Making mountains out of meltdowns (in Japan)
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Some facts...
Earth's axis has shifted as a result of the earthquake
This has impacted on the length of the day (it's now shorter)
Japan's east coast is 4m closer to the Americas and one meter lower
The resultant tsunami was amplified by this drop in height
10,000+ deceased, 20,000+ missing, 500,000 displaced
Japan's lack of oil and gas resources resulted in the construction in 17 nuclear power plants to satisfy it's power needs
These reactors were built on the coast to help with the cooling
The quake disabled the troublesome reactor's cooling system, its backup batteries were only able to provide power for 8hrs
The power plants walls were 6m in height, 1.5m below the tsunami, which destroyed the generators
These were from Dr Iain Stewarts Horizon Documentary which aired earlier tonight on BBC2. If you missed it and can access BBC iPlayer it's worth watching. It was very informative and showed to scale of this natural disaster and how it impacted on the power plant.
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@honoluludesktop said:
Tom, You are a "humble" engineer!-)
Thank you. However I'd much rather have the title of humble radical-humanist thanks
@honoluludesktop said:
Are you attempting to change the terms of your offer?-)
No, not at all.
@honoluludesktop said:
@tfdesign said:
.... And yes, pay for me to fly to Japan, and I'll happily swim around the reactor! ...
How do I know that you won't spent all your time, and my money in the Roppongi Bars? Sorry, you will have to go first.
On the contrary, how will I know that you will pay me on my return? And what's to stop me from spending all my money in Roppongi bars (after all I've never been to Japan, it's one of the countries of the world I've always wanted to visit, and me and my team (you'll have to pay for their expenses too), are gonna have one heck of a party), and then charging this to you as overheads?
I want a contract from you, signed by at least two reputable (and probably BBC/ British Embassy endorsed) solicitors (seeing that I am British one at least will be British) stating that you will emburse me all expenses and overheads on my return. Along side my expenses, I will also provide sufficient video evidence witnessed by two independent witnesses (probably even the BBC? Working with the Independent and the Guardian amonst others, has given me some very good contacts- ie producers for Channel 4. Jez Clarkson would certainly get up a lot of liberal noses! Jez would be a fun person to do this with).
I've already put my cards on the table, are you are still playing head games with me? Because this is not a bluff, I'm deadly serious.
regards
Tom
PS On a more depressing note, this image was shown in yesterday's Guardian. No, it's not nuclear fallout. Like I said, it's bloody freezing in northern Japan right now.
Snow and hyperthermia kills more people each year than nuclear fallout ever has. 
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Tom, How you spend your own money is your own business. I have already accepted your original proposal, that is to "pay for me (that is you) to fly to Japan". It seems to me that you are attempting to back down by renegotiating these terms. We don't need a contract, an escrow account will do. Just stick to your original proposal and the deal is done.
In fact, there should be risk on your part to perform. That you should deposit in escrow the same amount payable to me if you fail to follow through.
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Wow, dueling pistols at dawn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bouV7zeN1g
I think everyone has made their point. Time to go back to nice, lazy sketching and code writing.
Best wishes,
Bob
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The BBC has at last published some useful stuff about radiation levels, what a 'millisievert' is and how many we get or should be concerned about getting etc http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12722435
Even then though they don't keep it simple, and talk about exposure to 'Grays' [which I had mistakenly thought flew UFOs
] and then go back to 'mSv' per year, hour, lifetime, single-dose etc which make comparisons awkward...This other site tries to explain Grays and mSv and introduces rads and rems to confuse us http://www.jplabs.com/html/units_of_radiation.HTM little wonder the Fukushima techniciams reported levels 1,000,000 times higher that allowed but retracted it saying it was an error [never heard what they actual decided it was
] - all those bloody calculations and units [1 rem = 1000 mrem = 10 mSv = 0.01 Sv & 0.1 rad = 100 mrad = 1 mGy = 0.001 Gy & a Gray ~= sV, said the BBC ?]... and of course, 'Radioactivity is measured in Becquerels (Bq) per second. 1 Bq means one disintegration per second. It is also measured in Curie (Ci), named for Madam Curie, who shared Nobel Prize with her husband. 1 Curie = 3.7 x 1010 Bq or disintegrations per second'... these are then completely ignore on favor of the latest fashion 'Sieverts' et al, with no clue about their relationships [if any].... place your bets please... 
This is a another related table http://www.jplabs.com/html/natural___typical_exposures.html -
Pistols? No, no, no.
No duelling pistols quite yet (or duelling 'handbags' as we once put it
)It has been made clear that I'm not going to get a penny out of Honolulu, and I probably never will.
However, this could be a fantastic oppotunity to change a lot of opinions (although I'd far prefer to change the world through debate and eating radioactive spinach). So what have I got to loose?
