Unlimited Japan Tsunami and Godzilla Rising thread

[The Good Reverend Roger]

AHHH YOU GUYS ARE MAKING ME PARANOID THAT MY BOYFRIEND IS GOING TO TURN INTO A LUMPY RADIOACTIVE GODZILLA MAN 

Horrormirth response deleted - TGRR

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

no no its ok do your horrormirth. IT IS YOUR CALLING.

[Requia ☣]

The death toll at Chernobyl was less than a hundred people.

It's predicted another 4000 with get thyroid cancer (this takes time, if the downwinders in south Utah are any indication), but that hasn't happened yet.

'As bad as Chernobyl' doesn't actually match the number of people already dead, let alone make it an order of magnitude worse.    That was a plant that had no containment vessel of any kind and a meltdown of a runaway uranium reaction (because some dipshit thought turning off the safeties was a good idea).  In this case there is both a containment vessel, and the cores were automatically shut down when the earthquake hit.

The worst case scenario at this point is that the groundwater gets contaminated (which probably won't happen even if there's a meltdown), and the people actually in the plant die (either soon or of cancer 40 years from now), one of the containment cores gets cracked in a second hydrogen explosion (which is why they evacuated) allowing for localized dispersal of highly radioactive gas, and the high level waste stored on site gets spilled (which will further contaminate the groundwater).

[Da6s]

http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/110313-N-SB672-164.jpg

That's adrift in the ocean, and was photographed by the US navy.

Edit: Pic is freaking huge.

[Da6s]

Oh god dammit:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110316/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake;_ylt=AuNq356r6rTxJVadMTCo3Rlv24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTE3YzUxZnQ5BHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9icmVha2luZ19uZXdzBHNsawNicmVha2luZw--

FUKUSHIMA, Japan – Japan ordered emergency workers to withdraw from its stricken nuclear plant Wednesday amid a surge in radiation, temporarily suspending efforts to cool the overheating reactors.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers, who have been dousing the reactors with seawater in a frantic effort to stabilize their temperatures, had no choice but to pull back from the most dangerous areas.

"The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," Edano said, as smoke billowed above the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. "Because of the radiation risk we are on standby."

The nuclear crisis has triggered international alarm and partly overshadowed the human tragedy caused by Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami, a blast of black seawater that pulverized Japan's northeastern coastline. The quake was one of the strongest recorded in history.

That's all folks.

[Faust]

They are back in there again. The temperatures keep spiking in there so the workers need pull back, they are doing a terrific job considering the circumstances.

[Cain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95zMdTvoqcQ&feature=channel_video_title

Holy shit.

Feh, she got lucky.

Somebody is always predicting disaster, when disaster happens somebody has to be right.

True, but the fact that she predicted an earthquake kind of weirds me out.

Yes, because who could have possibly predicted on a planet which suffers over 1500 earthquakes per year (on the Richter Scale 5.0 or higher) would suffer an earthquake on that particular date?

[Cain]

I'm more worried that, in the long term, Japan is fucked, whether or not a few hundred get enough radiation to grow extra arms.

I can't see them coming back from this, even in the medium term (ie; decades from now).  Kobe never really recovered from the quake, and this is several hundred magnitudes worse. 

And the impact will be global, on an economic level.  Japan's economy is geared towards being a net exporter, but they were already suffering a massive trade deficit before this earthquake hit.  The USA and EU need Japanese industry more than Japan needs the US or EU, but with the hit they've taken, the cost of reconstruction, the rising cost of oil etc I just can't see them financing their way out of this.

This is going to hurt.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I'm more worried that, in the long term, Japan is fucked, whether or not a few hundred get enough radiation to grow extra arms.

I can't see them coming back from this, even in the medium term (ie; decades from now).  Kobe never really recovered from the quake, and this is several hundred magnitudes worse. 

