Earthquake off Japan

[His Divine Shadow]

Cross-quoting from SA, which has the best newsfeed on this that I've found:

Nearly all of the western news agencies are seriously behind.

Short version:

* All reactors were shut down at both sites about twelve hours ago. Some of them are still experiencing pressure problems in the containment vessels due to cooling system issues, but the cores are only generating "decay heat" because their control rods are all in place.

* At Fukushima site one, the #1 reactor (the oldest) appeared to suffer some kind of explosion. It turns out that they had vented hydrogen from inside the containment vessel, which was accidentally ignited. This destroyed the cosmetic facade of the building and caused some minor injuries, but the reactor itself was undamaged and the vessel remains intact.

* TEPCO, the power company that runs the facility, is permanently shutting down the #1 reactor (and possibly others) by pumping in sea water. This is literally a permanent shutdown as it will irreparably damage the reactor(s), but the risks are considered too high to do anything else. This is apparently their pre-planned last resort in situations like this, where literally everything else has gone wrong due to something unpredictable like, well, the worst earthquake in Japanese history.

* There has been minor releases of radioactive steam, which is why the surrounding areas have been evacuated. Radiation levels were never very high and are already dropping, although there have been some exposure cases due to bad luck. There is still some worry about the presence of trace radioactives like iodine.

* There have been no major core breaches and there will be no Chernobyl-esque fallout distribution problems. Any radioactive material released will is strictly local, within a few kilometers radius, and even that is likely to be on the level of Three Mile Island, which is to say almost unnoticeable once the initial incident has passed.

[Thanas]

Well, that certainly is a relief.

[Duckie]

If it's truly three mile island levels, that'll mean fractional net casualty levels. Which is to say 0 incident-caused cancer deaths.

Which is both amazing and relieving.

[Broken]

Indeed, that is one of the first bits of good news regarding those nuke plants I have heard since we learned they were having trouble fully securing them. Hopefully whatever pumps and other equipment they plan to use with the sea-water cooling was undamaged and can quickly be brought to bear now that the last-resort button has been pressed.

[Julhelm]

Apparently 10.000 people are reported missing in Minamisanriku.

[Broomstick]

Although, to be fair, over the past few days Japan's transportation infrastructure has been pretty messed up. When the trains and planes are running and the roads are heavily damaged and there is debris everywhere it does complicate evacuations. So I wonder just how feasible moving more people out of the area earlier would have been. Also wonder if a substantial number of people moved out on their own before the explosion or not.

Yeah, but it the Japanese standards for reactor safety are anywhere as paranoid as the German ones are, I'd be very much surprised if there weren't detailed evacuation plans drawn up in advance of the plant being built and these things regularly updated and tested.

Supposedly (I am no expert, so I'm relaying on what experts say and we all know the quality of information can vary) Japan's reactor safety standards are equal to or better than anyone else's. This is, after all, a country with direct experience in actual nuclear horror even if that was from bombs and not an accident. That has both made them more aware of the need for disaster planning, and also made them aware that, as horrible as nuclear and radiation problems can be, they are survivable and not the end of the world and thus less likely to induce panic. Even better, the Japanese are known for their politeness, relative calm in the face of disaster, and cooperativeness so they are much more inclined that some others (Americans, for example) to follow directions in an emergency. Really, I think these are all in the "plus" column in regards to this situation.

But, based on my experience in regards to flooding and disaster in my own area blocking roads - and, to be perfectly honest, my experiences are laughably trivial compared to what's going on in Japan right now - it doesn't take that much to fuck up the transportation networks. Travel in Japan right now is somewhere between crazy messed up and impossible - even Tokyo, which suffered relatively minimal damage, had thousands of people sleeping in bank lobbies that first night after the quake because they simply couldn't go home. The power plant in question is much closer to the epicenter and all the infrastructure in the area significantly impacted. That has got to complicate any evacuation, especially for the elderly and less able.

Now, in hindsight, it might be easy to say "Well, they should have evacuated out to 20 km starting immediately" but, as I said, I have to wonder if the difficulty of doing so might have played into the decision not to do so. That's not excusing any safety lapses, of course, but part of planning for next time is objectively analyzing an accident. Next time (and let's hope "next time" for this sort of thing is a long way into the future) we might know to start evacuation immediately out to particular radius no matter how screwed up the infrastructure and make it a priority. This sort of accident, after all, is rare - it's all more theory than practice. The last time a water-cooled reactor had a serious cooling problem leading to core exposure was Three Mile Island, where no explosion occurred, radiation was contained, and the evacuation was minimal. Of course, at the time the Pennsylvania infrastructure was intact and evacuation could have proceeded much more rapidly if it had been called for. Perhaps that outcome influenced planning in this case. Perhaps the rules should be different for accidents occuring in major disaster zones where the roads are severely damaged and debris in the way of people moving out of the area.

