Well at least the rain helped keep the reactor cool? Bill Maher's first guest talked about Fukushima and it's acceptable levels of poison draining into the sea. Made a comment saying he wouldn't go swimming in Hawaii in 2015

I don't get it.

The Hanford Site in Washington or the Nevada Test Site are bigger messes than Fukushima will ever be but I haven't seen comments about those relative to, let's say, the Colorado floods.

This typhoon is causing a lot of suffering and will probably kill people. The tsunami killed thousands.

The Fukushima accident is a big expensive mess, yes, and statistically it will kill a few people eventually, but we'll probably never know exactly who because radioactive toxins are like that. Humans live in a sea of toxins of our own making, both radioactive and non-radioactive.

It seems disrespectful to bring Fukushima up whenever people are suffering much more immediate danger.

and depending on how close and how hard it hits it could set back the process of containing the plant or possibly cause the situation to get worse. It is a fair point to bring up since the plant still is a huge problem and the containers they are using to hold the contaminated water are not stable.

at Fukushima Dai-ichi:

"　東京電力は１６日、福島第１原発の地上タンク群に設けた漏水防止用のせきが、台風１８号による大雨の影響であふれる恐れが高まったため、７カ所のせきの弁を開けるなどして、たまった水を排出した。いずれも、ストロンチウム９０などベータ線を出す放射性物質濃度は法定基準以下で、最大１リットル当たり２４ベクレルという。"

"On the 16th, due to increased fears about the effects of overflow from heavy rains from Typhoon #18 (=Man-Yi), TEPCO released water that had accumulated in leak-prevention dams that had been installed in the above-ground tank groups of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility. Valves were opened at dams at 7 locations. In all cases, the concentrations of beta rays emitted from radioactive substances such as Strontium-90 were within the legal standards, with a maximum of 24 becquerels per liter". (Later in the article, it says that the legal limit is 30 becquerels per liter).

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/news/130916/dst13091617320030-n1.htm

I don't remember if I asked you before how close you are there in Japan.

and about 2 hours away from Dai-ichi by car.

So did the typhoon pass over yet? Hope you have bottled water and food.

It turned out to be just a minor rainstorm in my area, despite the dire predictions and ominous-looking sky yesterday morning. Apparently it gained strength farther north of us, and some places up there got some serious flooding.

The typhoon really cleaned up the air around here, and on the commute this morning I was treated to a rare view of Mt. Fuji off in the distance.

They said that in the central Tokyo area there were some very strong winds (up to 70mph) but little rain yesterday morning when the typhoon was passing through.

To the east, there was this sight



While to the west, there was this

Glad it wasn't as bad it looked.

but I am a little worried about the situation in Kyoto, after learning that the flooding there was much worse than I had thought.

5:30 am Japan time on the 16th, almost exactly the same time I was taking those two pictures. The area in nearly the exact middle of the map that has a concentration red and yellow (group on the left side) shows a rainfall intensity of 80mm (2.6 inches) per hour that was squarely focused on the Kyoto area.

I was in Yuen Long, Hong Kong when a typhoon hit and it was pretty wild!

As bad as it has been, there are still tons of stored fuel in unknown conditions inside those reactors, and this typhoon, or even just trying to remove it to prevent it from catching fire and releasing much more poison than we have seen already may not be a matter of how we prevent it, rather just a matter of time until a passing typhoon, an earthquake, or the damage that will come when trying to remove the broken and burnt casings creates an even bigger problem.

I wonder if we would evacuate everyone from Portland through Seattle and Vancouver, or if the governments would just put a lid on the danger, deciding that throwing everyone into a panic would be worse than a few thousand slow, long deaths from the releases of Fukushima?

From "The REAL Fukushima Danger" , Here.

The thing that bothers me most is that I have asked people who are nuclear engineers, physicists, others who have the best grounding that I can find in this subject, people who ought to know, if this is hyperbole, just stories to increase web traffic?

To a person they say, generally, no. Every single one suggests that this two and half year release from Fukushima is nothing compared to what is very likely to happen with the removal of the fuel rods or another natural disaster. That even if other nations were to invade Japan and take this over that much of the danger is such that it is not a certainty that a large release could be prevented, that we really should be, as a nation, much more concerned and reactive than we are being...

Great.

I'm sorry to hear it's going toward Japan, especially Fukashima. I live in Korea and occasionally we get one that does a pinball move up between China and Korea and hits us. Japan seems to always get pummeled.

Here is the last tracking I have:




That would put it pretty close.

or if there's another wave. I hope that stored stuff has worse case scenario planning, this time.

the water that was released into the sea contained up to 24 becquerels/liter of beta particles from Strontium-90, etc., supposedly under the maximum allowance of 30 becquerels/liter.

Thanks for the thread, yuiyoshida.

Yui

Peace to you, yuiyoshida.