News Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, & Nuclear Disaster

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42241686

N.Korea's Kim Jong-il sends $500,000 to quake-hit Japan
updated 3/23/2011 10:05:08 PM ET

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent half a million dollars to aid Korean expatriates in Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, Pyongyang's official news agency said on Thursday.

Decades of tightly controlled economic policy that has seen North Korea channel much of its scarce resources to arms development has left the country acutely short of cash although its leaders continue to live lavishly, according to South Korean news reports. Food is also reportedly scarce.

Japan, formerly Korea's colonial master, is frequently lambasted as a "war monger" in North Korea's state-controlled media along with South Korea and the United States.

"Leader Kim Jong-il sent (a) relief fund of 500,000 U.S. dollars to Korean residents in Japan who suffered from the killer quake and tsunami happened there," KCNA news agency said.

Half a million U.S. dollars is equivalent to the annual average income earned by 520 North Koreans in all of 2009, according to Bank of Korea data.

U.N. sanctions in 2009 imposed for its nuclear and missile tests that defied international warnings have further cut into North Korea's finances, choking off much of its lucrative arms trade.

The North's Red Cross has separately sent $100,000 in disaster relief for its residents in Japan, KCNA said.

Interesting, how many NK expats are out there? Will a single person receive a significant worth of that?

 

[Belisarius]

Very much doubt that it's true. KJI has a habit of making grandiose gestures that really come to nothing.
As for how many NK citizens are in Japan, the Japanese immigration bureau at the Ministry of Justice doesn't distinguish between those from North and South. Neither does KJI, for that matter, he considers all southerners as his subjects too.

Immigrants/guest workers from] North and South Korea... a total of 589,239 people

(2009)

http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/press_090710-1_090710-1.html

 

[SiberianTiger]

Immigrants/guest workers from] North and South Korea... a total of 589,239 people

So it's ¢85 for each one. That's so generous! :lol:

 

[Belisarius]

He really is a Dear Leader

 

[Ghostrider]

So it's ¢85 for each one. That's so generous! :lol:

Well, those 85 cents are probably what an average NK family spends on food and clothing every year...

 

[Tex]

Mod Note: Thread renamed to better suit the range of this discussion from 'Japan earthquake' to 'Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, & Nuclear Disaster'.

 

[Wishbone]

The turbine building is apparently full of radioactive "water" (http://www.iaea.org/press/?p=1706):

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident Update (25 March, 02:50 UTC)
25 March 2011

Announcements, Featured



As previously reported, three workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were exposed on 24 March to elevated levels of radiation. The IAEA has received additional information on the incident from the Japanese authorities.

The three were contracted workers laying cables in the turbine building of the unit 3 reactor. Two of them were found to have radioactivity on their feet and legs.

These were washed in the attempt to remove radioactivity, but since there was a possibility of Beta-ray burning of the skin, the two were taken to the Fukushima University Hospital for examination and then transferred to Japan’s National Institute of Radiological Sciences for further examination. They are expected to be monitored for around four days.

It is thought that the workers ignored their dosimeters’ alarm believing it to be to be false and continued working with their feet in contaminated water.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) of Japan instructed TEPCO to review the radiation control system immediately in order to avoid similar incidents in the future.

As of 24 March 19:30 Japan time, the number of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant found to have received more than 100 millisieverts of radiation dose totalled 17 including the three contract workers. The remaining fourteen are TEPCO’s employees.

 

[Suzy]

After 2 weeks, the official death toll has passed 10,000.

 

[RGClark]

Could the leak at reactor #3 just be damage to the "suppression pool" as was suspected with reactor #2 last week:

Radiation decreasing, fuel ponds warming.
15 March 2011
"Confirmation of loud sounds at unit 2 this morning came from the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). It noted that "the suppression chamber may be damaged." It is not clear that the 6am sounds were explosions in the usual sense.
"Also known as the torus, this large doughnut-shaped structure sits in the centre of the reactor building at a lower level than the reactor. It contains a very large body of water to which steam can be directed in emergency situations."
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Possible_damage_at_Fukushima_Daiichi_2_1503111.html

Bob Clark

 

[Sky Captain]

The cancer rates, especially among young children in the whole region around the plant, up to 400 km along the coast, will skyrocket. Even less radiation has already deadly effects on children.

