Disaster In Japan

[lawgrad91]

Anyone here have any contacts in/near Sendai?

Mr. DA's cousin is married to a wonderful young Japanese woman from there, and she has not been able to reach her parents or older brother. She thinks they are safe, as they lived enough inland and in relatively new construction, but obviously, hearing from them or about them would go a long way to easing her very large fears.

Younger brother from Tokyo finally heard from the family in Sendai, and they're ok. Minimal house damage, but no running water or gas, so no heat.

Sounds like it's going to be a long, tough road of recovery for the nation. This nuclear scare isn't helping, nor the 140+ aftershocks.

That's good news about the family being safe! and for the people of Japan.

[TillyGalore]

Anyone here have any contacts in/near Sendai?

Mr. DA's cousin is married to a wonderful young Japanese woman from there, and she has not been able to reach her parents or older brother. She thinks they are safe, as they lived enough inland and in relatively new construction, but obviously, hearing from them or about them would go a long way to easing her very large fears.

Younger brother from Tokyo finally heard from the family in Sendai, and they're ok. Minimal house damage, but no running water or gas, so no heat.

Sounds like it's going to be a long, tough road of recovery for the nation. This nuclear scare isn't helping, nor the 140+ aftershocks.

Glad to read everything is okay with your extended family.

Perhaps we can help them from our lessons learned from Katrina.

[DukieInKansas]

Glad to hear they are ok.

I can't imagine not being able to contact family in a situation like this. Just trying to check on my old school was difficult and frustrating. Trying to check on family and being unable to to so would be so hard.

[DukeUsul]

So my dad's an environmental project manager for a company that builds power plants, including nukes. Here's an excerpt from an email he just sent me:

An update on the nei site talks about radiation of 40 rem/hr. A worker in the nuclear industry is only allowed to get a dose of 3.5 rem per quarter. (The most I ever got was 44/1000 of a rem in one day.) These people are getting their asses cooked.
http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/inform ... at-region/

Scary.

[DukieInKansas]

The 50 workers on site trying to solve the problem are true heroes. They have a special place in my prayers.

[wilson]

The 50 workers on site trying to solve the problem are true heroes. They have a special place in my prayers.

I don't think this can be said enough. The sacrifice they're showing themselves willing to make is incredible.
Usul, they'll definitely experience long-term effects from this, right? Is there really any way to fully decontaminate from such exposure day after day? Might your dad have any insights on that, or know a place where we can read and learn more about it?

[lawgrad91]

The 50 workers on site trying to solve the problem are true heroes. They have a special place in my prayers.

Amen.

[DukeUsul]

Here are some news sites geared toward the nuke industry that my dad sent me.
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Po ... 03111.html
http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/i ... at-region/

I have to think that because this event has unfolded slowly, they have probably been able to get all of the folks who are left there to work on cooling the spent fuel pools and the reactors into protective suits. I would guess there are varying levels of radiation protection in various parts of the plant, too. Hopefully they can keep the workers out of the worst areas, keep them in suits while they're there, and get them out as quickly as possible.

Here's a site that has information on radiation exposure on humans. The long and short of it is that after 100 rems of exposure, you start feeling the effects. Half of all people who are exposed to 450 rems die. 800 rems is nearly always fatal. I do believe that these exposures need to be over a "short" period of time. You may get exposed to 400 rems of radiation in your entire lifetime, but spread out over such time, it wouldn't be fatal.
http://library.thinkquest.org/3471/radi ... _body.html

So the article I linked earlier said dose rates as high as 40 rem/hr were being measured. So if you stood in that spot for a couple hours you'd start seeing serious effects. And no, there's very little you can do when exposed to that much radiation. Potassium iodide tablets will help prevent your thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine, to prevent a small exposure from turning into thyroid cancer later. But I think if we're talking about 100s of rems of radiation, then those tablets won't be doing much.

Let's hope the brave souls who stayed behind are well protected.

[wilson]

Here are some news sites geared toward the nuke industry that my dad sent me.
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Po ... 03111.html
http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/i ... at-region/

I have to think that because this event has unfolded slowly, they have probably been able to get all of the folks who are left there to work on cooling the spent fuel pools and the reactors into protective suits. I would guess there are varying levels of radiation protection in various parts of the plant, too. Hopefully they can keep the workers out of the worst areas, keep them in suits while they're there, and get them out as quickly as possible.

