What a tragedy this is:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/11/1045001/earthquake-and-tsunami-hit-japan.html

Been watching the news updates on this all morning. I hope that people are able to evacuate before the next wave hits. Terrifying stuff.

I will take the Snow any day. Hopefully the casualties won't be phenomenal.

Because the world needed another major catastrophe...

It's so horrifying! When they said northern Japan, I was thinking Hokkaido but then realized it was northern Honshu. Back when I was in high school, we went to Japan and spent almost a week not far from Sendai, though we did have a chance to visit for a day.

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 6 minutes ago 2011-03-12
T09:35:41
breaking news

"Explosion rocks quake-hit Japanese nuke plant TV footage shows building's crumbled walls; 'We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion,' official says "

I do not like this head line. I do not like it one little bit.

I finally had to turn the news off. It was too heartbreaking, especially as I've visited Sendai and there are still people we know who lie a couple of hours away from there. I hope that they'll get the reactors under control. It's scary to think what might happen otherwise.

femme fatale wrote:

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 6 minutes ago 2011-03-12
T09:35:41
breaking news

"Explosion rocks quake-hit Japanese nuke plant TV footage shows building's crumbled walls; 'We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion,' official says "

I do not like this head line. I do not like it one little bit.

Yes, that is certainly something to be concerned about This is from BBC News

Quote :

Chief cabinet secretary Chief Yukio Edano confirmed this was the case, saying: "The concrete building collapsed. We found out that the reactor container inside didn't explode."

He attributed the explosion to a build-up of hydrogen, related in turn to the cooling problem.[/url]

Check out the site, there is a good diagram of the reactor facility showing all the containers. This from CNN

Quote :

The explosion was caused, he said, by a failure in a pumping system as workers tried to prevent the reactor's temperature from racing out of control.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, citing Japanese authorities, said the explosion occurred outside the plant's primary containment vessel and that the vessel remained intact. The explosion injured four workers, it said.

To limit damage to the reactor core, Tokyo Electric Power Company began injecting sea water mixed with boron into the primary containment vessel in an operation that got under way Saturday night, IAEA said.
Nuclear plants

The use of sea water and boron was described as a "Hail Mary pass" by Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies focused on energy policies and a former senior policy adviser to the U.S. secretary of energy.

"My understanding is that the situation has become desperate enough that they apparently don't have the capability to deliver fresh water or plain water to cool the reactor and stabilize it and now, in an act of desperation, are having to resort to diverting and using sea water," he said.

Boron, a chemical element, was being added to the water "to sort of stymie other potential nuclear reactions," he said.

The stories just keep getting worse and worse. It's really hard to watch!

What bothers me is that the Japanese officials have obviously been lying about the severity of the reactor overheating. Guess they are just like officials in the US and Canada. CNN and BBC are doing a pretty good job of digging out the truth though. Now we find out that at least three reactors are overheating and the initial reactor has suffered at least a partial meltdown. How serious the the threat of toxic radiation being released is being hotly debated. I suppose we will find out in due course.