Random Things

Blast, radiation leak at Japanese nuclear plant

2011-03-12T03:08:00.000-08:00

IWAKI, Japan — Japanese authorities confirmed Saturday that radiation had leaked from a quake-hit nuclear plant after an explosion destroyed a building at the site.
The blast at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility occurred just hours after officials said they feared the reactor could melt down.
Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of one building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing. Its roof had also been blown off. Plumes of smoke spewed out of the plant, 20 miles from Iwaki.
Four workers were injured by the blast at Fukushima Unit 1, officials said.
There were conflicting reports about whether or not the damaged building housed the reactor.
The evacuation zone was doubled in size from six miles to 12 miles, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.
Story: How a nuclear plant works
Area residents were told to stay indoors, not to drink tap water and to cover their faces with masks or wet towels, according to Britain's Sky News.
"We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion," government spokesman Yukio Edano said.
Authorities had warned Friday of a failure of a cooling system resulting from a powerful earthquake and tsunami.
'Radioactive vapors' Pressure had been building up in the reactor and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that it was venting "radioactive vapors" to relieve that pressure. Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area.

Before the blast, the reactor in trouble had already leaked radiation: Operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's Unit 1 detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.
Two reactors had lost cooling ability and a meltdown was possible at one of the reactors because of the overheating, said Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan's nuclear safety commission.
Speaking before the explosion, he said that if there was a meltdown, it wouldn't affect people outside a six-mile radius. Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, Shiomi added.
Jiji news agency quoted nuclear authorities as saying that there was a high possibility that nuclear fuel rods at No. 1 reactor may be melting or have melted.
Experts said earlier that if that is the case, it means the reactor is heating up. If that is not halted, such as by venting steam which releases small amounts of radiation, there is a chance it would result in a rupture of the reactor pressure vessel.
But the risk of contamination can be minimized as long as the external container structure is intact, they said. The worry then becomes whether the quake has weakened the structure.
There has been no official word so far on whether the structure was damaged by the quake.
Open Channel blog: 2007 Japan quake was wake-up call on nuclear safety
The 8.9 magnitude quake and the tsunami that followed cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system.
'No Chernobyl is possible' The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site, said Friday that it had also lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site.
The government declared state of emergency at all those units.
Prior to the blast, Japanese officials and experts were at pains to say that while there would be radiation leaks, they would be very small and have dismissed suggestions of a repeat of a Chernobyl-type disaster.
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe.
"No Chernobyl is possible at a light water reactor. Loss of coolant means a temperature rise, but it also will stop the reaction," said Naoto Sekimura, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

"Even in the worst-case scenario, that would mean some radioactive leakage and equipment damage, but not an explosion. If venting is done carefully, there will be little leakage. Certainly not beyond the 3-km (1.8-mile) radius."
Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which opposes nuclear energy, told msnbc.com Friday that TEPCO was facing a potential catastrophe.

Via Msn.com

No, the “supermoon” didn’t cause the Japanese earthquake

2011-03-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Although it's more than a week away, some people say the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Japan today could be caused by the supermoon.

During the supermoon, expected to occur March 19, the moon won't just be at its closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, enthusiasts say, it will be closer to Earth than it has been in 18 years.

Scientists, including Paul Walker, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather Inc., said there is no connection between the moon's position and Japan's earthquake.

"I don't think you can attribute it to being a full moon, which is still eight days away," Walker said. "These moon events can cause the tides to run higher than normal, but I've not heard of any correlation between them and extreme weather events."

NASA astronomer Dave Williams agreed.

"At the time of the earthquake in Japan, the moon was actually closer to its furthest point in orbit from Earth than it was to its March 19 closest point, so the gravitational effect of the moon was, in fact, less than average at that time," Williams wrote in an e-mail to ABCNews.com. "It was basically a normal day on Earth as far as the lunar gravity and tidal forces were concerned. Unless the Earth somehow 'knew' the supermoon was coming, I can't imagine any scientific connection between the two events."

Where Did 'Supermoon' Come From?

AccuWeather blogger Mark Paquette said he thinks the phrase "supermoon" originated on the website of astrologer Richard Nolleand spread to astronomers online.

In a blog post earlier this month, Paquette said a new or full moon at 90 percent or more of its closest perigee qualifies as a "supermoon." The moon's orbit around us is slightly elliptical, and when the moon is at the near point, it is known as a lunar perigee.

