Yamaku near Sendai?

[Minister of Gloom]

One effect of the incident I can think about is that the next generation of students may have a higher percentage of born disabilities (due to parents exposure to radiation), and perhaps blindness or certain types of cancer, and less accidental injuries.

[Suriko]

One effect of the incident I can think about is that the next generation of students may have a higher percentage of born disabilities (due to parents exposure to radiation), and perhaps blindness or certain types of cancer, and less accidental injuries.

Nobody (possibly excepting some of the most unfortunate plant workers) has been exposed to enough radiation to cause this. At all.

[cpl_crud]

Agreed with Suriko.

Please don't believethe hype. Whilst the Fukushima plant isn't in the greatest state, it's certainly not overly threatening (at least not in a radiological sense).

[Totz the Plaid]

In addition to what Suriko and cpl_crud said, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sakN2hSVxA here's a video uploaded March 16 (so some of the info's out of date) where Japan gives us the straight shit on what [was] going on over there in Fukushima and the overall danger even if there were to be a full meltdown. While the metaphor used may gross some out, I think it's a pretty good guide to how bad things actually were/are/could be. It also contains comparisons to what happened at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island so you can really get an idea of what the risk is.

Even before that dropped, though, an acquaintence I know who lives in Japan had already been posting on Twitter about how American news was sensationalizing the whole thing and blowing it out of proportion (as they do with anything they can get away with).

[hir]

I would be obliged to post the situation as a resident in Tokyo...

[Mirage_GSM]

Even before that dropped, though, an acquaintence I know who lives in Japan had already been posting on Twitter about how American news was sensationalizing the whole thing and blowing it out of proportion (as they do with anything they can get away with).

Not only american news - news all over the world and I think regarding nuclear technology our german news are among the worst. The other day they had a 'scientist' proclaim Fukushima was "4o times worse than Tchernobyl", and it's likely that a large number of people here actually believed him. Germans are notoriously paranoid about nuclear technology - I have no idea why...

I would be obliged to post the situation as a resident in Tokyo...

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion. An acquaintance of mine used to live about 50km south of Fukushima, but she has since moved away from there.

[hir]

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion. An acquaintance of mine used to live about 50km south of Fukushima, but she has since moved away from there.

I'll be writing based on the facts from the authorities and news reports...

*Radiation

Radiation level and fallout measurements are reported on a real time basis on government websites.
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/radioacti ... /index.htm

There were two major spikes in radiation level due to several incidents after the earthquake. (Intentional discharge of pressurized air in the reactor, explosion in the housing of the reactor)

However it's been a few weeks after those events, and we can see that the radiation level has pretty much come down to normal level in Tokyo. (Less than 0.1 microsieverts / hour)
http://mextrad.blob.core.windows.net/pa ... yo_en.html

The readings in Sendai is about 5 times the normal level, but this is still far from causing any health concern.
http://www.mext.go.jp/component/english ... 040624.pdf

The figures are considerably high in the surroundings of Fukushima power plant.
Government has issued evacuation notice to 20km radius around the plant, however certain areas (especially north-western direction) are showing high radiation level outside this radius, possibly due to wind direction.
http://www.mext.go.jp/component/english ... 040819.pdf

In my opinion you would want to avoid staying in places where the reading is over 5 microsieverts/h.

*Power plants

The authorities are working 24H to bring the situation under control, but the outlook is still unpredictable.
The radiation level is extremely high around the premise which makes all the repair task difficult for the workers.
It may take months or a full year to actually stabilize these reactors to safety, then only they can be dismantled (which is a process of 10s of years)

Major radiation leakage to the atmosphere is not observed after March 21 as per the readings mentioned above.
However we still can't rule out the possibility of further reactor breach, although they are doing their best to avoid such event.

Some amount of water used for cooling the reactor which was highly contaminated went in to the ocean.
They decided to contain such water in containment tanks, but in turn they had to dump the low-radiation water in those tanks to the sea to make space.
This was unavoidable under the circumstances but deeply regretted.

I don't think Japan would ever think of building new nuclear plants after an event like this.

The assessment so far would be "worse than Three Mile Island, better then Chernobyl" but how much radioactive material was actually released is not known yet.
We should still keep a close watch on the amount of discharge.

Regrettably the whole incident is raising concern in the world. I seriously hope the situation gets contained as early as possible.

