Deny, Deny, Deny

The worst nuclear crisis ever is upon us, but Tokyo continues to deny the reality of what it faces. As does the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

IAEA: No Indication of Nuclear Reactor Meltdown in Japan

However under current Japanese leadership it is but a lap dog of Tokyo.

"Yukiya Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat who heads the IAEA, said the agency was discussing details with Tokyo."

Both their assurances that nothing 'serious' is occurring flies in the face of reality. Over the weekend they went from one to two to three nuclear plants blowing up,

Japan crisis: third explosion raises spectre of nuclear nightmare

Japan's nuclear safety agency said Tuesday's explosion at the plant's No.2 reactor was caused by hydrogen. There was no immediate word on damage, but Jiji news agency quoted the trade ministry as saying radiation levels remained low after the blast, the third at the plant since Saturday.

And as coolant ran out and nuclear power rods were exposed to the atmosphere still denial from Tokyo and IAEA.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expressed confidence Japanese authorities were doing all they could to restore safety at the sites and said a Chernobyl-style disaster was "very unlikely."

He spoke as Japan scrambled to avert a meltdown at a stricken nuclear complex after a hydrogen explosion at one reactor and exposure of fuel rods at another, just days after the devastation that killed thousands.

I have been following the nuclear disaster in Japan as soon as it occurred on Friday, posting updates on my Facebook page. Through out this period as news of the damage to these reactors was reported, the official line, which continues even today, has been deny, deny, deny.

The Japanese government and their UN lacky continue to insist that they 'have it under control', they reassure us that nothing serious or to terrible is occurring,.

The reality as report after report shows is that Japanese authorities and their electrical companies are not in control and lack the resources to actually deal with this crisis.

TOKYO, March 15 | Tue Mar 15, 2011 6:29am EDT

TOKYO, March 15 (Reuters) - Japan's prime minister was furious with the power firm at the centre of the nuclear crisis for taking so long to inform his office about a blast at a stricken reactor plant, demanding "What the hell is going on?".

Kyodo news agency reported that Naoto Kan also ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co on Tuesday not to pull employees out of the Fukushima plant north of Tokyo, which was badly damaged by last week's earthquake and has been leaking radiation.

"The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the the premier's office for about an hour," a Kyodo reporter quoted Kan telling power company executives.

But being too proud to ask for help, which would incur obligation (giri), which is why they have not responded to international offers of help. They would rather deny they require help in dealing with this disaster because that would oblige them to admit to weakness.

Daily denials of the serious nuclear crisis they are facing is belied by hourly reports of yet another explosion, or continuing lack of water to cool the nuclear power rods.

The word Meltdown has been used since Friday, and they deny the reality. Their plants are in critical condition, their are indeed melting down. Whether they are equivalent or like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island or Hanford, is irrelevant. They are in the process of critical collapse. Only if their containment shells hold and the superheated rods are cooled, will there be no meltdown.

Should there be a melt down or two or three, then this situation will be a completely different scenario , another reason reassess Nuclear Power and especially policies regarding closing old plants like these.

These plants were built in the 1970's and even then were problematic.

In 1972, the first warning was issued about the vulnerability of the sort of General Electric reactors used in Fukushima in Japan

Government regulators knew of a heightened risk of explosion in the type of nuclear reactors used at the Fukushima plant in Japan from the moment they went into operation.

Safety inspectors at America's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) warned as early as 1972 that the General Electric reactors, which did away with the traditional large containment domes, were more vulnerable to explosion and more vulnerable to the release of radiation if a meltdown occurred.

Michael Mariotte, director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said: "The concern has been there all along that this containment building was not strong enough and the pressure containment system was not robust enough to prevent an explosion."

The ageing GE reactors are regarded as less resilient then newer models. Dr Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environment Research, said: "They are not designed to contain these explosions. They are not designed to contain an aircraft crashing into it. Modern reactors are significantly different. Designs built from the 1980s onwards don't have the vulnerabilities of mark one reactors."