Wouldn't that be fairly easy to avoid by not eating locally grown contaminated food? As I understand elevated external dose of radiation aren't that bad compared to ingesting radioactive substances that stays in body continously irradiating internal organs. From what I have read about areas with very high natural background radiation people living there don't have significantly elevated cancer levels despite taking no precautions to avoid most radioactive areas and also eating local food.

 

[RGClark]

Thanks for that. According to the article that would be the spent fuel just at reactor #4.
I found this article that gives the total of the spent fuel rods at the six-reactor plant as 3,400 tons, and the total fuel in the reactor cores as 877 tons:

Plutonium in troubled reactors, spent fuel pools.
Published March 18, 2011
Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/18/plutonium-troubled-reactors-spent-fuel-pools/

The amount of fuel at Chernobyl was only about 170 to 180 tons. So these spent fuel rods have the potential to release 20 times as much radioactive material as at Chernobyl.
Also, we can no longer be assured the containment vessels will hold around the reactor cores since at least one and perhaps two appear to have been cracked by the hydrogen explosions. If that radioactive material is also released it would then total 25 times as much radioactive material as at Chernobyl.

This New York Times article gives the number of spent fuel rod assemblies as 11,125 and the number of fuel assemblies in the reactor cores as about one-quarter of this:

Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors.
By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html

The amount of uranium in the fuel rod assemblies is given as 380 pounds, 172 kg. So by this article the amount of uranium in the spent fuel assemblies is 1,915 metric tons, the amount in the reactor cores about 478 metric tons, and the total amount of fuel by this article would be 2393 metric tons.
Then the amount of spent fuel at the Fukushima plant is about 10 times the amount of fuel at Chernobyl and the total amount at Fukushima with the reactor core fuel is about 14 times that of Chernobyl.


Bob Clark

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Has anyone seen any information regarding radiation detections in surrounding nations? I recall in 1986 Sweden was one of the first to detect the Chernobyl radiation and they called up Moscow and asked what was up.

It seems that, nasty as it is, the Fukushima contamination is likely contained to the environs of the reactors, with some possible groundwater contamination. The news on this is less than worthless.

 

[Wishbone]

China has detected "minute" traces of radiation next to Sino-Russian border on Friday (http://www.itar-tass.com/level2.html?NewsID=16090971&PageNum=0).

RIA Novosti also cites other news agencies with radiation reaching Las Vegas : http://www.rian.ru/jpquake_nuclear/20110327/358251029.html

Because of impotent Japanese government we're in for some nasty shocks.

 

[Linguofreak]

China has detected "minute" traces of radiation next to Sino-Russian border on Friday.

RIA Novosti also cites other news agencies with radiation reaching Las Vegas : http://www.rian.ru/jpquake_nuclear/20110327/358251029.html

Because of impotent Japanese government we're in for some nasty shocks.

But is anywhere outside of Japan picking up really *significant* amounts of radiation? In the case of Chernobyl, the release was big enough that the way the Swedes detected it was that it triggered radiation warnings at one of their own reactors.

 

[Wishbone]

The simple answer is: I don't know. The jet streams pick up the steam and smoke and transport them around the world, much diluted of course. The seawater contaminates the very productive cold current, contamination of soil in Japan ruins their agriculture, tapwater contamination threatens kids and babies and pregnant women.

 

[steph]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12872707
BBC now says radiation levels in leaking water from reactor 2 are at 1000 milisieverts/hour. Isn't that waaaaay higher than previous spikes?
Also, they've detected cesium in reactor water.
They're using fresh water as there is a concern that salt may be corroding the installation and coating the fuel rods, hindering cooling.
They said workers have been evacuated, but I can't seem to find any mention if this involved all the workers or just a part of them.

 

[Urwumpe]

BBC now says radiation levels in leaking water from reactor 2 are at 1000 milisieverts/hour. Isn't that waaaaay higher than previous spikes?

Practically speaking: after one hour at such radiation, you are having acute radiation poisoning. After six hours, you are deadly ill.

 

[Suzy]

Another earthquake, and a tsunami warning.

 

[dougkeenan]

recent activity

 

[N_Molson]

It seems that TEPCO still doesn't admit that the whole place is an horrible radioactive mess. I heard the news that the radioactivity levels are very high even beyond the 35 kilometers exclusion area. Also, the sea is seriously poisoned. It's a serious possiblity that one or more cores melt to the point they breached the floor and went underground. And there's no way to look into this.