*Impacted areas and damage

Earthquake damage was big, tsunami was devastating.
Coastal area of Pacific side of Norther Japan is totally wiped out by tsunami, as far as 4km inland.
About 15000 people reported dead, about the same missing. More than 150000 people displaced and still taking refuge in shelters.
Rebuilding these areas will be a long and tough task.

*Life in Tokyo

The impact of earthquake in and around Tokyo was mixed.
The shake was unusually big but we didn't see any building collapse. No riots or panic.
Trains stopped for the entire day and people had to walk from their office to home.
Power shortage was announced due to the power plant failure, and streets in the night became considerably darker.

All the TV stations went into crisis report mode and MadokaMagica airing got postponed indefinitely. Damn.

This has pretty much come back to normal within a few weeks and people are resuming normal life here.

I've heard that some reports overseas suggest Tokyo has become a ghost town...totally untrue...

The radiation spill did cause a lot of confusion, but mass panic seems to have been avoided.
The level observed would "pose no immediate risk to health"...government spokesman loves this phrase
(Which is scientifically correct but people are getting really skeptical)

*Prospects?

We need to decrease power consumption by 25% toward the Summer season...obvious impact to the economy and public life.
Very little time to prepare.

We received help and support from all over the world. We appreciate your kindness and goodwill.

[Deimos]

That was very informative, hir, as well as an interesting indicator for the levelheadedness and maturity displayed by the very people who are more directly affected by the catastrophe of this earthquake and its results which stands in contrast to some of the fear-mongering and overly dramatized behaviour exhibited by people who want to captivate or increase their audience or use it to further their personal or political agenda.

[Mirage_GSM]

Thank you for the information. Here is another chart I found to be quite informative.
I try to keep informed about the situation, as I was originally scheduled to travel to Tokyo for a few months this spring. This has now been postponed for the time being. As the situation is now, I don't have any reservations about travelling to Japan, but I do understand the people in Japan have other problems than looking after a gaikokujin liek me right now.
Even before the quake, I've always been impressed with the accomplishments of the Japanese people, but the way they manage to cope with a disaster of such dimensions - without any panic or widespread looting that would be inevitable in the US or most other western countries (Anybody remember Katrina?) - has raised my admiration even more.

[G3n0c1de]

That was very informative, hir, as well as an interesting indicator for the levelheadedness and maturity displayed by the very people who are more directly affected by the catastrophe of this earthquake and its results which stands in contrast to some of the fear-mongering and overly dramatized behaviour exhibited by people who want to captivate or increase their audience or use it to further their personal or political agenda.

It's all about the Japanese culture, which views contributions to the group as a whole and self sacrifice as more important that individual success. I've heard that there is little to no looting going on in Japan. If that's true then that's another example of this.

[hir]

Unfortunately there were reports of burglary in unattended shops and houses at earlier dates, particularly in areas hit by tsunamis or inside the evacuation zone of the Fukushima plant.
Maintaining order in such areas is difficult, since these places are practically deserted. Police patrolling is being enforced but it would be difficult to catch all the wrongdoers.
http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201103170165.html

When you're sure that no one is likely to see you doing anything, some people come up with nasty ideas...the scale may be small but it's still a shame.

It's also reported that the Japanese government is complaining about the media coverage in other countries.
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201104080171.html

[Sid Vicious]

May I attract your attention to this previous thread, ladies and gents?

So let's keep a lid on the lame jokes, okay.

That is kind of ignorant since in just happend a little bit ago or alleast if you were there when it happend

[Darlat]

May I attract your attention to this previous thread, ladies and gents?

So let's keep a lid on the lame jokes, okay.

That is kind of ignorant since in just happend a little bit ago or alleast if you were there when it happend

It happened a month and three days ago... and how is it ignorant in any way?

[Sid Vicious]

May I attract your attention to this previous thread, ladies and gents?

So let's keep a lid on the lame jokes, okay.

That is kind of ignorant since in just happen a little bit ago or at least if you were there when it happen

It happened a month and three days ago... and how is it ignorant in any way?

because that thread was put up on the day the it happen

[Totz the Plaid]

[Quote of Silentcook telling us not to be offensive dicks with their characters.]

That is kind of ignorant since in just happen a little bit ago or at least if you were there when it happen

It happened a month and three days ago... and how is it ignorant in any way?

because that thread was put up on the day the it happen

You're still not making any sense there "Sid". Just what are you referring to as being ignorant?