Big earthquake in Japan

[termogard]

Thank you for calculation and detailed explanation, JBaymore!

[JBaymore]

An aftershock / quake in the past hour on Hokkaido.

Magnitude 4.7 - HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
2011 April 17 03:00:00 UTC
Magnitude 4.7
Date-Time Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 03:00:00 UTC
Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 12:00:00 PM at epicenter

Location 42.357°N, 140.279°E
Depth 75.5 km (46.9 miles)
Region HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
Distances 76 km (47 miles) NNW (330°) from Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
119 km (74 miles) SW (228°) from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
173 km (108 miles) NNW (348°) from Aomori, Honshu, Japan
745 km (463 miles) N (3°) from TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 26.9 km (16.7 miles); depth +/- 12 km (7.5 miles)
Parameters
NST= 30, Nph= 31, Dmin=241.6 km, Rmss=1.39 sec, Gp=115°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=8

Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center:
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID usc0002t94



And another one in the same timeframe off the coast near the 3/11 epicenter:

Magnitude 4.7 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2011 April 17 02:56:00 UTC
Magnitude 4.7
Date-Time Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 02:56:00 UTC
Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 12:56:00 PM at epicenter

Location 40.035°N, 143.267°E
Depth 29 km (18.0 miles)
Region OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances 161 km (100 miles) ESE of Hachinohe, Honshu, Japan
185 km (114 miles) ENE of Morioka, Honshu, Japan
231 km (143 miles) ESE of Aomori, Honshu, Japan
573 km (356 miles) NNE of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 19.6 km (12.2 miles); depth +/- 6.9 km (4.3 miles)
Parameters NST= 34, Nph= 34, Dmin=220.4 km, Rmss=0.8 sec, Gp=137°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=5
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc0002t8y

[termogard]

TEPCO aims to achieve 'cold shutdown' for reactors in 6-9 months

TOKYO, April 17, Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Sunday that it aims to bring the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to a stable condition known as a ''cold shutdown'' in about six to nine months, while restoring stable cooling to the reactors and spent fuel pools in about three months.

At a news conference in Tokyo, company Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata announced the utility's schedule ''for the moment'' for bringing the complex in Fukushima Prefecture under control, while offering an apology for the ongoing nuclear crisis.

The utility, known as TEPCO, also said it needs three months to achieve ''steady reduction'' in radiation, and an additional three to six months to control radioactive emissions and curb radiation substantially.

It said it is addressing the immediate challenges of preventing hydrogen explosions at the Nos. 1 to 3 reactors and emission of water contaminated with high-level radiation from the No. 2 reactor.

The nuclear plant has been crippled by the devastating March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, with the resulting damage causing radioactive materials to be emitted into the environment and forcing residents near the plant to be evacuated.

Kyodo News

[termogard]

Elevated levels of radiation measured inside reactor buildings

TOKYO, April 18, Kyodo

Elevated levels of radiation have been measured inside the buildings housing the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the nuclear safety agency said Monday.


The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency suggested that the readings -- measured at between 10 and 49 millisieverts per hour for the No. 1 unit and between 28 and 57 millisieverts per hour for the No. 3 unit -- put time constraints on any work that must be done inside the reactors.


On Sunday, two remotely controlled robots measured radiation levels and other parameters inside the buildings. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., has found it difficult to send workers inside them due to concerns that they may be exposed to high levels of radiation.

Kyodo News

[termogard]

An opinion from Japan News Today :


The inaction of the government, the lack of information provided to residents sound very similar to what happened in the early days of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear crisis.

The Japanese government and TEPCO have behaved in a manner similar to the Soviet Union when the Chernobyl accident occurred. Withholding information, delaying action, playing down the risks of the disaster while providing nothing but reassurances whether they are justified or not. Only recently has the Japanese government raised the ranking of the Fukushima disaster to Level 7 on the INES scale. Criticism of the Japanese government and TEPCO by the Japanese media has also been weak because TEPCO is a huge advertiser for many Japanese media companies.

