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8.9 Magnitude Earthquake in Japan (7.4 aftershock/tsunami - April 7th)


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But you made up for that with dropping two atomic bombs on Japan a few years later.

Not to mention, prior to that, the firebombing of 65 Japanese cities, with the death toll from firebombing Tokyo alone equal to or greater than the combined death toll of the two atomic bombs.

I don't blame anyone for hating these stupid people. This is an outright tragedy happening to Japan's people, and these idiots are trying to be all high and mighty by claiming this is vengeance for an attack we most certainly outclassed with attacks against civilians a hundred-fold greater in magnitude decades ago.

Makes me sick.

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Not to mention the number of times an atomic battery one rockets or satellites burnt up on re-entry or exploded in orbit and left radioactive particles over most of the planet... multiple times (just scroll down a bit to the list). There are also a multitude of military accidents from the 1940s up to the modern day that have equaled and exceeded that of what they are expecting from the Japanese reactors.

It's bad, yes, but not as bad as some would like you to believe.

also pacific was highly used by the US and France as test zone for nuclear bomb.

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Man, that makes me more sick than the videos of the tsunami. "God is on our side" "Nature didn't forget"

I know my country is filled with some pretty soulless people, but this just takes the cake on all time low blows. How depressing that there are people who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor and whose families likely had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor over 60 years later mustering ever ounce of self-righteousness in the face of a terrible tragedy while it's still happening. Never mind everything we did to Japan during and after the war. Nuclear bombs, invasions of many of their islands, firebombings, forced culture-shift, forced military occupation, and let's not forget the Japanese internment camps we built right here at home.

I think they suffered enough for a war that's long since been over. As The Damned pointed out, I bet every one of those assholes uses something either made in or developed by Japan. I'd even go further to say that these are the same people that sat and watched Katrina and bitched about how nothing got done, but did nothing themselves.

Man, cowardice really knows no limit.

For my brighter note: I'm working a fund raiser in my area for the Red Cross, so we can send some relief money Japan's way. Here's to doing something instead of playing internet tough guy.

Cheers.

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The shitty comments are a two-fold problem. Some of them have to be trolls with nothing better to do, but not all.

I have grandparents who are very vocal in their dissatisfaction with my life over here. Sadly this is mainly because they were kids during World War II, and the propaganda the US used was excessive (but on par for the day). Essentially they grew up during their formative years hearing and believing that "The Nips" were inhuman evil bastards (as oppossed to the Nazis, who being European, were merely evil). That type of indoctrination doesn't go away easily, and can be passed on to future generations, such as the baby boomers in the auto industry who flamed a new wave of anti-Japanese hate in the 1980s. The trend continues, bolstered by other ignorant factors like ethnic misidentification (Chinese, Japanese, same difference) or the whole weeaboo/anti-weeaboo bit which only compound the problem.

While my family avoided falling in with the former generation's grudge, I have cousins who did not. Sadly I can completely see one of them in particular making the types of statements we're seeing.

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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-13/hydrogen-explosion-at-japan-s-fukushima-dai-ichi-no-3-reactor.html

This does not bode well at all :|

Also, from the article:

Asia’s largest utility is seeking to avoid a meltdown of at least two reactors at the nuclear power station by flooding them with water and boric acid to eliminate the potential for a catastrophic release of radiation into the atmosphere.

Now, that's not fallout they're talking about, but am I to understand this is something different than what was previously said about the main concern being the nuclear waste getting into the water supply?

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Yes, it's different. What they're trying to prevent is the water from the reactor itself from being released into the atmosphere. That's the water that comes in direct contact with the nuclear fuel. This water is radioactive because the steam carries a lot of radioactive particles in it. You don't want to release a lot of that into that atmosphere.

They're most likely worried about the reactor and the primary containment around the reactor being compromised. If primary containment breaks in a reactor building with walls already broken, the only thing separating the radioactive steam from the atmosphere is a couple of inches of steel. If the reactor walls themselves break, then you have a leak of radioactive steam/water. And since a reactor is essentially a giant pressure cooker (reactors operate around 1020+ psi), a substantial crack or break can be very bad.

The FAST way to relieve pressure would be to just vent all the steam really quickly; either directly into the atmosphere or though a ton of heat exchangers. The problem with that is that you end up releasing a lot of radiation, so on the scale they'd need to do it here, they can't do it.

What boric acid and water do is kill and cool the fuel. Boron kills nuclear reactions; that's what they use on control rods. It stops the fuel from reacting and generating heat. Water pumped through a reactor draws away heat. So what they're doing is reducing the heat in the reactor so that they can relieve the pressure.

The thing is, once you dump boric acid into a nuclear reactor, you have basically killed your reactor. You can never use it again, unless you spend an absolutely exorbitant amount of money to clean it. This is a big deal. Obviously safety is a concern and everyone wants to prevent a release of radiation, but nuke plants generate a lot of electricity and they're expensive to make. So dumping the liquid poison (i.e. boric acid) into a reactor is the absolute last resort.