Next weekend's full moon won't just be a supermoon but an extreme supermoon, he said, because the moon will be almost precisely at its closest distance to Earth.

According to "new age" forecasts, he said, the supermoon brings strong earthquakes, storms or unusual climate patterns.

"There were supermoons in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005," Paquette wrote. "These years had their share of extreme weather and other natural events. Is the Super Moon and these natural occurrences a coincidence?

"Some would say yes; some would say no," he added. "I'm not here to pick sides and say I'm a believer or non-believer in subjects like this, but as a scientist I know enough to ask questions and try to find answers."

VIA

Defiant Gadhafi calls for countrymen to defend Libya

2011-03-09T02:36:00.000-08:00

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- In the face of relentless international pressure and a mounting death toll, a defiant Moammar Gadhafi stuck to his assertion that youths misled and drugged by al Qaeda were to blame for the spiraling civil war in Libya.

"For them, everybody's their enemy," Gadhafi said in a speech aired on Libyan state television Wednesday. "They know nothing other than killing."

The speech was pre-recorded Tuesday when Gadhafi addressed a youth group of tribal supporters, urging them to defend Libya from those who envy its standard of living.

"They want to take your petrol," he said. "This is what America, this is what the French, those colonialists, want."

Shortly before midnight Wednesday, Gadhafi arrived at a hotel in the capital city Tripoli where about 100 journalists had been waiting for nine hours.Surrounded by his security detail, he strode into the lobby, waved at the throng of reporters, pumped his right fist several times into the air, retreated to a private room for an interview with a Turkish journalist, then left via a back door without addressing the reporters.

The interview was to air later Wednesday on Turkish television.

The brief appearance capped a day of confusion, which began with an opposition member first saying they were negotiating an exit deal with Gadhafi, and other members later denying it.

Gadhafi's regime, too, denied negotiations with a spokesman calling such reports "lies."

"We're in an atmosphere where facts are increasingly rare," David Kilpatrick, the Cairo bureau chief for the New York Times, told "AC 360" Tuesday night. "The Gadhafi state-run television seems far, far, far off base. It's also true that not everything the rebels say is iron clad either."

The confusion extended to the claims and counter-claims from the government and the opposition about gains each side made in controlling areas of the country.

Fierce battles rage on for control of key Libyan cities in the east and west. In the eastern oil city of Ras Lanuf, rebels used anti-aircraft guns to counter fresh raids by Libya's air force Tuesday.

"There is no one here with military experience, but have a strong heart," said medical student Yahya Ali, who was manning an antiaircraft battery in the eastern Libyan town of Al-Brega after four hours of training.

Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, said he has been communicating with worried members of rebel groups who say they need a no-fly zone over the country to prevent casualties inflicted by Gadhafi forces.

"They're telling us that they can't win this fight. They're telling us patriotism is not enough," Ajami said on "AC 360" Tuesday night. "That unless you have air cover and neutralize the advantages of Moammar Gadhafi, this rebellion will be crushed."

But Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, said implementing a no-fly zone is a complicated issue.

"There's no assurance that the imposition of even a no-fly zone would make a decisive difference in the battle," Burns told CNN. "Gadhafi has ground forces. He has artillery, he has a mercenary army. That's 95% of the fighting underway in Libya."

The head of the U.S. Marine Corps told lawmakers Tuesday that a no-fly zone would do little to thwart Libya's helicopters which he called "their greatest threat."

A no-fly zone would typically be enforced by fighter jets whose speed and altitude make it difficult to target helicopters, which move low and slow, said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos.

For its part, Libya said it was not misusing its air force. Any no-fly zone would be tantamount to an act of war, said Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Karim on Tuesday.

The military, he said, "are taking purely defensive positions; they are not taking offensive ones." He said the Libyan government has asked for international monitors to verify that assertion.

The protests against the 68-year-old Gadhafi began February 15 as anti-government demonstrators sought his ouster after nearly 42 years of rule. In its fourth week now, the clashes show no sign of ending.

Death toll estimates have ranged from more than 1,000 to as many as 2,000. And the war has forced out 215,000 people, many of them poor migrant workers who have been stranded at both the Tunisian and Egyptian borders, the U.N. refugee agency has said.

While many countries chartered planes and dispatched ships to whisk away their citizens to safety, those stuck at the border are sheltered in cramped, unsanitary quarters with little to eat.

The U.N. World Food Programme has initiated a $39.2 million emergency operation intended to provide food to more than one million people in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia over a three-month period.

VIA