8.8 Earthquake hits Japan

[rcpratt]

WASHINGTON - The United States has transported coolant to a Japanese nuclear plant affected by a massive earthquake and will continue to assist Japan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

"We just had our Air Force assets in Japan transport some really important coolant to one of the nuclear plants," Clinton said at a meeting of the President's Export Council.

"You know Japan is very reliant on nuclear power and they have very high engineering standards but one of their plants came under a lot of stress with the earthquake and didn't have enough coolant," Clinton said.

That's...weird. The coolant is just (demineralized/deionized) water, but I'm not sure exactly how they'll get it into the system. Don't know anything about this reactor except it's a BWR.

 

[sdifox]

That's...weird. The coolant is just (demineralized/deionized) water, but I'm not sure exactly how they'll get it into the system. Don't know anything about this reactor except it's a BWR.

I am guessing they needed it from somewhere offsite. So Navy chopper came in and ferried it?

 

[DCal430]

What happen to Japans Tsunami Wall.

 

[dainthomas]

http://framework.latimes.com/2011/03/11/earthquake-and-tsunami-hits-japan/#/0
high resolution pics

@ #10

Looks like a scene out of 2012.

 

[Ricemarine]

It's said there are 300 casualties now.

 

[bobdole369]

Did anyone see the massive whirlpool looking deal in the ocean?

 

[SAWYER]

I am surprised there are no photoshopped pics with mechs in them online already

 

[moshquerade]

Look at this video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/mar/11/japan-earthquake-tsunami-video

wow... what footage. cars being tossed about like matchbox miniatures in a black sea of refuse.

this is so devastating...

 

[bobdole369]

I read that one of the tsunami's had a 33' wave?!?!?! WTF!!!!

Tsunamis are known for being long and deep.... 33', isn't that REALLY freaking high?

It is over the top of your suburban 2 story home.
Waves are at your feet on the third floor of an office building while floor 1 and 2 are inundated.
It is 2 semis stacked atop each other.
Only downtown office buildings are above water here in South FL - should 33 feet ever come inland here. There does not exist any home higher than 35 feet (generally speaking) (condos and apt buildings sometimes have higher floors but fairly far apart).
Take your typical bridge overpass on the freeway - and put another one atop that.

Oh and put fire on top of that.

 

[aldamon]

It's said there are 300 casualties now.

I'm pretty sure they're going to be adding zeroes.

 

[Nik]

Did anyone see the massive whirlpool looking deal in the ocean?

Ya, there's links in this thread.

 

[Ricemarine]

TBS just had breaking news that 800 people are trapped in a building that's on fire.

 

[DrunkenSano]

It's said there are 300 casualties now.

It's gonna be a lot higher, there's a ship with 100 people on board that is missing.

 

[Eli]

Wow. Incredible pictures/footage....

I fear that the death toll is going to climb significantly... All those cars, houses... Damn...

 

[Ricemarine]

It's gonna be a lot higher, there's a ship with 100 people on board that is missing.

Probably... The news did mention about 100 bodies or so are washed up on the shores of Japan from the tsunamis.

 

[darkxshade]

I hate to say this but considering what has happened, 300 so far is pretty good. Even though the death toll is likely to go up, you would expect initial numbers to be a lot higher. Chalk it up to Japanese enginuity on disaster preparation. :thumbsup:

 

[zerogear]

I am surprised there are no photoshopped pics with mechs in them online already

 

[zerocool84]

Finally got in contact with my brother that lives in Tokyo 30min ago. My brother wasn't able to get in contact with his wife for 8 hours since communication was down. She was stuck at work in Yokohama but everyone is fine. I stayed up all night watching the news and waiting to hear from my brother and now time to go to work.

 

[darkxshade]

Finally got in contact with my brother that lives in Tokyo 30min ago. My brother wasn't able to get in contact with his wife for 8 hours since communication was down. She was stuck at work in Yokohama but everyone is fine. I stayed up all night watching the news and waiting to hear from my brother and now time to go to work.

glad to hear your family is ok :thumbsup:

 

[bigrash]

Look at this video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/mar/11/japan-earthquake-tsunami-video

crazy!

 

[Nik]

Probably... The news did mention about 100 bodies or so are washed up on the shores of Japan from the tsunamis.

Just one ship had 100 people working on it and the entire boat and everyone is straight up missing. Not washed ashore, not in pieces near the dock, straight up vanished.

 

[zerocool84]

glad to hear your family is ok :thumbsup:

Thanks a lot

Just one ship had 100 people working on it and the entire boat and everyone is straight up missing. Not washed ashore, not in pieces near the dock, straight up vanished.

Damn, hopefully they can at least find the bodies.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

At least this is a first world country. If it was like Haiti that got hit with an 8.9, shit would be fucked.

 

[DrunkenSano]

At least this is a first world country. If it was like Haiti that got hit with an 8.9, shit would be fucked.

Not only that, they would most likely have no warning of the tsunami and everyone would've been killed. Atleast in Japan they have a warning system though it wasn't fast enough to warn the towns at the coast. Earthquake was just too close.

 

[P4man]

yea well not bad considering, the haiti quake was 7.0 and turned that country into dust.

Location and depth of the epicenter are more important than the richter magnitude. Back in 1995 (?) much of Kobe was also leveled by an earthquake of "only" 7.3, but in that one, just like the Haiti one, the epicentre wasnt 200Km off shore, but in land and IIRC relatively shallow.

Thats not to say I dont agree Japan is obviously infinitely better equipped to handle such disaster, but if a similar 8.9 quake where to hit right below a major, even Japanese city, I wouldnt be too optimistic about the outcome.