Here's a site that has information on radiation exposure on humans. The long and short of it is that after 100 rems of exposure, you start feeling the effects. Half of all people who are exposed to 450 rems die. 800 rems is nearly always fatal. I do believe that these exposures need to be over a "short" period of time. You may get exposed to 400 rems of radiation in your entire lifetime, but spread out over such time, it wouldn't be fatal.
http://library.thinkquest.org/3471/radi ... _body.html

So the article I linked earlier said dose rates as high as 40 rem/hr were being measured. So if you stood in that spot for a couple hours you'd start seeing serious effects. And no, there's very little you can do when exposed to that much radiation. Potassium iodide tablets will help prevent your thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine, to prevent a small exposure from turning into thyroid cancer later. But I think if we're talking about 100s of rems of radiation, then those tablets won't be doing much.

Let's hope the brave souls who stayed behind are well protected.

Great explanation. Thanks for this. You should license it to CNN, et al, because their explanations have not been thorough or accessible at all, that I've seen.

[captmojo]

Yes it a great explanation. Simple enough that a simpleton such as myself can have an understanding.
Thanks.

[DukeUsul]

So I talked a bit more to my dad. Here are a few points to consider.

There are several different types of radiation emitted from the reactor. Alpha, Beta, X- and Gamma rays in particular. Alpha rays are ionized Helium nuclei and the others are all different types of photons (electromagnetic radiation). Alpha rays are weak enough to be stopped by a sheet of paper. Progressively larger amounts of metal or lead are required to stop the rest. If there are a lot of high energy gamma rays around you want to be hind a couple of feet of lead. These types of radiation are called ionizing radiation - they move at the speed of light and keep going until they hit something like an atom and knock an electron off of it. In animals this causes cellular damage, which in small doses will eventually increase your chance of cancer, in higher doses it'll kill you quickly.

Guaranteed they have their main control areas encased in lots of lead. But when they go out they're wearing suits and those suits only provide so much protection.

The second type of radiation would be heavy radionuclides - these are heavy atoms that are in the reactor that get released into the atmosphere, move relatively slowly, and can actually settle on things. This is the radioactive fallout you hear about. These things can linger on surfaces for years after an accident. These radionuclides release ionizing radiation of their own. That ionizing radiation has the same effects as what I talked about above. Each atom of a radioisotope doesn't release a ton of radiation, but with a multitude of them and given long-term exposure, the effects build up. These radionuclides can even be breathed in or ingested, where they'll remain in the body for years, releasing radiation from the inside out. They enter the food chain - if an animal takes them in and if you eat the animal, then the radionuclides end up in you.

These heavy radionuclides are the kinds of things you can actually wash off of someone. So if you're in a radioactive area, you'll probably: 1) have on a suit on made of lead to limit the ionizing radiation coming from outside 2) use a breathing apparatus so that you don't breathe in radionuclides and 3) will have to go through a wash when you come back in to wash the radionuclides off your suit.

Anyway, that's all I've got on nuclear radiation at the moment.

[DukeUsul]

One other thing I just learned - only certain radioisotopes can be removed from the body using a chelating agent. Others will remain until the body naturally processes them. Radioactive cesium can be removed, but radioactive iodine cannot. That's why people are given potassium iodide ahead of an accident. The thyroid absorbs iodine and it's better to fill it up with the stable kind than with the radioactive kind - the radioactive iodine will tend to be excreted from the body.

[wilson]

This is all really interesting and very informative, Usul. Thanks again for passing it along.
Hard also to believe that this is but a single element of a huge tragedy in Japan.

[lawgrad91]

Thanks, DU, for posting this information and explaining it in a way that those liberal arts types of us can understand.

Like Wilson said, the magnitude of the tragedies in Japan is nearly impossible to fathom.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

When it comes to the Japanese nuclear workers sacrificing themselves to try to save everyone else, that's what they are doing. Think Mr. Spock in Star Trek 2. The needs of the many out-way the needs of the one, or in this case, the needs of the few. Very brave souls indeed.
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I am copying y'all on an email I got from a friend (Rose, and her husband Bill) here in Smithfield that offers some first hand eye witness accounts of the earthquake and damages in Japan. Fascinating reading, and scary as shit, to say the very least.
************************

This is from Bill's sister. Rose



Good friend of ours is a flight attendant for Delta International. Here is
a pilot's report from Tokyo she just sent us.

_____


All,

While things in Tokyo itself are ok, I felt I needed to post on what
we who are in country are seeing compared to what the international
news and state-side news are reporting.