Certainly, it's a much different circumstance than Chernobyl due to differences in reactor construction. Even there, the evacuation (which was delayed longer than it should have been) proceeded over intact roads.

The way I see it, people don't have to be told to get out of the way of fire because of such long experience with fire. Japan is one of the best prepared nations for earthquakes because of long experience. They are also quite sophisticated with tsunamis, the main problem this time was insufficient time to do anything, the warning systems worked just fine there simply wasn't enough time to get out of the way of the water in some areas, and again that is through long experience that Japan has such warning systems. People don't have much actual experience with nuclear accidents, so to me it's no wonder that things like evacuations aren't handled terribly well. It's not OK, it's not acceptable, but I recognize this happens in human experience. I can't help think part of this is denial - radiation isn't something we can directly sense so it's easier to ignore and deny than, say, fire or a 10 meter wall of water. We can't go back in time and do things better yesterday, so by gosh, let's at least learn from this so next time such an accident occurs it will be handled much better. If messed up roads factored into a decision to delay evacuation here well, next time we know we have to start moving people despite transportation difficulties.

[Broomstick]

* There has been minor releases of radioactive steam, which is why the surrounding areas have been evacuated. Radiation levels were never very high and are already dropping, although there have been some exposure cases due to bad luck. There is still some worry about the presence of trace radioactives like iodine.

Japanese cuisine relies heavily on sea food, including "sea vegetables" which are naturally incredibly high in iodine - my packaging for the sea vegetables I use in my own cooking list the the iodine content of a normal serving as something like 1,000 times the minimum required amount for the human diet. I wonder if high levels of naturally occurring iodine in their diet would have a protective effect? In which case, it's the leaked cesium which might be more of a problem.

ETA: And, again, I keep noting I'm not an expert, but levels of radiation described seem to be on par with what someone might get from, say, an extensive CAT scan due to major injury - MUCH higher than normal or background radiation, and certainly not something you want a lot of, but unlikely to cause either short term or long term illness in the surrounding population. People actually at the power plant may have been exposed to a higher level, of course, but there's quite a distance between "background radiation" and "enough to make you sick". As always, though, if someone has better information by all means correct any misimpressions I might have.

[Edi]

Finnish media reports much the same, main structures all intact, one inner roof fallen in in the earlier explosion.

[DaveJB]

The BBC is reporting that the Japanese nuclear agency has apparently rated the incident at a 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. A serious accident to be sure, but not even as bad as Three Mile Island (which was rated 5 on the INES), let alone Chernobyl (which got the maximum INES rating of 7).

[phongn]

The old warships1 forum has a thread with a cranky old nuke engineer/operator posting about things.

The BBC is reporting that the Japanese nuclear agency has apparently rated the incident at a 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. A serious accident to be sure, but not even as bad as Three Mile Island (which was rated 5 on the INES), let alone Chernobyl (which got the maximum INES rating of 7).

I still wonder why TMI is considered INES 5.

[cosmicalstorm]

They showed before and after images of the city of Minamisanriku on the news right now. It looked exactly like Hiroshima after the nuclear attack. Only the hospital and the city house were somewhat intact.

[Gil Hamilton]

Notoriety, I guess?

[Broomstick]

On the topic of evacuating during a "nuclear event" - I reviewed the civil defense information for my area (I do live downwind of a couple nuke plants - not terribly close but still in the area that encompasses disaster planning) and was reminded of an important point: the worst case scenario is not a failure to evacuate, but an incomplete evacuation that leaves people outside, exposed to the full brunt of any contamination. So, while it may be ideal to evacuate in the event of an accident, if you can't successfully get people out of an area they are better off staying inside as normal housing does provide some protection, and limit the exchange of air between inside and outside.

In light of that, it may be that the authorities limiting evacuation to those closest, which also limited the number of people to move on damaged roads, might have been the appropriate response. Better to evacuate a small number at greater risk and tell the others to shelter in place, than attempt to move everyone and leave people stranded outside at even greater risk.