What this link leads to is a discussion on a Japanese site about how English media sites have provided far more comprehensive, quicker coverage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster compared to the Japanese media. They also discuss how it is ironic TEPCO’s English language site provides a wealth of information, photos, and videos that only trickles in to Japanese media coverage.

When you watch the documentary the impact on the people, animals, and the surrounding areas around Chernobyl sound very similar to what is happening in Fukushima. The evacuated Ukranian residents never returned, will the Fukushima residents never return to their abandoned or destroyed homes? Maybe they just don’t know yet that is what is going to happen.

Japan News Today

[nellie1208]

Let's just all pray for what had happened it Japan last March. And, there are still earthquake after the tsunami that occurred last March 11. Hopefully, there would be no calamities and catastrophes, let's just have high hopes that this tragedy would already end.

[termogard]

Radioactive water likely to hamper cooling effort

The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power facility plans to cool the reactors by filling their vessels with water. However, that process may be hampered by wastewater contaminated with highly radioactive materials.

According Tokyo Electric Power Company's blueprint for bringing the troubled facility under control, the Number 1 and 3 reactor vessels will be filled with water up to the height of the nuclear fuel rods by the middle of July. This is aimed at cooling the reactors in a stable manner.

TEPCO says that the water level has begun rising in the Number 1 reactor. It says water injected to cool the reactor vaporizes out of the reactor and then turns into water after being cooled inside the container.

However, if the container has been damaged, then highly radioactive water may seep out.

The utility needs to check the reactor turbine building for any water leakage from the building housing the reactor, but workers cannot enter the reactor building at present. However, the effort to identify the source of a leak is difficult because of radioactive water inside the basement of the turbine building.

Work to move contaminated water from the Number 2 reactor is already underway. However, it's not clear when they can begin moving contaminated water from the Number 1 reactor.

TEPCO estimates 520-ton radioactive water into sea

Tokyo Electric Power Company says radioactive substances that leaked into the sea at the damaged Fukushima plant over six days from April 1st are estimated at 4,700 terabecquerels. This is 20,000 times more than the annual allowable limit at the complex.

At a news conference on Thursday, Tokyo Electric said it calculated the total amount of leaked water assuming that the leak began on April 1st. The leak of contaminated water from a pit of the Number 2 reactor was found on April 2nd and was stopped four days later using liquid glass.

The utility firm said that 520 tons of the high-level radioactive water is likely to have leaked into the sea during the period.

The estimated level of radiation in the water is roughly one 100th of what the government announced on Tuesday of last week as the total amount of radiation released into the air from the Daiichi complex. The figure is about 10,000 times more than that released in the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

Levels of iodine131 were found to be 7.5 million times the safety limit on April 2nd near the water intake of the Number 2 reactor. Tokyo Electric has since set up underwater barriers near the intake to prevent the spread of radioactive water in the sea.

The radiation level of seawater in the area has been gradually falling and, as of Tuesday, the iodine level was 1,200 times the limit.

Tokyo Electric says radioactive water may possibly be still leaking out through unidentified routes. The firm is trying to determine the routes and to continue monitoring data and grasping the impact of the radioactive water on marine life and the sea.

NHK World

So, they confirmed that not only low-contaminated water leaked into Pacific......

[dogsbody70]

A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident | The Japan Times Online




resident


By KAORI SHOJI
I never thought at my age, that I would be in this spot. But this is where I am at 74, in the taiikukan (体育館 gymnasium) of a middle school in Miyagi Prefecture, now known as a hinanjo (避難所 evacuation center) for people who lost their homes to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the region on March 11. I lived in a little house that I shared with my son, his wife and my two grandchildren. Arigataikotoni (ありがたいことに thankfully), this house was spared but it's been drenched in a meter of sea water. My son travels every day from the hinanjo to pump out the mud and clean up the mess. The grandchildren have relocated to my daughter's house in another prefecture, and it's hard to say when we can live together as a family again.



