Japan braces for potential nuclear catastrophe

[Hop2089]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan faced a potential catastrophe on Tuesday after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility -- a population of 140,000 -- to remain indoors amid the world's most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

Officials in Tokyo -- 240 km (150 miles) to the south of the plant -- said only minute levels of radiation had been detected so far in the capital, which were "not a problem."

Radiation levels in the city of Maebashi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Tokyo, and in Chiba prefecture, nearer the city, were up to 10 times normal levels, Kyodo news agency said. Foreign experts disagreed on whether this was harmful or not.

[Related: What is acute radiation syndrome?]

Around eight hours after the explosions, the U.N. weather agency said winds were dispersing radioactive material over the Pacific Ocean, away from Japan and other Asian countries. The Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization added that weather conditions could change.

As concern about the crippling economic impact of the nuclear and earthquake disasters mounted, Japan's Nikkei index fell as much as 14 percent before ending down 10.6 percent, compounding a slide of 6.2 percent the day before. The two-day fall has wiped some $620 billion off the market.

Two of the reactors exploded on Tuesday at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after days of frantic efforts to cool them. Kyodo news agency said the nuclear fuel pool at the No. 4 reactor may be boiling, suggesting the crisis is far from over at the plant.

"The possibility of further radioactive leakage is heightening," a grim-faced Kan said in an address to the nation. "We are making every effort to prevent the leak from spreading. I know that people are very worried but I would like to ask you to act calmly."

[Related: The world’s deadliest tsunamis]

Levels of 400 millisieverts per hour had been recorded near the No. 4 reactor, the government said. Exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association.

The plant operator pulled out 750 workers, leaving just 50, and a 30-km no-fly zone was imposed around the reactors. There have been no detailed updates on what levels the radiation reached inside the exclusion zone where people live.

"Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to human bodies because it will be dissipated by the time it gets to Tokyo," said Koji Yamazaki, professor at Hokkaido University graduate school of environmental science. "If the wind gets stronger, it means the material flies faster but it will be even more dispersed in the air."

Despite pleas for calm, residents rushed to shops in Tokyo to stock up on supplies. Don Quixote, a multi-storey, 24-hour general store in Roppongi district, sold out of radios, flashlights, candles and sleeping bags.

In a sign of regional fears about the risk of radiation, China said it would evacuate its citizens from areas worst affected but it had detected no abnormal radiation levels at home. Air China said it had canceled flights to Tokyo.

Several embassies advised staff and citizens to leave affected areas. Tourists cut short vacations and multinational companies either urged staff to leave or said they were considering plans to move outside Tokyo.

"I'm scared. I'm so scared I would rather be in the eye of a tornado," said 10-year-old Lucy Niver of Egan, Minnesota, who was on holiday in Japan. "I want to leave."

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON"

Japanese media have became more critical of Kan's handling of the disaster and criticized the government and nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for its failure to provide enough information on the incident.

Kan himself lambasted the operator for taking so long to inform his office about one of the blasts, demanding to know "what the hell is going on?," Kyodo reported.

Kyodo said Kan had ordered TEPCO not to pull employees out of the plant.

"The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier's office for about an hour," a Kyodo reporter quoted Kan telling power company executives.

Lam Ching-wan, a chemical pathologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the blasts could expose the population to longer-term exposure to radiation, which can raise the risk of thyroid and bone cancers and leukemia. Children and fetuses are especially vulnerable, he said.

"Very acute radiation, like that which happened in Chernobyl and to the Japanese workers at the nuclear power station, is unlikely for the population," he said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, talking of levels of radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 4 reactor, said: "There is definitely a possibility that this could affect people's bodies."

There have been a total of four explosions at the plant since it was damaged in last Friday's massive quake and tsunami. The most recent were blasts at reactors No. 2 and No. 4.

There was a real possibility of a leak in the No.4 reactor container, which houses the nuclear fuel rods, according to Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California.

Concerns center on damage to a part of the reactor core known as the suppression pool, which helps cool and trap the majority of cesium, iodine, strontium in its water. The nature of the damage was unclear, as was its impact on the containment structure, a thick steel vessel that surrounds the core.

Jennex said the crisis in Japan, the only nation to have suffered a nuclear attack, was worse that the Three Mile Island disaster of 1979.

"But you're nowhere near a Chernobyl ... Chernobyl there was no impediment to release, it just blew everything out into the atmosphere," he said. "You've still got a big chunk of the containment there holding most of it in."

Authorities had previously been trying to prevent meltdowns in the complex's nuclear reactors by flooding the chambers with sea water to cool the reactors down.

A sudden drop in cooling water levels when a pump ran out of fuel had fully exposed the fuel rods for a time, an official said. TEPCO had resumed pumping sea water into the reactor early on Tuesday.