I'm just glad I don't have to make such decisions.

I expect it will be some months before we get a complete run down on what happened, but I will read any such report with interest.

[Broomstick]

Just caught my area's regular English-language NHK newsfeed - not surprisingly, it was a bit less varied than usual, apparently a 15 minute repeating loop, and of course the news was all about the disaster.

One interesting point is that they reported 1,015 milisieverts per hour of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the damaged nuclear plant. That's the lower threshold for displaying symptoms of radiation poisoning, with approximately half of people at that exposure level experiencing some transient nausea/vomiting a couple hours later, perhaps a slight headache and fever. However, just about everyone will recover from that within 24 hours.

Radiation does fall off with distance, so as long as evacuating people can move out of the area in an hour or two they should be alright.

This would, however be an issue for workers at the plant exposed to these levels. Nuclear workers, of course, have radiation as an occupational hazard and some safety equipment can help, but it is certainly possible some of the workers may wind up sick from this accident. Radiation levels are reported as falling, so presumably the worst is over.

ETA: NHK also reported that three patients, out of 90 tested people, at a local hospital had radioactive "contamination" but it's not clear that this was a result of an accident at the power plant as those exposures could have come from medical equipment (radioactive cesium, for instance, is pretty commonly used in radiological medical devices ). An investigation into the source of their exposure has been initiated, meanwhile, those patients are being decontaminated and will receive proper follow up. This just underscores that medicine is actually the most common way in which people are exposed to higher than background radiation. You're more likely to get radiation poisoning from carelessness at a hospital than from a nuclear power plant.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

If they haven't used their emergency seawater pumps yet, there is a danger, but there is no release of radiation. They are implementing plans to seawater flood the reactors now and may have begun to do so but that is to prevent any kind of serious meltdown. The structural building around the containment dome was breached because of the pressure buildup inside of it from the venting of pressure from inside of the containment dome. That is to say, they were intentionally filling the outer shell with mildly radioactive gas, and it reached the point where it popped open, possibly with some non-critical machinery exploding in the process. A "melt down" is not a Chernobyl event. It means some of the nuclear fuel inside the reactor has deformed from its original shape--it can be as minor as the ends of the fuel rods slightly melting. It in no way necessarily compromises the containment structures. Seawater cooling is thus reasonable because the reactor is not salvageable anyway.

This is unfortunate, but after being struck by the largest earthquake in Japanese history and several tsunamis in a direct and physical fashion, it is telling that this was a battle to save the reactor's future capability to operate, not a battle to save the area from a massive nuclear event with human casualties.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Just caught my area's regular English-language NHK newsfeed - not surprisingly, it was a bit less varied than usual, apparently a 15 minute repeating loop, and of course the news was all about the disaster.

One interesting point is that they reported 1,015 milisieverts per hour of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the damaged nuclear plant. That's the lower threshold for displaying symptoms of radiation poisoning, with approximately half of people at that exposure level experiencing some transient nausea/vomiting a couple hours later, perhaps a slight headache and fever. However, just about everyone will recover from that within 24 hours.

Radiation does fall off with distance, so as long as evacuating people can move out of the area in an hour or two they should be alright.

This would, however be an issue for workers at the plant exposed to these levels. Nuclear workers, of course, have radiation as an occupational hazard and some safety equipment can help, but it is certainly possible some of the workers may wind up sick from this accident. Radiation levels are reported as falling, so presumably the worst is over.

ETA: NHK also reported that three patients, out of 90 tested people, at a local hospital had radioactive "contamination" but it's not clear that this was a result of an accident at the power plant as those exposures could have come from medical equipment (radioactive cesium, for instance, is pretty commonly used in radiological medical devices ). An investigation into the source of their exposure has been initiated, meanwhile, those patients are being decontaminated and will receive proper follow up. This just underscores that medicine is actually the most common way in which people are exposed to higher than background radiation. You're more likely to get radiation poisoning from carelessness at a hospital than from a nuclear power plant.

They are venting radioactive gas into the atmosphere, and have been for some time, furthermore, that blowout served to violently outgas around the plant. Limited radiation exposure is expected, but it doesn't even touch on the ability of the operators to stand their ground, let alone human health in the area.

[Broomstick]

If they haven't used their emergency seawater pumps yet, there is a danger, but there is no release of radiation. They are implementing plans to seawater flood the reactors now and may have begun to do so but that is to prevent any kind of serious meltdown.