1) The devastation, if you can believe it, is actually worse than you
are seeing. On-ground local Japanese reporters are showing incredible
detail to illustrate just how hard the cities of Sendai , Fukushima and
essentially the entire Miyagi Prefecture have been decimated. In some
towns, the damage is complete, total and you have to believe, final.
They talk of estimates of numbers of dead and missing but, it is clear
looking at the news and the pictures, they have absolutely no idea.
To give you an example of just how overwhelming the situation is, they
barely even mention the four missing trains and the passengers...that
is how inundated the news is with devastation. The human tragedy is
particularly alarming when you realize that the Japanese, in a first-
world country, were as prepared as any civilization on earth for such
an event.

2) The tragedy, of course, is still ongoing. It is still below
freezing in many areas of the north hit, with fires still burning in
some areas. There is no aid able to reach many and resources are
impossible to generate to get to everyone. We won't even talk about
disease...that is yet to come. Right now, they cannot even put their
arms around the extent of what happened in the earthquake and tsunami.

3) In Tokyo today, it was a brilliant spring day with a stiff
breeze. I took a walk through a deserted Chinatown ; the malls were
open for a few hours, at least half the stores closed. At 3 pm,
everything closed except the grocery and pharmacies. There is a sense
of tension, every television running rescue effort footage or nuclear
powerplant analysis 24/7. And we hear that breeze is due to shift
from west-east to east-west soon...

4) Which makes the situation with the nuclear powerplants,
particularly the one in Fukushima , even more of a concern. Already
two of four reactor housing buildings have exploded due to hydrogen
build-up. No amount of "down-play" can erase the images of nuclear
reactor buildings exploding. Anyone with a brain knows that the
stuff about "not really as bad as it seems" that some talking-heads
spout just doesn't play...it is bad, and getting worse. Exploding
buildings and using seawater to cool nuke fuel are signs of a clearly
uncontrolled situation.

5) Just today, there were four "aftershocks" which, anywhere else
(6.5, 6.2, etc) would be major earthquakes. There was another tsunami
warning for Fukushima . One shook the hotel, although I did not feel
it in Chinatown . The danger still persists of another earthquake
event, another tsunami.

We head back tomorrow early...we are just observers in one of
the most epic disasters ever to hit the planet. It is my view that,
of course, the Japanese will handle this all with their usual stoic
competence. But it will be a very long haul for them.

_____

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 5:17 PM

Subject: Captain tells of Quake Damage

Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 11:10 PM


We were at the gate onboard ship (aircraft) with passenger boarding in
progress when the earthquake began. My F/O, JH, had taken his seat and I
was standing behind the center radio console when the airplane began
shaking. Initially thought it was wind gusts but ruled that out since it
had been calm when we left the hotel. Jet blast from a taxiing aircraft?
Nope, look, the terminal windows are flexing and the building is...moving!
It's an earthquake...immediately, in a brilliant display of airmanship, Joe
reached over and set the parking brake. It seemed quite possible that we
could jump our wheel chocks and roll into something hard. After a minute of
this, the shaking got much worse and lasted about 2 1/2 minutes total. Our
passengers intuitively decided that the safest place in all of this was on
the aircrart and not in the terminal or the jetway. Never seen 261 people
board a (aircraft) so quickly! Two long and impressive aftershocks followed
during the next hour. Narita closed it's runways and our inbound flights
began diverting. (a flight) from Atlanta was about 10 minutes from landing
and diverted to Nagoya. Hanada and Narita were both closed. They evacuated
everyone from the Narita terminals deeming the structures unsafe for
occupancy. The Narita tower was evacuated, Narita Approach Control was
evacuated. At about 4pm, the airport was notam'd closed "until 0600
tomorrow morning". So, (airline) cancelled us and all of the other flights
out of Narita.


Well.........there was only one "safe area" established at the airport
(outside in a cold rain) where passengers could be taken if they deplaned.
It became full. There was no chance of deplaning into the terminal. No
chance of deplaning at all. No ground transportation as all busses and
trains were shut down and the highways had been closed. So, (airline) calls
the Narita Airport Authority and suggests that since the runway had been
inspected, it might be a real good idea to allow 6 (airline) departures and
get maybe 1,400 customers out of this mess. They agreed and after a four
hour wait at the gate, we got out of there. On departure we could see four
distinct, large fires in downtown Tokyo, 50 miles to the south. A refinery
was on fire at the coastline to our east. We had no real idea of the size
of the disaster until we had a datalink discussion with our dispatcher who
filled us in. Now, watching the news at home, I am stunned at the
devastation. All (airline) crews and employees are safe and uninjured in
Japan. I am not sure if the layover hotel has power. I'm glad I'm not in
room 932 anymore with the aftershocks that they are getting.

Happy to be home and thanks for your concern.

[Very Duke Blue]

Thanks for sharing Ozzie. Hope appears a long way from Japan. Bless them all.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Great Ghosts of Lavabe.