said we felt a pretty big and long lasting quake even here. Was in Sendai for an away game last season and it's a wonderful city. Absolutely gutted for the people up there. Simply horrifying.

 

[Jesus Gul]

Just checking in. Safe and well as Shizuoka is far from where it all went down. That said we felt a pretty big and long lasting quake even here. Was in Sendai for an away game last season and it's a wonderful city. Absolutely gutted for the people up there. Simply horrifying.

Glad to hear you are OK. Waiting on news of a mate in Tokyo.

 

[trueblue]

Out of curiosity, where did you get 9,000 from?

I only zipped back to that section of the book quickly last night so not sure why he used that figure. He explained that earlier I'm sure. Most likely, by that point he is quoting the highest number of deaths as put out by either a news organisation or someone who's used Chernobyl to further opposition to nuclear power.

Of course, every death is a tragedy to those involved - no disputing that. But in all sorts of areas we tend to clamour for policy decisions based on that emotional response rather than any logic. The science shows that's hard-wired into humans from the days when Gut instinct was largely all we had to keep us alive. Now that we see terrifying things that could kill us unfold live on TV, while politicians and others - even charities - manipulate that flaw in our psyche to suit their own cause, we get some seriously bad policy. If it looks scary and deadly, massive over -reaction e.g. Terrorism. Statistically, any one of us has so little chance of being killed like that it's not worth worrying about.

If it's boring and deadly like, say, diabetes - we largely just shrug our shoulders and read about another murder instead.

 

[surrey jim]

sky news reporting an explosion at one of the nuclear plants,.

 

[itszamora]

sky news reporting an explosion at one of the nuclear plants,.

This could be very bad. There won't be a big nuclear bomb-style explosion, but if the top gets blown off we're looking at another Chernobyl, as that's what released all the radioactive stuff into the atmosphere. Even if there's a meltdown, which now seems likely, providing the reactor's structure maintains integrity it will at least be contained and there won't be fallout everywhere.

 

[itszamora]

There's a book called 'Risk' by Dan Gardner which has some really interesting things to say about a lot of things and especially nuclear power - the bottom line being that because of the way we perceive threats, its dangers are massively over-estimated. There are sound psychological reasons behind that but it's frustrating for the experts in the field who maintain that it's far less environmentally damaging than any other source of energy. In other words, the solution to our fuel problems and over-reliance on the Middle East for oil already exist. Climate change will kill far more than any nuclear disaster..

But then you get the big headline event - 9000 people killed at Chernobyl (a long time ago now with old technology and low safety standards) that our brains will just not let go. Yes, 9000 is a lot. But on average 1 million people are diagnosed with skin cancer EVERY YEAR in the US and 10000 of them die. Mostly that will have happened from sun exposure - often deliberate. So people are quite happy to expose themselves to the radiation they're so terrified of just for fun. So, rather than generally worrying about nuclear plant melt-downs, it would actually be more rational to worry about going on your summer holidays..

If there's no significant long-term health issue from the nuclear power station after a gigantic earthquake AND tsunami, maybe we should finally start to believe the scientists? You can bet though that if there are even a handful of deaths from radiation, it will receive such massive publicity that potentially the 'greenest' of all power solutions will continue to be a non-starter.

Completely agree. Which is why besides the obvious reasons, I really hope this business with the reactor turns out not to be serious.

 

[surrey jim]

NHK news agency saying roof and walls of plant blown away from plant.

 

[itszamora]

NHK news agency saying roof and walls of plant blown away from plant.

Fingers crossed it is not the containment building that has the reactor inside it.

 

[MrShaun15]

Sky news says its not the main reactor its more like the coolant or something else, i dont think we need to panic as much anymore

 

[jimhigham]

If you have Sky go to channel 516 for NHK World. Current pictures show reactor 1 as just a steel frame with the cladding gone. Looks like it's been stripped.

Uh-oh!

 

[itszamora]

Sky news says its not the main reactor its more like the coolant or something else, i dont think we need to panic as much anymore

Good, although the coolant is pretty important as it is failing to cool the reactor that is the first stage towards a meltdown.

 

[MrShaun15]

Good, although the coolant is pretty important as it is failing to cool the reactor that is the first stage towards a meltdown.

the coolant was not working last night around 8

 

[itszamora]

the coolant was not working last night around 8

Yes, which is why whatever is happening at the moment is happening. Anyway, fingers crossed it is not the reactor as you say.

 

[surrey jim]

just saw shots of the building blow up. would be surprised if buildings nearby were not damaged.

 

[jimhigham]

Crap. Latest pictures show an actual explosion. There's no way of window dressing that. It's very, very bad.

 

[MrShaun15]

yes, fingers crossed its just not a major one

 

[MrShaun15]

50,000 people around it being evacuated

 

[surrey jim]

further warnings for more tsunami now. Goverment warning people to get to higher grounds

 

[tonymgc]

Bit shocking watching that reactor wall go. Lets put our faith in the hope the people dealing with it are drilled & practised & hopefully will keep any leakage etc to a minimum.

 

[MrShaun15]

"50,000 people used to live here, now it's a ghost town"

fingers crossed this does not happen again =/