U.S. warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation. The Seventh Fleet described the move as precautionary.

South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines said they would test Japanese food imports for radiation.

VILLAGES AND TOWNS WIPED OFF THE MAP

The full extent of the destruction from last Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that followed it was still becoming clear, as rescuers combed through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed.

Whole villages and towns have been wiped off the map by Friday's wall of water, triggering an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing.

Toshiyuki Suzuki, 61, has a heart pacemaker and takes seven kinds of medicine a day. He lost all of them when the waves swept away his home, along with his father and son.

He cannot go to hospitals because there is no gasoline at local fuel stations. "I am having problems with walking and with my heartbeat. I absolutely need medicine."

Kan has said Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two.

Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist for Japan at Credit Suisse, said in a note to clients that the economic loss will likely be around 14-15 trillion yen ($171-183 billion) just to the region hit by the quake and tsunami.

Even that would put it above the commonly accepted cost of the 1995 Kobe quake which killed 6,000 people.

The earthquake has forced many firms to suspend production and global companies -- from semiconductor makers to shipbuilders -- face disruptions to operations after the quake and tsunami destroyed vital infrastructure, damaged ports and knocked out factories.

"The earthquake could have great implications on the global economic front," said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lec Securities in New York. "If you shut down Japan, there could be a global recession."

(Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Linda sieg, Risa Maeda, and Leika Kihara in Tokyo, Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai, Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon in Fukushima, Noel Randewich in San Francisco, Tan Ee-lyn in Singapore and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers and Dean Yates)

Source

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

"The earthquake could have great implications on the global economic front," said Andre Bakhos, director of market analytics at Lec Securities in New York. "If you shut down Japan, there could be a global recession."

A lot of economists disagree. Most think the economic effects will be pretty much isolated to Japan itself, and they are also seriously expecting industrial output to be back to normal within 1 to 2 months. Still not great news but please don't worry too much about further global financial problems when/if you are trying to work out if and how you can help out at all.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Of course they are going to bounce back. They've done it before, and quickly became, pretty much, one of the strongest countries in the world. They just have to keep their hopes up and their spirit's strong.

But that being said, this is horrible. Countries around the world should be sending help to help the people that are affected. Get them to a safe place and look after them. While yes, they are cleaning and rebuilding, put that to the side and get the civilians the fuck out of there.

Staying inside is good, but that's not the best idea. They'd have to basically cut themselves off from air by sealing up every possible crack and everything.

Like I said before, even if countries hate each other, put the differences to the side, and help out your fellow man.

 

[TwinBlades]

Hope they all fleed safely. Also hope that gozilla wont strike them from all that radiation poured into the sea

 

[princefarzan]

I don't think its possible to be 'worst' then chernobyl because chernobyl is classifed as a class 7 in International Nuclear Event Scale, which is the highest for any nuclear disaster so in worst case scenario it would be another chernobyl.

 

[Blebleman]

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

No. No, it's not.

It's actually almost impossible for it to reach that level. Read up, and don't panic.

The people in the most danger right now are the staff working at the reactor. They are true heroes right now.

 

[rad140]

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

Read your own article. It says that it is nowhere near the level of what Chernobyl was.

Still, it's pretty terrible what's happening over there.

 

[Hop2089]

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

The people in the most danger right now are the staff working at the reactor. They are true heroes right now.

Such dedication, when this is over all 50 of them should receive a medal.

 

[DSGamer64]

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

Read your own article. It says that it is nowhere near the level of what Chernobyl was.

Still, it's pretty terrible what's happening over there.

Actually that's not true. At the Fukishima facility, tests on people in the area are reporting people have absorbed 400 mSv, which is 50 more then the Chernobyl residents who were relocated after the disaster. mSv is the nuclear exposure measurement millisieverts. If the exposure gets any higher, people are going to be sick within hours of being exposed any more to it and their hair is going to start falling out within a couple of weeks when they hit 750 mSv. If exposure ratings get anywhere above 1,000 mSv, there is going to be even more danger because then it becomes a life or death situation and people are going to become highly radioactive themselves. The Chernobyl workers who died within a month of the disaster had an mSv of 6,000, 5,000 will kill half of those exposed to a single dose within a month as well. So basically, if it gets much worse, people are going to be in a lot of trouble. If the workers inside the reactor have any higher reported levels, then yes we know that they will be dead shortly after and those that survive will suffer the same way the residents of Chernobyl did. Half the country will have toxic land for the next 50 years, there are still reasonably high radiation levels in the ground in the Chernobyl and it's been 25 years.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/15/gr...naway-reactors/

 

[ShadowSoldier]

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

The people in the most danger right now are the staff working at the reactor. They are true heroes right now.