All six of the reactors at the Fukushima Two plant, which has suffered two explosions, are GE-designed boiling water reactors. Five are the original mark one design and went on line from 1971 to 1979.

And that is also part of their denial, the reality that the reason these plants are so hard to shut down is that they are past their prime and the technology is flawed by comparison to modern nuclear power plants. And despite knowing their shortcomings the Japanese electrical industry and the government kept them operating hoping nothing terrible would ever occur. That is not contingency planning nor risk planning.

Japanese campaign groups have also warned of problems at the Fukushima 2 plant including a failure of the generator when the plant lost power in June last year.

In addition to the Fukushima 2 plant, eight reactors of the same design are in use in Japan at nuclear facilities at Tsuruga, Hamaoke and Shimane. Like the Fukushima plants, all three are also on Japan's main Honshu island.

Nuclear reactors of the same design are in widespread use in America.Of the 104 reactors currently in use, 23 are of the same GE mark two design, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Twelve more are a modified version of the boiling water reactor.

And instead of being taken offline they were used beyond their time. This is the core problem of why these plants now are a danger to Japan and the whole planet.

Japanese isolationism and xenophobia are the problem, they no longer are an isolated culture on an isolated island, an island unto themselves. Having entered the atomic age, their island culture now has an impact on the whole planet. Their culture of doing things Japanese style now threatens the planet.

Burma's Curse

Is its prot0-Stalinist Junta which subscribes to the ideology of 'socialism in one country' being the client state of that other proto-Stalinist State; China. There is something karmic about the recent cyclone that hit the country of Burma/Myanmar. It was headed towards Bangladesh and then suddenly veered right and headed straight for Myanmar.

Perhaps it was because all the Buddhist monks the junta jailed in the past year were no longer able to chant in their temples, casting the spells needed to keep the population safe from such a natural disaster.

It was typical of such authoritarian regimes to downplay natural disasters, which of course is the greatest test of an autarkic regime. In this case it was first reported that 1000 people were killed, a day later a zero was added to the number; now it was 10,000, a day later another zero was added and it was 100,000 killed, now it appears that over a million, thats a lot of zeros, were killed, injured and dispossessed.

The country is a mess, chaos, while the Junta remains, literally, above it all, living in their special castle on the hill, the money that could have gone to levees and infrastructure going to the building of the Junta's new jungle city.

Being well versed in Asian astrology and other such Buddhist science's the Junta in its arrogance forgot that this is after all the year of the rat. And in this case the rats had already headed for the hills, abandoning the rest of the population to their fate this weekend.

After two, Fire years life may seem calmer during this Earth year. That could be deceptive, however, as the Rat never stops moving, especially when it comes to mental activity.

Unfortunately Earth has a destructive relationship with the Rat's fixed element, Water. This is not disastrous, but it does mean people should not rely too much on luck this year.

SEE:

Blogs Left and Right Unite

Blogging Burma

Myanmar Ghost Dance

No Reincarnation Without Permission

The Road Out of Mandalay

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Quake!

More tectonic plate activity in the core of the Ring of Fire; Indonesia. Three days of shock and aftershock as the plates move.

Frightened Indonesians suffer new Sumatra quakes

Strong enough that; East African nations issue tsunami alerts


And the original quake was felt in Thailand

People in tall buildings in Bangkok felt the 8.2 magnitude earthquake that shook southern Sumatra, in Indonesia, almost 2,000 km away, yesterday. Office workers in business areas of Silom, Sathorn and Ratchadaphisek were seen running from highrise buildings when the quake struck shortly after 6pm.

The after shocks hit the Philippines. 5.4 magnitude quake jolts Batanes


Luckily though no Tsunami occurred, Indonesia escapes tsunami again as quake takes toll

The post-2004 warning system did work.

Fortunately, the tidal wave produced by the latest quakes reached a maximum height of just two feet. But unlike 2004, when governments were slow to issue evacuation warnings, officials responded quickly this time.