This is different from "nuclear waste getting into the water supply." It's not really waste they're worried about in a meltdown. It's the nuclear fuel that's still reacting and very very hot. If they can't control the temperature of the fuel (with cooling water and if necessary, boric acid), it just keeps reacting and getting hotter until it melts through the reactor itself; it will continue to melt through down into the earth and could possibly come in contact with groundwater, which is very very bad.

They are two separate issues.

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Thanks for clarifying!

So the radiation they have found outside the plant in the evacuation zone is from the steam they already released and from the hydrogen explosions which contained some radiation for being close to the core to cool it down?

Also in case of a meltdown, isn't the containment building strong enough to withstand the heat of the melting core? I read on wikipedia the generated corium would expense a lot of its energy while burning through the bottom, so if they made it thick enough it wouldn't breach containment right ?

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Anyway, on the topic of ignorance and stupidity, I wish to point you guys to this picture: http://i.imgur.com/eFYYe.jpg

I'm this close to giving up on humanity. Or at least finding a remote island somewhere.

Even if this is just a fingertip of people making these posts... the fact that such posts exist alone is enough to give up on humanity.

I don't know... I fancy the approach of creating my own opinion instead of letting common propaganda hatred dictate what I have to think. Those people featured in the screenshot might try it out: it is an outstanding experience to stand with your own opinion.

I fail to understand how anyone can be happy about a disaster of any kind. You might not be concerned/interested, that is your free choice. But beeing an ass about a huge tragedy is so low. You are the same as people who still believe that Hitler was a good guy and the genocide never happened. Just the same.

As for all people on this planet (no matter what nation, race, sexual preferences, etc.) who are able to discuss a disaster like this in an appropriate and friendly manner: Thanks for existing, because you are the people that prove there might be a slight chance we are not going to hell altogether on judgement day...

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This is some pretty awful stuff. It didn't sink in until I saw the before/after pictures. Even the green of the earth there is charred and marred...

I don't think this was posted, but there's a person app finder you can use to try to look up someone, or to post information about them: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

It seems pretty handy if you're missing a relative, or for what it's probably used for more, looking up your favorite Japanese celebrities. I'll admit I looked up Nobuo and LeC and Sakimoto and others.

The facebook stuff doesn't surprise me at all, frankly. Saddens me a great deal, but it's not surprising...

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This is some pretty awful stuff. It didn't sink in until I saw the before/after pictures. Even the green of the earth there is charred and marred...

Yeah, those pictures are indeed horrifying.

The facebook stuff doesn't surprise me at all, frankly. Saddens me a great deal, but it's not surprising...

Indeed, I was not too surprised myself. But you are correct, it is saddening.

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Thanks for clarifying!

So the radiation they have found outside the plant in the evacuation zone is from the steam they already released and from the hydrogen explosions which contained some radiation for being close to the core to cool it down?

That is most likely the case.

Also in case of a meltdown, isn't the containment building strong enough to withstand the heat of the melting core? I read on wikipedia the generated corium would expense a lot of its energy while burning through the bottom, so if they made it thick enough it wouldn't breach containment right ?
That's quite possible. I worked at an older plant of an older design, so my frame of reference is from that. I'm sure newer plants have safeguards like this in place to prevent nuclear fuel from coming into contact with groundwater.
Those facebook comments are horrible. A reply to all of them: Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Remember 9/11? These are the same types of people who said that 9/11 was God's retribution against gay marriage in the US.

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God damn it, Brush. Stop posting things that make me hate my own species so much.

Fuck.

In the off chance that someone reading this doesn't get it, tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, not climate change.

OK, you know what? Everyone should make it a point to distribute that as much as possible, and make it known that those people are not only fucking idiots, but they're making everyone they are related to or associate with look bad. That kind of stupidity needs to be punished.

Go. Go and spread that around so everyone can see just how ficking stupid and ignorant those individuals are. They deserve the humiliation.

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This is some pretty awful stuff. It didn't sink in until I saw the before/after pictures. Even the green of the earth there is charred and marred....

Yeah that blew my mind as well, and not in a good way. Almost like something out of the ruined future timeline in Chrono Trigger, very scary. My thoughts definitely go out to the people ion the affected areas, and certainly anyone here who lives or has family or friends there.

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It's been a scary weekend for me and my wife. She grew up in Japan and has many friends and family that live there, so we've been trying to track down everyone we know to make sure they're ok. So far everyone is okay (even the one friend who lives in Sendai) so that's a relief.

I think it's weird how the American media is making everything look like a wasteland, and while some places are (up north, near Miyagi and Sendai), it's not all that way. But at the same time, our friends and family in Japan are downplaying how bad it is/how much it's affecting their daily lives. I think the reality is somewhere in the middle, but either way, life won't be able to go back to normal for a good 8-10 months. And that's assuming the best for the situations with the nuclear reactors.

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