Nuclear accident follows Japanese earthqauke

[biffvernon]

Japan's fishermen, who are part of the politically powerful agricultural lobby, made it clear they were not assuaged by assurances that ocean radioactivity levels were low and safe.

"From now on, our fishermen will never co-operate with or accept nuclear power generation. I would like them to stop even those reactors that are now in operation right away," Ikuhiro Hattori, chairman of the Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, told NHK state television.

In Ibaraki, a prefecture south of Fukushima where prices for flounder and sea bream have plummeted, 53-year-old fisherman Yutaka Iijima told Reuters he worried about his future.

"The fact that we cannot work, that will have a big impact on us, and there is no end in sight to this."

http://www.globalnews.ca/sports/Japan+f ... story.html

[biffvernon]

There is also another incorrect statement as quoted above - Nitrogen isn't inert as the article implies: haven't these guys heard of the nitrogen cycle

Inert doesn't mean can never react with anything. Nitrogen is often regarded as an inert gas in the context of explosion suppression. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas

[raspberry-blower]

A leak from another nuke in Japan - not in the serious category though:

Radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods at the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture following the strong earthquake late Thursday, the nuclear safety agency said Friday.
Kyodo news

Meanwhile Toshiba reckon they can decommission the four stricken reactors in 10 years:

Toshiba Corp. has proposed decommissioning four troubled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power station in about 10 years, a much shorter time frame than the 14 years needed to dismantle the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the United States, industry sources said Friday.

Toshiba, one of the two Japanese reactor makers, filed the proposal with Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima plant, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, after compiling it with U.S. nuclear energy firms including its subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co., according to the sources.

Toshiba believes it can rely on the U.S. firms' expertise from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident to decommission the Fukushima reactors.
More from Kyodo

[biffvernon]

Has the man (and I bet it was a man) who uttered the phrase "four troubled nuclear reactors" actually looked at what he's talking about?

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp ... photos.htm

[Ippoippo]

Some interesting vids from inside the the exclusion zone! /cue Twilight Zone music.

This one has English subtitles/info
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... p9iJ3pPuL8
Cows I'm not worried about (as long as they aren't tied up/locked up and starving. It's the dogs I feel sorry for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uo07Qf6F7E
A bit harder to read the numbers of the geiger counters in this one

[Mean Mr Mustard]

Joules Burn from The Oil Drum said:

This pdf report from Areva, dated April 7, provides a good visual step-by-step overview of the Fukushima accident.

http://www.fairewinds.com/sites/default ... ushima.pdf

Well worth a look.

Hehe... I nearly typo'd that as the Oik Drum...

[raspberry-blower]

Has the man (and I bet it was a man) who uttered the phrase "four troubled nuclear reactors" actually looked at what he's talking about?

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp ... photos.htm

Probably not...

[biffvernon]

Joules Burn from The Oil Drum said:

This pdf report from Areva, dated April 7, provides a good visual step-by-step overview of the Fukushima accident.
http://www.fairewinds.com/sites/default ... ushima.pdf

Well worth a look.

Just a note of caution, fairwinds.com (which I think is essentially one bloke) has come in for some serious criticism on the Physics Forum by sensible sounding folk. Still, that document looks good.

[2 As and a B]

Has the man (and I bet it was a man) who uttered the phrase "four troubled nuclear reactors" actually looked at what he's talking about?

http://cryptome.org/eyeball/daiichi-npp ... photos.htm

Probably not...

But then he probably issued it in Japanese.

[biffvernon]

Yes, I think a great deal gets lost in translation. What sound like rather mild words in English may come over very differently in Japanese.
What do you think, Ippoippo?

[Aurora]

BBC News - 09/04/11

Japanese reactor maker Toshiba says it could decommission the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in about 10 years, a third quicker than the US Three Mile Island plant.

Article continues ...

WSJ - 09/04/11

Tepco Installs Barrier to Prevent Sea Contamination

Article continues ...

[Ippoippo]

Yes, I think a great deal gets lost in translation. What sound like rather mild words in English may come over very differently in Japanese.
What do you think, Ippoippo?