I'm not complaining. It's a miracle that none of my family are missing. But let me say this: life in a hinanjo is like living an slow death. It's not just the discomfort and stress of sleeping among 200 other people in a gymnasium. In the mornings, we elderly are awake at 4 a.m. but jitai suru (辞退する refrain from) using any amenities until 8 a.m. We want the working people to get their turn first. And at night, we try to go to bed as soon as possible, so others can do the same. Still, the darkness is overwhelming and the yoruno jikan (よるの時間 night hours) are so long. It's hard to get to sleep when people are constantly coughing and sobbing, and coming and going by one's pillow. In the mornings we're left feeling drained.

But far worse is the feeling that I'm a burden, and have nothing whatever to do. At home, there was always some chore to be done. Now I can hardly hear myself think and the hinanjo meals that consist mainly of cold convenience-store foodstuffs aren't exactly beneficial to my seishin (精神 spirit) or my shoukaki-kei (消化器系 digestive system).

Oh no, there I go again. My son is always telling me that I'm a kuchiurusai obaasan (口うるさいおばあさん an old woman who's always complaining and scolding) but that's what happens when a person reaches 70 — which in Japan used to be described as "koki." It's comprised of the kanji characters "ko" of kodai (古代 ancient) and "ki" of kisho (希少 rarity) — put the two together and what you get is a concept that means very rare since ancient times. When you consider that the average lifespan for the Japanese at the beginning of the 20th century was 45 years, living to 70 is indeed a rarity. Can't he recognize that, and treat me with respect?

That's what's missing from this hinanjo life: respect. I don't mean that people aren't nice, because they are. They're shinsetsu (親切 kind) and atatakai (暖かい warm) and so concerned. Most of the people working here are borantia (ボランティア volunteers) and the doctors here have come all the way from Kobe, because they dealt with quake victims before, during the Hanshin disaster 16 years ago. I'm of the kōreisha (高齢者 elderly) group so they take our temperature daily, give us medication when it's available and see to it that we go to the bathroom. Apparently, the doctors pay us special attention because they must prevent deaths in the hinanjo. It just doesn't look good for a survivor to die — not for the volunteers who are working so hard, for the government who are at their wits' end trying to mend the huge rupture in the fabric of this country's system, and the national image.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing or indicting. But treating us like fossils in an incubation box (albeit a cold one) isn't what respect is about. The kōreisha of Japan are not the helpless, burdensome bunch of toshiyori (年寄り oldies) that everyone seems to think. What saddens us most is the feeling that we are meiwaku wo kaketeiru (迷惑をかけている imposing on others), and being deprived of the opportunity to work and contribute. Some of us may need care, but many kōreisha have a huge reserve of knowledge and experience to draw on, namely those awful years during World War II. I've said it before and I'll say it again: sensochū no kotowo omoeba nandemonai (戦争中のことを思えば何でもない when I think of what it was like during the war, this is nothing.) It's a sentiment shared by everyone over 70, I think. And the whole world should know that the Imperial Family — yes! — have shut off the main electrical system in the palace and are now living by candlelight, and the Emperor has said the exact same thing. When I was a child I carried water and lived on hard potatoes and so did everyone else. Watashitachi wo motto katsuyōshite kudasai (私たちをもっと活用してください Utilize us more, please) is what I say. The nationwide slogan now calls for all Japanese to be as one (ひとつになろう、日本 hitotsuni narō, Nippon) but it feels like we oldies are being left out. I speak for many when I say, we want in! Chikarani naritai (力になりたい I want to help) is not just the battle cry of the young.

Today's column is based on a conversation with a tsunami survivor in the Natori district of Miyagi Prefecture. She prefers not to give her name.

[tokusatsufan]

Well well well. Three holes in the ground.

[dogsbody70]

Originally Posted by tokusatsufan

Well well well. Three holes in the ground.

what do you mean by your flippant comment?