Japan earthquake

[levantin]

Take care of yourself and family Atsushi San, thinking of you guys!

[QuantumRider]

Radiation levels have steadily been below "background radiation" levels of 50 nano Grays in the city immediately south of my town, where they have measuring stations.

http://www.kankyo-hoshano.go.jp/real..._in?areacode=1 (updated twice/hour or so)

They started a voluntary evacuation of non military personnel (families and civilian contractors) from the Navy base yesterday.

It's been suggested that I leave too, just in case the wind starts blowing south again, but just about my entire extended family on my mother's side lives in this area. I think that I would rather stay and glow in the dark with my 12 uncles/aunts, 10 cousins and their kids if it comes to that (which I am doubting highly in any case) than be somewhere else with just my wife and daughter.

[DRM]

Prayers out for you, brother, as well as all of Japan.

[stevieb91]

Radiation levels have steadily been below "background radiation" levels of 50 nano Grays in the city immediately south of my town, where they have measuring stations.

http://www.kankyo-hoshano.go.jp/real..._in?areacode=1 (updated twice/hour or so)

They started a voluntary evacuation of non military personnel (families and civilian contractors) from the Navy base yesterday.

It's been suggested that I leave too, just in case the wind starts blowing south again, but just about my entire extended family on my mother's side lives in this area. I think that I would rather stay and glow in the dark with my 12 uncles/aunts, 10 cousins and their kids if it comes to that (which I am doubting highly in any case) than be somewhere else with just my wife and daughter.

May you and your family be safe.

[QuantumRider]

Daily update:

The USS George Washington, which my upstairs neighbor works on, is sailing out from Yokosuka.

So he is heading states side, and tasked me with watering his plants while he's gone

Radiation levels are increasing and decreasing at points near the plant, but are still below background levels in the city next to my town.

Thanks again for your thoughts and concern.

[jackson1]

Thanks for the update, Atsushi. My thoughts are with you and your family every day.

I haven't been able to follow and watch much news on TV on this, but I've read that workers are working in shifts on the Fukushima plant, trying to better the situation.

I have one, direct question for anyone who can answer: are those workers being toasted by the radiation levels, expected to die from this as time goes by?

[Gartron]

Happy to hear your safe QR!

[RacerX]

I have one, direct question for anyone who can answer: are those Fukushima workers being toasted by the radiation levels, expected to die from this as time goes by?

While they don't have any current symptoms, the possibility is there. LA Times article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,2212621.story

Fukushima courage: workers accept their fate; one expert calls it a suicide mission. Lots of personal details, pics, maps, and a great detailed graphic of the plant here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-meltdown.html

[jackson1]

Thanks, racerman. Found this:

Later, six fire engines and a water cannon tried to spray the building with 9,000 gallons of water from high pressure hoses.

However, radiation levels within the plant rose from 3,700 millisieverts to 4,000 millisieverts an hour immediately afterwards.

People exposed to such doses will suffer radiation sickness and many will die.

[RacerX]

Check out this strange animation one of my associates from Japan sent me. Leave it to the Japanese to equate nuclear waste with poop & farts!

Nuclear Boy

[jackson1]

Nuclear disaster explained to the kids. Fascinating.

[RacerX]

Another online friend (a doctor in Kashiwa) posted this 2 days ago:

Friends,

Our self defence force, JSDF, and the US military are doing a great
job and saved almost 20,000 sufferers already. There are almost
70,000 JSDF troops serving in the area, and reserve troops are
ready to serve. Great job! BIG thank you goes to the US military.

Fukshima reactors are still not under control. They sent JSDF
helicopters to scoop up 7.5 tons of sea water at a time and poured
it down from 100 meters above during the day, which they did 4
times. They also tried riot police's water cannon, but in the 50-
meter range, the radioactivity was too high, and they gave it up.
At 19:35, the JSDF sent 5 high-powered fire engines to the #3
reactor, and sprayed 30 tons of water. Our fingers are crossed.

The wind was blowing from northwest in the morning and from
southeast in the afternoon, so radioactivity was not an issue today
in my area or in the affected area. The University of Tokyo reported
in its web site radioactivity measured every hour in its campuses :

http://www2.u-tokyo.ac.jp/erc/index.html

Although written in Japanese, you can see radioactivity changes
in microSv/hr, and it wasn't bad at all. Thank you UTYO!

Power cut was planned 2 times today, but the power company,
TEPCO, decided no power cut in my area. Plus, they decided to
continue power supply at our hospital at least until the end of
next week. Good job, TEPCO!

As the evening neared, however, the temperature dropped steeply,
and they detected increase in electricity consumption. They
warned sudden large scale shut down, and we were at high alert.
As luck would have it, and as most railways in and around Tokyo
reduced services, no power shut down occurred. Now most offices
are closed, and there won't be power cut today. Tomorrow will be
another sub-zero day in the morning, and it will barely be over 10
degrees Celsius during the day, so we need to save electricity as
much as possible. The coldness will ease the day after tomorrow.
We still have aftershocks repeatedly,
and they wake me up during the night. Here in Kashiwa there were
3 quakes, rather big ones, this evening already. Hopefully, there
won't be many more tonight.

[Hellbat]

Damn man. Scary stuff. They need to get the guys who build the assembly line factory robots for Honda, Toyota, etc and come up with some robotic means to deliver water to the area.

[QuantumRider]

The monitoring stations showed levels of radiation 3x those of most of last week today. However, I've been told by a nuclear engineer friend that the higher readings are due the rain throwing the monitoring devices out of whack (as they are calibrated for air and not mist), and that ambient radiation levels are probably about the same as they were.

We stayed inside today anyway, not because of fear of exposure to radiation, but because of the rain.

[lerxstcat]

Radiation is also precipitated from air to ground when it rains or snows, so that may be a factor - and another reason to stay out of the rain. Thoughts and prayers are with you and all of the people of Japan.