Unfortunately too well. Tsunami alerts quickly followed Indonesian quake; panic prevailed

Indonesia lifts 7th tsunami warning after 6.9-magnitude earthquake

It just goes to show that along with Bird Flu, Global Warming and the possible impact of an asteroid , we need to be aware of the dangers of the ancient crawl of the earth known as tectonic shift.

Powerful quakes terrorize Indonesia, experts warn of 'big one'

A series of powerful earthquakes has terrorized residents in western Indonesia - including one that triggered a tsunami warning Friday - leaving thousands sleeping on plastic sheets in the hills. Seismologists warn the worst may yet to come.

"No one can say whether it will be in 30 seconds or 30 years," he said. "But what happened the other day, I think is quite possibly a sequence of smaller earthquakes leading up to the bigger one."

An 8.4-magnitude quake that shook Southeast Asia on Wednesday was followed by dozens of strong aftershocks - including one measuring a magnitude of 7.8 and another 7.1 - that killed 13 people, damaged hundreds of houses and spawned a 3-metre-high tsunami.

On Friday, a 6.4-magnitude temblor hit the area again, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, triggering the latest in a string of tsunami warnings that was later lifted.

The fault, which runs the length of the west coast of Sumatra about 200-kilometres offshore, is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates, which have been pushing against each other for millions of years. This can cause huge stresses to build up.

"There is a strong indication this foreshadows the big one," said Danny Hillman, an earthquake specialist at the Indonesian Institute of Science. "We all agree there is an 8.5 or stronger earthquake waiting to happen."

Especially when idiots in the region insist on testing nuclear weapons. Or creating mud volcanoes from petroleum exploration. Thus adding a man made element to the mix.

Geothermal plants would tap 'Ring of Fire'

The Pacific Northwest, which sits on the volcano-laden "Ring of Fire" bordering the Pacific Ocean, would seem an obvious spot to pursue geothermal power.

For Gordon Bloomquist, it has been obvious for nearly 30 years. He and others have estimated that by capturing the Earth's subterranean heat and converting it into electricity, they could generate enough power for 2 million homes.

But, only now, as the Washington State University geochemist prepares to retire and take his talents to work on geothermal projects for the World Bank in Eastern Europe and Africa, does it look as if this region may be pushed to exploit the hot-rock power lurking beneath our feet.

Speaking of geo-thermal energy and climate warming let's not forget that this is the region that produced Krakatoa.

However, Becker said, a leaky tectonic quilt on average would lead to greater volcanic activity, earthquakes and plate movement. This would affect almost every aspect of Earth's geography, from sea level to erosion to climate.

"There's sort of a chain of things that follows from a good mechanical understanding of how plate tectonics works," he said.

Like the proverbial butterfly effect, what happens in the core of the Ring of Fire affects us too.

'Ring of Fire' asserts power with tremor
Times of India, India - 16 Aug 2007

Peru has become the latest country to feel the renewed heat from the ‘Ring of Fire’ that unleashes earthquakes around the Pacific almost every day.

At least 337 people were killed after the 7.9-magnitude quake rattled the country on Wednesday. The Ring of Fire stretches along the western coast of the Americas through the island nations of the South Pacific and on through Southeast Asia. It is a series of fault lines in the hardened upper layers of the Earth’s crust.

These lines of weakness are the meeting points of huge continental plates that make up the crust and which literally float on the molten rock of the Earth's core.

These plates are in constant motion, clashing into each other or moving away from each other, creating stresses and pressure build-ups at their margins.

This stress is released through volcanic eruptions, when the molten rock is ejected as magma through fissures in the crust, or via earthquakes, when the pressure causes the crust to buckle and shift.

Two days ago reports fluctuated as to whether the quake was 8.4 or 7.9
it all depended on where it was registered.