I've written to my friend in Tokyo and meanwhile, I am writing to the Japanese Embassy in London. I may get laughed at, and not taken seriously- far too dangerous they'll probably say, and I'd argue that it would avert attention away from all these fools and all that, but that would be missing the point wouldn't it?
I haven't the money to pull off an event like this, so If anyone wants to sponsor me, lets go for it.
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TEPCO finally asks for help international companies who sold the plant!
But it's not too late when Plutonium is now seeping through?
There were 17 days losted!
I am absolutly desolated to be right from the beginning!
Good luck to them, good luck to us, because the worst is now following! -
Doomed I tell you! We're all DOOOMED!
[flash=425,344:27menrtp]http://www.youtube.com/v/FgsPzydgzxE?fs=1&hl=en_GB&fs=1&&[/flash:27menrtp]
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Today that we can hear on the radio at midday in Europe
"Japan gouvernment says : reactors 1,2,3 out of control"
Does this reassuring? -
Dead because of a giant tsunami caused by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake. Despite a few 'problems' (mainly exaggerated by the western press), not one fatality caused by nuclear 'fallout' or radioactivity from Fukushima. Pilou, Do these images not speak to you (I don't see anyone in 'radiation suits' either!)?
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Grief and desolations.
My japan friends will appreciate "a few 'problems'" at the end of the chain
Seism-->Tsunami-->reactors melting -
@unknownuser said:
Today that we can hear on the radio at midday in Europe
"Japan gouvernment says : reactors 1,2,3 out of control"
Does this reassuring?Pilou, I think you hear, what you want to hear!
This is what the latest BBC report says (@ 16:33 29-03-11);
@unknownuser said:
Water levels in underground tunnels adjoining reactors 1, 2 and 3 had been stable, the agency said.
Reactor 1: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas explosion. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor
Reactor 2: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage suspected. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor and adjoining tunnel
Reactor 3: Damage to the core from cooling problems. Building holed by gas blast; containment damage possible. Spent fuel pond partly refilled with water after running low. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor
Plutonium: Found at five locations in soil - levels said to represent no danger to human health
The above statement is completely open to interpretation. Highly radioactive water detected in reactor? Well that's hardly surprising is it? I see nothing about all three reactors being 'out of control'. It says nothing new at all.
Emphasis again on this more important news item (although that really should be at the top of the page);
@unknownuser said:
The massive 9.0-magnitude quake and the tsunami on 11 March are now known to have killed more than 11,000 people, with at least 16,700 people still missing across north-eastern Japan.
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@unknownuser said:
Grief and desolations.
My japan friends will appreciate "a few 'problems'" at the end of the chain
Seism-->Tsunami-->reactors melting"a few problems"?
11,000+++ dead? Are you mad??
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I speak of this!
@unknownuser said:
Despite a few 'problems' (mainly exaggerated by the western press),
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You do?
It doesn't read like that to me! It reads as if you have totally lost your reasoning!
Perhaps it's the translation that I am getting confused by?
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@unknownuser said:
Perhaps it's the translation that I am getting confused
I have understood that you consider Fukushima as "a few problems"
Sorry if that was not the case. -
I don't like the phrase "I saw it on the internet so it must be true"
So with this in mind I post the following link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110401/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_radioactive_boarsMaslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow, at the bottom of the pyramid were "breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion"
It amazes me how quickly humanity can be relegated back to the bottom of the pyramid through our own misuse of technology.time well tell!
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Worth to watch
Fairewinds Associates Chief Nuclear Engineer, Arnie Gundersen discusses the current state of the Fukushima plant in Japan.
http://www.fairewinds.com/updates -
@unknownuser said:
Radiation levels in seawater remain high
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says radiation levels detected in seawater near the plant remain high.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says it detected 11,000 bequerels of radioactive iodine-131 per cubic centimeter in seawater samples collected around the water intake of the No.2 reactor on Tuesday morning.
That's 280,000 times higher than the maximum allowed under the government's standards.
The recorded radioactive concentration was still high even though it was lower than that of last Saturday, when 7.5 million times the legal limit was detected at the same spot.
The utility also detected 24 bequerels of iodine-131 per cubic centimeter, about 600 times higher than the legal limit, in samples taken near the water outlet of the No.5 and No.6 reactors on Tuesday. The figure was higher than that of the previous day.At a location about 330 meters south of the water outlet of the 4 reactors, the iodine-131 concentration had fallen from 4,385 times the legal limit detected last Wednesday to 400 times the legal limit, or 16 bequerels per cubic centimeter on Tuesday.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011 21:50 +0900 (JST)
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........and?
@unknownuser said:
At a location about 330 meters south of the water outlet of the 4 reactors, the iodine-131 concentration had fallen from 4,385 times the legal limit detected last Wednesday to 400 times the legal limit, or 16 bequerels per cubic centimeter on Tuesday.
And it will probably rise again, then fall....
How many dead from a direct exposure to the plant? None. Yet in the north, we seem to have forgotten about that again
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