I think there is a hell of lot of 'lost in translation' going on, and a lot of 'lost in culture' too. I'm far from being an expert, but I can see it going on.

{Disclaimer before I have my say: My view on nuclear is not 100% anti. I think in a transition period away from fossil fuel, a small level of nuclear is something to consider to supplement renewables, even in places like Japan. It just needs to be done 'better'.}

Right, here we go. The view I have is that the western media has been rather over the top in it's reporting. Some more than others. Even taking the same underlying stats and data, it has been presented in a more sensationalist way. I think one area of confusion has been the misreporting and confusion of 'milli' and 'micro' sieverts. Apart from Japanese technical literature which uses the the greek character mu (μ), initially during the crisis I think rather than writing 'micro' in western script there have been instances of using 'm' as a prefix! DOH!
Also, Japanese language tends to be quite vague and sometimes words for things like 'explosion' etc etc can get mistranslated. What we are seeing is Japanese tech language being passed onto Japanese PR and politicians, passed onto Japanese media, and then translated into English for our media to report.

Another good example of mistranslation is this.
BBC - Japan nuclear: PM Naoto Kan signals 'maximum alert'
The article implied that Japan had raised it's alert level to some formal catastrophe rating. It was an implication of an escalation of the situation.
What he really said in the conference was "最大限の緊張感を持って取り組みたい" {Saidaigen no kinchō-kan o motte torikumitai} . It roughly means "We are working with maximum 'tension'/urgency". Japanese just loves throwing out it these vague sentences. All he was saying "Well, naturally, we are continuing to work hard on solving the problems, just like we were doing before". No formal escalation of the situation there.


Now, in contrast, the Japanese media has been typically non-sensationalist it its reporting. I suspect part of it IS down to not wanting to panic the masses. However, some of it is just the way the do it. All rather fact based with little emotional opinion attached (in comparison to the West). It's probably a bad thing too, because it can make people complacent there, in the cases when they shouldn't be.

Mind you, TEPCO are being very defensive and evasive. I can see it in their press reports. To be honest, the Japanese are picking it up as well based on conversations with wife and her family/friends.

[biffvernon]

Thanks, that's very interesting, Ippoippo. One thing that comes out of all this mess is that we gradually gain a slightly better understanding of other cultures.

[2 As and a B]

Now, in contrast, the Japanese media has been typically non-sensationalist it its reporting. I suspect part of it IS down to not wanting to panic the masses. However, some of it is just the way the do it. All rather fact based with little emotional opinion attached (in comparison to the West). It's probably a bad thing too, because it can make people complacent there, in the cases when they shouldn't be.

Mind you, TEPCO are being very defensive and evasive. I can see it in their press reports. To be honest, the Japanese are picking it up as well based on conversations with wife and her family/friends.

Has TEPCO got the Japanese MSM sown up through its advertising spend, as a freelance Japanese reporter said on video (some way back up the thread)?

[Ippoippo]

Has TEPCO got the Japanese MSM sown up through its advertising spend, as a freelance Japanese reporter said on video (some way back up the thread)?

IMHO and based on conjecture, Japanese 'high-brow' MSN in comparison to British 'high-brow' MSN is less sensational in it's reporting. That is a good thing in my opinion. {Japanese tabloid MSN is just as ****, when compared with British tabloid MSN}.
The downside of Japanese MSN is that it tends to be less questioning of goverment, less likely to go off and ask probing questions, real investigative journalism.

Whilst part of the reason for this lack of in depth, probing journalism is down to Japanese politeness {"you must not upset the 'wa' or harmony of the group, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down etc etc}... I also think part of the reason is because Japanese businesses and corporations have such strong ties with government and media. A lot of this is down to 'Amakudari'. Sure, we have elements of this in the UK, but in Japan, it really does take the pi$$.
One suspects that there will be people in Japanese government and/or media who have strong links with people in TEPCO and thus it will be hard to punish TEPCO for it's incompetence.

Anyway, that's what I think. Could all be bol***ks Aplogies for the rambling, me and missus are drinking that last of our imported Sake whilst I type this up, hic