But that should have set off warning bells that apparently there were overlapping quakes leading to the next two days of so called after-shocks which were more like quakes than shocks.

A massive magnitude 8.4 earthquake hit southern Sumatra's Bengkulu province Wednesday at 6:10 pm local time. It was followed by 51 tremors, including one in western Sumatra's Jambi province Thursday morning that was measured at a magnitude of 7.8. The severe quakes rattled buildings in three countries and triggered tsunami warnings across the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The powerful earthquake of 7.9 magnitude that struck off the coast of Indonesia had its epicentre about 100 km southwest of Bengkulu.

According to R.K. Chadha, scientist with the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, the fault plane was in a northwest-southeast direction. The focus (where the plate rupture actually takes place inside the earth) was at a depth of about 30 km from the ocean floor.

“The length of the fault plane should not be more than 250 km. Its epicentre is 300-400 km further south of the December 2004 quake,” Dr. Chadha said. The 2004 earthquake caused a rupture 1200 km long and pushed the Burma plate by 15 m for the entire length of the fault.

In 2004, the focus was 10 km, and hence it was a shallow earthquake. Unlike deep quakes, shallow ones cause more damage. A tsunami that results from such quakes can be more powerful and widespread compared to deep-seated earthquakes.

The quake that struck at 6.10 p.m. local time on Wednesday had a magnitude of 7.9-8, while that of the 2004 quake was 9. With magnitude being measured on a logarithmic scale, a magnitude difference of one translates to a quake 10 times more powerful.

Though a tsunami can be generated even by a shallow quake of 6.5 magnitude, maximum tsunami energy will always be focussed in the direction perpendicular to that of the fault plane. With the fault plane of Wednesday’s quake lying in a northwest-southeast direction, the maximum energy dissipation would have been in the same direction.

Unlike in 2004, where the direction of energy dissipation from the fault plane was nearly parallel to the Indian coast, maximum energy dissipation from the current quake would not have been in the direction of the Indian coast but into the open ocean. On the northeast direction, the energy dissipation would have been towards Bengkulu island.

Following the 2004 quake, another earthquake of 8.7 magnitude struck off the coast of Sumatra on March 28, 2005, about 200 km south of the 2004 event. It happened in the same subduction zone. “We call this as loading and unloading of stress,” said Dr. Chadha. “When stress is released at one point, it accumulates at another point. And, we had predicted that another quake would strike further south of the March event.”

The latest quake was in the same subduction zone, and lies further south of the March 2005 event.

SEE:

Earth in Upheaval-Updated




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Man Made Volcano

As if Indonesia did not have enough environmental problems; 340000 flee deadly floods in Jakarta, now we find out that the mud spewing volcano that erupted last year is a man-made phenomena.

The Indonesian volcano, known as Lusi, has been spewing steaming mud since May last year, causing 13,000 people to flee their homes (Image: University of Durham)

Drilling for gas most probably caused the eruption of an Indonesian mud volcano, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people, scientists report.

"[The eruption] appears to have been triggered by drilling of over-pressured porous and permeable limestones at depth of around 2830 metres below the surface," says the study, the first published on what caused the eruption.

The study, which appears in the February issue of the journal GSA Today, adds that the volcano has been disgorging 7000-150,000 cubic metres of mud every day since it erupted in May last year.

Such pressures, coupled to the local geology, suggest the flow "will continue for many months and possibly years to come", warn the UK researchers, led by Professor Richard Davies from the University of Durham.

In the coming months, sag-like subsidence several kilometres wide will occur, and around the main vent there is likely to be "more dramatic collapse", forming a crater, the study adds.

An area of at least 10 square kilometres around the volcano will be uninhabitable for years, and over 11,000 people will be permanently displaced, it says.

Add to that the wildfires started by slash and burn operations for palm oil plantations and the continuing disruption and displacement from the 2004 Tsunami and Indonesia is an ongoing environmental disaster.

But do plan to take your holidays there, I hear it is quite nice otherwise.

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