[vb-saan]

Sad to see those images on BBC. Especially from the port city of Sendai.
Apparently a train is missing with unknown number of passengers aboard!

[anjan_c2007]

Too bad news. A prosperous country is devastated. Japan has risen like a phoenix from the ashes always. Be it the either the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake that claimed 140,000 lives or the 1941 Hiroshima atom bomb or even the 1995 Kobe earthquake. They have always emerged stronger.
A total of 20% earthquakes recorded with magnitudes above 6 on the Richter scale have been found to be with epicentres located in or in the vicinity of Japan.
The two plates viz. The Pacific and Philippines (oceanic) plates collide with the continental Eurasian plate.The subduction of the oceanic plates below the continental plate releases a tremendous amount of energy and seismic pressure that is manifested into such ocean floor epicentred earthquakes.When such oceanic earthquakes occur vast volumes of sea water are displaced. The tsunamis are more devastating than the earthquakes in many cases.
Our observatory recorded this earthquake at 0546 hrs (12.8 secs) UTC/ 1116 hrs (12.3 secs) IST and the epicentre location has been recorded as Latitude 38.681 and Longitude 146.461 which falls South East of Tokyo city on the Pacific Ocean Floor.

[ariendj]

thats the worst that could happen on the long run..Radiation Leak

Japan scrambles as radiation released from quake-hit plants - Hindustan Times

[DicKy]

That's the last thing anyone wanted, radiation leaks from the nuke plants too.
This is going to be far worse than one expected.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by ariendj

thats the worst that could happen on the long run..Radiation Leak

Japan scrambles as radiation released from quake-hit plants - Hindustan Times

If you read the article, the radiation levels outside the plants are still below hazard levels. Japan is doing all it can to prevent any radiation leaks. So far, there is no radiation leak having adverse effect on the populations.

As for all the doomsday predictions, i liken them to a clock that has stopped working. Even that clock will tell time correctly twice in 24 hours. Just my personal opinion. I am not expecting anyone to agree or disagree.

I'd rather not take away any significance of the impact of this calamity by bringing in other seemingly unrelated events into the picture.

[babaops]

news update : There has been an explosion at one of the nuclear plant, 4 injured. Till now the news is that radioactive leakage is too small to affect human population.

[Swanand Inamdar]

BBC claims, that serious damage to the Nuclear Plant and the Radiator is unlikely, however for safety precautions, the government has set up a 20 km radius cutoff from the plant.

I do not know the authenticity of this news, just saw it on BBC now.

God be with the people of Japan. Horrific.

[drrajasaravanan]

Hi
Guys stop thinking about global warming. You really have to look at the references provided by Michael Crichton in his book STATE OF FEAR and you will realize the truth. Cheers.

[pareyshaan]

May God help all those who have been affected by the tragedy in Japan.

If you have your own site or blog, you can also help. Mashable has an article today where they have the link to code that you can insert for a Hello Bar which appears on the top of your main page and has a message and a link.

[tsk13]

One minute prior to the major Quake, many Japanese were made aware of the impending Earthquake thanks to the Earthquake Early Warning System. Further info can be found at - Quake Warning System Alerted Tokyo - WSJ.com

No wonder why Japs command respect globally.

[babaops]

This was really good as we got the time to run downstairs before things got bad. Though for many it was not that helpful as most offices are highrises and lifts were closed immediately.

Another earthquake measuring around 6 has just struck the nuclear plant again. Hope nothing major happened due to this.

[bj96]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

BBC claims, that serious damage to the Nuclear Plant and the Radiator is unlikely, ...

Originally Posted by babaops

...There has been an explosion at one of the nuclear plant, 4 injured. Till now the news is that radioactive leakage is too small to affect human population.

Originally Posted by DicKy

That's the last thing anyone wanted, radiation leaks from the nuke plants too.This is going to be far worse than one expected.

One of the best (simple and easy to read) explanation of how nuclear reactors are designed for power generation.

Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation « BraveNewClimate

According to this article, no loss of lives expected due to radio emission .

-BJ

PS: Not sure if the link is a duplicate post.
@Mods, please delete, if this is a duplicate post.

[srishiva]

Just hoping that the nuclear reactors don't add up to the natural disaster and the resulting misery. The radioactive particles are supposed to be twice the accepted Japanese levels.

Cant comprehend the loss of lives since the tsunami was forecast well in advance

[CPH]

The emergency pumps were running out of fuel, which is something hard to believe. Treating the overheating with sea water means that the reactors are history. It looks like it that finally it went round. Greed has paid the ultimate price. This time I hope that the energy providers have to pay the price. Unfortunately this is not a problem just in Japan. Virtually all nuclear reactors are driven prolonged times well over their capacity limit and service schedules and part replacement intervalls are not adhered to. I am not against nuclear power, but have to admit that it is not safe because of the bean counters and shareholders that want to take and not give us what they owe us, which is safety. I hope that the responsible managers are charged with murder for the lifes that will be lost from radiation. Unfortunately there is already a few cases reported that will suffer the consequences.

[Chipz]

The emergency pumps were not working since the backup generators were washed away in the tsunami. This is what i heard from news. I dont think japan takes their nuclear reactors lightly, but there was nothing they could do in the face of this calamity. There was two blasts in two reactors due to overheating and hydrogen buildup. Saw the outer casing destroyed in one of the reactor. Maybe there was radiation leak, cant trust the govt's version. When the atomic bomb was dropped, they told troops to wear white cloths and that will keep the radiation away (saw on discovery channel).

When the chernobyl disaster happened, the radiation leaks affectd far off places like russia and us. I dont want to think about the fallout of this radiation leak.