NHK reported the seawater operation had already begun earlier in the day.

The structural building around the containment dome was breached because of the pressure buildup inside of it from the venting of pressure from inside of the containment dome. That is to say, they were intentionally filling the outer shell with mildly radioactive gas, and it reached the point where it popped open, possibly with some non-critical machinery exploding in the process.

With all due respect, Marina, the building didn't "pop open" - the explosion blew everything off the underlying steel "skeleton" of the building, as seen in pictures of the event aftermath. Yes, it was most likely just steam (not only from the cooling system, but when hydrogen gas burns the result, as we all know, is water vapor) but it was still a pretty violent explosion.

A "melt down" is not a Chernobyl event. It means some of the nuclear fuel inside the reactor has deformed from its original shape--it can be as minor as the ends of the fuel rods slightly melting. It in no way necessarily compromises the containment structures. Seawater cooling is thus reasonable because the reactor is not salvageable anyway.

Yes. the NHK broadcast, which was comprised in part of various Japanese nuclear and safety officials speaking about the topic, emphasized the containment vessel is intact. They did express concern that some radioactive iodine and cesium had escaped, probably from the cooling rod/fuel holders (I wasn't quite clear on which) experiencing some melting/deterioration, but the bulk of the material released was steam, and only mildly contaminated.

They are venting radioactive gas into the atmosphere, and have been for some time, furthermore, that blowout served to violently outgas around the plant. Limited radiation exposure is expected, but it doesn't even touch on the ability of the operators to stand their ground, let alone human health in the area.

Well, of course the plant operators will "stand their ground", that was never in any doubt. However, there is concern about human impact. That doesn't mean people shambling around with their hair falling out and running sores on them, but the radiation released does amount to levels that could make someone seriously ill if they were careless or ignorant of the dangers. That is, of course, why the Japanese are taking steps to monitor the situation, move civilians out of what is potentially harm's way until the area is proven safe, and there is some concern for plant workers handling the emergency. Mild radiation sickness is not unknown among nuclear plant workers, even with proper precautions. That, and this may have inadvertently uncovered some laxity at a local hospital, which needless to say should also be cleaned up.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

NHK reported the seawater operation had already begun earlier in the day.

Then the situation has almost certainly been brought under control.

With all due respect, Marina, the building didn't "pop open" - the explosion blew everything off the underlying steel "skeleton" of the building, as seen in pictures of the event aftermath. Yes, it was most likely just steam (not only from the cooling system, but when hydrogen gas burns the result, as we all know, is water vapor) but it was still a pretty violent explosion.

Eh, it was not really any different than a boiler explosion. It ultimately wasn't a chemical reaction, just a pressure difference, and thus my use of the term. That it was still violent is indubitable.

Yes. the NHK broadcast, which was comprised in part of various Japanese nuclear and safety officials speaking about the topic, emphasized the containment vessel is intact. They did express concern that some radioactive iodine and cesium had escaped, probably from the cooling rod/fuel holders (I wasn't quite clear on which) experiencing some melting/deterioration, but the bulk of the material released was steam, and only mildly contaminated.

There are no cooling rods. There is a hot loop of boiling water which cools the reactor, and there are fuel rods. The fuel rods consist of ceramic uranium pellets encased in steel. The steel will start to melt before the ceramic pellets do--so, you can have radioactive molten steel but the uranium will still be sealed inside of the ceramic pellets. The radioactive material is probably from other irradiated elements in the hot loop systems.

Well, of course the plant operators will "stand their ground", that was never in any doubt. However, there is concern about human impact. That doesn't mean people shambling around with their hair falling out and running sores on them, but the radiation released does amount to levels that could make someone seriously ill if they were careless or ignorant of the dangers. That is, of course, why the Japanese are taking steps to monitor the situation, move civilians out of what is potentially harm's way until the area is proven safe, and there is some concern for plant workers handling the emergency. Mild radiation sickness is not unknown among nuclear plant workers, even with proper precautions. That, and this may have inadvertently uncovered some laxity at a local hospital, which needless to say should also be cleaned up.

In comparison with the potential tens of thousands of people dead from a natural disaster, encouraging massive panic by emphasizing minor radiation sickness in a couple dozen is not a good thing.

[TimothyC]

One interesting point is that they reported 1,015 milisieverts per hour of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the damaged nuclear plant.