And the impact will be global, on an economic level.  Japan's economy is geared towards being a net exporter, but they were already suffering a massive trade deficit before this earthquake hit.  The USA and EU need Japanese industry more than Japan needs the US or EU, but with the hit they've taken, the cost of reconstruction, the rising cost of oil etc I just can't see them financing their way out of this.

This is going to hurt.

I've been wondering what the general thought was on their recovery.  I had hoped it would be better, but wasn't really counting on it.  So much destruction and loss of life.  Difficult to overcome in the best of circumstances, but the situation Japan is in now.  It's heartbreaking.

[Jenne]

I think Japan WILL bounce back--it'll be a shock and a longer haul than they have been used to for a couple of generations...but I think they're still in not too bad of shape, given all else equal. The only worrying thing would be, to me, is if they couldn't sustain the survivors vis a vis food, etc.  But it sounds like even there they are covered for the short term.  The sheer organization of the place in face of this catastrophe-after-catastrophe is astounding.  Other than the forces of nature, it seems they are able to stave of MOST of the dangers that happen after such national disasters.

...BUT...I thought they had built up many, many foreign reserves? 

[hooplala]

They bounced back remarkably well from two atomic bombs being dropped on them... could this be much worse?

[Cain]

They bounced back remarkably well from two atomic bombs being dropped on them... could this be much worse?

You mean that time when the USA occupied them for a decade, gave billions in economic assistance and the government pursued an economic model which, if tried today, would put them under embargo from the IMF?

The US cannot even rebuild its own infrastructure nowadays, let alone a foreign country's.  Shit, parts of Iraq still don't have running water or electricity, and even a two bit thug like Saddam could manage that.

[Cain]

I think Japan WILL bounce back--it'll be a shock and a longer haul than they have been used to for a couple of generations...but I think they're still in not too bad of shape, given all else equal. The only worrying thing would be, to me, is if they couldn't sustain the survivors vis a vis food, etc.  But it sounds like even there they are covered for the short term.  The sheer organization of the place in face of this catastrophe-after-catastrophe is astounding.  Other than the forces of nature, it seems they are able to stave of MOST of the dangers that happen after such national disasters.

...BUT...I thought they had built up many, many foreign reserves? 

Foreign reserves don't matter when your industrial base just got swept away on a tidal wave.

[Jenne]

I think Japan WILL bounce back--it'll be a shock and a longer haul than they have been used to for a couple of generations...but I think they're still in not too bad of shape, given all else equal. The only worrying thing would be, to me, is if they couldn't sustain the survivors vis a vis food, etc.  But it sounds like even there they are covered for the short term.  The sheer organization of the place in face of this catastrophe-after-catastrophe is astounding.  Other than the forces of nature, it seems they are able to stave of MOST of the dangers that happen after such national disasters.

...BUT...I thought they had built up many, many foreign reserves? 

Foreign reserves don't matter when your industrial base just got swept away on a tidal wave.

I was just thinking I'd like to see some figures on what parts of their industry was destroyed and what was left.  I know they shut the car plants down, but that was out of caution and lack of usable resources/thoughts of letting the workers find their families and stay safe.

There's rife speculation everywhere over the news on what this will do globally, and I expect it will have a large negative impact.  But I question whether Japan will be stagnant.  I think they have the internal mechanism vis a vis governmental structure to get off their asses and fix shit. 

I also can't figure out if the pictures on the news are prettied up or if there's worse out there we're not getting to see.  Because there's a lot of bodies talked about washed ashore, and a lot of infrastructure damaged, but the survivors are in pretty damned good shape (I'm juxtaposing Haiti, Indonesia, Chile, etc, and of course Katrina as well).  This is a horrible, terrible thought to have, but if you're going to get struck by this kind of ordeal and survive, it appears, for now, you're probably better off having it happen in Japan.

Of course, things can ALWAYS get worse...

[Cain]

Japan is already economically stagnant. 200%+ debt on the GDP, economic growth was already slanted to slow this year, persistant deflation and an aging population.