The_Brown_Hornet
John Eales (66)
I think they've done pretty well to withstand the punishment they've received as it is. I'll reserve my judgement about this until the incident is over.
I mentioned to my wife the day after the Japanese disaster that the media would start to go over the top with their reaction to the nuclear power plant damage. It has since happened. Here is an article that puts nuclear problems in some perspective:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/fearmongers-go-into-their-own-meltdown/story-fn84naht-1226021345281
200,000 Japanese evacuated from within a 20km radius of the reactor. Puts a new perspective on "not in my backyard" doesn't it..
Nuke plant blasts raise radiation threat
Updated 17 minutes ago
Radiation threat: Prime minister Naoto Kan urged people living within 30 kilometres of the plant to take safety precautions. (Reuters: Kim Kyung-Hoon)
Video: Trouble mounts at stricken nuclear plant (ABC News) Video: Amateur video captures tsunami carnage (ABC News) Audio: Another blast at Japanese nuclear plant (The World Today) Audio: Entire towns washed away (AM) Related Story: Call for calm as nuke crisis escalates Related Story: Japan on meltdown alert Related Story: Is Fukushima facing a meltdown? Related Story: Japan quake upgraded to 9.0 Related Story: Aussie rescuers on 10-hour journey to tsunami town Related Link: Nuclear power: when the answer becomes the problem The Japanese government says radiation levels near a quake-stricken nuclear power plant are now harmful to human health, after a further two explosions and a fire at the facility.
"There is no doubt that unlike in the past, the figures are the level at which human health can be affected," said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano.
He says radiation levels at the nuclear plant have reached as high as 400 milisieverts an hour, thousands of times higher than readings taken before the latest blasts.
Mr Edano says radiation levels as at 10.22am (local time) were 30 millisieverts between the No. 2 and the No. 3 reactors, 400 millisieverts near No. 3 and 100 millisieverts near No. 4.
Earlier prime minister Naoto Kan warned the risk of more radioactive leakage was rising and urged people living within 30 kilometres of the plant to take safety precautions.
"Depending on what happens at the power plant we would like to ask you to remain indoors at your home or in your offices," he said.
"We would like to ask you to remain indoors and avoid going outside."
Kyodo says "minute levels" of radiation have been detected in Tokyo, quoting the metropolitan government, and radiation levels in Saitama, near Tokyo, were 40 times normal levels, quoting the local government.
"We don't consider it to be at a level where the human body is affected," said Sairi Koga, an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
Radiation levels in Kanagawa prefecture, west of Tokyo, were also briefly up to nine times the normal level, Kyodo reported, quoting the prefecture government.
But the news agency says it is not immediately clear if the detections are related to the quake-damaged nuclear plant.
A single dose of 1,000 millisieverts - or one sievert - causes temporary radiation sickness such as nausea and vomiting, according to the World Nuclear Association.
A dose of 5,000 millisieverts would kill about half those receiving it within a month.
Tens of thousands have already been evacuated within a 20 kilometre radius around the Fukushima No. 1 plant, 250 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.
Mr Edano says an explosion at the No. 4 reactor, which contains spent fuel rods, was caused by a build-up of hydrogen.
"Spent nuclear fuel in the reactor heated up, creating hydrogen and triggered a hydrogen explosion," he said.
Mr Edano says radioactive substances were leaked along with the hydrogen.
Prior to the explosion the reactor was on fire but Kyodo and other local media are reporting the blaze has been extinguished.
The government also reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the No. 2 reactor, but it was unclear whether this resulted from the blast.
Mr Edano says "damage appears on the suppression pool" - the bottom part of the container that contains water used to cool the reactor and control air pressure inside.
Similar hydrogen blasts had hit the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors on Saturday and Monday.
Buildings housing four of the six reactors at the plant, which opened in 1971, have now been hit by explosions.
Mr Edano says sea water is currently being pumped into reactors 1, 2 and 3 - all of which have experienced overheating - and pressure levels at these reactors were stable.
Officials have not reported the kind of radiation leakage that would accompany a major meltdown.
The French embassy in the capital warned in an advisory that a low level of radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within 10 hours.
However, a Japanese Meteorological Agency official says winds over the nuclear plant are blowing slowly in a south-westerly direction that includes Tokyo, but will shift westerly later on Tuesday.
Japan has already asked the UN atomic watchdog to send a team of experts to help stave off a nuclear emergency following the massive quake and tsunami.
The nuclear crisis comes as Japan struggles to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, which are feared to have killed more than 10,000 people.
I've not seen any reasonable news outlets predicting fallout in Europe, though I've not seen everything that's been written. Never the less, elements of the media, particularly online sources, talk back and tabloids, do tend to overstate the potential impact of any sort of contentious issue. The fact is that frothing at the mouth is a great way of selling copy. For another example of unnecessary panic I'll draw your attention to a little island nation surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans, which is currently having a ridiculous pitched battle over the impact of relatively minor piece of carbon focused taxation legislation...
You stretched pretty hard then to get a comparison between a debate on tax and predictions of a nuclear meltdown.
If it is so minor a piece of legislation then why have it at all? What do you think about norways experience?
I've been called an idiot and rubbish within two posts. Doing well aren't I?
That is what it is all about!
Scotty I think the problem is that, irrespective of the facts in any given circumstances, you are a cheerleader for the same issues. On that basis, you shouldn't be surprised when someone pulls you up on it.
Just the most recent example of this is your posts on the Japan nuclear disaster being exaggerated by the media. If history is anything to go by, the Japanese government, which has a history of covering up nuclear accidents (albeit minor in scale compared to this), is under reporting the seriousness of the situation. Do you reckon they would seriously move 200,000 people if there wasn't an issue? They obviously have radioactivity readings which they aren't reporting. Taking a reading would be one of the first things they would do.
Events over the next few weeks and months will determine the extent to which the media is exaggerating things. If you are more circumspect in your analysis, you might find less people challenging your cheerleading.
"The Greens are not a party of government and have no tradition of striking the balance required to deliver major reform." Ms Gillard also vowed that not one cent of the funds raised by the carbon tax would go to Treasury.
"I don't want jobs in those industries to go overseas," Ms Gillard said. "And I don't want the emissions that come with those jobs to go overseas either because that would only compound the world's carbon problems."
GLOBAL IMPACT
The global impact of Japan's nuclear problems on climate change is impossible to judge with the plant's operators still trying to avert a major nuclear disaster.
The International Energy Agency, which advises the world's biggest industrial member countries of the OECD, warned against a knee-jerk reaction against nuclear and said it was impossible to slash carbon emissions without atomic energy.
But as the global panic around Japan's nuclear problems grew, Europe's energy chief raised the prospect of a nuclear-free future, which environmental groups say could and should be greener but others say will likely be gassier.
"The Japanese tragedy could lead to a setback for the world's nuclear renaissance (except perhaps in China)," analysts at French bank Societe Generale said, adding that gas will likely become the fuel of "no choice" in OECD countries where voters may decide against nuclear power.
SocGen estimates that if all 34 countries in the OECD, which does not include China, were to shut their nuclear power plants and replace them with gas plants before technology to capture their carbon emissions is developed, OECD carbon emissions could rise by nearly one billion tons of CO2 a year.
Some perspective on the loss of life for various sources of power:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/03/chart-of-day-deaths-per-energy-source.html