Quick question: Was that one thousand fifteen milisieverts per hour or 1.015 milisieverts per hour?

[Broomstick]

ooo - good point. It was shown in a text label as "1,015" In the English-speaking world that's one thousand fifteen. Presumably, since this is a feed for a North American audience that is what they were referring to. But yes, for some other people it would read "one point zero one five". I'll try to find some clarification on that, just to be sure.

[Julhelm]

I thought the PM said microsieverts?

[weemadando]

New breaking:

Apparently Reactor 3 is now experiencing coolant system failures too.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

ooo - good point. It was shown in a text label as "1,015" In the English-speaking world that's one thousand fifteen. Presumably, since this is a feed for a North American audience that is what they were referring to. But yes, for some other people it would read "one point zero one five". I'll try to find some clarification on that, just to be sure.

There are many countries in which English is the or a primary language of communication in which European standard 1,015 = 1.015 American is used.

[NoXion]

Apparently events like this mean that nuclear power is unsafe and shouldn't be used, at least according to some on another forum I frequent. Of course, I pointed out that safety is not a binary condition...

Regardless of the facts, some are going to hold up this event as an example of how dangerous nuclear power is. This is especially in vexing in light of what I had percieved to be a softening attitude towards it.

[Broomstick]

I went up to NHK's on line service to try to clarify a few things. I'm hoping their English translations are reliable, as spotting some... shall we say "creative" spelling ... does make me a little concerned.

NHK reported the seawater operation had already begun earlier in the day.

Then the situation has almost certainly been brought under control.

NHK is also reporting they are adding boric acid to the water going over the reactor to slow neutrons as well - I presume that is to really make sure things remain under control. Although other sources mention "borax" or "boron" so I'm not sure which are mangled up translations or misunderstandings on the part of reporters.

With all due respect, Marina, the building didn't "pop open" - the explosion blew everything off the underlying steel "skeleton" of the building, as seen in pictures of the event aftermath. Yes, it was most likely just steam (not only from the cooling system, but when hydrogen gas burns the result, as we all know, is water vapor) but it was still a pretty violent explosion.

Eh, it was not really any different than a boiler explosion. It ultimately wasn't a chemical reaction, just a pressure difference, and thus my use of the term. That it was still violent is indubitable.

A boiler explosion is still an explosion, even if arrising from pressure differentials rather than some other means. While it's important to emphasize (due to general cluelessness) this was NOT a nuclear explosion, if you dismiss it as a "pop" when folks can see on video that it blew the exterior off a building it won't help your credibility much.

On top of which, the Japanese have stated it was an explosion triggered by a build up of hydrogen gas, so it was in fact a chemical explosion in addition to any steam pressure that might or might not have contributed to the effect. No offense, but I'll take the word of the engineers and officials on site over your armchair guess.

Yes. the NHK broadcast, which was comprised in part of various Japanese nuclear and safety officials speaking about the topic, emphasized the containment vessel is intact. They did express concern that some radioactive iodine and cesium had escaped, probably from the cooling rod/fuel holders (I wasn't quite clear on which) experiencing some melting/deterioration, but the bulk of the material released was steam, and only mildly contaminated.

There are no cooling rods. There is a hot loop of boiling water which cools the reactor, and there are fuel rods. The fuel rods consist of ceramic uranium pellets encased in steel. The steel will start to melt before the ceramic pellets do--so, you can have radioactive molten steel but the uranium will still be sealed inside of the ceramic pellets. The radioactive material is probably from other irradiated elements in the hot loop systems.

Other information I've found on the internet indicates that the Fukushima power plants are all boiling water reactors, and that such plants do in fact have cooling rods. I realize that the internet sometimes has misinformation, but this is a case of multiple sources saying the same thing. This includes sites owned by GE, the maker of the Fukushima #1 reactor.

Although you are correct that there are a number of places materials can come from in such a reactor.

Well, of course the plant operators will "stand their ground", that was never in any doubt. However, there is concern about human impact. That doesn't mean people shambling around with their hair falling out and running sores on them, but the radiation released does amount to levels that could make someone seriously ill if they were careless or ignorant of the dangers. That is, of course, why the Japanese are taking steps to monitor the situation, move civilians out of what is potentially harm's way until the area is proven safe, and there is some concern for plant workers handling the emergency. Mild radiation sickness is not unknown among nuclear plant workers, even with proper precautions. That, and this may have inadvertently uncovered some laxity at a local hospital, which needless to say should also be cleaned up.