Such dedication, when this is over all 50 of them should receive a medal.

Yeah right, after all of this over (assuming they succeed which I pray they do), they shouldn't have to work or pay taxes for life.

 

[Sterling]

You know, the best part of a tornado is the eye, I'd rather be there too if I was in Japan at the moment.

Nuclear fallout is one of the worst imaginable disasters that can come about because of man. The worst has to be a gigantic oil spill.

 

[nando]

Yeah right, after all of this over (assuming they succeed which I pray they do), they shouldn't have to work or pay taxes for life.

lucky for them they don't live in the usa where they wouldn't even get health benefits like the 9/11 respondents.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

Nuclear fallout is one of the worst imaginable disasters that can come about because of man. The worst has to be a gigantic oil spill.

That really depends, on things like wind direction and just how much irradiated material (and how badly irradiated) escapes and how far it spreads. Worse case scenario I guess would be a fuck load of caesium-137 going up into the air with a westerly wind blowing the whole lot over mainland Asia and onto Europe. A big enough explosion and it ends up in the upper atmosphere and gets the whole world. Much worse than an oil slick, but much, much, much less likely to actually happen.

 

[drake7707]

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

Read your own article. It says that it is nowhere near the level of what Chernobyl was.

Still, it's pretty terrible what's happening over there.

Actually that's not true. At the Fukishima facility, tests on people in the area are reporting people have absorbed 400 mSv, which is 50 more then the Chernobyl residents who were relocated after the disaster. mSv is the nuclear exposure measurement millisieverts. If the exposure gets any higher, people are going to be sick within hours of being exposed any more to it and their hair is going to start falling out within a couple of weeks when they hit 750 mSv. If exposure ratings get anywhere above 1,000 mSv, there is going to be even more danger because then it becomes a life or death situation and people are going to become highly radioactive themselves. The Chernobyl workers who died within a month of the disaster had an mSv of 6,000, 5,000 will kill half of those exposed to a single dose within a month as well. So basically, if it gets much worse, people are going to be in a lot of trouble. If the workers inside the reactor have any higher reported levels, then yes we know that they will be dead shortly after and those that survive will suffer the same way the residents of Chernobyl did. Half the country will have toxic land for the next 50 years, there are still reasonably high radiation levels in the ground in the Chernobyl and it's been 25 years.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/15/gr...naway-reactors/

Saying how much sievert you are exposed to without a time frame how long the exposure was means nothing. You get about 1 sievert/year from natural causes (cosmic radiation, ...) yet noone is getting sick from it.

 

[twiztidsinz]

TOKYO (Reuters)

[...]

"Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to human bodies because it will be dissipated by the time it gets to Tokyo," said Koji Yamazaki, professor at Hokkaido University graduate school of environmental science. "If the wind gets stronger, it means the material flies faster but it will be even more dispersed in the air."

[...]

"Very acute radiation, like that which happened in Chernobyl and to the Japanese workers at the nuclear power station, is unlikely for the population," he said.

[...]

Jennex said the crisis in Japan, the only nation to have suffered a nuclear attack, was worse that the Three Mile Island disaster of 1979.

"But you're nowhere near a Chernobyl ... Chernobyl there was no impediment to release, it just blew everything out into the atmosphere," he said. "You've still got a big chunk of the containment there holding most of it in."

Source

The nuclear crisis in Japan is officially worse than Chernobyl, I hope Japan can recover after this especially with radiation hitting Tokyo.

Did you bother to READ what was written before you made shit up?

 

[Nujui]

I agree that it's probably going to be bad, but not as bad as Chernobyl.

 

[Splych]

Like I said before, even if countries hate each other, put the differences to the side, and help out your fellow man.

+1 to that .
China is helping out a bit , if i heard it right from the news . although they have rivalry , China has learned to put it aside to help them out .

 

[Liezah]

There's a lot of ships heading out to help them.. So I think that'll help (hopefully) and hopefully the death toll ends.. it's saddening to hear these types of news. ;_ ; Either way.. People are already in panic and leaving Japan.. I sincerely hope things don't get any worse.

 

[Coto]

Let´s just help them the best we can.

 

[hatredg0d]

I agree that it's probably going to be bad, but not as bad as Chernobyl.
the severity of the situation seems to keep rising, and now they are saying its almost as bad as Chernobyl.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/...nuclear/?hpt=T2
either way this is a completely different type of incident. Chernobyl happened because they bypassed key safety features.

QUOTE(ShadowSoldier @ Mar 15 2011, 10:14 AM) Like I said before, even if countries hate each other, put the differences to the side, and help out your fellow man.

+1 to that .
China is helping out a bit , if i heard it right from the news . although they have rivalry , China has learned to put it aside to help them out .

agreed, its not about governments, its about helping the people and their lives.