In comparison with the potential tens of thousands of people dead from a natural disaster, encouraging massive panic by emphasizing minor radiation sickness in a couple dozen is not a good thing.

I don't think the Japanese government would be expanding an evacuation zone under present circumstances if there wasn't some real concern. Again, dismissing this as non-existent doesn't really help. Discussing the risks of injury/illness from an actual emergency is hardly "emphasizing" the matter, any more than discussing the issues of smoke inhalation or possible toxic fumes from a burning coal or oil fired power plant is "emphasizing" the negative consequences of an accident. Evacuations from around burning coal or oil fueled fires is pretty standard operating procedure as well.

I thought the PM said microsieverts?

I did a little more looking around - I've found the units expressed as "miliseiverts", "microsieverts", and even "mircroseiverts". This is in addition to it being described in "grays", which is another unit of radiation measure.

Normal average background radiation per year is about 2.5 miliseiverts from information I found on line. I think the comma in the "1,015" figure represents the English usage of a comma and not a decimal point, as a decimal point in that figure would yield an amount of less than half the usual background exposure which would not make sense in context. So it's either 1k millisieverts - which can cause mild radiation sickness after an hour for about half of those exposed - or 1k microseiverts, which is a tenth that level, (100 milliseiverts) meaning you'd need at least 10 hours of exposure to exhibit even mild symptoms. 1 milliseivert per year above background radiation levels is the international rule for civilian exposure, which is consistent with the multiple reports of the peak radiation level "exceeding that permitted for civilians for one year", so it's probably 1,015 milliseriverts, but muddied by rapid translations of uncertain quality among news services hurrying to get the information out.

Occupational exposures should not exceed 20 milliseriverts per year. Clearly, nuclear workers are exposed to higher levels of radiation than civilians as an occupational hazard, but they're hardly dropping like flies. If anything, the civilians levels are probably set very low, but then again, civilian levels are set not only for normal adults but also pregnant women and children who are much more affected by radiation than non-pregnant, adult nuclear workers.

In any case, that peak level was measured at the power plant gate shortly before the explosion. That level of radiation was certainly not present through most of the emergency, and would drop off rapidly as you get further from the plant and since the seawater cooling started the radiation levels have dropped significantly. Bottom line - it's unlikely that anyone outside of the plant workers received a high enough dose to show signs of illness, but given the low acceptable limits of civilian radiation exposure local evacuations are probably reasonable and in accordance with prior disaster planning. Distribution of potassium iodide pills and monitoring of local residents for radiation exposure is likewise reasonable precautionary measures.

Really, though, this is one of the worst-case scenarios, with a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami and failure of over a dozen back up generators, then an explosion in the outer building. The back up batteries allowed for some cooling capacity while they worked to save it as an operating plant, then the last-ditch shut down/cooling with sea water still worked just fine. It survived two major disasters within less than a day, then more troubles within 28 hours, and likely the worst effects might be some mild radiation sickness among the workers (so far as we know - but barring more information I'm assuming that's the worst of it) which they will easily recover from in a day to a week at most. Compared with the oil refineries and storage facilities that burned like little slices of hell on Earth, and for all I know are still burning out of control, the nuke plants starts to look pretty safe in comparison. The thing is, people think they understand fire, but feel they don't understand radiation and thus fear it more. In actually, the average person is probably pretty clueless about some of the unseen dangers of petroleum-based fires, which, as I pointed out earlier in this thread, are much more likely to result in mass casualties.

It is a shame, though, that the usual media hysteria regarding nuclear power is in full play once again. As I pointed out, even with the problems at the Fukushima complex 5 of the 6 power plants apparently survived a one-two punch sufficiently well to resume normal operations after clean up, and the one reactor that could be salvaged has been safely shut down. Compare to the destroyed hydro-electric facilities and the petroleum-fueled fires still raging and really, nuclear power plants as designed at Fukushima are both more robust and less dangerous the local population. And it's 40 year old technology, there are better designs with passive safety system less reliant on power plants to activate last-ditch shutdowns out there.

Most places will never experience the force of an 8.9 quake followed by a 10 meter high tsunami - this actually makes me feel MUCH better about living downwind from such facilities myself. Frankly, I'm more worried about my local chemical refinery than the local nuke plant.